Sunday, April 28, 2013

Social Security

Rough Draft----revision coming

Over at the Real News,

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=832&Itemid=74&jumival=946

there are two economists discussing what to do about the Great Recession.
One of them , J. Minarik,  recently debated with Richard D. Wolff about Social Security.

In the new program, Minarik reproduces the claims he made during the debate with Wolff.

Richard D. Wolff has commented again on Social Security in his regular weekly program, the week after the electronic meeting with Minarik.

http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-tax-truths

In these new comments (starting about /roughly minute 16) RD Wolff turns to the issue of Social Security again.  He explains that the government was over-taxing the poor and middle-class while giving a tax break to the rich. Now, the loan the government took from the Social Security Fund is going to be coming due. (The government borrowed the money which they had collected for Social Security.  SS was bringing in more money than it was spending.) 
So, as Wolff explains, the current rhetoric or flurry of discussion about Social Security  (of which--I think, though Wolff did not mention him---- Minarik is an example) is part of a program to convince the American people to cut Social Security.  However, as Wolff explains, the reason is because the government does not want to pay back Social Security the money it borrowed.

(As I recall, Minarik had the nerve to say that the money can't be paid back because it's already been spent!  Try that line the next time you borrow money!)

Minarik employs a curious rhetoric; one might almost say populist.

He claims to know that the American people want Social Security to pay for itself.
(One might ask whether the agricultural sector or the defense industry pay for themselves!)

So, Minarik is trying to threaten Americans with the fear (very Puritan-individualist) that they
might be getting something for nothing--aka, a "handout".  So, he is appealing to the emotion of shame and a particular (Puritan) cultural background.

But, as Richard D Wolff (among others, including the Cambridge Economist Ha Joon Chang), have pointed out:  industry/business gets all sorts of support from the government.   (I should add a link here to a recent editorial by Chang. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/05/company-profits-welfare-payments-society#history-link-box
(Chang's examples are not USA companies; but that doesn't change the general point that the contribution of government to private enterprise is real, large, and frequently un-noticed.)

 Wolff regularly makes this point in his weekly radio program.)

So, there's a bit of hypocrisy and/or inconsistency in shaming the elderly into accepting cuts.

Secondly, Minarik employs the same pseudo-populist rhetoric in hinting that cuts to defense spending would be unwelcome to Americans.  Errr, before or after they've been propagandized with the fear of foreign enemies? 

How does Minarik know the minds of ordinary Americans so well?  Does he have any evidence for these claims?

Monday, April 22, 2013

awards for stupidity?

If awards were given out for stupidity and arrogance (and irresponsiblity in the media)
then CNN and this guy deserve one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6RvSTiM3Yk


Err, the "Islamic" (sic) Czech Republic?

The "first president"?  Zeman?  Or did he mean Masaryk?  Or, perhaps, Havel?????

Is this the level of intelligence one finds in the CIA?

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Columbia economist confirms what my mother has been saying for years


Jeffrey Sachs: Well, thank you very much for saying it and practicing it. I do believe – by the way, I’m just going to end here because I’ve been told I have to run to the U.N. in fact right now – I believe we have a crisis of values that is extremely deep, because the regulations and the legal structures need reform. But I meet a lot of these people on Wall Street on a regular basis right now. I’m going to put it very bluntly. I regard the moral environment as pathological. And I’m talking about the human interactions that I have. I’ve not seen anything like this, not felt it so palpably. These people are out to make billions of dollars and nothing should stop them from that. They have no responsibility to pay taxes. They have no responsibility to their clients. They have no responsibility to people, counterparties in transactions. They are tough, greedy, aggressive, and feel absolutely out of control, you know, in a quite literal sense. And they have gamed the system to a remarkable extent, and they have a docile president, a docile White House, and a docile regulatory system that absolutely can’t find its voice. It’s terrified of these companies.
If you look at the campaign contributions, which I happened to do yesterday for another purpose, the financial markets are the number one campaign contributors in the U.S. system now. We have a corrupt politics to the core, I’m afraid to say, and no party is – I mean there’s – if not both parties are up to their necks in this. This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. It really doesn’t have anything to do with right wing or left wing, by the way. The corruption is, as far as I can see, everywhere. But what it’s led to is this sense of impunity that is really stunning, and you feel it on the individual level right now, and it’s very, very unhealthy.

(ADDED EMPHASIS)

Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/jeffrey-sachs-calls-out-wall-street-criminality-and-pathological-greed.html#jh6KYxc3WGAEbZUL.99

Of course, my mother doesn't have to run off to the UN after imparting her wise words...........

Consoling remark for Jeffrey Sachs:  That's okay Jeffrey.  No less a philosopher than John Locke (errr, he did sort of believe in private property and profit-potential as a moral basis for society........) was once described [by one of my former teachers (B. Enc)] as holding the views which your grandmother would hold.  So, if the wisdom of Jeffrey Sachs resembles the wisdom of my mother (who is a grandmother), JS is no worse off than John Locke.

Footnote/Explanation:
I'm no Locke scholar.  Here I rely upon my memory of something Ellen Meiksins Woods said in her The Origin of Capitalism; A Longer View.  As I recall the book, she remarked at one point that Locke's view of property justified taking possession of property which was not being used to produce profits generated within a market.  I can't check right now, as I've not got access to the book.  However, at the time I read it, I thought it was the most interesting thing in the book.  (Yes, it's true, I'm not political philosopher!)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

noted in passing

"Two eminent mainstream economists from the most prestigious and conservative Harvard University whose studies on debt have been used by everyone as a defence of the policies of austerity (although not openly by R&R themselves) have been found to distort, mislead and make basic errors in their stats!  It does not make you very confident about mainstream economics, if you ever were."

-Michael Roberts


http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

cognitive linguistics and czech

I once had an old-fashioned grammar for Slovak by Mistrik.  My favorite line was when he said:  The exceptions are, however, numerous.

No such honesty from cognitive linguistics.  Instead we have an artificial conceptual scheme where the opposite of a concept counts as the SAME concept!---Because,you see, they are OPPOSITES,
and so related!  (And, then what isn't related?)

And all of the numerous exceptions are not so-labelled, but are called "idioms".

Ha ha ha

What a joke!

But you see, there is really only one category here, or one basic category, with a few
permutations, that make sense---if, that is, you grasp the category in the first place.

Yeah, right.

But, you know what?  I don't see it.  And the book doesn't help me see it.  We've got
this outrageous claim that every category is unitary---which is betrayed by the complicated
permutations on the original concept that take it far from the unitary beginning, and then
the exceptions ---err sorry---unpredictable idioms are, as Mistrik once said, numerous......

Footnote:
How is a raven like a writing desk?  Answer:  Ask a cognitive linguist!  He or she will be sure to find one category with sixteen permutations that applies! And it will be based upon the basics of human psychology, how we perceive space and such, and won't involve artificial non-basic or constructed concepts......  and it will be, finally as clear as mud.

AFTERTHOUGHT
It's quite possible the book in question does a very good describe of describing what goes on in Czech within each case.  However, my doubts involve their summary or analysis of the descriptions.  To what extent is their theory of what's going on coherent or/and digestible?   To what extent is their theory about what's going on comprehensible to someone who has not already mastered the categories they are laying out in their fanciful language?







Saturday, April 13, 2013

guest blogger

Curious thoughts from a friend:

"I can't read classical philosophy anymore.  There's no pain there.  There's no suffering.  And that means these authors do not speak to my life.  Everything is suppressed. There's too much self-control.  It stifles the life out of me."

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Impeach Obama!

You say it can't be done?  --Okay, if this is a democracy, let's have a re-call election for Obama and anyone else who touches Social Security.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10039

they call it "flexibility"

It's a bit of a joke really.

You can read European writers describing their connection to a place, its language and people.

And I can hear students virtually convicting me for possessing no tender feelings toward my "nation"....(As if to love one's family is not enough!).....

Yet, as I think of my life:  where was I supposed to put down roots?  And when would I have formed the deep attachments that Europeans feel?  It wasn't possible.

I moved from one region of the country (with a distinctive accent) to another (with a very different regional accent) when I was five.
I attended a university far from my family.
I attended a second university even further away.
And, as a professional, I could not secure a job in one location, but was
forced to move yearly--with the exception of an illusory four-year stay in one Midwestern city........

So, my life was perfectly executed so as to prevent any deep connection to a place.
You cannot miss something you have never had.

capitalist myth

The propaganda system of capitalism mis-represents chance events and luck.
A mystification occurs:  not merely luck but "enterpreneurial talent" produces wealth.
But, if it's not luck, then it's ruthless unprincipled action, combined with luck that
creates individual fortunes.

And I remember Socrates saying that good luck is wisdom---or should I say,
all there is to good luck is wisdom, nothing more.

But the wealthy capitalist is the epitomy of non-wisdom, and the fact that the wealthy capitalist is worshipped means that our societies have reached the most degraded, uncivilized condition possible.....

Sunday, April 7, 2013

draft

Waves of cruelty
Unleashed again
We drown
Or we swim,
swept along in the scummy waters.

Corpses pass by,
and smelling the decay,
I could let myself sink beneath the water,
just to escape the reality of death.

Voices ring out,
confused voices,
and above the crowd,
the master's voice,
transmitted by a thousand priests of pollution and decay,
a thousand voices singing a song of cruelty,
promising nothing,
threatening punishment for our failures to be rich,
as they are,
in the service of the cruel ones,
the fat ones,
the ruling ones,
living high above us,
not deigning to notice us,
except insofar as,
they can steal from us what little we still have.

This is a recipe,
and a plan,
like a baseball bat.
But no skinhead ever managed with such exquisite coordination,
and such arrogance
to steal life from the living,
and crush hopes.

And I hear voices singing the chants of market and wealth,
true-believers,
eager advocates of cruelty in the name of someone's version of justice,
blind believers,
hopeful and enthusiastic,
willing participants,
and able to blame you or me,
because,
they say,
we do have democracy,
after all.



Friday, April 5, 2013

Merkel is sincere?---does sincerity kill?

Recently I had a brief conversation with someone from Berlin.
She assured me that Merkel was sincere.

As is normal in conversations with strangers, I noted this, and the convesation moved on to other topics.

Yet, now I wonder:  Would it be some kind of consolation to people in Greece or Cyprus or Spain?  People who cannot get access to the medicines they need?  People who cannot afford to have both electricity and food...... Would it somehow make their lives better to know that Merkel is "sincere"?

It reminds of people who used to say of George Bush, the younger, that he seemed like a "nice" guy, someone you could talk to......

Perhaps, a better question would be:  whose interests does Merkel represent? 

Note:  A Lancet study confirms what we expected:  Austerity is causing deaths:

 http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/lancet-study-european-austerity-costing-lives-a-891308.html

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Royal Parasite Gets a Raise

According to the Guardian, she gets an extra 5 million Pounds---or, 7.6 Million US Dollars.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/02/queen-gets-5m-payrise-taxpayer

While the elderly in England can't afford to heat their homes and freeze to death...........http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9800



Support the strikers in NYC

Support the strikers in NYC:  Fast Food workers deserve higher pay, better working conditions.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

idiots and sadists

I am sick and tired of the way gmail or hotmail change things for the worse.
The box where I write is consistently too small, and the available controls not clearly marked.
There is just too much clutter.

And, adding insult to injury, one has to endure the unending hyperbole about improvement.

Most disgusting of all is when these uneducated people attempt to be "cute". The result is awkward and childish.

Computer revolution?  ha ha ha ha, that's a joke!  Yeah, there should be a real computer revolution.  Free internet.  No advertising.  And no awkward attempts at humor or cleverness. 

Excuse me while I puke.

brief update

As regular readers of this blog know, my mother has, for the past two years, been using a walker which was too large for her.

That means she has not been able to walk properly, thereby training her muscles the wrong way---and increasing the likelikhood that she can lose her balance and fall.  For an eighty-six year old woman, that is a serious matter.

Ergo, the people who gave her the walker, and all those therapists and therapists' assistants who saw my mother and the walker, but said nothing, were incompetent.  You could say they were guilty of malpractice.

Now, my mother is trying to get a walker that is the right size.  The local medical supplier is not being cooperative.

Imagine.  You are eighty-six years old.  You have worked hard all of your life, and paid into social insurance, and you are still working.  (My mother cares for my less healthy father.)  And, the system is such crap that you cannot even get so simple a thing as a walker which is actually the right size for your height.

And the people who are supposed to be professionals do not even bother to notice that you've got the wrong walker---until, that is, my mother started going to a new PT.  So, the ratio of competent to incompetent PT's would appear to be approximatel 1 to 4 .

That's bullshit.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Is the USA a "Christian" country?

A medieval saint once said something like this:  If a rich man has more bread than he can eat, then that food does not belong to him.  It belongs to the poor.

Today, in the USA property rights trump the rights of the hungry for food.

The link below will take you to a video in which people watch as food is tossed into dumpsters.
A bank (according to the report) decided that the food should be tossed out--not given away.

It is also true that the people reporting this "story" try to blame it on the store owners.
I don't buy that.  The bank could have equally decided to give the food away.

But, you should judge for yourself.

Of course, I'm not really concerned with whether the USA is really "Christian" --whatever that means.  My concern is whether it is a generous or generically speaking, small 'c' christian country.  Is it a country where some have unjustified and arbitrary power over others?  A country where the so-called property rights of a few take precedence over the well-being of the vast majority?

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blzS7acNFck