Our Gini Coefficient, a measure of income inequality, is the same as Mexico's
I recently came accross this standard of living index created by U.N. (I know, I know) - Human Development Index. We are ranked #15 of highly industrialized countries. It looks like all those "socialist" countries are ranked higher in standard of living.
Looks like they have been buying time to pre-arrange a bankruptcy.
What is this "good car - bad car" ...that must be from Geithner's 2D brain, "good bank - bad bank" ...
it's like they have a lot of experience cleaning out closets (keep, give to good will).
I never saw any "commitment" from Obama and he's making Mitt Romney look like a labor guy in my view. Seriously, I didn't get that at all. When it comes to their pals, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs seems no problemo doing all sorts of rigged games but manufacturing?
I have lived in Europe (Germany & Denmark) and traveled extensively throughout most of Western Europe. My credo was always, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". But, I frequently felt embarrassed whenever I crossed paths with American tourists because they almost always failed to try to "be" European. The truth is, Europe's standard of living is much better than America's. They are healthier, eat better, have more time off and work fewer hours than we do.
I was 19 years old when I first experienced Europe in 1966. I was assigned to an Army unit in Germany and was constantly overwhelmed by the antiquity of my village and the humanity of its residents. They spoke a different language, but their hopes and dreams were the same as mine, and everyone else I could recall back home.
Later, I was fortunate to travel to various parts of the world, the Middle East, Central America, and Southeast Asia. I can honestly say that people in all the places I have been are pursuing the same thing. They want to achieve a reasonable standard of living, provide an opportunity for their kids to do better, and have the ability to reflect on their small legacy to humanity in the end. Pretty much what you and your next door neighbor want to achieve in one lifetime.
It's not a high minded goal, when you think about it. It's just people being people wherever I have gone. But this is getting into another subject, "American Exceptionalism", about which I have a lot of feelings. That may be the subject of my next post.
As a country and people, we need to challenge the conventional wisdom that we have been subjected to for so long. Only then, I think, will we emerge as the dominant society that so many of us already believe we are.
My favorite is when these various people rail against socialism and scream "we'll be like Europe"!!! Well, if anyone has ever been in Europe, it's pretty nice actually. Even more interesting is just how much of a hand the United States had in setting up those governments after WWII as well as Japan.
Nice post common good. About time the term socialism was returned to it's original meaning instead of bastardized to mean communism or totalitarianism.
Weaker consumer demand for credit could also be limiting demand for TALF deals. The pace of borrowing by U.S. consumers fell in February.
That wouldn't have anything to do with unemployment rates approaching 20%, would it? The bogus reporting of govenment statistics must not be regurgitated any longer. The BLS should just drop the "L", because that is what their statistics are, just "BS".
Insofar as John Ryming is concerned, he should just go fuck himself and encourage all the other bloodsucking private sector capitalist mofos to do the same. Let's make it a national event on the major networks during sweeps month!! Do I hear any seconds to that motion?
That's just unbelievable they would try to blame (keep screwing the consumer) on guest worker Visas.
Whatever is going on with other countries trying to get American jobs....this is becoming ever increasingly obvious that more is involved than just buying cheap labor.
That simply doesn't add up, we're talking about 1,000 jobs and poor babies just had to hire Americans in the TARP program.
I’ve been coming around to the idea that in their heart of hearts, Obama & Co. are planning an eventual austerity program. That is, the only way to pay for all this stimulus, if you don’t want to tax the rich heavily (and it’s looking like neither Obama nor the Congressional Dems want to do that), then there’s only one other way to fund all these trillions of stimuli and bailout: cutting social spending to the bone. More broadly, it would be economically rational, in the harsh orthodox sense, to prolong and even deepen the sharp contraction in consumption that this recession has brought with it. Less consumption means fewer imports, which means less money we need to borrow abroad. This is precisely the structural adjustment strategy that the U.S., via the IMF, has imposed on scores of countries around the world over the last 25 years. Could it be that a candidate elected on high progressive hopes would turn into the agent of a home-grown structural adjustment program? He’d be the ideal agent for such a thing, in fact, because it would disarm the natural opposition to such a strategy. Were I given to cliches, I might say that this could turn into Obama’s Nixon in China moment.
About the only thing India could really do is steal U.S. consumer banking data and steal intellectual property. Oh yeah, I think they have already done that many times...
Like what? They are going to refuse to suck up American jobs and force U.S. companies to actually hire U.S. citizens for jobs?
Or...oh bummer, those radioactive mangoes...well, we're not going to get them in exchange for advanced nuclear technology after all?
rate it up folks to move it to the front page. I get the feeling Sheila Blair has been forced to drink the magic kool-aid. It's like she has joined in on the fictional money game versus her original, earlier testimony and comments.
Blankfein said: “Do we really want to invite other countries to take punitive measures against us?”
Can you imagine India instituting punitive measures against us for prohibiting corporate welfare recipients from shipping jobs overseas? Am I missing something if I welcome that potential trade dispute?
I seem to remember a couple of Stargate episodes based on that idea.
One was a time travel one, in which the human race, due to a trade treaty, was forced onto birth control drugs causing a 98% fertility rate- and ended with SG-1 sending a note back in time to themselves to lock out the entire empire from the dialing device.
The second was actually visiting a planet much like Earth from that empire- where the population had been wiped out and the cities turned over to farming with MASSIVE shipments of grain through the stargate.
Let me know when the midwest farmers start complaining about how tough ironroot is to remove from their fields......
-------------------------------------
Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.
In comparison to "cheapest labor" decision process most corporations seem to use.
-------------------------------------
Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.
Given standard who goes where in migrations to this country, Indians and Chinese are WAY too expensive to use for this. Illegal Mexicans & Central Americans get all the construction work.
-------------------------------------
Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.
Since most MS guest workers are paid cheap, they can't afford cars, the bridge will make it easier for them to go from one building to the other. Hey Johnny Venom, they are not immigrants, they are Guest workers (temporary visas).
But that's funny Evil Bill using them for both construction and coding.
FYI: Actually, the Chinese Government historically has contracted with the Germans for their major infrastructural build-outs, such as railways, highways, airports. One would think China would opt for Chinese engineers. Clearly... didn't opt for Japaniese or American. Methinks it has to do with pre-WWII technical documentation enclaved amongst various distributed libraria...;-) Or not. (Soon, they likely will shift, contract-wise. Their internal highway system is now best-in-the-world.)
I really hope that the new high-speed rail lines that are supposed to be built as part of Obama's stimulus plan rely on American technology and that they don't, for example, have it built by the Japanese because their technology is superior at this point.
do you think once we see photos of the construction that the majority of the workers will be Indian and Chinese immigrants here on a visa? By day they're wearing hard hats, by night they're coding.
Hey, Microsoft spends its capital on lobbyists, not non-deductible capital improvements. Consider the tax consequences here: they can expense lobbying costs. Whereas, improvements to a campus are long-term and must be amortized and since they'd pay out of cash, there's no interest deuctions. And, it just makes sense to hire local minority/female/...owned contractors (with offshore relatives) to assure that bridge is built to top standards.;-)
Our Gini Coefficient, a measure of income inequality, is the same as Mexico's
I recently came accross this standard of living index created by U.N. (I know, I know) - Human Development Index. We are ranked #15 of highly industrialized countries. It looks like all those "socialist" countries are ranked higher in standard of living.
Looks like they have been buying time to pre-arrange a bankruptcy.
What is this "good car - bad car" ...that must be from Geithner's 2D brain, "good bank - bad bank" ...
it's like they have a lot of experience cleaning out closets (keep, give to good will).
I never saw any "commitment" from Obama and he's making Mitt Romney look like a labor guy in my view. Seriously, I didn't get that at all. When it comes to their pals, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs seems no problemo doing all sorts of rigged games but manufacturing?
I have lived in Europe (Germany & Denmark) and traveled extensively throughout most of Western Europe. My credo was always, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". But, I frequently felt embarrassed whenever I crossed paths with American tourists because they almost always failed to try to "be" European. The truth is, Europe's standard of living is much better than America's. They are healthier, eat better, have more time off and work fewer hours than we do.
I was 19 years old when I first experienced Europe in 1966. I was assigned to an Army unit in Germany and was constantly overwhelmed by the antiquity of my village and the humanity of its residents. They spoke a different language, but their hopes and dreams were the same as mine, and everyone else I could recall back home.
Later, I was fortunate to travel to various parts of the world, the Middle East, Central America, and Southeast Asia. I can honestly say that people in all the places I have been are pursuing the same thing. They want to achieve a reasonable standard of living, provide an opportunity for their kids to do better, and have the ability to reflect on their small legacy to humanity in the end. Pretty much what you and your next door neighbor want to achieve in one lifetime.
It's not a high minded goal, when you think about it. It's just people being people wherever I have gone. But this is getting into another subject, "American Exceptionalism", about which I have a lot of feelings. That may be the subject of my next post.
As a country and people, we need to challenge the conventional wisdom that we have been subjected to for so long. Only then, I think, will we emerge as the dominant society that so many of us already believe we are.
My favorite is when these various people rail against socialism and scream "we'll be like Europe"!!! Well, if anyone has ever been in Europe, it's pretty nice actually. Even more interesting is just how much of a hand the United States had in setting up those governments after WWII as well as Japan.
Nice post common good. About time the term socialism was returned to it's original meaning instead of bastardized to mean communism or totalitarianism.
That wouldn't have anything to do with unemployment rates approaching 20%, would it? The bogus reporting of govenment statistics must not be regurgitated any longer. The BLS should just drop the "L", because that is what their statistics are, just "BS".
Insofar as John Ryming is concerned, he should just go fuck himself and encourage all the other bloodsucking private sector capitalist mofos to do the same. Let's make it a national event on the major networks during sweeps month!! Do I hear any seconds to that motion?
another one to put on the front page here.
That's just unbelievable they would try to blame (keep screwing the consumer) on guest worker Visas.
Whatever is going on with other countries trying to get American jobs....this is becoming ever increasingly obvious that more is involved than just buying cheap labor.
That simply doesn't add up, we're talking about 1,000 jobs and poor babies just had to hire Americans in the TARP program.
To Mr. Rob Oak:
Oh yes, whenever there is a stimulus for our beloved corporate welfare queens, a MAN CRUSH is not far behind...
We call this a BRIDGE TO BUTTF*#K.
-The Gay Swami
http://tootruthy.blogspot.com/2009/04/billionaire-bill-gatess-bridge-to....
Obama's "Kunundrum"
http://www.capsweb.org/content.php?id=624&menu_id=8
This from Doug Henwood:
I’ve been coming around to the idea that in their heart of hearts, Obama & Co. are planning an eventual austerity program. That is, the only way to pay for all this stimulus, if you don’t want to tax the rich heavily (and it’s looking like neither Obama nor the Congressional Dems want to do that), then there’s only one other way to fund all these trillions of stimuli and bailout: cutting social spending to the bone. More broadly, it would be economically rational, in the harsh orthodox sense, to prolong and even deepen the sharp contraction in consumption that this recession has brought with it. Less consumption means fewer imports, which means less money we need to borrow abroad. This is precisely the structural adjustment strategy that the U.S., via the IMF, has imposed on scores of countries around the world over the last 25 years. Could it be that a candidate elected on high progressive hopes would turn into the agent of a home-grown structural adjustment program? He’d be the ideal agent for such a thing, in fact, because it would disarm the natural opposition to such a strategy. Were I given to cliches, I might say that this could turn into Obama’s Nixon in China moment.
About the only thing India could really do is steal U.S. consumer banking data and steal intellectual property. Oh yeah, I think they have already done that many times...
Like what? They are going to refuse to suck up American jobs and force U.S. companies to actually hire U.S. citizens for jobs?
Or...oh bummer, those radioactive mangoes...well, we're not going to get them in exchange for advanced nuclear technology after all?
rate it up folks to move it to the front page. I get the feeling Sheila Blair has been forced to drink the magic kool-aid. It's like she has joined in on the fictional money game versus her original, earlier testimony and comments.
Blankfein said: “Do we really want to invite other countries to take punitive measures against us?”
Can you imagine India instituting punitive measures against us for prohibiting corporate welfare recipients from shipping jobs overseas? Am I missing something if I welcome that potential trade dispute?
We need to break up the financial oligarchy now!
I seem to remember a couple of Stargate episodes based on that idea.
One was a time travel one, in which the human race, due to a trade treaty, was forced onto birth control drugs causing a 98% fertility rate- and ended with SG-1 sending a note back in time to themselves to lock out the entire empire from the dialing device.
The second was actually visiting a planet much like Earth from that empire- where the population had been wiped out and the cities turned over to farming with MASSIVE shipments of grain through the stargate.
Let me know when the midwest farmers start complaining about how tough ironroot is to remove from their fields......
-------------------------------------
Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.
In comparison to "cheapest labor" decision process most corporations seem to use.
-------------------------------------
Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.
Given standard who goes where in migrations to this country, Indians and Chinese are WAY too expensive to use for this. Illegal Mexicans & Central Americans get all the construction work.
-------------------------------------
Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.
Since most MS guest workers are paid cheap, they can't afford cars, the bridge will make it easier for them to go from one building to the other. Hey Johnny Venom, they are not immigrants, they are Guest workers (temporary visas).
But that's funny Evil Bill using them for both construction and coding.
FYI: Actually, the Chinese Government historically has contracted with the Germans for their major infrastructural build-outs, such as railways, highways, airports. One would think China would opt for Chinese engineers. Clearly... didn't opt for Japaniese or American. Methinks it has to do with pre-WWII technical documentation enclaved amongst various distributed libraria...;-) Or not. (Soon, they likely will shift, contract-wise. Their internal highway system is now best-in-the-world.)
I really hope that the new high-speed rail lines that are supposed to be built as part of Obama's stimulus plan rely on American technology and that they don't, for example, have it built by the Japanese because their technology is superior at this point.
do you think once we see photos of the construction that the majority of the workers will be Indian and Chinese immigrants here on a visa? By day they're wearing hard hats, by night they're coding.
Hey, Microsoft spends its capital on lobbyists, not non-deductible capital improvements. Consider the tax consequences here: they can expense lobbying costs. Whereas, improvements to a campus are long-term and must be amortized and since they'd pay out of cash, there's no interest deuctions. And, it just makes sense to hire local minority/female/...owned contractors (with offshore relatives) to assure that bridge is built to top standards.;-)
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