Thomas...get your own blog site dude. TMI

"Just as this would be dangerous in the truck example, so it would interrupt the smooth working of the economy. Interest rates and taxation, inapropropriately applied, have always stunted economic growth; this would have been avoided had we utilised the far more relevant techniques of fractional reserve banking and restrictions on credit creation."

Mr. Adams,

You appear to be borrowing ideas from others, not knowing how to apply them. *Any* rate of interest inherently and irreversibly multiplies debt in proportion to a circulation, because merely to maintain the circulation we must re-borrow what we pay against principal and interest. Thus the sum of debt inherently and irreversibly grows by so much as periodic interest on the sum of debt.

Thus the real monetary problem is the nature of the currency; and the real political problem is the proliferation of bogus alternative propositions. If you would like to debate your proposition at PEOPLE For Mathematically Perfected Economy, I welcome you to do so. It happens however that you repeat/borrow the proposition of Stephen Zarlenga (and many others before), which too advocates spending money into circulation. That idea has already been invalidated at:

http://perfecteconomy.com/pg-fatal-faults-of-american-monetary-act.html

If there are any other points you would like me to cover, please let me know.

Otherwise, I published a proof in 1979 that there is one and one only solution to 1) inflation and deflation, 2) systemic manipulation of the cost or value of money or property, and 3) inherent, irreversible multiplication of debt by interest.

I note that you offer no clue whatsoever how the circulation could possibly be over-inflated; nor why that could possibly be our problem. Possibly you should see the first page of our site, which refutes those propositions as well.

But obviously, if you're advocating fractional reserve policy (which inherently destroys the gold standard), you're advocating one of the very conditions under which we suffer the mounting financial catastrophe of indebtedness.

Yet we don't suffer indebtedness far exceeding the value of all our property Mr. Adams because of lacking restrictions on credit creation; in fact if you stopped creating credit, any purported economy subject to interest would immediately deflate and collapse. The problem is that it is impossible to maintain a circulation without multiplying debt. What we pay against interest obligations must be reborrowed into the general circulation as a new debt equal to the old. Thus it is impossible to pay down the sum of debt. What we pay out of the general circulation in the way of interest however is therefore reborrowed as new debt, above the previous sum of debt; and so the fundamental flaw of subjecting money to "interest" (which is a perpetual charge, versus a relevant one) is that the subject commerce ultimately fails under an insoluble sum of debt it can no longer afford to service.

That's just preposterous then, to say that restricting credit can solve the problem: You would engender immediate collapse.

Here's our invalidation of your unoriginal and certainly unproven principle of spending money into circulation:

http://perfecteconomy.com/pg-fatal-faults-of-american-monetary-act.html

THE UNIVERSAL ECONOMY.http://www.trafford.com/07-2440

THIS CONCEPT WILL TAKE NOTHING FROM YOU AND I.
WEALTH OWNERSHIP IS LEFT INTACT.
YET IT WILL ABOLISH ALL POVERTY AND DEPRIVATION.
IT WILL ASSURE THE FUTURE WELL-BEING OF ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS.
THE UNIVERSAL ECONOMY WILL ALSO RESOLVE DISPUTES CONCERNING TAXATION,WORK-PLACE EQUITY,HEALTH AND EDUCATION, INFRASTRUCTURE PROVISION AND HOMELESSNESS.
PLEASE READ TO THE END EVEN THOUGH TO BEGIN WITH IT STATES THE BLEEDING OBVIOUS.
THAT WAY YOU WILL KNOW WHERE I AM COMING FROM.
1…All ideological experiments have failed.
2…Poverty is in the "too hard" basket.
3…"Markets" exist primarily to make money for the rich.
4…International Production Capacity is a pawn enslaved to the bottom line.
5…Economic Rationalism destabilizes family community and the Economy.
6…Free Enterprise will not provide work and income for all unless we intervene.
7…Money and International "Exchange" systems are corrupt.
8…Uncontrolled personal debt and interest rates hurt families disproportionately.
9…Taxation in its current form is counterproductive and requires revision.
10..We need a Government Bank to control and issue credit.
11..We need positive mechanisms to provide community services.
12..We need positive mechanisms to provide infrastructure.
13..We need positive mechanisms to care for all people.
14..Industrial Relations must serve employers and employees fairly and equally.
15..Freedom of choice must apply equally and be meaningful and universal.
16..We must recognize that globalisation is a profound mistake.
17..Money must be organized to serve the needs of all humanity.
18..Sovereign Nations need protection from money markets and exchange manipulation.
19..We need a new world order of Exchange Control and Banking.
20..Our"Westminster Democracy" is a farce and needs to be revised and updated.
21..We need "ethical" not "ideologically biased" Politicians.
22..Above all we need truthful and transparent Leaders.
23..Domestic Economies must be isolated from foreign private manipulation.
24..Domestic Currency must not be traded on International Exchanges.
25..Our external currencies will have no domestic circulations.
26..Governments must set Exchange Rates to end currency manipulation.
27..All month to month domestic tax collections can and will cease.
28..Free enterprise is of paramount importance.
29.. Government will issue infrastructure contracts to private sector and will control and direct health, housing, education universities qualified professionals and research.
30..The Government will create debt free Social Capital sufficient to balance the demands of providing the Social Wage ( to eliminate poverty) and infrastructures.
PLEASE CONSIDER OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE.
THE POLICIES ADVOCATED HERE CAN BE ACHIEVED BY A DEMOCRATIC FREEDOM LOVING PEOPLE.
ALL IDEOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS HAVE FAILED.
The human race has evolved from the early days of hunting and gathering. Given the rate of growth of human populations this way of life could not last. Then there was serfdom and slavery. Late in the nineteenth century Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in Germany introduced a system of social insurance.It was revolutionary for the times. Mandatory insurance, using collections from employers to pay for statutory benefits a universal scheme managed by government.
Social conscience was alive and well in Great Britain. Thoughtful individuals such as Cadbury and Robert Owen in Lanarkshire provided housing for workers with some attention to health needs and regulated hours of work. It was not until 1935 that America introduced social insurance for the old which soon included support for disability and Medicare.This was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal".
Meanwhile Great Britain had progressed from Transportation and Work House and Debtor Prisons to a program of National Assistance a standard which lay between meagre and miserly. The years of Queen Victoria had taught them nothing despite having people like Charles Dickens writing great works on the subject.
Modern day Social Security is, I grant you, generous by comparison.The problem with it is, it is not universal, not available to all who need it most(Worldwide).Once paid the Government is then forever seeking ways to cut it back.Because we are told, the Tax Payer must have his tax reduced.Politicians do this as one string,among many others, to the bow which is used to influence voters.This is a form of ideological arm-twisting otherwise known as bribery,It appeals to the venal side of our nature and we fall for it. The adversarial, ideological style of our politics allows one side to convince the other that people who do not have any income do not need or deserve to be cared for.
We must come to understand permanently and forever that the human population is expanding exponentially and will need feeding housing and caring, for the rest of time. The politician the economist the corporate guru that tells you that free enterprise will take care of everything and that all we have to do is go out and get a job is deliberately lying to you they are simply protecting their domain their kingdom. If what they say can be true it would have been done by now; the truth is it is a demonstrable mathematical and physical impossibility.
Industry and the Corporation is not interested or concerned with the general welfare of the population. This responsibility rightly belongs to community decisions and Government implementation.
During my long years observing the torturous logic and downright deceit used by Politicians, it is easy to understand why one side of our community appears uncaring and hard-hearted.
The Universal Economy will change all that.
POVERTY IS IN THE TOO HARD BASKET.
The great strength of the Universal Economy lies in the fact that we revolutionise the way we regard money and how it is created without forsaking or compromising free enterprise.
We have been brainwashed to believe that if we hold a dollar note in our hand it is because, somewhere, there has been an excess return of output value over and above the relevant input value, called profit. Put another way, when inputs equal outputs there is no surplus to spend somewhere else. We can accept that this is a necessary method to use when conducting business.
Plainly, caring for humanity is not a business in the commercial sense. When a child is born out-put\production? are we then to require a proper accounting of the inputs? No this would be an impractical if not improbable requirement. Populations are growing exponentially and we must put in place a system to provide for them.
Creating Social Capital is not a new idea. Consider that great slabs of America were founded, in effect, by allowing settlers to take up for free, large tracts of land. This is tantamount to printing money in support of the Private Sector. The fact that North American Indians had to be dispossessed along the way has no bearing but the Indians certainly paid a price\loss?
A similar process occurred in Australia.
The point is, that when we cast aside our archaic belief that says we can only have money if we have first of all earned it, we then free ourselves to provide for the poor up to a standard that does not impede the growth and development of free enterprise.
Does anyone still believe that free enterprise is capable left to it's own needs and morality, of providing, not only work and income for every living soul, but also the phenomenal amounts of cash or credit required to provide necessary infrastructures? This would require a very high volume of continuously rising profits; burdening future generations with debt is not the answer. The future will create new and continuing demands of it's own.
The answer is a moving target that lies at a point somewhere between what we now call Social Security and that part of economic income, which is required for the successful development of Free Enterprise.
The Universal Economy will eliminate all contention and acrimony related to provision for the poor generated by right wing conservative even fascist governments in the minds of those who pay taxes.
THE UNIVERSAL ECONOMY WILL ELIMINATE
POVERTY.
Markets exist primarily to make money for the rich.
This is not a criticism or complaint, it is a simple recognition of the facts, free enterprise will not work any other way,ask any stock holder. It needs stating here because it helps to illustrate the motivation and direction which free enterprise is bound to pursue.
Business and Industry require an environment conducive and consistent with the development of their activities, just as the community needs a stable predictable environment that provides for every day basic needs and family responsibilities. We do not have to perpetuate the sense that says take this work or you will not eat, that attitude creates a population unproductive, resentful, and antagonistic.
The Universal Economy will encourage Business and Industry because they will no longer be required to collect Taxes and Superannuation savings from Employees; they will no longer be required to pay week to week or month to month Taxes or any kind of Goods and Services Tax. Their year-end balance sheets will be taxed fifteen percent of net profits.
Therefore this will considerably reduce workloads for staff and will also reduce production and operating costs making way for lower export prices, the wages of workers will also be reduced by the amount of tax they would normally expect to pay.
All private individuals will not pay income tax whilst they live. Instead, a tax will be levied on estates valued, say, at above $500,000 thousand dollars.The tax levied would be for fifty percent of the value above $500,000. There can be no fairer way to pay tax than this. Once every life time.
Employers will be free to hire those who are unemployed and who are in receipt of the Government paid Social Wage. These employees will continue to collect the Social Wage without reduction this will be the encouragement that causes them to progress out of poverty and into the mainstream workforce. The burden will be on employers to retain them as motivated contented appreciated workers or lose them to greener pastures. A free market of choice for employees and employers.
To the extent that the workforce is content and well treated, then, to that extent will Unions be relevant, or not. A contented secure workforce is a productive one.
The Universal Economy will create a near perfect environment for business to thrive; the workforce will be educated and trained, provided with good opportunities for housing and families, all secured by good opportunities for education, training and health care.
Do not be led into thinking all this is impossible, once debt free Social Capital supply principles are embedded anything is possible.
We may regard the economy as a huge engine just like any truck. It not only requires regular maintenance and services but it also needs a constant supply of fuel to be available for it to use as and when the need arises, Once the truck is refuelled we would not normally contemplate sucking it out again. Just as this would be dangerous in the truck example, so it would interrupt the smooth working of the economy. Interest rates and taxation, inapropropriately applied, have always stunted economic growth; this would have been avoided had we utilised the far more relevant techniques of fractional reserve banking and restrictions on credit creation.
In the Universal Economy the Government sector can set fixed long-term domestic interest rates for home ownership, agriculture and farming. Importantly, all of the foregoing mitigates in favour of reduced inflation .
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION CAPACITY IS A PAWN ENSLAVED TO THE BOTTOM LINE.
This endeavour could be in the top two of "the most stupid" short-sighted community destroying resource wasting profit seeking activities of the last one hundred years.
Our present economic wisdom insists that every person, able bodied or not, must be in gainful employment. From people in wheel chairs to mothers whose primary duty is to raise our next generation of educated skilled law abiding citizens. Stupid and short sighted? Humanity not Mammon must come first!
We are exporting essential machine plant and a concomitant of this is the loss of skilled machine tool operators and engineers. We are deskilling our workforce at an alarming rate. Whole sectors of production and engineering capability are being lost to us; even now it will take many years to recover, assuming that common sense may still prevail. Profit seeking?
Consider then, the colossal element of resource waste involved. Whole production line plant and equipment is consigned to the scrap heap, some is exported. Then we import the replacement product from far away. This incurs the use of purpose built shipping lines, huge investment to expand and develop our maritime ports, incredible waste in fuel and oil resource.Is this not a stupid short sighted resource wasting affront to commonsense? Paid for by consumers and taxpayers.
And what will result when our nation requires these resources at home for strategic purposes? What will our options be when those who supply our imports now realize they have the whip hand and can raise prices from a monopoly position? Have we forgotten there is a looming shortage of cheap oil? When will we learn to stop the cheap exporting of our mineral and natural resources and instead go back to solid principles such as value adding at home? Stupid and short sighted? You betcha!
The concept of Universal Economy removes the need for these kinds of stupidity to occur. The Universal Economy is structured so as to satisfy the domestic needs first and will exclude distorting international interventions whilst allowing what is good and necessary. This is possible because the central motivation in The Universal Economy for capital and resource planning is to make us, and every Nation, an Independent Sovereign entity.
The Corporate Commercial Force has manipulated and abused our human and capital resources in the name of "profits first" for too long. The Universal Economy will enable more Corporate opportunity than ever before ,will stop exploitation in the work force and yet give the workforce a sense they are valued and treated fairly and equitably.
There is plenty of opportunity available for improving the "bottom Line" using the concept of Universal Economy without enslaving the people to it, and without corrupting the National Sovereignty of the Nation.
SOVEREIGNTY BELONGS TO ALL THE PEOPLE.
….Economic Rationalism and Globalisation Destabilizes Family and Community.
Financial Deregulation was to give us low interest rates and reduced charges for consumers; foreign investment was to pour in to underpin economic growth and provide us with a higher standard of living. These things have occurred but only as fleeting phantom forms. The world is now entering a period of prolonged recession/depression, interest rates and inflation are going to be sharply higher.
We must exercise extreme caution, we are running the largest foreign trade and consumption driven debt accounts in Australia's history, financial Institutions here and around the world are sliding into bankruptcy. Working people are losing savings and retirement funds on an unprecedented scale. The great free enterprise machinery has organised a massive transfer of wealth from hard earned savings to the sloth, criminality and already obscenely wealthy rich.
This is a process which can only be reversed by increasing manufactures and finding markets which are permitted to import our agriculture without risk of penalty from our one sided self imposed trade agreements. To the extent that we have a higher standard of living we must not forget that this has been created on the back of a contrived property and consumer credit boom and very, very cheap imports from China.The bust cometh and will soon implode upon us all.
Our production capacity has been raped. Both the manufacturing and agriculture sectors are under great threat and are disappearing as we breathe. Yet more and more food is being imported. We have not enjoyed the expected inflows of investment capital to boost production capacity and the agriculture sector is really our only hope of increased foreign exchange earnings. The exportable capacity in agriculture is estimated to be less than twenty billion dollars annually.
With foreign debt at around five/six hundred billion dollars we have little chance of paying it off and interest costs on all the borrowed cash will cripple our growth prospects. All of Australia's recent growth has come from cash borrowed overseas to fund consumption and the domestic home building and mortgage market. It is estimated that Australian Banks and Financial Institutions have some twenty trillion dollars of exposure to the derivatives market and that some five percent of that is irrecoverable; if so they are going bankrupt so get your money out now.
We can imagine that it will not be long before the IMF and World Bank will step in to further "Economically Rationalise" our economy. They will force more privatisations, deep cuts in services such as education health and social security. They will want charges increased and taxes reduced for the rich. Whether we like it or not inflation is on the way and cannot be stopped. Much unemployment will result. Recovery will take years. Say goodbye to all the middle class welfare, families are going to hurt.
Is it not families that are most vulnerable? The most exposed to increased prices and interest rates, cuts to health and education services?. Who will suffer most when unemployment comes calling? All of this is what made the Howard Government Industrial relations and anti terrorism laws and reforms so urgently necessary. Fascist leaders around the world have all made these preparations they are ready for trouble because they know it is coming.Scripted by International Corporate Power and Financiers.
Notice that the Rudd Government has allowed Australian Workplace Agreements to continue on for five years. These will be the worst of our recession/depression years, the years when AWA's will be most utilised by employers to reduce wages and benefits and to facilitate mass sackings without redress or compensations such as "notice" and "redundancy".
All so-called democratic Governments must now dance to the instructions flowing from the centres of Corporate and Financial Power. This has been the real purpose behind Prime Minister Rudd's world tour. He left Japan out because he was instructed to do so.
These centres of Corporate and Financial power require that Australia revert to a banana republic type wage structure in order to cut costs of production to a level that will motivate the much needed investment to reinvigorate the manufacturing sector.
These changes are intended to "make it easier" to re-establish Australian Work Place Agreements and this will lead to the universal loss of entitlements of all variety. Any trade-off value can then be clawed back as future wage increases are controlled downwards. The new anti terrorism laws can be used to come down hard on those who will undoubtedly protest in the street.
CHOOSE THE UNIVERSAL ECONOMY,
Free Enterprise will not provide work and income for all unless we intervene.
Put at it's simplest we could argue that we have lived with 'Free Enterprise" since time immemorial.
One outstanding and blindingly obvious result of this is that there have always been poor destitute unemployed, uncared for peoples.Yes, but they have never been so numerous than they are today. And if Capitalist Free Enterprise is so wonderful why has it not stepped up to the plate?
We recognize the condition exists at Government level as evidenced by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's early social programmes and the creation of Communism and it's concomitant Socialism. President Castro and Che Guevera deserve all praise for the longevity of their creation against all the odds.
However, what is also blindingly, bleeding, obvious is that despite some brave attempts around the world to have socially caring communities they have all failed. Such policies get on the starting blocks, run for a short time and then fail the test of continuance ,it can be said, because such policies are totally and utterly incompatible with rules laid down by our ruling Financial and Corporate Elite. Financial Manipulators, crooks and those called "economists" whose function it is to legitimise those rules to prove them right by a multitude of arguments.
My words are chosen from the rich experience gathered from around the world after witnessing first hand the devious partnerships devised twixt Politicians, Corporate Power and Financial Institutions. Together they use Democracy and financial sleight of hand as the tools that facilitate their designs. One example was the Howard Governments advertising of Industrial Relations Reform. Cynically named "work Choices".
In truth the only "choice" was to take what is offered or go find work elsewhere.
However, what they did not say is the most important message of all. These agreements removed all possibility of workplace security. Under them the workforce could be "laid-off" with impunity, no notice and no severance provisions. Under such agreements nothing can be guaranteed precisely because it is an individual contract. Neat?.The Australian workforce is being downsized big time.
If this is not true then why do we need all these changes?
Surely it is possible to agree with the contention "Free Enterprise will not provide work and income for all". Therefore we are duty bound to learn from our mistakes.
The Universal Economy represents the most thorough, most complete, all inclusive, universal answer to Poverty, Unemployment, Ideology, Infrastructure, Provision of Social Services,Taxation, Pensions, Health, Education etal; plus it serves to legitimise Free Enterprise as never before. Financial Market Manipulators and crooks are deprived of some opportunities but legitimate commerce will thrive.
Essentially, this is a marriage acceptable to both free enterprise and the general public at large. It is the revolution we have got to have.
THE UNIVERSAL ECONOMY GIVES FREEDOM TO EVERYBODY.
Money and International "Exchange Systems" are Corrupt.
The trading and sales across foreign exchange markets by Hedge Funds and other traders of Currency, Derivatives and Futures are open to fraudulent activity.The value of such trades was in the trillions of dollars daily far greater than the combined GDP totals of the worlds trading Nations.Millions of dollars are being made selling "Rights" to "Rights" and not actually producing anything.
These trades can and do distort Markets by amassing rights to oil, for example, thereby creating a manufactured shortage and forcing up the price. That in turn will exert unnatural tension in our economies forcing up commodity prices for us all. We can manage without these.
This type of Money Market can be used for laundering illicit money. It is also capable of bringing whole economies down and must be disbanded.
Currency trading in particular, when traded by powerful Hedge Funds in great volumes, can cause instability in targeted economies making it necessary for Governments to step in to provide support. Domestic economies are severely disrupted. This is manipulation purely for the sake of making profits for a few individuals. We can stop this too.
In The Universal Economy, each Nation or group of Nations Trading as Blocks will each have a Domestic Currency that circulates internally and does not have any direct relevance to any International Currency. The International Currency, which ultimately should be one currency common to all international trading Nations, will be traded by Governments or it's nominees, through it's Banks, at Exchange Rates set by governments, where possible, embedded in trade agreements which will fairly reflect the economic and general welfare of the Nations.
For example, all trades must have a stated reason for wishing to purchase a domestic currency, at this point the exchange can be reviewed in the light of desirability and refused if necessary. Obviously those who require exchange for legitimate use within the domestic economy may be accorded favour at the Governments pleasure. The Government takes in the International Currency and issues the agreed amount of Domestic. Yes, there will be premiums for these services.
When domestic currency wishes to leave it too will be charged a premium. After all we would have allowed the use of our Nations Free, and Tax Free, infrastructure and Labour Market, for which they should expect to make a contribution. Such premiums need not be so high as to discourage the interaction of Commerce and Industry. The Universal Economy will be a near perfect environment for legitimate entrepreneurs.
Since all credit and Capital for use Domestically will be created by the Government the need to borrow from International Markets for the purposes of building infrastructure and our domestic house building, will be severely reduced. The Captains of Industry can negotiate directly with Government and Trading Banks.
Clearly, paying for imports will still be a function regulated by Export Income and other external earnings. The new opportunities are endless and we should do very nicely.
A new indicator of GDP will be the level of government created Infrastructure.
Uncontrolled Personal Debt and Unregulated Interest Rates Hurt Families Disproportionately.
There must be set a level of Income below which it will be forbidden for individuals to be given Credit. Others may assume responsibility if willing. Creating Mortgage Accounts that allow re-draw to people on limited incomes should also cease. Family homes must be protected.
Credit Card and other Personal Borrowing must be allowed in accordance with prudent income-equity ratios overseen by strict repayment stipulations.Ultimately the credit manager may elect to relax credit restrictions based on trust and individual reputation, which indicates the banks willingness to assume risk . Uncontrolled Personal Borrowing is too easily channelled into consumer booms which distort the Economy creating unemployment and hurting families most.
Since Government will be the creator of much Domestic Credit it will be possible to control the level of interest percentage set for family home borrowing and to maintain a fixed rate. Families need certainty in order to plan and be able to live within budget. Government will only provide this service to the lower paid who are building or buying modest homes, the private Sector then takes over. Of course if the Private Sector will comply with this criteria then nothing will stop them.
Families, who by definition, have the largest weekly expenses for just about everything, as well as certainty and security of tenure will be hurt disproportionately when unemployment comes calling, will be protected in their homes and tenancies.
By advocating to create the Universal Economy you will be helping to protect future families because such problems will then be non existent.
Also, all those in the community who need it will be given a Social Wage the only qualification for which will be that you live and breathe. The Social wage will continue to be paid well into and beyond and during any period of gainful employment, including retirement years. The Social Wage provided to families will reflect the size and basic living costs of family appropriately.
The Universal Economy will thus provide a suitable environment to enable all families to flourish and the children have every good opportunity to develop into respected law-abiding citizens. Children need at least one parent to guide them whilst the other is working and the Universal Economy facilitates that option for all who wish to exercise it..
THE LIVES OF PEOPLE NEED NOT BE SUBJECT TO THE CAPRICIOUS NATURE OF CAPITAL. REGARDS, THOMASTHEAUSSIEBATTLER

http://www.trafford.com/07-2440

The guy on the left in the photo above is increasing troop levels, increasing the war on Afghanistan, raising the military budget and more and more...There ain't gonna be no money for no war on poverty.

We lost that hope when JRE dropped out of the corporated generated parade, oops, I mean presidential primary.

So halving poverty in 10 years means a systematic plan for wealth redistribution, right? I'm all for it.

Ohh,wait. It means more of the same broken programs and no plans to tax the rich. Hmm, nice try John.

Just for those that are curious, here's a link to the U.S. Census Bureau's Poverty Thresholds:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/thresh06.html

If your single, without children and under 65, the poverty line is 10,488. Seems to me that # is way off....but then that would mean there are a whole lot more people living in poverty. Its nice to be able to set the bar so low your statistics don't sound quite so bad.

p.s. I agree Samson, people don't want to be poor but our thoughts, assumptions, and fears have a lot to do with our reality. When you are continually beaten down by the system, its hard to see how you can ever get out of the hole. Changing your perceptions is an important step to changing your circumstances. It wont fix it all, but if constantly tell yourself deep down that you can't ever have enough money you'll never have enough. Thats part of the problem with our society, people that make 10,000, 50,000, 100,000, 1,000,000 always say if they just could make more they would be happy. Its a perception that money leads to happiness. Not having enough is definitely a way to be unhappy, working too much just to feed your family is a way to be unhappy. The system is geared to grind the life out of people, to make it so difficult to see the path out of the misery that people don't have the energy to stand up for themselves. It teaches that material success is the path to contentment.

We have choices, but its easier for some people to blame circumstance than get up and organize. Its easier for them to blame everyone else for their situation, than do something about it.

I made 6,000 last year. I am statistically poor. But I feel rich, because I am active in my community, I eat as well as I can, I am involved in local politics, and I know that I have a choice in how I perceive the amount of money I make. I don't define myself by it. I have enough because I know that I will always get what I need. Intention is a powerful thing...we have choices even when it doesn't seem like it.

Doom n Gloom, yup, talk is cheap, ain't it? Especially when you have a 28,000-sq-ft pad to come home to at the end of your tough day of halving poverty.

Almost 1/2 of all revenue the U.S. has goes to the war machine. Only when this is corrected will the poverty begin to decline.

Edwards, the guy who rolls up his sleeves but doesn't have a single callous on his hands. Talk is cheap.

Note that the 12% data comes from the US government. They set the bar for "poverty" very, very low. There are actually a lot more poor people in the US than those numbers claim. Especially when you consider that there are 47 million people without health insurance!

In fact, the richest 0.1% (one tenth of one percent) of Americans own as much wealth as the bottom 120 million.

Cynthia McKinney for president: http://www.runcynthiarun.org/

It's the same old mega-racket. The elites camouflage their responsibility for poverty, maintain the systems that create poverty, and make sure the aid programs fit into those systems.

Instead of that, we should expose the elites' responsibility for poverty, dismantle their systems that create poverty, and make sure that all public policies build or preserve economic independence for all people. Relief is not the same thing as independence.

amused,

You didn't get your 600 dollars counterfeit money?

There's more than 1 in ten in those "1 in 10".

Pretty sure that stat is based on the official George W. Bush definition of the 'poverty line'. Its always been ridiculously low. I'm not sure what the number is, but when you hear what they consider the 'poverty line' for income you'd think "how the heck do you live on that". Which means there's an awful lot of 'poor' people around that are above that line.

And .... I have never, ever meant anyone who deliberately wanted to be poor. I've lived in some very low-rent areas of Atlanta both as a student and a college drop-out. I can't think of too many people I knew who weren't working hard as heck, and then scheming, scamming and doing anything they could to try to get some money. So, I'm not real sure where this "you can't fix poverty by money" stuff comes from. Sure, education helps ..... but money sure as heck does to.

Remember, Republicans and Democrats together have been steadily screwing over the urban areas ever since 1980. The aid that used to go to urban areas is steadily cut, while corporate welfare and middle-class-and-up tax break and welfare have gone up. Program after program after program is geared towards corporations and the suburbs. Education policy has attacked the public schools (then people complain that 'those people' need education instead of money?), transportation policy concentrates on surburban highways and neglects mass transit, zoning policies let all the business move out of central business districts to the suburbs, police policies declare war on the urban areas to try to crush dissent, this list can go on but I'm tired of typing. Then, after all of that you see this 'its there fault attitude'. Sorry, I'm not buying it. I've known too many people working their asses off just trying to survive. Oh yeah, add to the above list a health care policy that favors middle class surburban corporate workers and leaves these people going to the emergency rooms of urban hospitals (which continually have their funding challenged and cut to favor corporate hospitals that won't treat the uninsured).

The thing I like about this is that now I know Edwards is serious. Before, you always had to wonder just a bit whether it was real or if it was just a part of his campaign. I'd have guessed he meant it, and of the three choices that corporate America was allowing even to be mentioned, he's the one I'd have backed is I was still a corporate-Dem.

But, now that his campaign is over, there's no doubt that he means this. Good job!

I've been a stalwart Edwards supporter since he announced his candicacy, and contributed a fair amount of money as well, not easy, trying to go to grad school while supporting a family (particularly a son who's going to be driving soon - gulp! (hint: invest heavily in State Farm!), and will be going to college sooner than I think!) I was sorely disappointed when he left the race. You are obviously aware of the importance of raising awareness of the need to use the Web for social good, not just social networking." Therefore, I cordially invite you to join my newly created cause, "The Facebook Half In Ten Campaign", to help spearhead Senator Edwards's cause of the same name. If you're a Facebook member, please join; if not, tell your Facebook friends! 37 million Americans awaking day after day after day to crushing poverty is appalling and sickening. And as you probably know, as of March 2008, estimates suggest Facebook is nearing 75 million members very rapidly, as 250, 000+ people register daily. If you could help my fledgling Cause by joining, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Respectfully,
Dick Schwermin

Edwards and Obama both have never once responded to our proposition of mathematically perfected economy. Either one could end poverty in a year if they wanted to. What they're really up to must be something different.

See http://perfecteconomy.com/pg-parable-of-perfect-economy.html

Generational Poverty cannot be fixed with money alone. There is a culture of poverty. Just as there is a culture of wealth. In order for any anti-poverty program to work it needs an educational component. There needs to be child care for working parents and reliable transportation. There needs to be safe affordable housing in viable neighborhoods, and health care and healthy food.
I want to see and Obama-Edwards ticket.

WhatTheHell Adele:

1 out of 10 is only 30 million human beans. Aint nuthin'

I've been a stalwart Edwards supporter since he announced his candicacy, and contributed a fair amount of money as well, not easy, trying to go to grad school while supporting a family (particularly a son who's going to be driving soon - gulp!...hint: invest heavily in State Farm!, and will be going to college sooner than I think!) I was sorely disappointed when he left the race. You are obviously aware of the importance of raising awareness of the need to use the Web for social good, not just social networking. Therefore, I cordially invite you to join my newly created cause, "The Facebook Half In Ten Campaign", to help spearhead Senator Edwards's cause of the same name. 37 million Americans awaking day after day after day to crushing poverty is appalling and sickening. And as you probably know, as of March 2008, estimates suggest Facebook is nearing 75 million members very rapidly, as 250,000+ people register daily. If you're a Facebook person,you could help my fledgling Cause by joining; if not, tell your Facebook friends! I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much. Yours in peace.

"The only way to do that is to restore our industrial base and forget trying to build other countries."

The only way to forget building other countries is to stop destroying them.

The only way to fight poverty is to provide
work and jobs. The only way to do that is to restore our industrial base and forget trying to build other countries. China existed for thousands of years before the USA.
The Clintons and the Bushco are responsible for
the mess we are in. The press refuses to acknowlege that outsourcing our industrial base
and our economy has destroyed us. During WWII
Clinton and Bush would have faced a firing squad, as what they have done is Treason..
The Rosenburgs were put to death for a lot less
than what Clintons and Bushco have done.

Frosty Bunny, you're so right -- it IS a national disgrace. But I was also upset that here on CD one could encounter a sentence such as "a small-but-significant proportion of the White population — less than 1 out of 10...[live in poverty]". What background does this author have, that he (or she) can call one out of ten Americans being destitute a SMALL proportion??

Goebbels--My thoughts exactly--I would bet money that none of those "patriots for profit" in the Bush adminstration will leave office worth less than when they began. Would that were so for the rest of the people in this country.

Frosty Bunny--well stated and true comment. How come Japan, Germany, Scandanavia, and most of Western Europe don't have such levels of poverty? Because they don't depend on a military industrial complex and destructive war for "economic stimulus" and "job creation".

W sez: "(The economy is) not as robust as any of us would like."

Bu(ll)shit, as usual. His donors and the other "have mores" are doing just fine, thank you very much. So what if it requires turning the working class into a hollowed-out husk? It's a lot easier to scrape by on $2 billion than a meager $1 billion.

One in Ten seems unrealistically low.

I which Edwards and Obama were sharing the ticket.

One in ten Americans live in poverty - in a country that is the richest in the history of humanity.

It's a moral disgrace.