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Several years after receiving my M.A. in social science (interdisciplinary studies) I was an instructor at S.F. State University for a year, but then went back to designing automated machinery, and then tech writing, in Silicon Valley. I've always been more interested in political economics and what's going on behind the scenes in politics, than in mechanical engineering, and because of that I've rarely worked more than 8 months a year, devoting much of the rest of the year to reading and writing about that which interests me most.
(8 comments) SHARE Monday, December 21, 2015 Saving Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few, a new book by Robert Reich
A copy of the Introduction to Reich's new book follows here. It's a great read which I hope many of you will get in to, so that we can more extensively discuss the book and its ideas here. This introduction is a succinct and brilliant explanation of what this important book is about.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Evolutionary Reconstruction of The Economy -- The Slow, Gentle Road to a Kind of Socialism
There are now 130 million Americans who are involved in co-ops and credit unions, the latter being in possession of $1 trillion in assets. In addition, 10 million Americans are now members of worker-owned companies. Plus, there are now 2000 publicly owned municipal utilities. Indeed, 25% of America's electricity is now produced by these kinds of socialist institutions.
(16 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 9, 2015 Keynesianism vs. Reaganism: Professor Richard Wolff Summarizes the Decades-long Struggle & Explains Why It's Important
To Keynes in the early 1930s it was obvious that our capitalist economic system was not working, AND that it would certainly not "self-correct" without an enormous amount of unnecessary destruction and pain. Many millions were unemployed and remained unemployed while huge portions of the country's productive apparatus were sitting idle, producing nothing, providing no jobs. Clearly federal intervention would be required.
(27 comments) SHARE Monday, October 26, 2015 To What Extent Are the Fed and Big Banks Criminal Enterprises?
If our government printed the money it needs instead of allowing the criminally syndicated Fed to do it for us, there would be no national debt & therefore no interest to be paid on it, which interest payments are continually foisted off onto us citizen taxpayers. Hence the need for all of us to pay much higher income taxes than we would otherwise have to pay. Remember, interest payments on our national debt are huge.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, July 24, 2015 Now Finally Taking Shape: A World With Ever Less Decently-Paid Work for Most. But Must This Be a Problem?
New, labor-saving technology is likely to exert a slow but continual downward pressure on the value and availability of work, i.e. on wages and on the number of prime-age workers with full-time jobs. Eventually, by degrees, that could create a new normal, where the expectation that work will be a central feature of adult life dissipates for a significant portion of society. Fortunately there are alternative kinds of work.
(39 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 18, 2015 When and Why Love Must Sometimes Be Up for Sale
Was it not essentially love for sale? If not, I wonder how you understand all of this and if this letter will change your mind at all. Did you think of me as a pushover and a stooge, or just a poor, dumb 'man' struggling to fulfill the 'obligations' that men customarily have? But of course you would and will never tell me. And no wonder you are not a feminist! You much prefer to be "the Queen," with all accorded privileges.
(27 comments) SHARE Monday, June 15, 2015 What's Causing the Growing Income Gap That's Gradually Undermining Our Democracy & Economy? And What Can We Do About It
Given the advancing power of ever more sophisticated robots & computer apps, the only way we can even BEGIN to keep all of us busy these days, for so many hours of our lives, is if ever more of our work-hours are devoted to the production, marketing and sale of ever more in the way of superfluous stuff. Problem is, it's the production, marketing and sale of this stuff that produces the CO2 etc. that's poisoning the planet.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 18, 2015 Is Hyperinflation in Our Near Future? Recent Developments Suggest It May Well Be
Over the past two years, the US has slashed oil imports from the Saudis. The increase in American oil production has led to a 62% collapse in global oil prices. This has obliterated Saudi profit margins. In response, a Saudi-led coalition has developed an "oil weapon" it plans to unleash on us. By this means they plan to once again be the world's preeminent oil profiteers, while knocking us down a peg or two in the process.
(18 comments) SHARE Monday, April 6, 2015 If Worker Productivity is Continuing to Go Up, Why is the Buying Power of So Many of Us Going Down?
The majority of workers have no other choice than to produce all the superfluity that can be made to sell - to people like themselves, who spend ever more of their waking hours at work & who then buy this stuff as compensation for the fact that they no longer have enough time & education to enjoy their full humanity, much less spend enough time with their kids. And now these workers are being replaced and falling into poverty.
(29 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 26, 2015 Why Our Government Needs to Take Over the Federal Reserve Bank ASAP
Taking over the Fed is the missing element needed to move humanity back from the brink of economic destruction and nuclear disaster, away from a future dominated by fraud, ugliness and warfare, toward a world of justice and beauty. Who gets the power to create money is the question that's at the heart of monetary reform, and this power is awesome, at times stronger than the executive, legislative and judicial powers combined.
(43 comments) SHARE Monday, February 2, 2015 The Origins, and Decimation of, America's Great Middle Class. And What to Do About It
The large, thriving middle class, which America used to have, didn't just arise out of the blue--it was created using an economic tool that was essentially socialistic. After WWII, our gov't taxed the rich heavily, & massively redistributed that money through the GI Bill, so that an unprecedented half of our population suddenly started benefiting from free college, free job training, cheap mortgages & affordable medical care.
(10 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 11, 2015 Does Affordable Housing Really Need to Be So Scarce in Most Big Cities?
Why is it that a growing percentage of urban men today can't afford to rent or buy a home that is as nice as the one in which they grew up? Meanwhile, there are plenty of rundown buildings in, or very close to, such cities . . as well as a huge supply of currently idle workers who would love to repair and refurbish such buildings, if it would eventually earn them a home of their own, from amongst those they help refurbish.