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HAPPINESS, CREATIVITY AND EQUALITY
2011-11-25 05:40:00 American urban studies theorist, Richard Florida, explores the correlation between happiness, creativity, and equality in his latest piece for The Atlantic. According to his findings, a creative nation makes for happier people and less social inequality. Of course, this is the condensed version. You can read the entire article here.
Arab inequality in Israel
2009-08-31 09:34:00 The conflict with Jews stems largely from Arab backwardness. Many Palestinians have lived in refugee camps for four generations rather than emigrating?and they can freely go to many countries?in search of a decent job. Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and especially in Gaza ,create enormous political pressure, which the opponents of Israel exploit. Arab backwardness ...
By: Samson Blinded
Arab inequality in Israel
2009-08-31 09:34:00 The conflict with Jews stems largely from Arab backwardness. Many Palestinians have lived in refugee camps for four generations rather than emigrating?and they can freely go to many countries?in search of a decent job. Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and especially in Gaza ,create enormous political pressure, which the opponents of Israel exploit. Arab backwardness ...
By: Samson Blinded
White recession, Black depression: Let?s make racial inequality a piece of
2009-02-19 22:13:00 [From San Francisco Bay View] by Dedrick Muhammad and Michael Brown Nearly half of all Black children live beneath the poverty line ? a figure almost identical to that which existed on the day Martin Luther King was assassinated, and four times the average for western European countries. During this Black History Month, the nation and the world ...
By: News for Greens
White recession, Black depression: Let?s make racial inequality a piece of
2009-02-19 22:13:00 [From San Francisco Bay View] by Dedrick Muhammad and Michael Brown Nearly half of all Black children live beneath the poverty line ? a figure almost identical to that which existed on the day Martin Luther King was assassinated, and four times the average for western European countries. During this Black History Month, the nation and the world ...
By: News for Greens
Bible moved to library top shelf over inequality fears
2009-02-19 16:30:00 Lucy Cockcroft in The Telegraph writes,'Officials have issued guidance that libraries should keep all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves Muslims have complained that the Koran is often displayed on the lower shelves, which is deemed offensive as many believe the holy book should be placed above "commonplace things". Now library officials in one city have been told to keep all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves in the interests of equality. It has caused concern from Christian charities that this will put the Bible out of the reach and sight of many people. The situation was brought to light in guidance published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, a quango answering to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, on how to handle controversial materials. It said some Muslims in Leicester had moved copies of the Koran to the top shelves of libraries, because they believe it is an insult to display it in a low position. The city's librarians consulte...
By: Christian Quoter
Poisonous Plutocracy Pushes Economic Inequality
2008-06-05 12:51:00 by Joel S. Hirschhorn The biggest political issue receiving no attention by the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates is the powerful plutocracy that has captured the government to produce rising economic inequality. Both major parties have enabled, promoted and supported this Upper Class plutocracy. Myriad federal policies make the rich super-rich and the powerful dominant in both good and bad economic times. Meanwhile, despite elections, the middle class sinks into one big Lower Class as the plutocracy ensures that national prosperity is unshared. Why no attention? Why no explicit reference to a plutocracy that makes a mockery of American democracy? Simple answer: because both major parties and their candidates are subservient to numerous corporate and other special interests that use their money and influence to ensure that their elitist priorities prevail. Make no mistake. Barack Obama with all his slick rhetoric is just as much a supporter and benefactor of...
Mindblowing inequality isn't just unfair but inefficient! McCain needs an e
2008-05-29 22:34:00 Many people beleive that there had to be a trade-off between social justice and efficiency; that the persuit of the former will inevitably have to come at the expense of the latter. Yet, social justice and efficiency tend to correlate highly. Now, let me explain why injustice and inefficiency correlate so strongly...First, let me explain social justice real quick: according to Miller (1999) it consists of three components: need, desert and equalty. Needs are just that: needs - in a just distribution of resoucres all basic needs neccessary for individual development are met; deserts are rewards for contributions to society - they should equal one's contributions, i.e. what you put in, is what you get out; equality here describes the idea that citizenship is to be distributed equally, i.e. no is to be degraded to the status of being a second class citizen.The distribution of household income in the U.S. lends itself as an example for why redistribution is necessary for the sake of ef...
The HIV-AIDS epidemic has been fuelled by gender inequality
2008-05-06 15:55:00 Worldwide, rates of sexually transmitted infections among young people are soaring: one-third of the 340 million new STIs each year occur in people under 25 years of age. Each year, more than one in every 20 adolescents contracts a curable STI. More than half of all new HIV infections occur in people between the ages of 15 to 24 years. The sexual health needs for adolescent girls are generally overlooked, Stigma and vulnerability affects particular groups of men as well as women. Although men generally have more access to information on sexual issues than women, and more decision-making power regarding sexual behavior, Access to information, and treatment for other infections which facilitate the transmission of HIV and onset of AIDS, including sexually transmitted infections, are limited because of weak public health services, health workers? negative attitudes, and the high cost of treatment. If the adolescents are informed and thought about their sexual and reproductive health, ...
Economist: OFW money can?t bridge income inequality
2008-04-27 04:23:00 EXTREME reliance on money from Filipinos overseas hasn?t helped the country get out of the poverty rut and may even hobble the poor?s income capability, says an economist. Using government?s triennial Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES), University of the Philippines economic researcher Ernesto Pernia said remittances from overseas Filipino workers may even be contributing ...
Estudio de StatsCan: Earnings inequality and earnings instability of immigr
2008-04-09 15:46:00 The Daily publica hoy un estudio llamado “Earnings inequality and earnings instability of immigrants in Canada” Algunos highlights… The study found that instability in earnings for immigrants usually declines substantially after they have spent several years in Canada. Another finding concerns the impact of business cycles on earnings instability for immigrants. While instability generally decreased during the ...
OFW money fails to bridge income inequality - economist
2008-04-01 00:56:00 MAKATI CITY (OFW Journalism Consortium)?EXTREME reliance on money from Filipinos overseas hasn?t helped the country get out of the poverty rut and may even hobble the poor?s income capability, says an economist. Using government?s triennial Family Income and Expenditures Survey, University of the Philippines economist Ernesto Pernia said in a research that remittances from overseas Filipino ...
Unwavering Commitment to Inequality in Gaza [Digg]
2008-03-14 01:48:00 Death hovered over Gaza long before locally-made Palestinian rockets struck near the Israeli southern town of Sderot on February 27, killing Roni Yechiah and sparking an Israeli 'retaliation' that has already claimed over 120 Palestinian lives.
Unwavering Commitment to Inequality in Gaza [Digg]
2008-03-14 01:48:00 Death hovered over Gaza long before locally-made Palestinian rockets struck near the Israeli southern town of Sderot on February 27, killing Roni Yechiah and sparking an Israeli 'retaliation' that has already claimed over 120 Palestinian lives.
By: ChatnChill
‘Unwavering Commitment’ to Inequality
2008-03-09 10:46:00 by Ramzy Baroud Death hovered over Gaza long before locally-made Palestinian rockets struck near the Israeli southern town of Sderot on February 27, killing Roni Yechiah and sparking an Israeli ‘retaliation’ that has already claimed over 120 Palestinian lives. Yechiah’s death was actually the first of its kind in nine months, and understandably so. The crude Palestinian rockets were often criticised even by Palestinians as useless in the tit-for-tat style of war underway, while easily used by Israeli officials as a cacus belli, or at least as an excuse for keeping Gaza ‘contained’, besieged and on the brink of starvation. For Israel the rockets are important as a pretext to maintain a state of siege against Hamas, and a low-intensity warfare that creates permanent distraction from the confiscation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal settlements – and also as justification for the slow moving ‘peace process’. However, while pro-Israeli pundits in the US and elsewhe...
It's not culture that causes the real inequality.
2008-03-01 01:55:00 So, The New Republic, flagship magazine of the center-left (though the American Prospect, founded by the likes of Robert Reich and Paul Starr no less, certainly fits that category as well), featured a guest column by libertarian Brink Lindsey, an attorney who is now vice president for research at CATO institute. In Culture of Success, he attempt to tackle the inequality riddle, but examining “what is holding back lower-income Americans from going to college.” His analysis of why working class kids are so much less likely to go to college as middle and upper middle class kids is factually accurate and does a reasonable job of explaining the “education gap” (pretty good for an attorney covering a sociological issue). His analysis of income inequality, however, completely misses the point.According to Lindsay, the rising college costs are not the sole reason why lower income Americans aren’t going to college (I do have to give credit him with acknowledging the facts that coll...
How current inequality is shattering the American Dream
2008-02-27 11:44:00 Social justice, as manifested in the American Dream, compromises two socio-economic principles. One is the belief that if people work hard, attain an education and make the most of their skills they can become successful. The other is the belief that everyone ought to have a chance at self-actualization and economic success. Both beliefs are undermined by excessive income inequality. The difference in compensation between the members of the upper class and upper middle class simply does not match the difference in qualifications and societal contributions. The gap between the rich and the bottom 99% has grown out of proportion, especially when compared to the much smaller gap between the upper middle and working class. If upper middle class professionals hold the highest educational attainment and most prestigious positions within society, how can the gap between the capitalist class and professional class be so much larger than the gap between the working and professional class?The...
Why is inequality increasing?
2008-01-18 08:23:00 It is established fact, agreed upon by social scientists, that the top 1% has been pulling ahead of the bottom 99%. That makes the U.S. one of just four developed countries that saw inequality increase (others, like Canada and Norway, actually saw their inequality decrease). But why? On page 169 of Flat World, Big Gaps a collection of academic essays on inequality, poverty and globalization published in association with the UN, economist John Weeks of London University provides an answer:"In the four OECD countries in which inequality significantly increased, the proximate cuases are clear...Reducation in the progressivity of national tax structures, including a shift from direct to indirect taxes (from corporate and personal income taxes to sales, or VAT, taxes), s fall in the average income tax rates by reducing taxes at the top of the distribution, and reduction in corporate taxes and taxes on unearned income;Reducations in expenditures on universal social progreammes (e.g., unem...
Anthony Giddens on the Third Way after Blair
2007-12-16 21:06:00 Watch Professor Lord Giddens explaining his understanding of the “Third Way” - the former buzzword of social democratic renewal he helped to coin - after Blair. He talks about how Gordon Brown fits into the Third Way model and why it could still be relevant today.
Anthony Giddens on the Third Way after Blair
2007-12-16 21:06:00 Watch Professor Lord Giddens explaining his understanding of the “Third Way” - the former buzzword of social democratic renewal he helped to coin - after Blair. He talks about how Gordon Brown fits into the Third Way model and why it could still be relevant today.
The Left must unite to regain the Primacy of Politics
2007-12-11 23:08:00 Watch Neal Lawson, chair of the pressure group Compass discussing the nature of the “social recession” in Britain and what sort of political response the left should pursue. He stresses that left-of-centre parties have to cooperate more on a European and global level if they want to successfully shape the world we live in.
The Left must unite to regain the Primacy of Politics
2007-12-11 23:08:00 Watch Neal Lawson, chair of the pressure group Compass discussing the nature of the “social recession” in Britain and what sort of political response the left should pursue. He stresses that left-of-centre parties have to cooperate more on a European and global level if they want to successfully shape the world we live in.
Left in the Distance: Reflections on France?s Banlieue Riots
2007-12-08 00:43:00 By Crispin Williams Barbaric! Savage! These are just some of the terms that have been used to describe the latest round of riots in France’s troubled banlieues (suburbs). The violence at the end of November in Villiers-le-Bel comes just two years after the riots of 2005, showing that the tensions and problems in these neighbourhoods remain ...
Left in the Distance: Reflections on France?s Banlieue Riots
2007-12-08 00:43:00 By Crispin Williams Barbaric! Savage! These are just some of the terms that have been used to describe the latest round of riots in France’s troubled banlieues (suburbs). The violence at the end of November in Villiers-le-Bel comes just two years after the riots of 2005, showing that the tensions and problems in these neighbourhoods remain ...
Corporatist policies increase economic inequality. Surprise!
2007-11-26 00:00:00 The most important message in Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal is that mainstream economists have been bullshitting us about the cause-and-effect relationship between America's growing economic inequality and government policies: Inequality isn't unavoidable because of globalization or any...
France?s ?Mardi Noir? could reveal Europe?s Globalisation Opportunity
2007-11-23 00:22:00 By Crispin Williams ‘Mardi Noir’ shouted the reporter (November 20th) as the camera turned to show chaos on the day that France ground to a halt after widespread industrial action. For some, the chaos signaled the stormy start of President Sarkozy’s bid to modenise the French economy. But for many on the European political left, ‘Black ...
Inequality hitting record high
2007-11-15 05:56:00 According to IRS data, the top 1% has now the largest share of income since 1929: To see the data IRS data I used to create this graph, see this spreadsheet prepared by UC Berkley economics professor Emmanuel Saez.
Growth, Poverty and Inequality in Mozambique
2007-09-24 19:42:00 Received from IPC Growth, Poverty and Inequality in Mozambique ? Country Study # 10 We are pleased to announce the publication of IPC Country Study #10, ?Growth, Poverty and Inequality in Mozambique?. The authors, Pekka Virtanen and Dag Ehrenpreis, examine Mozambique?s recent record of sustained economic growth and rapid poverty reduction. ...
The U.S. today - an oligarchy with inequality growing worse
2007-08-29 22:42:00 by Burton H. Wolfe Throughout my career in journalism, dating back more than 50 years, I have been painting the U.S. as an oligarchy governed by an aristocracy of wealth. More and more social critics are now providing the same picture, with statistics showing the increasingly worsening inequality that characterizes this nation. Here, by permission of the authors, is a graphic presentation of the situation by labor law attorney Dmitri Iglitzin and Steven Hill, director of the political reform program of New America Foundation and author of Ten Steps to Repair American Democracy. When pets are poisoned by imported pet food or U.S. attorneys are fired under suspicious circumstances, Congress gears up hearings and vows quick action. A far greater scandal, however, has hardly gained the interest of legislators or the presidential candidates. That is the increasing wealth gap between the rich, the middle class and the poor, which is reaching alarming proportions. The ...
Robert Frank - Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class
2007-08-28 17:49:00 From The Oprah & Friends Radio Show with Jean Chatzky, 29 August 2007 Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class (The Aaron Wildavsky Forum for Public Policy) by Robert Frank Although middle-income families don’t earn much more than they did several decades ago, they are buying bigger cars, houses, and appliances. To pay for them, they spend more than they earn and carry record levels of debt. In a book that explores the very meaning of happiness and prosperity in America today, Robert Frank explains how increased concentrations of income and wealth at the top of the economic pyramid have set off “expenditure cascades” that raise the cost of achieving many basic goals for the middle class. Writing in lively prose for a general audience, Frank employs up-to-date economic data and examples drawn from everyday life to shed light on reigning models of consumer behavior. He also suggests reforms that could mitigate the costs of inequality. Falling...
By: Oprah Selects
Inequality has run Amok. Do Leaders Care?
2007-08-07 02:59:00 By Steven Hill and Dmitri Iglitzin When pets are poisoned by imported pet food or U.S. attorneys are fired under suspicious circumstances, Congress gears up hearings and vows quick action. A far greater scandal, however, has hardly gained the interest of legislators or the presidential candidates. That is the increasing wealth gap between the rich, the ...
Inequality before the law in India
2007-07-28 03:57:00 Robert Priddy, retired academic (Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Oslo) was the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway - see his Wikipedia reference. His article Avoidance of the law in India gives links to BBC and other sources that illustrate how hard it often is, especially for those without great wealth and political clout, to ...
China Power. China Inequality.
2007-07-22 00:07:00 Excellent post over at the Time China Blog, entitled, "Comments on Slavery From a Former Prisoner," on how none of the "big fish" behind the China brick kiln forced labor have yet been touched. Though I am not usually a fan of analogizing China's problems to those of other countries as though every criticism of China has to be countered with something indicating, "the rest of the world is not perfect either," I do like the analogy to, along with, the distinctions from Abu Ghraib. It is worth a read.
By: China Law Blog
Harvard Professor on Wealth Inequality
2007-04-16 05:04:00 I just stumbled across this article written by Edward Glaeser…a Harvard professor, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and New York Sun columnist. It is rather long for a blog and I ordinarily wouldn’t publish an entry of this length, but I think it is a great read on wealth inequality and wanted to ...
By: Qube Exchange
Harvard Professor on Wealth Inequality
2007-04-16 05:04:00 I just stumbled across this article written by Edward Glaeser…a Harvard professor, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and New York Sun columnist. It is rather long for a blog and I ordinarily wouldn’t publish an entry of this length, but I think it is a great read on wealth inequality and wanted to ...
By: Qube Exchange
The Shrinking Pie and Income Inequality
2007-03-18 00:00:00 This is America in 2006: The chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, H. Lee Scott Jr., made more than $15 million last year in cash, stock and options, according to the company’s annual report, an amount equivalent to roughly 850 times...
The Science Corner: Bell?s Inequality
2007-03-01 23:55:05 At the end of my last article (printed in the old Hashmark) I signed off saying that I had embraced relativism. I was swayed by the soothing words of Keats: ?beauty is truth, truth is beauty - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know?. So you may be wondering what became of my venture in the land of relativism; well, all I?ve got to say is that it?s nice for a holiday but I wouldn?t want live there. For example, banks do not accept that the fact that I am overdrawn is only a relative truth and must be put in the cultural context of a nation on the verge of a spending lull induced episode of deflation. The sad fact is that I went over my limit (and am consequently in line for a fine) and that relativism is rubbish at solving inequalities. (more…)
By: The Hashmark
The Inequality Firewall
2007-02-10 20:20:02 The fog of battle [1] of "Slightly-Less-White Thursday" [2] has now dispersed a bit. Numerous commentators declared that the weakness in subprime, made manifest by the New Century and HSBC announcements, would not spread beyond that narrow category. The remainder of the week seems to have proved the optimists right. What caught my attention during ...
By: HousingDoom
Bush Tax Cuts Reinforce Inequality
2007-01-12 02:16:01 [I happened to do my Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia on property theory. Thus, I am constantly aware that the distribution of resources is a game in which the savvy or those with an inside track can grab, while those without either knowledge or contacts are left to be exploited by the greedies. The Republican moves [...]
Reality of Rich and Poor | Wealth inequality is widening in
2006-12-06 09:11:04 A United Nations (UN) survey has found that 2% of adults command more than half of the world's wealth, while the bottom 50% possesses just 1%.While income is distributed unequally across the globe, the geographical spread of wealth, which includes property and financial assets, is even more skewed, the study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the UN University showed. The report was released last Tuesday and its authors say it is the most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever taken. (credit)The full report paper is here (pdf file). Also Read details about the study which exposes what kind of inequal world we live in today. Here are some of the headlines around the globe on this from google news::: Richest 2% own more than half the world - study:: 40% of world's wealth owned by 1% of population:: Have's have most of it:: The rich really do own the world:: Chasm between world's rich and poor:: Small Band of Rich Controls Majority of Wealth- More New... |
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