January 8, 2014

VIDEO: The Pale Blue Dot (The Sagan Series)

Carl Sagan — Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

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January 8, 2014

The Economics Of Moral Outrage, How Liberals And Conservatives Differ

At some point we as a society need to come to terms with the fact that economic status is not a good barometer for morality, and it certainly tells you nothing of the character of a human being. You are not in higher moral standing because you earn a larger paycheck. And a person should not automatically be assumed morally suspect because they are unemployed, or can’t pay their mortgage, or can’t keep food on the table.

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January 7, 2014

Inexplicable Republican Opposition To Extending Unemployment Benefits

Okay, I did say it’s inexplicable, but let me take a stab at it anyway. Republicans are opposed to extending unemployment insurance because it does not solve the problem of joblessness. Fair enough, I can agree unemployment benefits do not lead directly to job creation, but that itself is not a reason to deny people those benefits. It’s not like jobs aren’t being created because unemployment insurance is a thing.

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January 5, 2014

VIDEO: Union Decline and Income Inequality (1979-2009)

Direct “smoking gun” proof of income inequality fueled by union membership decline is probably impossible. But we sure can find plenty of correlating evidence that indicates a strong likelihood that union decline is at least related to wage stagnation and greater economic inequality, if not the direct catalyst.

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January 5, 2014

The Free Market Has Spoken, And It Had Nothing To Say About Economic Inequality

One of the tenets of free market ideology is consumer choice. The idea goes like this. Empower citizens to make their own decisions and they will have greater freedom, greater prosperity, and businesses will live or die at the will of the consumer. Therefore, corporations and executives are in effect beholden to the consumer. Sounds good right? Who could be against that?

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January 4, 2014

Hey Republicans, What Happened To Obamacare Repeal?

I’ll tell you what happened. Millions of Americans now have health care coverage because of the Affordable Care Act. Millions more will gain coverage over the coming months and years. If Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare were unsuccessful before anyone was officially covered (and let me tell you, they tried many times), then how will future repeal efforts fair? That is, if there are any future repeal efforts.

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January 2, 2014

Yes Uncle Bob, Despite Winter, Global Warming Is Still Real

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time when Fox News viewers and your Uncle Bob dispense the usual liberal goading climate change denialism. You know, it’s snowing, it’s cold, therefore global warming is a hoax. There’s a blizzard, so time to make fun of Al Gore. It’s winter, hence no greenhouse effect.

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January 2, 2014

The Stock Market Soared In 2013, So Where Are The Jobs?

Free-market capitalists, which apparently is just about any Republican these days, tell us government is too burdensome to businesses and we need to cut taxes. Their standard message for how to get the economy moving is to cut taxes and get government out of the way. There’s just one problem, the economy, at least as measured by the major stock indexes, finished 2013 with tremendous gains, and that means the personal economy of so-called “job creators” is doing quite well. How’s your personal economy coming along?

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