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Archive for 'Tag Archives: 'wealth distribution''

Why Republican Voters Don’t Like Mitt Romney and Their Presidential Candidates

As the Florida Primary nears, it looks like the Republican Party may finally be having its “come to Jesus” moment: the presumptive nominee Mitt Romney has again pulled ahead in polls, leading Newt Gingrich now by nine percentage points (40% to 31%, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul each around 10%). A victory in [...]

The Super PAC and 2012 Election: Why Only Stephen Colbert Can Save Our Democracy

Stephen Colbert has announced his (ironic) bid for the Presidency, stating last week that he would be running for the “President of the United States of South Carolina.” Colbert’s move came after handing over control of his super PAC to friend and fellow comedian Jon Stewart and renaming it The Definitely Not Coordinating With [...]

What Black Friday Violence Tells Us About Ourselves

With Thanksgiving come and past, the shopping season is officially in full swing, and what a kickoff it got with Black Friday violence, including near-riots over waffle-makers at a Wal-Mart in Arkansas, a 2am shooting outside another Wal-Mart in Oakland, and one sad incident in which a California shopper pepper-sprayed fellow video-game shoppers (again, [...]

Five Goals for the Occupy Wall Street Protests

As the Occupy Wall Street protests have grown, so too has the media response grown, from at first ignoring the protests, to exploiting them for their 15 minutes of fame, to recognizing that there are some legitimate grievances being expressed on Wall Street. The only problem is, no one seems to be able to [...]

Corporate Profits Up, Slow Job Growth and American Democracy

Corporate profits reached new highs this past quarter, leading many to inquire why, if American corporations are so profitable, are there no more jobs? Mother Jones recently answered this question by looking at productivity growth in connection with wealth inequality. Their below comparison shows how the rise in worker productivity over the past 30 years [...]

U.S. Job Growth and Prospects for the Economic Recovery

The month of May has released its job figures, and the press is already jumping to dire and skewed conclusions about U.S. job growth, with the AP reporting on “the brutal month of May” under the headline “To keep his job, Obama needs more jobs” and Bloomberg/Businessweek opening its piece on the jobs data [...]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Bad Behaving Rich Men

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dominique Strauss-Kahn are only the most recent additions to a long list of bad behaving rich men. Schwarzenegger, who fathered a child out of wedlock (and lied about it to his wife for over 10 years), and Strauss-Kahn, who shockingly sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a hotel maid, are certainly not [...]

Why the Wisconsin Budget Needs Collective Bargaining

With state budgets hurting all over the country, Wisconsin has declared open season on organized labor, and Governor Walker has attempted to push through not only cuts to labor benefits, but severe cuts in the rights of labor unions to organize. While the Wisconsin budget problems are no doubt bad, and this is certainly [...]

Killing the Middle Class by a Thousand Tax Cuts

Well, this week our fearless leader and commander-in-bending-over-backwards revealed this little gem: we are going to extend the Bush tax cuts. Let’s just say that one more time: the Bush tax cuts, just in case you thought these might be a good idea. For a moment, I am going to try to ignore the [...]