American Inequality Highlighted by 30-Year Gap In Life Expectancy

We're (still) afraid to discuss the impact of welfare "reform", not only on the poor, but on ALL of us collectively. When families are hit by hardships today, they increasingly fall permanently. Welfare provided the stability vital to enabling people to keep their families together while working their way out of poverty. Before "reform", over 80% of recipients voluntarily quit welfare in under 5 years; the remaining 20% were those with multiple barriers to employment. For the brief time (in the '70's) that welfare allotments rose up to slightly above the poverty line, the length of time that people used aid actually decreased. Following WWII, welfare was a vital factor in creating the massive middle class that we once had.

Our "reform" policies created an instant, massive, bottom-wage/no workers' rights temp help force. This has been a powerful tool for crushing unions and suppressing wages, having a negative impact on all working-class people. Businesses are provided with financial incentives to use workfare labor, and they are increasingly used as replacement workers. Without welfare to fall back on if necessary, people dare not risk speaking up about dangerous working conditions, trying to form unions, etc. The abundance of super-cheap local labor, combined with the ability to "outsource" American jobs (at taxpayer expense) to Third World countries, has impoverished much of America while effectively castrating the working class.

It would be in our own best interests to restore the ideas of social and economic fairness/justice to the public discussion. We need to restore the concept of the "common good" to both the public discussion and to policies.

USAn,

I guess I am in error by a few years but the author's claim is still way off, so far off that the few years makes no difference to my point.

I guess it does say "Join the discussion." I just posted thinking this was like other sites where you can post a comment about the article and not necessarily get engaged in commenting on comments. I actually find that frustrating when people do that on other sites. I think it's rude and wastes space. But if that's what they expect in this forum, I probably won't bother commenting, this was my first comment here on this site and I see you guys have your own way of doing things and get pretty touchy if someone shows up and doesn't "get it" right away so I'll leave you alone. Goodbye.

ATLAW,

It's 7.9 years - or 10.3 years by Congressional district. See my July 18 10:36 AM post.

I also provided the link.

Please show the courtesy of reading other's posts first before posting. Thanks.

The greatest difference between states is a gap of about 5 years.

Here is a better link to the report than the one in the article:
http://www.measureofamerica.org/maps/

This piece of junk was the featured article, in big letters at the top of the website for a few days.

A better choice for highlighting would be the Al Gore speech article.

Practically speaking, what actually might restrain the more aggressively greedy among us from accumulating way too much money and power? In traditional societies the prospect of shaming deterred the more aggressive from setting themselves far above the rest. When I visit indigenous communities in the western Amazon region of South America, I don't see rich and poor. These communities are small and self-regulating in virtually every respect. No need for police. Disputes and community decisions are made in large meetings with the advice of elders. Trying to regulate human behavior once one gets to the larger scale of towns, states, and countries becomes ever more difficult, especially in countries like the United States where shaming no longer works. It seems that the only way to deal with the over-ambitious, the over-aggressive, and the too greedy here is to make that as uncool a way of life as possible. In other words, to do the opposite of what Ronald Reagan did during the early 80's when he gave a green light for greed which was taken up by all the greedbags in the country.

Clinton's legacy: welfare reform. Nothing is mentioned today about the hundreds of thousands of single parents who have been gutted from welfare since 1996. Thanks to the likes of Clinton and Gingrich, thousands of mothers have no opporunities left to make a decent living, to find affordable housing, to find day care while earning a degree that will lift them up and out of poverty. Millions of children are forced to drop out of school while living in homeless shelters, or cars. Our families of the poor are the forgoteen while people like the Clintons or McCains brag about their several homes, millions and tax cuts. America has become a country that is a disgrace and Reaganites claim no responsibility for this debacle.

endCapitalism,

PARECON is hardly "palatable to the petty-bourgeois - quite the opposite! It posits that the primary bogeyman isn't the capital-owning class, it is the "coordinator class" - white collar "professional" workers, who Albert claims may not be owners of capital, but work in full sympathy with the owneers of capital, but worse, unfairly hold decision making power in the workplace. The coordinator class would be eliminated through "Balanced job complexes" (can you imagine that as a demand written on a red and black banner!) In balanced job complexes, everyone would have equal amounts of empowering and non-empowering tasks in their job description, in particular, everyone would get to be a manager or supervisor part of the day, and everyone would also do janitorial dutues part of the day.

So, I disagree that the motivation of PARECON is to be palatable to the petit-bourgeois. But I do agree that it is largely developed by cloistered, somewhat introverted, MIT-educated, New-England, bourgeois-jewish academics with little experience in real large organizational settings, nor a feel of the actual life and aspirations of the real working class.

Bligh3, you took the words out of my mouth. Reading this and thinking, "Whaaaaaa..?!?"

Glad I wasn't the only one.

Peace, social and economic justice and human rights.

www.carolmillercongress.com

PARECON is a bunch of gobbly-gook, dreamed up by an academic, who spends most of his time assaulting the former Soviet Union and marxist-leninists generally in the vain hopes of some kind of new socialism more palatable to the petty bourgeois mindset. Had this effort gone into supporting the only socialist states that ever existed, rather than buying into the capitalist distortions, we might be seeing a much different world today.

After visiting the reports website, I agree that the 30 year life expectancy gap between Mississippi and Conneticut is wrong. And lots of other stuff is wrong. When the data is parsed by congressional district - it is actually ranges from 72.6 years (eastern Kentucky) to 82.9 (Northern VA DC suburbs).

By state, it is 73.8 (District of Colombia, Mississippi slightly higher) to 81.7 (Hawaii).

Life expectancy generally follows inconme with race being almost as big a factor - a coorelation that is virtually absent in the rest of the "developed world". Also, it pretty much shatters any notions that rural living equals a long life. The rural and poor, and black, South generally have the lowest life expectancies, although the lowest is urban and black DC.

Next worst in life expectancy are the rural, poor, but white, mineral-extractive regions - West Virginla, Montana, Idaho.

Median income differences are stark. Go to the websites and download the maps. I'm ordering a copy of the whole report myself.

http://measureofamerica.org/maps

PissantNobody July 17th, 2008 10:26 pm -- "Arvy: The Leninist party is not for replacing human motivational tendencies with something other than self interest - it is for crytalizing the lessons of history into an actionable program, in a disciplined, democratic centralist organization."

Actually, I think we're agreeing more than disagreeing. My scepticism lies mainly in the areas of numan nature generally and the U.S. dedication to the capitalist philosophy in particular.

I can see some possibility, however small, for getting the capitalist mechanisms (via "corporate personhood", etc.) out of the electoral and governance processes where it is totally incompatible with any form of true democracy and where it causes the greatest harm to the interests of ordinary citizens.

On the other hand, I can see no realistic likelihood whatever for eliminating it entirely from the U.S. economic and marketplace environment. I'm suggesting, therefore, that in the latter area the best we can hope for is sound regulatory controls to ensure that it at least lives up to its theoretical potential for public good. So-called "mixed economies" elsewhere seem to work reasonably well with moderate socialism while accomodating human urges for individual gain.

Frankly, I find the almost inevitable repressive tendencies of any disciplined centralist organizational concept just a little scary regardless of what it calls itself.

USAn,

Good points. One way to look at it is to distinguish between narrow self-interest and broadening self-interest. The way our brain's electronic circuitry works is that pathways are going to develop and grow with positive reinforcement and shrink back with punishment or negative reinforcement, and we are programmed to always seek that positive reinforcement. Which means we always feel it is in our interest to seek that positive feedback, but we have many alternative pathways to choose from in order to achieve that. We can seek it through methods involving totally "individualistic" behavior -- serving the self only, or by serving the needs of and being a part of a small group such as a nuclear family or a somewhat larger group such as the country club super elites that Bush represents, or serving the needs of and being part of the larger group of the entire nation or the even larger group of the human race.

In the wilderness the pioneers faced, or really in any low-population low-technology society, without much connection to any larger society, it makes sense to maintain rather narrow self-interest. However, in the modern integrated US society, it is a poor use of resources to continue to operate with such narrow self-interest (creating unnecessary conflicts and missing opportunities to pool resources efficiently). On the other hand, it is foolhardy and self-defeating for one to try to unilaterally begin to serve the human race when all others have much more narrow interests, because one will be starved for positive feedback. So any society must evolve over time from a focus on narrow self-interest to broader self-interest.

And the problem with the US is that the fascist criminals in charge, who themselves mostly serve and are part of a small super-elite group, do all they can to convince the common ordinary rubes that focusing on narrow self-interest is best and is "true Merrikinism," obviously in a clumsy but so far successful attempt to keep the rubes from organizing politically in an effective manner. God forbid what would happen if all the hoi polloi developed a common group identity and worked together. But with the popularity of identity politics in the US, maybe the best divider ever invented and probably the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as the fascist criminals are concerned, there is no danger of that happening anytime soon.

When has there ever been equality in America?

Well over the last few days Wallstreet as it's little Plunge Protection Team driven rally and they will perhaps get a good Friday,
but it can't last! The financials are in a mess and their is much more to come.
What you are witnessing is the acceleration of a complete systemic breakdown of the US and world financial systems and economies. It is happening right before your eyes.
The stardard of living for many will be lower when all is said and done.
All the excess that as gone on in the financial markets has to wash it self out and that what is taking place.
The sad part is as usual, the ones that will feel the pain will be those that work for living..Their are the ones that will pay the piper for the excesses of Wallstreet.
The government/FED will make sure the boys and girls of Wallstreet feel very little pain.
Get out wallet taxpayers,because you are seeing the same old story of privatise the gains, socialise the losses.
It's freemarket, until the losses start.

Gee another person pointing out what most americans know, the place is about to get the second flush down the toilet. This flush it will never be the same and it is down hill from now on.

Obama is right. What we need now is a second stimulus check.

I was thinking before this that a disparity and continued one sided america is on a path to in fighting,not unlike the islamic terrorist.

bligh3: Definitely in the April Fools joke category. One April Fools we got a story about a pitcher who could throw a 170 mph fastball.

Most people will read this story and believe it! Take a look at the responses above.

Arvy: The Leninist party is not for replacing human motivational tendencies with something other than self interest - it is for crytalizing the lessons of history into an actionable program, in a disciplined, democratic centralist organization. Psychology is not nonsense, and many (all?) people would benefit from therapy, but that will not take us into a peaceful, propserous, socialist world. For that, we need the correct political program put forward by an integrated workers' party that has the internal structure to weather the storms of fate and personal egos.

You say: "I don't have a big problem with captalism (greed) as a primary enterprise motivator, provided it is properly regulated to ensure ... the public good that its theorists espouse." Have you really considered what the implications of that statement? Its 'theorists' today are cynical intellectual lackeys of the lowest order, who don't care a wit the lower orders of socirty. Unless you are ready to accept a permanent state of war and mass poverty, capitalist theoreticians are without an answer. No matter how many technical advances we make under capitalism, it will NEVER allow freedom from hunger and war. There are only global socialist answers, and the experience of 1917 showed the way to get there.

The anonymous forces of capital will do everything possible to reverse regulations that interfere with their profit. Surely you know that they routinely go from countries with reasonable rules to more desperate countries that will chill with the regs. With or without corporate personhood, the forces of imperialism will have their way.

Nietzsche: We certainly need a system to make us act decently when the environment is hostile. The history of humanity is one of desperate need, and the individual scramble for survival and security is a very cruel master that demands greed. The idea is to wipe out need. The technology is already here to do so, and all that is needed is a socialist economic structure to allow it to be rationally applied.

The bifurcation of wealth and income in the US is greater than in any other developed country. This reflects itself in life expectancy, infant mortality, school systems, and the growth of crime in poverty stricken neighborhoods. To expect a change in administration to deal seriously with this problem is naive: only a mass movement in the streets that demands an end to war, a single payer health care system, a living wage for all, and a clean environment will bring about change. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

There are all kinds of motivational studies, USAn. But I won't argue the point any further. If you're happier believing that selflessness is the prevalent human motivator, so be it.

Verrrry Baaaad article... Shame on you Common Dreams...

arvy,

You are playing semantics. One could better say that selfless behavior in pursuit of self-interest is evidence of selflessness - because the selflessness is observable and measurable, while the self-interested motivations are pure conjecture - what goes on in a person's head is purely subjective.

so, since the "motivations" of humans, which can never be proven, when we should just stick to observed behavior.

Humans that say "selfishness is what runs the economy" can be usually observed to vehemently oppose even the tiniest socially-imposed restrictions on their accumulation of money and power (same thing). While "selfless" behavior means accepting restrictions for the good of their communities and society.

Note that the selfless behaviors are never pursued with the intent of denying a basic comfortable living standard to anyone - just the opposite. However, the selfish person fully aknowleges that his actions may and usually will, impoverish others. sure, they recite rationalizations - appeals to a brutish version of Darwin's theories, claims of economic benefit in the long run, roads being paved to hell with do-gooder's intentions (while never citing examples) but the fact still remains, they knowingly impoverish and even kill people in pursuit of their personal power.

Today's San Francisco Chronicle reported that the high school drop out rate in California is 24%. 24%!!! This is a disaster for the state, nation, the families and these kids.

Do note, please, that this report comes from a British news-source. You might also care to note that Britain comes 16th in the HDI, while the US towers over it in 12th.

Editors, Please!!!
There is no way these statistics are accurate.
I tried to find any basis for this article. Instead it looks like this guy took a statistic about a 30 year gap in the life expectancy of the wealthiest nation and the poorest nation, and accidentally or otherwise, altered it to say this difference exists within the United States.
50 year gap between Asian and blacks??? No way!!! Does this mean the average Asian American male lives to a hundred and the average black male lives to 50?
Some individuals, of course, but not average groups.

What is happening to my favorite news source?????

If you are looking for specifics and what the actual impacts of inequality in America read:

http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/07/unequal-america.html

How many posters here can relate to what's in there? I can.

If we have to look for some system to help us act like decent human beings, then I say we are not worth the dust from which we are made.

I am not as intelligent as Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin. Few people are. Mental wizardry IS NOT going to solve our problems.

Few people in history have stood in deeper shit than we stand in right now. Sometimes it is possible to recover from a mistake. This is not one of those times. If we take one more drink...

Whether or not you believe in a God, the exhortation from Micah is the only thing that will save us: "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God (i.e. maintain a sense of reverence)".

Whatever Gods may be are not asking much of us, but I'm here to tell you that they fucking mean business.

The US is the world's wealthiest economy if you count the GNP.

But wealthiest economy can go along with inequality. Still, the poor in America are better off than in a lot of countries. Even the homeless can eat pretty well from garbage cans, since America throws away so much perfectly good food. What's even more sick is that so many times they lock up the garbage to keep the poor from eating it.

I think that the ruling class resents giving trinkets and food to the poor, and want to stop it. I think we're in for a rough time ahead.

USAn July 17th, 2008 4:24 pm -- "I think the dichotomy between selfless and self-interested behavior is an artificial one."

But your argument then goes forward based on the supposition that people "understand that a sunstantial amount of selflessness is in their self-interest." Some will and some won't, but regardless of the degree of enlightenment that may be involved, the "selflessness" in such circumstances remains a product of underlying self-interest as the prime motivator.

In any case, I don't think anyone would deny that the capitalist economic system presupposes such motivation, although it clearly does not preclude others as well. Some people might shrink from describing it as pure greed, but its major current-day practitioners certainly seem to fit that description quite closely.

I guess the essential point in my earlier comment on the Leninist approach was simply that it doesn't always seem to take good account of the baser aspects of human nature. The misapplication of capitalist values to governance, on the other hand, is the much more immediate problem.

America is not the richest country in the world. With over 50 trillion in debt and our credit getting ready to tank, that is a relative statement. There is a lot of wealth here but concentrated in a very few hands. The rest of the population is holding the debt. We are rapidly approaching third world status. When the financial machinery locks up we will all be in deep dodo.

Part of the African American equation is approximately one black youth or young man is murdered by another every day in every major American city, almost always by a handgun.

Mayor Nutter in Philly wanted to end unlimited quantity handgun purchases, but got "shot down" by the courts and PA Legislature. Straw purchases are illegal, but it doesn't seem to matter.

I recently heard someone say something like "We don't fight anymore, we just kill each other". Heaven help them.

bligh3 July 17th, 2008 4:02 pm: "But doesn't life expectancy already take into account infant mortality? Otherwise I think it is called longetivity."

The only explanation I can think of other than it being a typo is that what the author means to say, bligh3, is that progress in some areas has not happened in fifty years.

- "in parts of Texas, the percentage of adults who pass through high school has not improved since the 1970s."

and so, they are therefore "50 years behind". Does that make sense?

The expression "Conservative" can pretty accurately be understood like this; the more (wealth//property) a person or group has to conserve (keep,) the more 'conservative' they will be.

But now through the updrafting of wealth being 'conservative' also connotates being tied in to the mechanisms of theft:

The Banks.
The Multi-Nationals.
The Politicians.
The Oil-Military Complex.

Dirt Poor? Then F it. Dig up the long-rifles. Start making Molotov cocktails.

And I won't have another still-born child because I can't afford to have labor induced.

Because asshole millionare doctors will work at gunpoint if needed.

And 80 million dollar Gulfstreams will transport the sick, or carry food to the hungry.

Ralph is once again right on the mark, www.counterpunch.com/nader07172008.html

Mordecai S,

Absolutely great remark. So true! ...and so humorously and concisely atated!

Daniel David July 17th, 2008 12:44 pm
"'Conservatism' seeks to retain the order of American society as it is presently ordered. Republicans advocate 'conservatism'.

Oh, I see. That explains why a Republican capitalist opposes increased workers' rights - not because it threatens his political and economic interests, but because of his "conservative" desire to have "things" stay the same.

And that's why Republicans wouldn't support radically changing the Bill of Rights, or trashing established international laws on torture, even if it did increase their their political and economic power...because that would mean American government wouldn't "stay the same."

I think the dichotomy between selfless and self-interested behavior is an artificial one. Assuming a person is aware the he is a member of a society, instead of the something analogous to barely interacting atomic particle that the neoliberal capitalists promote, then they should understand that a sunstantial amount of selflessness is in their self-interest.

And as far a PARECON, Albert and Hahnel would argue that it is nothing like the Soviet system.

In a Parecon workplace, work would be compensated solely on the basis of effort expended, so, it anything, it would work better at rewarding hard work than a capitalist OR a Soviet-style workplace, where compensation is/was based on position in a heirarchy, plus, for capitalists, ownership of the means of production - often only because of the family the person was born into. Thus the poeple who work the hardest in an enterprise are invariably the least paid - and have the elast say about the conditions of their employment.

But, even, just for arguing, if were were a perfect meritocracy, is it justice that a person who happens to born with an innate talent or skill, or is just plain lucky, will live a life of luxury, while someone with a bit lower an IQ face a life of toil and brutishness?

The whole idea thst acquiring wealth is what motivates creative people is a nonsensical. Even the practical patent-chasing ones like the Wright Bros, Edison or Bell, or Shockley didn't seem motivated by getting (nor did they get) rich. The capitalists created this myth of "human nature" among several others, to justify their behavior.

I've yet to meet any dedicated expert scientist, engineer or designer; artist, musician, or physician, who have ever given me any impression that they pursued their studies and research in order to get rich. They want to live comfortably of course, and some are amazed that someone actually pays them well to do what they love to do, but get rich? I havent seen it.

In contrast, those "entrepeneurs" who get rich, always seem to be kind of dumb but extremely shrewd and power-hungry.

Now, I agree Parecon workplace has some problems - particularly coming up withh a way to define, measure and fairly compensate "effort".

But, I digressed far enough from the topic for now.

The United States is simply history's latest example of the oppressed loving their oppressors. The evidence lies littered around like an unexploded cluster bomb. The oppressors laugh and the oppressed think it's because they said something funny, not because their masters have convinced them that shit tastes like butter.

Thanks Phoenix,

But doesn't life expectancy already take into account infant mortality? Otherwise I think it is called longetivity.

I'm not trying to be cute or unfeeling- I don't think that there should be ANY difference between life expectancy based on your race or where you live (heck, I live in the south)

I just find some of the "facts" hard to believe.

Best Regards

bligh3:
"Don't know where the author gets their information. A FIFTY year gap between asian-americans and african-americans?! Since the life expectancy of African Americans- according to JAMA- is approximatly 75 years, this would mean that asian-americans would live-on AVERAGE- 125 years"

bligh3, you are discounting african-american infant mortality rate, which is always amongest the lowest in the country.
http://healthyamericans.org/newsroom/releases/release061208b.pdf

Lack of quality health care and other socioeconomic conditions bare out the truth behind those numbers.

'U.S. .. one of the richest nations of the world.' in what sense is this true?

>>They do not care about letters..well all but 28 of em<< JCrumb, you mean the 26 letters in English and a couple thrown in for yucks? Maybe the thorn or the accent grave. I like the thorn myself...

For those of you who insist that the Democrats are going to be lending a helping hand to those sinking fast on the equality charts should take another look. The Democrats on my gravy train seem to have fallen off one at a time a couple of years ago and are now scratching and crawling their way aboard the express elevator to the top of the charts. There were great hopes during and after the last election, BUT IT NEVER HAPPENED! Now watch the Democrats rally around the flag for eliminating Social Security, handing over all retirement monies to the GOP who in turn will secure their precious partners on Wsll Street. It is like George Carlin said, "It's a private party and You ain't invited."

Health Care? After going over term, because I was poor, I was put on a "waiting List" to have labor induced at Denver General Hospital (Morgue).

Weeks later they handed my dead son to me in the delivery room.

I was still on the waiting list.

Over nine pounds. I buried Rhett in a Colorado Stream.

Now I cannot afford dental care for my daughter.

While I applaud the effort to impart this information to a wider audience, it appears that this reporter overlooked the poorest congressional district in the United States. The McClatchy Washington Bureau reports: Results are in: California's San Joaquin Valley is the worst. To snip from that article: the San Joaquin Valley's 20th Congressional District ranks dead last, only 6.5 percent of the 20th Congressional District's adults have graduated from college, only half of the Valley district's households post annual incomes above $16,767, the region "received fewer federal funds" than other parts of California or the United States overall.

Here is another link to additional information about the The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009.

"Although the US is one of the most powerful and rich nations in the world"
The wealth of a nation should be measured using the poorest of the nation's poor, not the richest of the nation's rich.
The 'power' of a nation should be measured by it's admiration and respect globally, not the number of bombs and missiles it has.

america and americans, totally disconnected from reality and totally dysfunctional within its own boundaries.

Reads like a sound definition of insanity.

Then again practice enough numbing and dumbing and the end result has to be insanity.

Enjoy the product of your endeavours 'cause I am and I am quite sure most of the rest of the world is too.

The reality of any false entitlement is definitely a real smack upside the head, now ain't it ?

PissantNobody July 17th, 2008 2:05 pm -- "The singular important social task at this momenmt is to build the Leninist party that can lead us forward."

My problem with that is the implicit assumption that "the Leninist party" can somehow accomplish what churches and psychologists cannot -- i.e., the replacement of human motivational tendencies with something other than self-interest. Personally, I don't really have a big problem with captalism (a.k.a. greed) as a primary enterprise motivator, provided it is properly regulated to ensure that it actually does achieve (via real competition, etc.) the public good that its theorists espouse.

As I see it, the real problems arise from capitalism's judicially awarded "corporate personhood" and, thereby, its misplaced applications to governance where it is clearly incompatible with any real democracy -- whether republican or parliamentary.

There is ONE way to accomplish a form of PARITY in this nation...STOP PAYING TAXES FOR "REPRESENTATION" THAT YOU ARE NOT RECEIVING!

Thanks to a Post yesterday..FINALLY by the way..another poster..and i do not feel that I should..at this point..speak FOR that person by repeating their name..without consent..anyway..came up with a good slogan for the tax Protest movement.

'NO REPRESENTATION? NO TAXES!'...nice!

So..the RICH..in this country..the Bush Doctrines AL QAEDA..by the way..LITTERALLY..as Bush...famously referred to them as "His Base" which is the LITTERAL translation of "Al QAEDA"-"THE BASE"...anyway..the RICH PAY LESS! remember? THEY GOT HUGE..DEFICIT CREATING TAX BREAKS...

They Caught the katy..and left us a MULE to ride!...

So..STOP FOOTING THE BILL FOR THE WAR THEY DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR..WHY WOULD YOU..KNOWINGLY..PAY FOR THE ACTIONS OF THIS GOVERNMENT THAT YOU SO DESPISE?

If a peson came along..and said to you: "Listen, all you have to do to end..TO END..THE WAR IN IRAQ, THE ILLEGAL WIRETAPS, THE TORTURE, THE BOMBINGS OF CIVILIANS, THE CORPORATE TAKE-OVER OF THE GOVERNMENT AND MUCH MORE BESIDES...ALL YOU HAVE TO DO..IS PAY WHAT YOU PAY IN TAXES..WHATEVER THAT FIGURE IS..IS IT $3000? OKAY..YOU PAY $3000 AND THAT IS YOUR PART..DO THAT ONCE A YEAR.."

Would you do it?

because that is..LITTERALLY..all you have to do...we POOL our tax money..WITHOLD it from the "Government"..we STRIKE..a tax strike..and yet the MONEY IS THERE..and with THAT leverage..we DEMAND..a list of MUTUALLY AGREED UPON DEMANDS..exactly along the UNION COLLECTIVE BARGAINING guidelines..we..the UNION of tax payers..and with the MONEy actually in an OFFSHORE or SWISS acount..hidden..protected...whatever it takes..we can leverage the changes we need..it is the only way to take back this country..THE ONLY WAY!..it is ALL about the MONEY...to think otherwise is NAIVE beyond BELIEF!

They do not care about letters..well all but 28 of em...marches..etc..telecom immunity shpould be ALL the "proof" you require..

MONEY!..CONTROL the TAX base..AGAIN..and we WILL prevail..it is LITTERALLY that simple..i believe a combo of FEAR..of the Federal Loyalist Clerk Army..AND a FEAR of..REAL change..is keeping Americans from..ACKNOWLEDGING this..really amazingly simple REALITY..it is THE MONEY..we MUST regain..control..of the MONEY!

Without the money..they are POWERLESS..the RICH will NEVER step in to ..duhh..Foot the bill..this shit is all window dressing to them..they KNOW this is about OIL and POWER..and they aren't ABOUT to pay for that...the CONCESSIONS....the so called 'tax Breaks" hey received..were a BRIBE to stay "out of it"...or the like...

Congress has ABDICATED it's responsibility to FISCAL CHECKS AND BALANCES...We..therefore..MUST be the final arbieters of our FATE..and MONEY..is..controlling our DESTINY..take control of the future....take control of the money...

YOU pay the salleries of every torturer on the payroll at guantanamo...YOU!...So...DO NOT PAY HIM TO DO THAT!..WHAT is so COMPLICATED about that?

it is TIME..i do not claim to kno how to 'Organize" this..i only have IDEAS...but Cindy Sheehan?..uhh..Ralph Nader? etc..etc..THEy could...Organize a CHANGE in American reality that would also change the WORLD..and..quickly i might add..they MUST have the mONEY..each and every day..no break in the supply line can be "ridden out" they are already so close to the margins...what is the deficit at?..how many TRILLIONS? They ALREADY cannot pay for this Corporate Fascist Theocracy they are ramming down your throats...so..RIGHT NOW..with "New" blood coming in..is the TIME...to SEND A MESSAGE..even OBAMA aint listening..to his own WEBSITE fer cryin out loud..just IGNORED the largest "group" on Obama.com....never said a WORD to 20,000 people..and that after stating in Rolling Stone just how much the web would allow for direct involvement...BUT..THE MONEY? HEY..THAT IS REAL POWER...TAKE CONTROL OF THE MONEY...OR SHUT UP!..YOUR WORDS ARE WASTED...NON-VIOLENT, AMERICAN TRADITION....TAX PROTEST..THE ULTIMATE..PERFECT....PROTEST...AND THE MOST EFFECTIVE...DO IT NOW...HELP CREATE A WAVE OF MONEY MANAGING CITIZENRY...THE TIME IS NOW!

Adios Brothers and Sisters...

baruch, Nietsche: "Some people are greedy for power over others. The real trick is to encourage people to actually develop themselves so that they are empathic members of community, not just out for themselves."

What you say about greed could also be said - with equal lack of sophistication - about murder and rape. It is ridiculous to think that softly patting everyone on the head will somehow change the world. The vast majority of antisocial behavior is rooted in the material shortages, brutality and injustice that define imperialist capitalism.

What is needed is not some magical mental transformation of everyone, but a transformation of the unfair economic system, at the hands of the organized international working class. This and this alone will allow people to lose their greedy impulses. To do this, we need not spend a moment in church or on the psychologist's couch. The singular important social task at this momenmt is to build the Leninist party that can lead us forward.

Dead men don't complain about the plunder of their Social Security Retirement accounts do they? Love those Republican Values?

Anybody with a 3 digit IQ that hasn't been locked in a closet for the past decade doesn't need a report to know this.

Bulls Eye baruch! No system can save us from ourselves.

How can we count on the Democrats when, even with a majority, they sit up and speak, roll over and play dead, and accommodate every order that comes from the "Unitary Executive," with no more than a token protest, if even that.

Eight years of careful observation shows that the Democrat and the Republican is a two backed beast. One back has an "R" on it and the other has a "D." Buried in the middle are some wealthy CEO's and powermongers pulling the strings.

It would be nice to see people of principle running for high offices. People who would say, "This is the problem, and this is how I will address it if I am elected."

Instead, we get vague promises, which are changed, reversed or forgotten as the political wind changes.

In a nation where the government is only loyal to the moneyed interests that bought and paid for them, rather than the people who elected them, and who refuse to even discuss Constitutional issues, beyond eagerly voting for legislation to trash it, I can only conclude that it no longer makes a difference which of the two alleged parties gets in.

My father's definition of an honest politician was, "One who stays bought." The United States obviously has the most honest politicians that money can buy.

...and only the rich can afford to read about it.

From what I can see, the only way to find out what's in the report is to spend $25 to buy a copy from Columbia University Press. God forbid that a university, supposedly devoted to education and the expansion of knowledge, should make a pdf version of the report available online for free!

It's ironic that a report on America's huge inequalities would be available only to those with money.

Arvy,

Yeah. That's a big problem we have. Too many don't know.

It is no surprise that the great lurch backwards begun by Grandpa Caligula (Reagan), and finalized by Dubya, Cheney, & Co. towards a redux of the Robber Baron era combined with the "Spoils System"of government staffing is producing Third World type social disparity. Unfortunately, there is not the hyper-competitive press scene of the era that allowed muckraking journalists and cartoonists to tell the tales of woe (thought the Internet tries). History will be very unkind to the Repugs of this current generation as they ushered the USA into the mess that it is now. They will be even harsher to those who bought the lies despite them being contrary to their interests, or those who knew better but went along for their own temporary selfish reasons.

Inequality in Human relations has always been the case.
Christianity, and all of the other religions were invented by human beings to either reinforce the inequality or to create the illusion that it is being overcome. None of them have succeeded because they still had the inequality deeply inserted into the plan, for some it is just hidden in one doctrine or another.

Human beings made the current mess of things; and they have all of the power to correct the situation. Equality is only attained by mutual consent by/all of the participants.

When more people such as the readers of Common Dreams and other "free thinking" and "progressive" mind sets come together the necessary changes will be made. The mutual consent will replace the ineffective methods of the past. Human kind has the greatest potential for attaining all of it's highest potential; or become extinct at their own hands.

If nothing else, we can outlast them, by surviving the disasters they seem determined to create.

Thanks for your time.....

Don't know where the author gets their information. A FIFTY year gap between asian-americans and african-americans?! Since the life expectancy of African Americans- according to JAMA- is approximatly 75 years, this would mean that asian-americans would live-on AVERAGE- 125 years...

Similarly, since folks in Mississippi live on average to 74, a thirty year gap between them and the folks in Conneticut would mean those lucky folks live to be, on average, 104.

Must be something in the water....

A thirty year gap does occur between some Native American males in some counties in South Dakota (58) and some Asian-American females in the northeast (88).

Sounds like sloppy reporting to me.

Democrats are the political opponents of Republicans?! Ya coulda fooled me.

How will things change if almost everything we see, hear, and read is owned and published by the few major corporations who benefit the most from the current economic system?

The internet has been a great development, but we need to open up our media systems (by fully transitioning to an open digital media landscape where all voices have a chance to publish) if we want to take this country to a better place.

Right now, most voters spend hours a day staring at a monopoly media cable lineup that will never have discussions like the ones found here at COmmon Dreams.

"Conservatism" seeks to retain the order of American society as it is presently ordered. Republicans advocate "conservatism".
Democrats are the political opponents of Republicans (and the ONLY such opponents with numbers sufficient to make any difference slowing the agenda of Republicans in any governmental body.) This is why you should be supporting your Democrats.

Various purists will advise you differently, of course (as likely below), but it doesn't negate this basic political truth.

Nietzsche July 17th, 2008 12:21 pm -- "Every legitimate function of government does has been twisted into a device for transferring wealth from the poor to the rich."

Yup. And quite a few illegitimate ones as well.

If our economic system were in another area of life and in a different country we would describe it using such words as "fundamentalist", "extremist", "radical right-wing", and now "dysfunctional". We have been fed a whole lot of myths, propaganda, and we have been brain-washed. It is a system that is marvelous for the super-rich and they have worked long and hard to keep it that way. It looks like the whole thing is just collapsing in on itself.

PARECON looks good, and is reminiscent of the old Soviet model in some ways, which didn't work, in my opinion, because of human nature. Some people are greedy for power over others. The real trick is to encourage people to actually develop themselves so that they are empathic members of community, not just out for themselves. Until we humans see that each of our fate is intertwined with that of everyone else, no matter how creative we are, things will not change significantly. In other words, we need to GROW UP as a species.

http://www.healingmagic.org/articles/Narcissism.pdf

Every legitimate function of government does has been twisted into a device for transferring wealth from the poor to the rich.

The military does not protect us from foreign threats. Education for the poor consists of learning to follow orders while the rich learn critical thinking skills. Health care for the poor consists of waiting in the emergency room until they are exhausted, and then going home.

On the other hand the military does give no-bid contracts to big business paid for by the lower middle class tax payer, with the understanding that the work will be grossly over priced and the service provided will be shoddy and incomplete, if it is delivered at all.

Education materials are provided by cronies regardless of the quality of the materials.

If, after the health care system has ignored you and the education system failed you, you can be used for cannon fodder, and God help you if you get sick or injured: Count on getting the most dangerous assignment they can give you.

http://www.inequality.org

solution? PARECON