inequality – American Delusions

What’s Wrong With Inequality – the word?

November 26, 2021 Comments Off

Ban inequality – the word, the naked word, from our political rhetoric. Inequality is everywhere around us in the media sphere as well as in our day-to-day conversations. Amongst progressive folk one can drop the word like an F bomb and summon up agreeable outrage in one’s interlocutors without saying --->> read more -->>

Reparations and the System of White Supremacy

June 25, 2020 Comments Off

The recent upheavals around the killing of George Floyd and police violence more broadly has been surprising in its breadth and scope. In the midst of this, new discussion of reparations has surfaced. I have not actively thought about this topic since the widely read and cited article The Case --->> read more -->>

“How Structural Racism Works” – Tricia Rose and Samuel Rosen – recently noted

June 7, 2020 Comments Off

If you are struggling to get your head around how racism works you will probably find it helpful to have a general framework as a guide. This one hour lecture from 2017 features an overview by Brown University Professor Tricia Rose of the structure of racism and how it works --->> read more -->>

Tightrope – Americans reaching for hope by Kristof and WuDunn – book review

May 1, 2020 Comments Off

Kristof and WuDunn’s book, Tightrope – Americans Reaching for Hope, spent some weeks on bestseller lists. Kristof is a well known reporter and writer for the NYTimes. It centers around the town of Yamhill OR and the people that Kristof grew up among. The stories of industrial decline, increasing inequality, --->> read more -->>

How the Rich and Big Corporations Feed Off Us During the Pandemic

May 1, 2020 1

[1]When Congress passed the second pandemic stimulus bill, the CARES Act, in late March, a key feature was the Paycheck Protection Program(PPP). This was $349 billion described as targeted to small businesses (in the world of the Federal government small businesses have long been defined as having fewer than 500 --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – “Across America, working-class people are dying of despair”

January 17, 2020 Comments Off

“Who Killed the Knapp Family?” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn appeared in the Sunday 1/12/2020 NYTimes. This essay which is adapted from a newly published book by the same authors, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, explores the grim reality of life in one small corner of America, Yamhill, OR --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – busing, re-segregation, white supremacy

July 17, 2019 Comments Off

The recent controversies surrounding Joe Biden’s anti- school busing collaborations with racist politicians from the south has for the moment aroused new comment on segregated America. The New York Times published an excellent review of the history of school desegregation by Nikole Hannah-Jones, “It Was Never About Busing: Court-ordered desegregation worked. --->> read more -->>

Evicted – the book and the exhibition

April 3, 2019 Comments Off

We read Evicted – poverty and profit in the American city by Matthew Desmond last year in our local library book group. Recently on a visit to Washington DC to the National Building Museum (401 F St. NW – Judiciary Square Metro stop) we came on an exhibit based on --->> read more -->>

From NYTimes - Bangladeshi women on Internaitonal Women’s Day

The State of Women around the World – International Women’s Day 3/8/2019

March 8, 2019 Comments Off

Discrimination Against Women Continues – Lots of Outright Oppression Too In the NYTimes today is an article, “Why International Women’s Day Isn’t Going Away – For all the progress women have made, they are still a long way from true equality.” by Iliana Magra. Here are a few data points from --->> read more -->>

Roosevelt’s 1944 Second Bill of Rights – a good starting point today

February 14, 2019 1

As WWII was trending towards an end, President Roosevelt proposed a Second Bill of Rights, a bill of economic rights, in his January 11, 1944 State of the Union address. Here is that section of the speech excerpted: It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – John Thompson and Justice – Prosecution With No Recourse

January 26, 2019 Comments Off

It is not often that one can make a judgement that is nearly absolute in its accuracy. Most things in life are complicated, complicated by circumstance, money, class, family, just plain errors in judgement, execution, and on… But, when it comes to the American justice system you come face to --->> read more -->>

Inequality, Jeff Bezos, Amazon and Bernie Sanders

August 22, 2018 Comments Off

It is always useful to put a face to trends. The grotesque yawning extent of inequality is one of those trends that begs for the concrete. Knowing that a million seconds is 12 days while a billion seconds is 31 years gives some shape to the dimensions of inequality, it --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America by Ed Pilkington

December 27, 2017 Comments Off

Recently Noted – A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America by Ed Pilkington In the Time of Republican Transfers of Income and Wealth to the Rich and Corporations A friend pointed me to this article in 12/15/2017 The Guardian, “A journey through a land of extreme --->> read more -->>

Economic Inequality – Does It Matter?

May 9, 2012 Comments Off

It is fairly widely known that income and wealth inequality in the US is as high or higher than at any time except perhaps the Robber Baron period at the end of the 19th century. Lots of articles and books explain how this has come about over the last 30 --->> read more -->>