Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Huffingtonpost Is Stupid
The current headline at the Huffington Post:
"Disappearing Middle Class; Bilingual Ph.D. Can't Find Work, Accepts Rent Money From Church"
The middle class was built on savings, investment, and manufacturing jobs, not intellectuals (some might argue unions had a hand in this as well). If a bilingual Ph. D. can't find work, there are too many individuals with a bilingual Ph.D. It is not a sign of a disappearing middle class.
The subsidization of unneeded degrees and Ph.Ds is one of many causes of the destruction of the middle class. It represents a misallocation of resources that could have been better used to create new wealth.
Edit: The article can be found here. Its a sob story. An individual who took a risk and falled flat on her face during a very bad time to do so. She then spent 99 weeks taking unemployment benefits while only applying for jobs within her profession, instead of developing a new skill set that might help her obtain employment quicker. Now she relies on charity from her church, instead of herself.
When you lose your job, the ideal situation is to obtain a new one within your profession. The ideal situation is far from a guarantee and individuals need to ensure they have a backup plan, or they at least keep an open mind when searching for new employment.
More alarming than the sob story of one individual is the following graph:
"Disappearing Middle Class; Bilingual Ph.D. Can't Find Work, Accepts Rent Money From Church"
The middle class was built on savings, investment, and manufacturing jobs, not intellectuals (some might argue unions had a hand in this as well). If a bilingual Ph. D. can't find work, there are too many individuals with a bilingual Ph.D. It is not a sign of a disappearing middle class.
The subsidization of unneeded degrees and Ph.Ds is one of many causes of the destruction of the middle class. It represents a misallocation of resources that could have been better used to create new wealth.
Edit: The article can be found here. Its a sob story. An individual who took a risk and falled flat on her face during a very bad time to do so. She then spent 99 weeks taking unemployment benefits while only applying for jobs within her profession, instead of developing a new skill set that might help her obtain employment quicker. Now she relies on charity from her church, instead of herself.
When you lose your job, the ideal situation is to obtain a new one within your profession. The ideal situation is far from a guarantee and individuals need to ensure they have a backup plan, or they at least keep an open mind when searching for new employment.
More alarming than the sob story of one individual is the following graph:
Monday, July 19, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Papers Please
If Hitler didn't hate Jewish people, he would be a political hero for our ruling class today.
Fascism Comes to Canada
Here are a few videos of police brutality in Toronto toward peaceful protests. While they are all very disturbing, the one that bothered me the most was the charge on protesters singing the Canadian anthem:
G20 Security and the Failure of Democracy
Democracy has been presented to me as the greatest form of government known to mankind since I knew what government was. Democracy has been sold to provide equality for all; equal say for each individual. It’s been promoted to provide even the little guy a chance to voice his opinion. Democracies are supposed to provide the people with economic prosperity and the protection of understood civil rights. I’m told repeatedly that democracy ensures that those who write our laws are held accountable and that while it may not be perfect, it’s the best that we’ve got, or as Winston Churchill put it, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the other that have been tried.”
Since my political re-awakening a few years ago, I’ve felt like we are witnessing the beginning of the end of what we know as the modern democracy. Most governments fall at the hands of a large scale economic collapse. Typically, the economic collapse has been at the hands of an over-expansion of military power. With the countries of the western world weighted down with debt (and no end in sight), and the countries of the eastern world tightening credit, the west continues to have difficulty maintaining its debt without inflating its currencies into oblivion. A wide spread economic collapse in the west is sure to occur and prompt the end of most western democracies.
The recognition of a need change the spending habits of Western governments was given a token acknowledgement by those we’ve democratically elected to head our governments. When representatives from the 20 largest economies met in Toronto last month, they agreed to halve their government budget deficits over the next 3 years. They also agreed to continue inflating their currencies and to spend $1.1 trillion.
The G20 event itself is an example of the failings of western democracies. If democracy is supposed to provide the people with economic prosperity, accountable government leaders, and protect civil rights, how is it that the following is allowed to occur without protest from the twenty heads of state attending the G20, eight of which represent western democracies?
If the leaders of the “free world” (Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia) feel their presence is worth $1 billion in security protection, the creation of a fascist police state, and trampling of civil liberties, this is a punch in the face of any idea one might have that democracy is a form of government worth fighting for. Meanwhile you can watch videos of protestors shouting “this is democracy in action” on youtube as they refer to themselves marching. The irony is that the entire event, including the atrocities that occur, is the result of the main stream idolatry of democracy.
Some individuals who founded the federal government which united the states of america understood the fallacies of Democracy. Thomas Jefferson was known to despise democracy to the core, saying, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” I would say the same, but also add, in a democracy, it doesn’t necessarily require 51 percent of the population to take away individual rights. It requires the absence of political involvement by the masses and a few over-zealous government bureaucrats, backed by big business, who thirst for power and own no empathy toward those who suffer at the hand of their policies. Thus we have modern democracy.
Since my political re-awakening a few years ago, I’ve felt like we are witnessing the beginning of the end of what we know as the modern democracy. Most governments fall at the hands of a large scale economic collapse. Typically, the economic collapse has been at the hands of an over-expansion of military power. With the countries of the western world weighted down with debt (and no end in sight), and the countries of the eastern world tightening credit, the west continues to have difficulty maintaining its debt without inflating its currencies into oblivion. A wide spread economic collapse in the west is sure to occur and prompt the end of most western democracies.
The recognition of a need change the spending habits of Western governments was given a token acknowledgement by those we’ve democratically elected to head our governments. When representatives from the 20 largest economies met in Toronto last month, they agreed to halve their government budget deficits over the next 3 years. They also agreed to continue inflating their currencies and to spend $1.1 trillion.
The G20 event itself is an example of the failings of western democracies. If democracy is supposed to provide the people with economic prosperity, accountable government leaders, and protect civil rights, how is it that the following is allowed to occur without protest from the twenty heads of state attending the G20, eight of which represent western democracies?
If the leaders of the “free world” (Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia) feel their presence is worth $1 billion in security protection, the creation of a fascist police state, and trampling of civil liberties, this is a punch in the face of any idea one might have that democracy is a form of government worth fighting for. Meanwhile you can watch videos of protestors shouting “this is democracy in action” on youtube as they refer to themselves marching. The irony is that the entire event, including the atrocities that occur, is the result of the main stream idolatry of democracy.
Some individuals who founded the federal government which united the states of america understood the fallacies of Democracy. Thomas Jefferson was known to despise democracy to the core, saying, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” I would say the same, but also add, in a democracy, it doesn’t necessarily require 51 percent of the population to take away individual rights. It requires the absence of political involvement by the masses and a few over-zealous government bureaucrats, backed by big business, who thirst for power and own no empathy toward those who suffer at the hand of their policies. Thus we have modern democracy.
Fascism Comes to Canada
Here are a few videos of police brutality in Toronto toward peaceful protests. While they are all very disturbing, the one that bothered me the most was the charge on protesters singing the Canadian anthem:
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
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