Food stamp land

forever_town · Aug 5, 2008

I've been thinking of applying for Section 8.

Obviously, that's not food stamps, but it is related.

host · Aug 5, 2008

The "problem", and the humiliation built into the process of seeking and receiving vitally needed income "supplements", is not journalism specific, it is structural, and it is much less of a problem in post industrialized societies that are not maintained, at all costs, to the right of the center, politically. Obama, as a "fer instance", is not a "candidate for change", he is put up, for precisely the opposite purpose, to minimize change in the status quo, serving as a synbol of change, so that the elite can avoid the substance and feared effects, of actual, sorely needed "change".....

This thread should not surprise anyone, not in a country where the top ten percent of the population own 70 percent of all privately owned wealth, and the bottom 50 percent own only 2-1/2 percent of all of the wealth:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/oss/oss2/papers/concentration.2004.5.pdf
.....In 2004, slightly more than one-third of total net worth was held by the
wealthiest one percent of families (table 5). Although the estimated level of this share has
changed over the surveys since 1989, the differences are not statistically significant. In 2004, the
next-wealthiest nine percent of families held 36.1 percent of total wealth, again, a figure not
significantly changed over the course of the surveys. This leaves less than a third of the total for
the remaining ninety percent of the population. A subset of that group, families in the bottom
half of wealth distribution, held only 2.5 percent of total wealth in 2004, and this figure is
significantly different from the higher estimates for 1995, 1998, and 2001...
Click to expand...

The stats above come from the 2004 Fed report on wealth distribution...the Fed states that the 2007 report had been completed but is still being analyzed....my guess is that it will be held until after the election in november.....

The net worth of the two Cox sisters, of the company that owns the AJC, in 2006, before the recent death of one of them:

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The-400-Richest-Americans_Rank.html
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/54/richlist07_Anne-Cox-Chambers_OR0X.html
17 Barbara Cox Anthony $12.6 billion, age 83 Honolulu, HI Cox Enterprises
17 Anne Cox Chambers $12.6 billion, age 86 Atlanta, GA Cox Enterprises

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/54/richlist07_Philip-Anschutz_DSAK.html
Examiner owner:
Philip Anschutz Net Worth $7.6 billion
Click to expand...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040913/vidal
State of the Union, 2004 By Gore Vidal
This article appeared in the September 13, 2004 edition of The Nation.

August 26, 2004

In the 1960s and '70s of the last unlamented century, there was a New York television producer named David Susskind. He was commercially successful; he was also, surprisingly, a man of strong political views which he knew how to present so tactfully that networks were often unaware of just what he was getting away with on their--our--air. Politically, he liked to get strong-minded guests to sit with him at a round table in a ratty building at the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street. Sooner or later, just about everyone of interest appeared on his program. .....

....I suspect it was the dim lighting on the set that invited such naked truths. David watched his pennies. I don't recall how, or when, we began our "States of the Union" programs. But we did them year after year. I would follow whoever happened to be President, and I'd correct his "real" state of the union with one of my own, improvising from questions that David would prepare. I was a political pundit because in a 1960 race for the House of Representatives (upstate New York), I got more votes than the head of the ticket, JFK;.....

...I also had a pretty good memory in those days, now a-jangle with warning bells as I try to recall the national debt or, more poignantly, where I last saw my glasses.

I've just come across my "State of the Union" as of 1972. Apparently, I gave it fifteen times across the country, ending with Susskind's program. Questions and answers from the audience were the most interesting part of these excursions. As I look back over the texts of what we talked about, I'm surprised at how to the point we often were on subjects seldom mentioned in freedom's land today.

In 1972, I begin: "According to the polls, our second principal concern today is the breakdown of law and order." (What, I wonder, was the first? Let's hope it was the pointless, seven-year--at that point--war in Southeast Asia.) I noted that to those die-hard conservatives, "law and order" is usually a code phrase meaning "get the blacks." While, to what anorexic, vacant-eyed blonde women on TV now describe as the "liberal elite," we were pushing the careful--that is, slow--elimination of poverty. Anything more substantive would have been regarded as communism, put forward by dupes. But then, I say very mildly, we have only one political party in the United States, the Property Party, with two right wings, Republican and Democrat. Since I tended to speak to conservative audiences in such civilized places as Medford, Oregon; Parkersburg,West Virginia; and Longview, Washington, there are, predictably, a few gasps at this rejection of so much received opinion. There are also quite a few nods from interested citizens who find it difficult at election time to tell the parties apart..... Inspired by the nods, I start to geld the lily, as the late Sam Goldwyn used to say. The Republicans are often more doctrinaire than the Democrats, who are willing to make small--very small--adjustments where the poor and black are concerned while giving aid and comfort to the anti-imperialists. Yes, I was already characterizing our crazed adventure in Vietnam as imperial, instead of yet another proof of our irrepressible, invincible altruism, ever eager to bring light to those who dwell in darkness......
Click to expand...

Why the French....why not us? Could it have something to do with Gore's description of a single political party in the US, comprised of two right wings? The French national debt increases at half the annual percentage that ours is increasing, and...

...let's do a French checklist:
CIA Factbook, France: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html#Econ
.................USA: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html#Econ

Super strong currency? Check!

Near Balanced trade, despite strong currency? Check!

World Class Universal Healthcare, vs. illness expenses related US bankruptcies? Check!

Six percent national poverty rate, vs. 12 percent in US? Check!

Higher domestic reinvestment rate in France vs. US? Check!

Impressively lower infant mortality at birth rate in France vs, US? Check!

Living minimum wage level? $13.00 vs. $6.55....yuu decide

Mandatory minimum employer paid vacation time: France; five weeks, US= zero

Most productive nation, per hours worked? France

Most popular foreign tourist destination, despite population less than 1/3 of US level? France!

France unemployment 8.3 percent, vs, 5.7 percent US, Do the working poor in the US, live less affluently than the unemployed do, in France?

Employee paid pensions, early retirement? France? Check! US...not so much...

Nearly all residents documented and or citizens? France? Check! US= Who knows????

Generous government paid living stipend, and or unemployment benefits, union representation for workers and protections against arbitrary job dismissal? France? Check! US....not so much....

So....what am I missing? What is not to like, vs, where we are in the US, and where we are heading? Will wealth be more equitably distributed here, two years from now, if home prices decline another 15 percent, and all but the wealthiest ten percent, having the bulk of their net worth "invested" in the value their residences?

http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/formulate_economic.php

.....With an eye to Thomas Jefferson's warning against the antidemocratic "aristocracy of our moneyed corporations," the United States needs to return corporate taxes to the levels in force during the Eisenhower administration. We also need to increase the top marginal tax rate for the super-rich to about 50 percent. This would still be far below the top marginal income tax rate of 91 percent during the Eisenhower administration.

Repealing the tax cuts given to the super-rich would return more than $85 billion per year from the richest 5 percent of the population. Returning to corporate tax rates in force during the Eisenhower administration could increase tax revenues by roughly $110 billion more per year. Returning to a 50 percent top marginal income tax rate far below the top rate in the Eisenhower administration could capture as much as $90 billion more per year from the richest 2 percent of the population.

At the same time, we should provide tax cuts to the 150 million hard-working workers who are struggling because they can't afford to buy all they need. Millionaires don't need additional spending money. Workers, middle-class Americans, and the poor do. Their spending will stimulate the economy more effectively, help businesses, and be more fair to the Americans who need fairness the most. There is ample economic evidence that putting money in the pockets of average Americans stimulates the economy much more than further lining the pockets of the rich.

Through these tax costs, the overall economic vision of America needs to return to the demand side and to the robust, full-employment economy that characterized much of the 1990s. A demand-side policy should extend unemployment assistance to the jobless and raise the minimum wage. A living wage is a very important way to assure that lower-income American households have adequate resources. Likewise, the earned income tax credit is a proven, effective model for fighting poverty. It should be protected and expanded. We also need to reverse policies that have made it increasingly difficult for unions to organize in the private sector.

Economic Security: Protection from the Ruling Classes. But demand-side strategies are only part of alternative economic policies. Just as average citizens need physical security to protect them from terrorists and criminals, so they need economic security to protect them from the class warfare launched in America by the rich. ....
Click to expand...

Write-brained · Aug 5, 2008

Perhaps Host and Spinning would like to take it outside.

Tom Petty · Aug 5, 2008

was that a 40-inch gamer?

sportschick · Aug 5, 2008

Can somebody send me the background on that guy? kthnxby

Cadet · Aug 5, 2008

Host: Go away.

Tom Petty · Aug 5, 2008

buckweaver said:

Tom Petty said:

was that a 40-inch gamer?
Click to expand...

If I tell you it was inverted pyramid, will you cut from the bottom?
Click to expand...

AND make him rework the lede.

Write-brained · Aug 5, 2008

Tom Petty said:

buckweaver said:

Tom Petty said:

was that a 40-inch gamer?
Click to expand...

If I tell you it was inverted pyramid, will you cut from the bottom?
Click to expand...

AND make him rework the lede.
Click to expand...

You got a problem with 50-word ledes?

Tom Petty · Aug 5, 2008

Write-brained said:

Tom Petty said:

buckweaver said:

Tom Petty said:

was that a 40-inch gamer?
Click to expand...

If I tell you it was inverted pyramid, will you cut from the bottom?
Click to expand...

AND make him rework the lede.
Click to expand...

You got a problem with 50-word ledes?
Click to expand...

i have a problem with 50-word posts.

Write-brained · Aug 5, 2008

Tom Petty said:

Write-brained said:

Tom Petty said:

buckweaver said:

Tom Petty said:

was that a 40-inch gamer?
Click to expand...

If I tell you it was inverted pyramid, will you cut from the bottom?
Click to expand...

AND make him rework the lede.
Click to expand...

You got a problem with 50-word ledes?
Click to expand...

i have a problem with 50-word posts.
Click to expand...

touche', douche'

Birdscribe · Aug 5, 2008

Host's Russian novel aside, there's something radically and fundamentally wrong with a profession that requires more than a modicum of education, yet we're having this thread.

Stitch, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Your bosses, on the other hand. . .

Tom Petty · Aug 5, 2008

Write-brained said:

Tom Petty said:

Write-brained said:

Tom Petty said:

buckweaver said:

Tom Petty said:

was that a 40-inch gamer?
Click to expand...

If I tell you it was inverted pyramid, will you cut from the bottom?
Click to expand...

AND make him rework the lede.
Click to expand...

You got a problem with 50-word ledes?
Click to expand...

i have a problem with 50-word posts.
Click to expand...

touche', douche'
Click to expand...

still pissed about that "old prick" comment, aren't you?

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