Voices of dissent; unapologetic, unbridled rage.
This is a group blog and we welcome your contribution
Posts tagged: economics
![wilwheaton:
“We were growing together for the first three decades after World War II, but for the last three decades we have been growing apart…. I should point out that the pattern in the post-1970s period is not monolithic…. [T]he period from 1992 to 2000 was an exception, when strong economic growth and the policies of the Clinton Administration led all quintiles to grow together again. Indeed, all income groups experienced their fastest income growth in years…. If in the first decade of the 2000s the income of the median household had grown at the same rate as it did in the 1990s, middle class households would have an extra $8,900 a year to spend on their mortgages, rent, cars, food, and clothing, or to add to their savings.”
(via What Romney Doesn’t Want You Talking About — Except In ‘Quiet Rooms’ | TPMDC)](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/subversivesoapbox/15874556344/1/tumblr_lxswlwmbTN1qz9bu3)
“We were growing together for the first three decades after World War II, but for the last three decades we have been growing apart…. I should point out that the pattern in the post-1970s period is not monolithic…. [T]he period from 1992 to 2000 was an exception, when strong economic growth and the policies of the Clinton Administration led all quintiles to grow together again. Indeed, all income groups experienced their fastest income growth in years…. If in the first decade of the 2000s the income of the median household had grown at the same rate as it did in the 1990s, middle class households would have an extra $8,900 a year to spend on their mortgages, rent, cars, food, and clothing, or to add to their savings.”
(via What Romney Doesn’t Want You Talking About — Except In ‘Quiet Rooms’ | TPMDC)
FTW. And relatedly, be sure to check out Jaeah Lee’s story on how your Halloween costume/candy/pumpkin is supporting child labor and union-busting businesses. These are the kinds of problems no one ever has with Casimir Pulaski Day.
UPDATE: These numbers are old (based on this) most recent numbers can be found here: http://t.co/pktMrId
Updating the post to reflect the current numbers:
Reagan - 189% Bush - 55% Clinton - 37% Bush - 86% Obama - 35%
Hat tip to Ron Workman for the correct numbers and links.
There is no question that our circumstances qualify as extraordinary and demand a laserlike focus by the president on job creation. At the pace of job growth we’ve seen over the past three months, we will never, not ever, reach normal levels of employment in America again. We know now that only 58 percent of American adults are employed, the lowest number in nearly three decades. We know that, as of last month, 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months. Forty-six million Americans are on food stamps, a national record.
“I really believe that the USPS is going to get to a point where, regardless of what it does with the prefunding [of retiree health care], it is going to implode,” says R. Richard Geddes, an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University. “It is either going to default on those obligations to its retirees or we are going to have to give it a direct bailout from the United States taxpayers.”
The implosion could happen this year because of the stalemate in D.C. Maybe that’s what it will take for Americans to get a modern mail service. Even Donahoe, who advocates something less, sounds as if he would welcome it because there’s no other way out. “Some people say if you crash the system,” he says, “then people will pay attention to you.”
My mother and my grandmother survive off of retirement benefits they get from my mom’s many years working as a postal employee. Which is just to say: this means more to me than a potential decrease in junk mail.
Stuff like this makes me wonder if we’re closer than we want to admit to the kind of future the survivalists are describing.
It’s important for us to remember that every budget shortfall is linked to Bush’s never-ending money pit, The War on Terror. For comparison, NASA’s 18 billion dollar budget is roughly equivalent to:
- 1/3 of the Department of Defense’s “Intelligence” budget—100% of which is classified
- 1/2 of the allotment for personnel in the Air Force
- somewhat less than the Research and Development budget for the Navy
- a bit less than 1/2 of The Army’s budget for shiny new war toys (AKA, “Procurement”)
These figures are rounded wildly, to see for yourself how more than half the budget is spent on defense, go to Death and Taxes for a visual of the US tax dollars at work.
E.T., Phone Collect
If aliens come calling, we might not hear them.
The San Jose Mercury News reports that the SETI Institute — the one made famous by the movie Contact — has put its program to find alien life on hold. In an April 22 letter SETI sent to significant supporters, Tom Pierson, SETI’s CEO announced that beginning this week, the Allen Telescope Array “has been placed into hibernation due to funding shortfalls for operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) where the ATA is located.”
(via NPR)
