Category Archives: Labor

Why Don’t the Deficit Hawks Want to Tax Wall Street?

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The intensity with which the country’s leading deficit hawks continue to ignore financial speculation taxes (FST) is getting ever more entertaining . . .

The refusal of this group to consider FST is becoming more striking because most of the world appears to be moving in this direction. Last spring, the European Parliament voted by an almost four to one margin in support of FST . . . 

Even with the low tax rates being considered by the commission (e.g. 0.05 percent in each side of a stock trade), it is estimated that an EU-wide tax could bring in as much as $60 billion a year. Read more . . . 

Essay: “The Faith-Based Initiative: Flawed in Concept, Constitutionally Threatening, and Ineffective”

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By Madison S. Hughes (11.07.2010)

Abstract

The Faith-Based Initiative (FBI) is a poverty-stricken solution to boosting the nation’s capacity in social services. The idea resonates especially in the current economic climate. Regardless of the economic conditions, the FBI is not a solution to the problem of providing necessary social services. At the same time, the substitution of religious institutions for putatively secular functions represents a clear and present violation to the Establishment Clause regarding the separation of Church and State. This paper will argue that while the objective of providing social services should be a paramount concern, the FBI fails to deliver on this objective on two counts. First, it remains a threat to our most vulnerable citizens because they represent a vehicle to impose specific religious creeds from their social service provider. As such, this initiative, while politically expedient, poses a substantial constitutional infringement, and is unacceptable as public policy. Secondly, to date the FBI has not produced a measurable gain in social service capacity. Continue reading →

Alabama City Lets People Avoid Jail By Going To Church Instead

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In a ridiculous violation of the separation of Church and State, Bay Minette, Alabama is offering those guilty of misdemeanors the choice between jail and a year of church. Now, I know what many of my atheist readers are thinking–having to attend church once a week is a punishment worse than jail, but think more carefully about this and you realize the city is actually interested in converting people, not punishing them here. Read more . . . 

Widening Income Inequality Bad For Economic Growth: IMF Report

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The study out of the International Monetary Fund found that greater income equality positively correlates with stronger economic growth
. . . Indeed, greater levels of income equality corresponded more strongly to sustained economic growth than other economic factors, including lower debt levels, according to the report . . .

The United States Income inequality has grown in the United States over the past four decades and now more closely compares to the income distributions of Russia and Iran than many other developed economies
. . . Some economists have attributed stagnant wages for most Americans over the past four decades in part to growing inequality, as the rich have mostly benefitted from the country’s recent economic gains. Read more . . . 

God and Class Warfare

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Well, let’s be clear: There really is a class war going on and the upper class is winning . . . As former President Bill Clinton also pointed out this week, 90 percent of income gains in the last decade went to the top 10 percent, and 40 percent of the increased wealth went to the top 1 percent . . . Almost fifty million Americans are now in poverty — the largest rate in 50 years, including 22 percent of all our children — in this the richest country in the world . . . [T]he top 1 percent of the country controls 42 percent of the nation’s financial wealth — more than 90 percent of the rest of us — and the ratio of CEO pay to average workers salaries at 400-to-1 . . . 

God’s prophets say that nations will be judged by how they treat the poor and vulnerable — not by how much they lower tax rates for the wealthy
. . . In 2008, the wealthiest 400 Americans on average paid only 18 percent of their income in taxes . . . Growing income inequality actually hinders economic growth, and reducing economic inequality actually helps spur the economy[.] Read more . . . 

Thank You, Tony Bennett

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By Michael Moore

Thank God for Tony Bennett. He spoke the truth on Howard Stern and now the forces of hate are after him. He said that his fighting in World War II made him a pacifist. He said that perhaps had our behavior in the Persian Gulf been different, 9/11 might have been avoided. And he told Howard something George W. Bush told him privately at the Kennedy Center Honors: “I may have made a mistake (invading Iraq).” Here’s the interview on Stern. Thank you, Tony Bennett. Always a hero to me. See video and blog comments here . . .