Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Why is the U.S. Middle Class Shrinking? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Shedlock
President Obama says there is a "skills gap". A quick search says that many misguided souls believe the president.
For example Forbes writer Rich Karlgaard says The Skills Gap Exists.
Karlgaard believes the "gap is sure to grow as the population ages and industries from health care to manufacturing are altered by technology. Outsourcing to China won’t be the answer, either. Its population is aging the fastest of all the major economies."
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Understanding Liberal Democracy / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Gordon
Most contemporary political philosophers, unfortunately, are not libertarians. Nicholas Wolterstorff, best known as a founder of "reformed epistemology" but a philosopher of extraordinary range, is no libertarian either — far from it. In the present collection of essays, though, he assails a vastly influential school of thought in a way that libertarians will find useful.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Western Elite Using Islamophobia to Serve their Own Interests / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Malaysian public intellectual believes that propagating fear and hatred of Muslims is not a new phenomenon and has been rampant for more than a thousand years. Referring to the growth of the population of Muslims, he also says that “some right-wing groups in Europe and North America are fearful of what they see as the Islamic ‘demographic’ threat.”
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Optimism Bias: What Keeps Us Alive Today Will Kill Us Tomorrow / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Definition of a lie: any not entirely accurate representation of the world as we perceive it; what's not spoken can be as crucial as what is.
So yeah, people lie. They, we, all do. Some of us understand the extent to which this is true better than others, but that's probably just because we haven't all spent equal time wondering when it was we first started doing it. Let alone why. Interesting questions. After the fact, it's blindingly obvious why we would want to lie: accomplished liars get to mate faster and more often. Which still is the purpose of life, even though it may not be terribly fashionable to phrase it that way these days.
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Monday, November 12, 2012
Hurricane Sandy Super Storm Lessons, Be Better Prepared for the Next Time / Politics / Social Issues
By: Nicole_Foss
Superstorm Sandy has been a devastating experience for many, and will continue to be so for a long time to come. Much of the damage will take weeks or months to repair, and some may take years. A myriad long battles with insurance companies are a given, as the available funds are unlikely to match the damage and there will be many arguments as to what is covered. The impacts are widespread, but unevenly distributed, as the repairs will be. Like Katrina before it, Sandy will be a defining event in the lives of many people.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
The Red Poppy: Remembering Armistice Day / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 2012, we remember those who died in the two great wars so that we could all live freely. Just contemplate the symmetry and synchronicity of the same hour on the same day in the same month in 1918 when the First World War came to an end. Never before had people witnessed such industrialised slaughter, with tens of thousands falling per day to machine guns and poison gas. Horrific, grotesque and terrifying.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Distribution of Economic Pain From the Financial Crisis / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jesse
No wonder the wealthiest ten percent feel so clever, and even perhaps triumphant.
The collapse caused by the widespread banking fraud has barely affected them, whereas it wiped out most of the last ten years of growth in the middle class and the poor.
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012
The Lull Before the Civil Unrest Storm / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jack_D_Douglas
Vast social revolutions and wars are often preceded by periods of giving up on reforms, despairing withdrawal from public life by the best and brightest, and even peacefulness which seems to have become the normal condition in spite of deep conflicts and growing crises beneath the surfaces of public life. Often, earlier periods of intense conflicts and crises have been overcome and resolved, so it comes to look like that is the normal in life. This lulls most people into assuming their worse fears cannot happen, but this leads them to lowering their guards against growing conflicts and crises, so small ones can more easily cascade down into massive ones. If people expected they could become vast wars or revolutions or implosions, they would take more precautions to prevent that. But when lulled in expecting the worst cannot happen, the worst than they could ever imagine often explodes suddenly.
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Chinese Metaphysics Meet Mayan End of the World Apocalypse / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
Transitioning from the 'Lucky' Water Dragon to the 'Wise' Snake -- 2012 to 2013 -- A Chinese Perspective
Speaking to a senior Chinese delegation recently about Hurricane Sandy's ongoing impact on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States including New York and New Jersey, we were struck by the remark that water on earth and floods are not entirely inconsistent with 2012, the year of the "Water Dragon" according to Chinese metaphysics. In parallel, as we approach the end of the year 2012, believers and sceptics alike are studying the Mayan calendar and Eschatology: the branch of theology concerned with final events or the end of the world. As a myriad of experts and self-styled prophets announce the impending end of the world on December 21st, 2012, the day that marks the winter solstice, we wondered what the Chinese delegation might have to say on this subject.
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Saturday, November 03, 2012
Were Ancient Spartan's the First Socialists? / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Alexander Gray: At what point a history of socialism should begin is a question which might give occasion to high argument. There are some who hold that we merely becloud our judgment if we allow ourselves to speak of socialism before the middle of the 18th century, or perhaps even somewhat later. On this view socialism is essentially a manifestation of the proletarian spirit; or, if socialism is not necessarily proletarian in character and origin, it at least postulates a society which tends to be comprehensive in its membership. Accordingly, it is suggested that a society which assumes for its efficient working the existence of a slave population, denied all rights, may at times speak a language suggestive of socialism, but it can know nothing of socialism as that word has been understood in the 19th and 20th centuries. The existence of a serf or slave population may in certain respects add a complication to life; but in other directions it quite obviously enormously simplifies the social and political problems of existence, as these are presented to that section of the population who are not slaves. On this view, a history of socialism should probably begin among these first ripples and disturbances which presaged the deluge of the French Revolution.
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Global Wealth 2012, Highs and Lows of World Salaries / Politics / Social Issues
By: Pravda
Last year, the smallest wages in Europe were paid in Ukraine, Moldova and Albania. The most highly paid professionals live in Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. However, the "low-income" Ukraine lives on labor migration. The Ukrainian citizens working in other countries, send billions of dollars to their home country every year.
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Thursday, October 25, 2012
So, How Can I Make A Living In Mexico? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Jim Karger writes: So, why don't they pick up and leave?
Money.
They don't have enough to live on the income generated by their savings for the rest of their lives. (Many actually do and believe they don't, but I will save that topic for another article.)
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Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Unions - Another Form of Collectivism Gone Awry / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
As the snow already has begun to fall across much of the expanse of Canada, the weather has settled into a deep freeze (-20C, -4F overnight in Calgary this week) and the sun shrinks into the distance, a faint light mocking you for living so far away from it, there is usually one thing that makes living in North America's version of Siberia possible. Hockey.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Income inequality: Cause of our predicament or a convenient scapegoat? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Colin_Twiggs
A reader reminded me of this 2011 Vanity Fair article, where Joseph Stiglitz argues that growing income inequality will harm future US economic growth.
Read full article... Read full article...“What matters, [some people] argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong……..
Monday, October 01, 2012
No Increase in U.S. Standard of Living Since 1997 / Politics / Social Issues
By: Casey_Research
There's a belief among certain economists – and the wider population – that if the government takes a more active role in the economy, the social outcome can be improved. Dr. Lacy Hunt, executive VP of Hoisington Investment Management Company (HIMCO), says it's a false belief… and he has proof to back it up. An unprecedented buildup of debt, he shows, can only lead to one outcome: a drop in Americans' standard of living.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Solitary Purdah, The Sovereign Man is the Real Prisoner / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
According to establishment officials, the concept of the Sovereign Man philosophy is a direct threat to the authority of the State. Depending upon your perception of reality and the degree of legitimacy for government, given to the prevailing order, fundamental inalienable rights of the individual may vary widely. In the extreme, government statists consider most if not all natural rights as capricious and arbitrary, if conflicts challenge the dictates of the regime. This unending and interminable struggle to defend undeniable individual basic rights drives bureaucrats to use unconscionable measures to coerce citizen compliance.
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Monday, September 24, 2012
What Is Energy and What Role Do We Play Within It? / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
Albert Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 shows us that everything is made up of energy. Science demonstrates that energy is the building block of all matter and exchanges with everything else at all times in a most complex dynamic. Everything in this universe is ultimately made up of that same energy. It is just present in different forms and different shapes. The energy that composes our bodies is indeed the same one that composes the building materials of our homes and the animals and the trees found outside. It is all just the same!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Digital Technologies vs. Establishment Truth Suppression / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
I am going to tell you some stories. To make it interesting, I will begin with one which could make one of my readers the deal of a lifetime. It ends on September 30. He who hesitates is lost.
I begin with the obvious: the falling cost of Internet communications is revolutionizing the spread of knowledge. In doing so, it is undermining every establishment. Every establishment rests mush of its power on official views of the past. This is seen in the novel by George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The tyrant who enforces the totalitarian state says this. "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
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Friday, September 21, 2012
Politicians and Journalists Least Trusted by the Public / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ian_R_Campbell
Why read: Because in the current turbulent economic times it may prove to be one of the most important things you need to think about - if you haven't already.
Commentary: The Telegraph on September 19 showed ten slides of what it reports to be the results of a survey of the 'ten least trusted professions'. I found it no great surprise that politicians were ranked as 'least trusted' at 7%, but did find it surprising that journalists were ranked as 'second least trusted', also at 7%. Teachers (at 69%) were the most trusted of the ten categories reported.
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Thursday, September 20, 2012
Capitalism is based On Addiction,Craving for More and More Wealth / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Colin Todhunter writes: It encourages people to crave for more and more wealth and more and more products. Ridiculously wealthy people want even more riches, resulting in war, exploitation and the immiseration of working folk. In turn, ordinary people have been encouraged to take out ever greater debts in order to purchase an endless stream of goods of dubious worth. This addictive behaviour is ultimately ruinous for the individual, humankind and the environment, which becomes stripped bare in the process.