Issues

Links, information, and more on a variety of issues.

Social Security

US citizens usually defer to the federal government in matters about which they know only little. This is especially true for foreign policy. This explains the ease with which the Bush administration managed to sell its war in Iraq.

But, Mr Bush, fresh off "re-election" as "war-president," stumbled pathetically as he travelled the country for months to sell his plan to "reform" Social Security. This, by contrast to foreign policy, is an issue about which the average citizen knows a good deal. This is because the program touches so many lives.

Mr Bush never offered a specific alternative to Social Security but only general gloomy warnings and a vague program of private investments. The more people heard the President say "I know all this stuff sounds really complicated ..." the less they trusted him to touch their expected retirement incomes. His popularity numbers began to drop and no legislation was presented by the Republican majority in Congress.

Below is a listing of websites and articles that outline the operation of the Social Security system and news about the effort for "reform."

Note: links are underlined below.

Social Security Administration

General Description of Social Security

Rep. Peter DeFazio's newsletter summary

Social Security benefits calculator

Think Tank Analysis

Social Security Network

Center on Budget & Policies Priorities

Center for Economic & Policy Research
a) Basic facts on Soc Sec and proposed privatization
b) Series of articles on the system and efforts to "reform" it

Economic Policy Institute

Brookings Institute

National Academy of Social Insurance

Onward Oregon's Social Security page

Economy

"You can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few, or you can have democracy. You can't have both."
--Louis Brandeis--

"The hundreds of billions of dollars spent on commercial propaganda make a mockery of any notion of markets based on information and rational actors; the whole system is designed to suppress honest information and promote irrational behavior." Robert Jensen

----

In the US constitution there is NO reference to "economy," "economics," "economic system" or "capitalism." So our economic system is distinct from our form of government.

Of course, the economic system and the governmental system influence each other but they are increasingly being mis-represented as the same thing.

This may be a reason such a large portion of Americans seem to vote "against their own interests." If one believes the misrepresentation that loving democracy means one must love capitalism, as we know it, then one is much less likely to expect the government to address the effects on the populace of the "excesses" of the economic system.

The Bush administration is the "MBA administration" and it lives and broadcasts this misrepresentation. It seems to have come to office primarily to exploit the "economy equals government" fallacy.

While the Bush administration's behavior is perhaps consistent with an extreme capitalism, it is highly suspect and detrimental to the populace as a whole. The Bush group is efficiently using the power of the government for personal financial enrichment for themselves and their crony supporters.

It's "all tax cuts all the time" for the ultra-rich. Profiteering is rampant both in a "war of choice" and in disaster recovery. To increase profits on no bid contracts, many to Halliburton, Mr Bush, in an Executive Order, suspended fair wage laws for the gulf region that is full of new homeless who obviously need work at decent pay. (Later he reversed this order.) The Secretary of Defense is Chairman of the Board of the company that will not offer nor be asked, to suspend its patent for the only recommended medicine for the "bird flu." Prescription drug "reform" took away the government's power to
negotiate with drug companies for volume purchase discounts.
These examples only scratch the surface.

Since 1980, the real wages of American workers have actually decreased. The proportion of both federal and state tax revenues have decreased for corporations and increased for individuals. The US manufacturing industry is increasingly being exported to foreign countries. For each year of the Bush administration there has been an increase in the number of Americans living in poverty. The gap between the rich and poor continues to grow. The Bush administration has demonstrated many effective techniques to widen that gap!

"In the 21st century the US economy has ceased to generate net new jobs in middle and upper middle class professions. This is a serious economic, social and political problem that receives no attention ... This process of substituting foreign workers for American workers cannot go on for too long before the US consumer market dies from lack of income and purchasing power. US policymakers have no clue. " Paul Craig Roberts

At the beginning of 2000 Bill Gates was worth $100 Billion. This represented the combined net worth of the poorest 45% of the population of the United States, as here . That means about 125 million Americans have an average net worth of a measley $800 !!?? (You probably pay more than that for your yearly phone bill.) Compare this disgraceful figure with the current individual share of the national debt of $24,000 per person.

US citizens can and must reclaim their legitimate control over the economic system before it proceeds to the ugly, logical conclusion of the so-called "Reagan Revolution" so eagerly fostered by Bush, essentially a system of neo-feudalism.

An "economy" is the system by which people allocate available resources. We must aim to promote a better distribution of our vast resources among all Americans and to reverse the current, sometimes legal, process of concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands.

Links:
Labor
News and Comment
Government agencies
Resources
Think Tanks

Labor

Oregon AFL-CIO
United Food and Commercial Workers - UFCW
Service Employees International - SEIU

NW Labor Press
GoodJobsFirst.org
Job Tracker-Working America

Working America-Community Affiliate of AFL-CIO
Oregon AFL-CIO "Labor Links"
Sign Up for Oregon AFL-CIO Weekly E-mail Update

Buy Union!
No Sweat Apparel
Justice Clothing
Union Jean Company
Shop Union Made
UnionLabel.Org

News and Commentary

Economy in Crisis

Outsourcing more harmful than all worlds terrorists
When Americans no longer own America
Voodoo economics II
How the economic news is spun
The idea of a local economy-Wendell Berry
Min wage boost helps workers without hurting the economy
NY Times urges wage increase
Class war economy
The crisis of overproduction
Media obscures economic reality
Federal minimum wage, 1955-2005
Minimum wage across the USA

What recovery 4-12-06
Crumbling under debt 4-08-06 (scroll down)
Growth in federal spending unchecked 4-03-06
GM on the verge of collapse 3-22-06
WA Post editorial on new debt limit 3-15-06
US trade deficit hits new record 3-14-06
The economics of outsourcing 3-14-06
The numbers behind the lies 3-12-06
Massive trade deficit widens 3-10-06
US retirement fund tapped to avoid debt limit 3-08-06
US productivity down for first time in five years 3-08-06
Dark ages of the auto industry-Nader 2-28-06
Bush insists India outsourcing beneficial 2-23-06
US trade deficit hits all time high 2-10-06
China's plan to eradicate poverty 2-9-06
Tax cuts not helping economy 2-5-06
Economy grows slowest in three years 1-28-06
Saudis offer $1 trillion to outside investors 1-14-06
China: capitalism doesn't require democracy 1-10-06
Nobel economist: Iraq could cost 1 trillion 1-07-06
China signals reserves away from US $ 1-07-06
Central America doesn't like CAFTA 1-03-06
China lays down energy gauntlet 12-31
Michigan Gov courts Toyota 12-28
Tax Cut Zombies - Krugman 12-23
(Eroding civil liberties are) Bad for Business 12-23
A proper global agenda 12-23
The economy in a nutshell 12-23
On supporting local businesses
US drops a spot in Foreign Direct Investment list 12-14
Rich countries like their subsidies 12-12
How Greenspan skewered America
GDP does not measure families' economic health 12-05
The war on our children 11-25
Age of Anxiety - Krugman 11-28
Krugman on 30K GM Layoffs 11-25-05
Many jobs pay below living wage 11-18-05
Still No Jobs 11-10-05
Portly R's squeeze the poor 11-08
Do free traders think Americans are stupid? 11-08
The Market Myth 10-31-05
Service sector hurt by spiraling prices 10-06
The easy way or the hard way 9-29
Uncle Sam's Rich Uncles Overseas 9-18
There Goes Another Pension Plan 9-18
WSJ's War on Minimum Wage 9-14
Flood Lifts Poverty Debate into Focus 9-13
Incomes Down - Poverty Up 8-31
US Poverty Up Despite "Growth" 8-30

Government Depts, Councils Organizations

US Gov't link page: "Economy and Trade"

Bureau of Labor Statistics
Department of Commerce
Federal Trace Commission
National Labor Realtions Board
Securities and Exchange Commission
Agency for International Development
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
International Trade Commission
Council of Economic Advisors

Resources

CIA World Fact Book
Wall Street Journal
Financial Times
The Economist online mag
Business Week
The Great American Jobs Scam
The Wealth of Nations - Online

Think Tanks

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Center fo Economic and Policy Research
Economic Policy Institute
Oregon Center for Public Policy
Political Economy Research Institute (PERI)
Links to other Organizations

Labor

Coming soon.

Corporatism

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
Thomas Jefferson - 1816

The corporation has evolved. The precursor of the modern corporation emerged in the 1500s as European trading companies. Initially the corporation was a business venture created for a specific purpose, for a defined time period, registered with appropriate government, under rigid regulation. Now we have everlasting mega-corporations whose financial activities dwarf those of many nations. The Bush administration's prime "value" is the elimination of remaining controls over the public effects of corporate activities.

Over history the corporation has achieved the legal status of a person. This allows corporations to share our free speech rights and, therefore, to influence political campaigns. This has lead to the legal fiction that money (the corporation's specialty) is speech. This corporate participation in the political process has flourished, especially in the last 25 years of "Reaganism."

Corporate lobbyists write legislation, lately, to abolish the government's right to negotiate for lower drug costs. The individual's legal access to courts for damages from harmful products is steadily diminished. Environmental protection legislation is under attack to protect corporate profit instead. And most pernicious of all, "wars of choice" are launched as profit opportunities for favorite corporate donors or even corporate employees, like Dick Cheney who gets as much per year from his old employer, Halliburton, as he gets for his Vice-President's salary.

Each election cycle reveals more influence of corporate money in the process. The problem, of course, is that the corporation, internally, is an entity run in a clearly anti-democratic manner. Yes, stockholders do "vote their shares" but this is simply the corporation's preferred "one dollar-one vote" philosophy, which it has effectively promoted to erode the "one person-one vote" pillar of our political system.

International "free trade" agreements grant corporations a right to profit backed by a theory similar to our Measure 37: payment to the wealthy to follow the law, or else suspend the law. The trade agreements state that any law, in any jurisdiction, must be suspended if it interferes with corporate profit. If the jurisdiction does not want to suspend the problem law, then the corporation must be directly paid its predicted profits by the local jurisdiction. Article

The corporate advertising machine promotes company products, to the extreme. Obnoxious as products ads are, they are accompanied by massive public relations programs to sell the corporate image itself. From childhood we are bombarded with messages to create loyalty to the preferred "brands." Worse, we are flooded with such fantasies as: large oil corporations are concerned with preservation of the environment or Wal Mart is concerned about its employees.

The ultimate justification for the unquestioned acceptance of the corporate mind set is that such massive companies provide so many jobs. The fact is that small business provides the vast majority of our economy's jobs. And, as the mega-corporations accelerate their exportation of US-based jobs to foreign countries, they destroy any need for citizens to accept the lies they have promoted for some time: that they continue to be beneficial to the country, it citizens and its democratic process. We fail our families, our communities, our country and ourselves if fail to question the growing negative influence of the trans-national corporation on the lives of American citizens.

Perhaps the first step is a constitutional amendment to establish that corporations are NOT persons!

This link is to a preview of Thom Hartmann's book on the issue:
"Unequal Protection: The rise of corporate dominance and theft of human rights" READ IT !!

Further reading below. Links are underlined

Web Sites

Center for Corporate Policy

Corporate Personhood @ Reclaim Democracy

Corp Watch

Earth Policy Institute

News

1-31-06: Oil executives refuse to testify at Senate hearings Reuters

1-31-06: ATT protected by "security" issues? CNET

12-09: Firestone's slave-condition lawsuit. One World US

11-20: Enron defense has its work cut out. USA Today

Articles

Bush clears way for corporate dominance

How corporate America perpetuates the heath care crisis

It Can Happen Here

They thought they were free

The Supremacy of the Super-Citizen

Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy

Gulf firms losing contracts to "large, out-of-state corporations."

The CEO's Chief Justice

Corporate Control of Democracy

Oregon corporations' stealth tax break

The Great American Jobs Scam

Growing Up Corporate

Cuts in foreign pofit tax

"Public Use" for corporate profit

Telecom Corps are "well connected"

Flood of FEMA fraud

Books

1) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: John Perkins
ISBN 1576753018

2) The Corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power, Joel Bakan, ISBN 0-7432-4744-2

3) The Post-Corporate World: Life after capitalism, David C. Korten, ISBN 1-57675-051-5

4) When Corporations Rule the World, David C. Korten, ISBN 1-8872-0804-6

5) Parecon (Participatory economics): Life after capitalism, Michael Albert, ISBN 1-85984-698-X

6) After Capitalism: From managerialism to workplace democracy, Seymour Melman, ISBN 0-679-41859-8

7) Eco-Economy: Building an economy for the earth, Lester R. Brown, ISBN 0-393-32193-2

8 ) Plan B: Rescuing a planet under stress and a civilization in trouble, Lester R. Brown, ISBN 0-393-32523-7

9) Myth America: Democracy vs. Capitalism, Willaim Boyer
ISBN 1891843192

Environment

Coming soon.

National Security

Coming soon.

Terrorism

Coming soon.

Waging Peace

Directly to Links

Quotations:

Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.
- Spinoza

A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be...surer of the noose than a private homicide.
- H. G. Wells

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own country - Martin Luther King

Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.
- A pirate, from St. Augustine's "City of God"

In a world of war, waging peace is perhaps the
noblest act. Without peace, the ideals of this country simply cannot be met.

Our best hope is to recognize the contribution of our own foreign policy to the reasons "why they hate us." Then we can begin to reverse some pernicious trends, the "fruits" of which were apparent on 9-11.

NO ONE accepts the manner in which our attackers showed their hate. Their reasons, however, have been purposefully misrepresented by the Bush administration. The president claims that world terrorists "hate us because of our freedoms." But read the statement of a Viet Nam combat pilot, addressed to then President Clinton. Statement of Robert Bowman

Mr Bowman states: "We are the target of terrorists because, in much of the world, our government stands for dictatorship, bondage and human exploitation. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things."

So we are hated because, while we operate from the unassailable mandate of our freedom, our international actions all too frequently delay or destroy freedom for many around the globe. We are not hated because of our freedoms. We are hated because we vigorously advertise our freedoms BUT prevent others from achieving the same for themselves.

This section is an introduction to the disturbing truth of our chronic and frequent intrusions into the affairs of other sovereign nations across the world. Unless we learn the difficult history we will be unable and unmotivated to prevent its repetition.

As a nation we must disentangle the terms "national defense" and "national security." The first is about secure borders the second is ever more blatantly being used to rationalize deadly adventures to secure cheap raw materials and labor. Of course, we must fight to defend ourselves but we also hope that fighting to exploit others be rejected as an accepted American value.

As the nation with the largest military (by far), and too many "resolutions" to use it, we are the world's very best chance to lead the process toward peace. US military troops are loyal, brave, obediant and skilled in their service to America. All too often, however, they are given unwise and unjustifiable missions that increase our risk rather than diminish it.

Much grief has been delivered in your name, paid by your tax dollar, probably, entirely without your knowledge.

This may be a difficult section to accept. But please try. Who else but you, really, can do anything about it?

Contact information for local peace-waging practitioners:

Albany Peace Seekers:
Don Rea--donlizrea@peak.org

Institute for Peace and Justice at LBCC:
Doug.Clark@linnbenton.edu
phone: 917-4557

The Friendship Force

Oregon Peace Works

How Do We Respond To...

"The United States should not have invaded Iraq, but now that we are there, aren't we responsible to clean it up and ensure that there is no bloodbath when we leave"

Six arguments against the war

Ten arguments against the war

Required Reading

Web sites:

Anti War.Com

Global Research

Arms Control Association

Foreign Policy

Defense and the National Interest

Articles:

Interview with Chalmers Johnson

The Basic Statistics of US Imperialism

Use of US Forces Abroad 1798-1993

The Arithmetic of US Military Bases Abroad

Iraq Confidential: Ritter and Hersh

The Coming Wars