Ye
Olde Slippery Slope: The general
impression from those in the room was that the Supremes are inclined
to rule that Hobby Lobby does have the right to impose their
religious beliefs on their employees. However, there is a difference
between private beliefs and public behavior – witness our current
lack of 'Whites Only' signs.
Clear
And Present Danger: Local public schools
teaching an essential, federally mandated minimum curriculum should
be funded by taxes paid by all citizens. Certainly parents should
be allowed to send their children to any private school they can
afford, but that should not relieve them of their civic duty to pay
taxes to support public schools. None of that tax money should find
its way to any private entity. The $1 billion a year being funneled
into private schools should be stopped and returned to the public
schools.
Farm
Teams: A NLRB examiner has agreed with
the Northwestern University football players who claimed the right to
form a union because they were “employees” under contract to the
university who received wages in return for services rendered.
Asked
& Answered: Will a degree from a
for-profit diploma mill get you a job? Will you actually turn a
profit on the investment - on your student loan? No, and the fact
that you had to ask suggests you failed Research 101, Marketing 101
and Capitalism 101. For extra credit, estimate how many years it
will take you to pay off the loans you took out to earn that
worthless degree: _____ . And how much could you have socked away
toward yur retirement if you hadn't been suckered into the whole
charade? ____ .
A
Little Help From My Friends: "The
presence of a more liberal government is related to a higher rate of
reported health, a lower rate of reported smoking, lower BMI, and
fewer numbers of days with poor health." Damned socialists.
Hot
Topic:
French economist Thomas Piketty's "Capital In The Twenty-First
Century" has become the
thing for economists and economic bloggers to cuss, discuss and
misconstrue, mainly because ait gives them a chance to talk about
inequality. Well, I can play that game, too. Most agree that
inherited wealth has once more become (or has always been, opinions
vary) the preeminent source of political economic power in the US.
That their income is essentially tax free is by design, their design.
Promoting inherited wealth over work, George W. Bush's biggest
tax breaks went coupon-clippers and heirs - he and his family
specifically included. The right wingers have long valued
capital over labor and worked to preserve that privilege. Today the
level of inequality in the treatment of earned vs. unearned
income in the United States is “probably higher than in any other
society at any time in the past, anywhere in the world,”
Certainly “the
concentration of wealth has soared to levels that have not been
seen in over a century…" Some claim that capitalism
can be regulated so as to force capitalists to keep the division
of the spoils sufficiently broad to prevent collapse and rebellion.
Maybe so, but why should we help them keep us subservient? The
challenge is knowing what to do.
Memorize
This: We will not be able to reduce our
budget deficit, or put the long term unemployed back to work, or
raise GDP levels closer to potential as long as we have large trade
deficits.
Not
Here: In Croatia, a child's right to
health trumps the parent's right to be idiots.
Different
Strokes: The Tea Party placating
Republican Right wants to kill Common Core because, despite decades
of evidence to the contrary, “students are best served when
decisions about education are made at the state and local level.”
Because reading, writing and arithmetic vary from place to place,
y'know.
Porn
O'Graph: Up, up and away!
The Parting Shot:
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