Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Internet is Intelligence Agencies Virtual PRISM for Total State Surveillance And Control / Politics / Social Issues
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The PRISM system for the all prevailing global phone calls and internet access super surveillance state should not come as any surprise to most readers as new technologies are ALWAYS subverted by the state to spy on its citizens, and so citizens of the world have been given a glimpse into the current state of the surveillance state following leaks of the US operation PRISM which concerns ALL of your private phone calls, transactions, communications, accesses and interactions with virtually all of the major communications and web services from tek giants such as Verizon, AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, AOL, Yahoo and even Apple, who gave us the anti big brother sales propaganda against IBM near 30 years ago (1984), only now to be revealed that Apple too is part and parcel of the state security apparatus.
Friday, June 07, 2013
Is Compound Interest Friend Or Foe? / Interest-Rates / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Amid all the superficial up and down rumblings of stocks and bonds, and hyped up analysis thereof, none of which makes you any wiser (hey, I told you Abenomics can't work..), it's a good idea to look at some of the more profound workings of the financial system. I saw an interesting take on an angle into this, even though unfortunately it was by itself also superficial.
The angle in question was provided by Walter Hickey for Business Insider, in an article (originally) entitled " Compound Interest Is Responsible For Modern Civilization " (it later turned into "A Simple Math Formula Is Basically Responsible For All Of Modern Civilization", but that’s not even true: just because something can be expressed in a math formula doesn't mean it turns into that formula). It's interesting, and it's not bad, but, sorry Walter, with all respect, I don't think it's good enough.
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Friday, June 07, 2013
Chile vs Venezuela, Capitalism vs Socialism / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Nothing shows the difference that a local governing style has on an area such as South America like the current difference between Venezuela and Chile. It is almost becoming as obvious as the difference between North Korea and South Korea.
Monday, May 06, 2013
Human Liberty Is Doomed / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Any discussion on liberty presupposes an understanding of human nature. Today, the utter confusion and distorted mindset of humankind, relegates animal instincts, as the premier motivation for salacious existence. The criteria for a cordial civilization have long been "consigned to the dustbins of history". Standards for civil and moral conduct are debased by a global disintegration to achieve the ‘good’ for the hunt of acting ‘nice’. Polite and pleasant facades are no substitute for truth and meaning. Yet, the heights of evil transactions seem to be hailed routinely, as the only achievement that power hungry sociopaths aspire to impose on the rest of the planet. Never-ending conflict is inherent in the human condition, while the state of liberty is unusual and resides within the character of the ethical spirit.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Down With Plato and Rousseau, Up with Robert Nisbet / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
Is civil government the only true government? Does it alone possess legitimate sovereignty? Defenders of the modern state insist that this is the case, and that it should be the case.
Robert Nisbet, as a sociologist, looked to social organizations as the source of political tradition. He explained the rise of the modern state in terms of series of conflicts between the national civil government and other institutions inside its geographical territory. He saw the rise of the modern state in terms of the state's claims of sovereignty, a sovereignty which is it refused to share with other institutions. These other institutions had possessed limited sovereignty. He also explained the rise of classical Athens in terms of this insistence on state sovereignty. He explained the Roman Empire under Augustus and later emperors in terms of this quest for unitary state sovereignty: a war-state.
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Friday, May 03, 2013
Income Inequality - Richer Than You / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_Mills
Income inequality in Canada and the United States is on the rise. Read on to learn the real reason why…
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) analysis of income inequality data shows the richest one percent of Canadians make $180,000 more today - adjusted for inflation - than they did in 1982.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Bangladesh Clothing Factory Collapse Tragedy Exposes Real Cost of Corporate Greed / Politics / Social Issues
By: Money_Morning
Greg Madison writes: We've known for a long time that the things that fuel our lifestyles can come from some pretty ugly places.
The coltan that's used in our mobile phones and entertainment systems is mostly mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have died in what's been called "Africa's World War." The United Nations has reported that warlords, guilty of numerous crimes against humanity, vie for control of coltan production while enslaving and killing thousands.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
A Message for America's Middle and Lower Class Slaves / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Hi Slaveys,
What a month... near economic collapse in Cyprus giving us a taste of what's going to happen to our bank accounts here when things start to really fall apart (Bitcoin, anyone?), people blowing up people with bombs, badly maintained factories (inexplicably built near homes) exploding, Chicago under water, and a government that's 100% unresponsive and useless to anyone who isn't lining their pockets. Time to revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for some tips on how to live the calmest life possible for people who aren't able to leave the States.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Boston Massacre Theories / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Hours after the tragic massacre at the Boston Marathon on April 15, web writers and bloggers filled the internet with "theories", and professional new organizations did likewise.
Alex Spillius of UK's The Telegraph summarized these theories the morning after: "The first is that domestic right-wing extremists were responsible. The second is that Islamists, either foreign or American, and linked to al-Qaeda spiritually or practically, were to blame. A third possibility is killers with no ideological agenda whatsoever." However, Mr. Spillius, sitting 4,800 km from Back Bay Boston, strikingly missed theory Number Four: the bombing was a "false flag attack" by the US Government. Clearly, he didn't have full insight into the American Right, especially the faction called "Truthers" who generally believe the U.S. government commits acts of terrorism against itself to justify public support for state repression, i.e., beginning with a "cover-up" of 9/11.
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Tuesday, April 02, 2013
The Technocracy Plague / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
CONFUSED ORIGINS
Theories about how Technocracy emerged - and became so powerful it is now a dominant theme in Europe's unraveling macrame player's nightmare mix of economic, financial and political crises - are as confused as its true origins. What we can be sure of is that defenders of what are basically unelected Old Boy administrators like to give their Technocrats a classic pedigree, claiming it can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Americans Can't Afford the Future - Unemployment, Taxes and Unfunded Retirement are Squeezing Generation's / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Adam Taggart writes: The American spirit is rooted in the belief of a better tomorrow. Its success has been due to generations of men and women who toiled, through both hardship and boom times, to make that dream a reality.
But at some point over the past several decades, that hope for a better tomorrow became an expectation. Or perhaps a perceived entitlement is more accurate.
It became assumed that the future would be more prosperous than today, irrespective of the actual steps being taken in the here and now.
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Sunday, March 10, 2013
US Unemployment Figures Camouflage, Corporate Profits Boom From Collapsing Wages / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Andre Damon writes: The number of jobs in the US grew by 236,000 in February, and the official unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since 2008, according to the Labor Department’s latest jobs report released Friday.
The media jumped on the jobs total—significantly higher than the 165,000 that had been predicted—to proclaim an economic turnaround, while the Obama White House said the report indicated that “the recovery that began in mid-2009 is gaining traction.”
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Friday, March 08, 2013
Advice to the Poor- Fix Your Attitude! / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Thomas Sowell writes: Most people are not even surprised any more when they hear about someone who came here from Korea or Vietnam with very little money, and very little knowledge of English, who nevertheless persevered and rose in American society. Nor are we surprised when their children excel in school and go on to professional careers.
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Economic Fascism and the Power Elite / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
David S. D'Amato writes: The state—the organization of the political means—is the institution that allows an idle, unproductive class of parasites to live at the expense of ordinary, working people, whose means are industrious activity and consensual exchange in the marketplace. We ought not assume, however, that the indigent segment of society, those who receive social welfare aid from the state, are necessarily foremost among the parasites of the political means. Rather, free-market libertarians from Albert Jay Nock to Murray Rothbard and Butler Shaffer have demonstrated that in the statist economy of theft and wealth redistribution, it is the elite—powerful, entrenched commercial players—who most benefit. Historically and empirically, this phenomenon of elite command of the apparatuses of government is readily apparent and unmistakable in its expression, particularly as regards the twentieth-century American economy.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
America's Middle Class Caught in a Vice / Politics / Social Issues
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: This is a chicken and egg kind of discussion about what caused the housing crash.
It's not that there's a right answer (but I am right) or a wrong answer, it's about looking at what happened to determine whether it's going to happen again. It is.
I'm always right.
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Leaders? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Leaders / Politics / Social Issues
By: Bill_Bonner
Leaders – you're better off without them!
The problem with the Fed-fueled stock market rally is that you can't trust it. It's not based on anything solid. Investors are not really investing in solid companies that are expected to produce solid growth and profits in the years ahead. They're speculating that the Fed's EZ money will boost share prices.
Maybe it will. And maybe it won't.
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Zen And The Decline Of Innovation / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
BOEING DREAMLINER
The Dreamliner is grounded but Boeing CEO Jim McNerney says that redesign of its faulty lithium-ion batteries is moving ahead in a bid to satisfy regulators’ safety concerns and the jet can get back into the air "within weeks". The Boeing battery crisis is however just a part of Boeing's corporate troubles, and critics of Boeing attack its record on innovation - from both sides, for and against innovation.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
America's Suffering Middle Class, Still Worse Off than 2008 / Politics / Social Issues
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
The government's numbers - primarily the monthly data on unemployment and inflation - tell the story of a slow but gradual recovery by the U.S. economy.
But the experience of millions of Americans tells a far different story.
According to a new national survey conducted by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, many Americans continue to suffer from the impact of the Great Recession.
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Only in California - The Media Loves Manhunts: Can Chris Dorner Survive? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, New York, February 8, 7 PM: Only in California, home of the late Huey P Newton and then the Symbionese Liberation Army that went several steps further, do characters emerge that transcend every action movie fantasy and stereotype, characters like an ex-cop who has declared war on the police on, of all places, Facebook in a 6000 word statement that’s being described as “rambling.” (He never claimed he was writer.)
He denounces police practices that he considers racist and abusive, although the sheer drama of the manhunt will make it unlikely that media outlets will seriously delve into the substance of his charges.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Meet the Global Corporate “Supra-Government” / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
We live in a corporate culture, where most of us have worked or currently work for corporations, we spend our money at corporate venues, on corporate products, watch corporately-owned television shows and movies, listen to corporate-sponsored music; our modes of transportation, communication and recreation are corporately influenced or produced; our sports stadiums and movie theaters are named after car companies and global banks; our food is genetically altered by multinational conglomerates, our drinking water is brought to us by Coca-Cola, our news is brought to us by Pfizer, and our political leaders are brought to us by Exxon, Shell, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase.