Poverty | -America’s middle class shrinks as poverty expands-

America’s middle class is in sharp decline, and many people are falling into a state of poverty. For readers who have the time and inclination, it’s worth reading up on some of the commentary about the economic times in which we live. I’ve gathered and excerpted news reports and analyses from assorted newspapers, periodicals, and online [...]

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Unemployment | -Economic Fact Sheet – EPI-

Just how serious in the economic recession that the United States finds itself in? Check out the "Labor Day by the Numbers 2o11" fact sheet produced by the Economic Policy Institute and published Septemebr 5,2011. In it you will discover that: The economy needs 11.2 million jobs to regain its pre-recession level of employment. In August [...]

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Human Rights | -Maps (146): Income Inequality-

(source) Well, it's not really a map, or not really a real map, but I found it telling. And this is what the "map" looks like when we use some actual figures about U.S. corporate profits and compensation (but a similar pattern occurs in other developed countries): (source) Corporate profits are doing just fine, and [...]

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More health care rationing in the UK.

The UK’s The Independent reports rationing of hip replacements and tonsil removals to save money in Britain’s Nationalized Health Service, one of the liberals’ models for America’s future: Hip replacements, cataract surgery and tonsil removal are among operations now being rationed in a bid to save the NHS money. Two-thirds of health trusts in England [...]

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The Hunger Paradox.

More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World But what if the experts are wrong? BY ABHIJIT BANERJEE, ESTHER DUFLO | MAY/JUNE 2011 For many in the West, poverty is almost synonymous with hunger. Indeed, the announcement by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009 that mo … Read More via [...]

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Population growth: all questions, no answers.

There isn’t much that shocks me these days. I’ve read enough history, and lived long enough, to be aware of the generally venal and violent nature of much of our past. I’ve personally witnessed a series of wars waged on poor, backward countries like Vietnam and Iraq. I’ve seen the rise of pop music, the fall [...]

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