Green New Deal

[S'toon]

"We've got about 400 people in this room.... Imagine if dinner was carted into this room, and four people got half the food. The night would end in violence," Anand Giridharadas told IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed at a public event hosted by the Samara Centre for Democracy.


"But somehow you scale it up to the level of the society — millions and millions of people — and you make it money instead of food, and people are like, 'Yeah I guess that's okay,'" Giridharadas added.


The journalist and author has been investigating how global elites in the U.S. have been "changing the world" and dominating the news with their efforts. In his book Winner Takes All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Giridharadas lays out how the the rich and powerful have been fighting for equality and injustice, branding themselves as socially engaged agents of change and pouring millions — if not trillions — of tax-avoided dollars into social causes.


But, he warns, in all of this good, their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve is obscured.


"If all these people on the top are doing all this nice stuff, but year by year they are increasing their concentration of wealth and power, their monopolies are getting more monopolistic, their tech companies are becoming more abusive of privacy and democracy — not less — if their influence over politics is increasing, not decreasing, then what is all this do-gooding doing?"

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More at:
How elite do-gooders 'fixing' the world are part of the problem: Anand Giridharadas

 

[nwdiver]

I disagree with the idea that you can 'hoard' a number. I don't think eliminating poverty and wealth inequality are mutually exclusive. IMO the key perception that needs to be accepted is that money is fake. It's a mechanism for encouraging increasingly unneeded labor in exchange for increasingly abundant goods and services. How we incorporate that reality will be up to us;

 

[mspohr]

Farmers are destroying mountains of food. Here's what to do about it

Farmers are destroying mountains of food. Here's what to do about it | Christopher Cook

Farm crises in the 80s and 90s, coupled with waves of corporate takeovers, ushered an era of agribusiness consolidation wherein smaller numbers of giant farms and food processing corporations now control ever-greater portions of the food system. A handful of powerful corporations control the bulk of the US meat market, and this centralized production has had disastrous ramifications: as Covid-19 spread among workers in giant meatpacking plants, facility closures curtailed huge portions of US meat production in one fell swoop. (Many argue, with ample evidence, that less meat would be a boon for our health and the planet’s future.)

There are few winners (corporate executives and major shareholders) and many losers (consumers, farmworkers, meatpacking workers, farmers, and our environment) in this monopolistic corporate food system that’s designed for profit and market control, not for sustainable or equitable farming and eating.

But this vital act, feeding people in need and averting massive food waste, can’t be left to random acts of kindness. Why aren’t federal, state, and local governments setting up food distribution networks, employing laid-off truckers, warehouse workers, and others? Why not create a Green New Deal for food that creates jobs and boosts communities’ ability to feed themselves in these increasingly volatile times?

 

[mspohr]

Schumer, Pelosi set to unveil 'Rooseveltian' relief package

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will soon unveil a coronavirus relief package that he described as "Rooseveltian" in its scope and size.

Schumer on Thursday said the fiscally cautious approach now being taken by Republicans like McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) reminded him of former President Hoover's response to the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression.

Schumer said the better course of action is to follow in the footsteps of former President Franklin Roosevelt, who oversaw the largest expansion of the federal government and is credited by many historians with helping to end the Great Depression.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

I disagree with the idea that you can 'hoard' a number. I don't think eliminating poverty and wealth inequality are mutually exclusive. IMO the key perception that needs to be accepted is that money is fake. It's a mechanism for encouraging increasingly unneeded labor in exchange for increasingly abundant goods and services. How we incorporate that reality will be up to us;

Delightful turn this thread has taken! Wealth and income needs to be talked about more during this shutdown, it's peak fossil fuels literally RIGHT NOW. Everything is turning.

We talk about "eliminating" poverty and inequality, given our track record that's unlikely to happen via any centralized effort. Unfortunately we needed to wait until the environment made such a turnaround possible. Fortunately, we're there! Obviously we have the technology in place to live in sustainable abundance, now we just need to take the first few steps and the market should do the rest. I think you'll be surprised the type and amount of effort that'll be needed to "do good" in 4 or 5 years time.

We don't know what it's like to live our lives without the likes of fossil lobbyists and Saudis dictating our every move. That ends in about 2-3 years, so get excited! Pretty soon solar installers will be lining up banks to bid on servicing their customers, not the other way around. It's gonna be sweet. Things should naturally flatten out nicely from there.

 

[mspohr]

UBI gets its foot in the door!

Democratic senators propose $2,000 monthly payments to most Americans

 

[jerry33]

UBI gets its foot in the door!

Democratic senators propose $2,000 monthly payments to most Americans

The trick here is to make sure that it is in addition to Social Security/Medicare. Otherwise it's just another kick in the teeth to Senior Citizens.

 

[JRP3]

It says if you make less than $120K so that should include most seniors. I'm assuming there's no chance it will be implemented anyway.

 

[mspohr]

UBI gets its foot in the door!

Democratic senators propose $2,000 monthly payments to most Americans

I've been thinking that giving everyone food stamps (SNAP) would be a good start. It would be easy to implement since the program is already set up. If you just made everyone eligible, you wouldn't need a bureaucracy to determine who gets it. Just send everyone a card. Would drastically reduce food insecurity.

 

[Bucfan11]

I've been thinking that giving everyone food stamps (SNAP) would be a good start. It would be easy to implement since the program is already set up. If you just made everyone eligible, you wouldn't need a bureaucracy to determine who gets it. Just send everyone a card. Would drastically reduce food insecurity.

Geez... unbelievable.

 

[nwdiver]

Geez... unbelievable.

That something so easy, proven to add economic activity and already has a program in place isn't being used more? Agreed... that IS unbelievable $1 in tax cuts adds ~$0.30 to the economy. $1 in SNAP adds ~$1.84.

If you want to improve the economy you don't let more money sit where it's not needed. You put more where there isn't enough.

 

[mspohr]

Geez... unbelievable.

I believe.

 

[mspohr]

That something so easy, proven to add economic activity and already has a program in place isn't being used more? Agreed... that IS unbelievable $1 in tax cuts adds ~$0.30 to the economy. $1 in SNAP adds ~$1.84.

If you want to improve the economy you don't let more money sit where it's not needed. You put more where there isn't enough.

People forget that the economy is not Wall St. and not rich people. The economy is everyone else working and spending for food, shelter, etc. Since jobs are scarce these days, the best way to get the economy going is to give people money to spend and food should be top of the list.

 

[mspohr]

US is pathetic compared to developed countries.

US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?

US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?

Germany the International Monetary Fund is predicting an unemployment rate of just 3.9% for 2020, up from 3.2% last year

Kurzarbeit – literally “short work” – allows businesses facing a temporary emergency to apply for government subsidies to keep paying workers’ salaries until the crisis passes.

“Keeping people connected to their employers is a good idea,” said Simon Johnson, professor of entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Retaining skilled workers and maintaining households in crisis, in principle, should allow people, companies and countries to bounce back faster once the crisis passes, he said.

Many European counties, including the UK, Italy and the Netherlands, have adapted versions of the model for the current crisis after witnessing Germany’s speedy recovery from the last recession. “The people who are closest to Germany actually seem to have got this, those that are further have struggled to understand it,” he said.

 

[mspohr]

“Capital in the 21st Century”: Finally, a Movie That Tells the Story of How We Got Into This Mess

This is what frightens Piketty: that we’re poised to rerun the 20th century in some hideously mutated form. “There are always politicians tempted to exploit the rising inequality,” he says. “You could see this very clearly in the world before 1914. And I’m very afraid at the beginning of the 21st century, that because we feel we cannot regulate international capitalism, we cannot properly tax billionaires and multinationals, instead we vent our anger” at other targets. The danger of misdirected rage is now even clearer than when the movie was filmed, as Congress and the Trump administration use the novel coronavirus as an excuse for “just shoveling money to rich people” via complicated but extremely lucrative tax breaks.

 

[rays427]

UBI gets its foot in the door!

Democratic senators propose $2,000 monthly payments to most Americans

Right now with Federal Unemployment payment of $600 per week ($15/hour) added to State unemployment most folks are getting around $1,000 per week which equates to $25/hour for 40 hour week. So there are a lot, if not most folks, that are better off staying on unemployment for as long as possible. In addition because of the shut down you can't spend as much since so much is shut down. You are not driving to work, eating out, taking vacations, etc.

 

[nwdiver]

Right now with Federal Unemployment payment of $600 per week ($15/hour) added to State unemployment most folks are getting around $1,000 per week which equates to $25/hour for 40 hour week. So there are a lot, if not most folks, that are better off staying on unemployment for as long as possible. In addition because of the shut down you can't spend as much since so much is shut down. You are not driving to work, eating out, taking vacations, etc.

....... is there some kind of point buried in there or are you just describing the facts on the ground?

 

[TheTalkingMule]

“Capital in the 21st Century”: Finally, a Movie That Tells the Story of How We Got Into This Mess

This is what frightens Piketty: that we’re poised to rerun the 20th century in some hideously mutated form. “There are always politicians tempted to exploit the rising inequality,” he says. “You could see this very clearly in the world before 1914. And I’m very afraid at the beginning of the 21st century, that because we feel we cannot regulate international capitalism, we cannot properly tax billionaires and multinationals, instead we vent our anger” at other targets. The danger of misdirected rage is now even clearer than when the movie was filmed, as Congress and the Trump administration use the novel coronavirus as an excuse for “just shoveling money to rich people” via complicated but extremely lucrative tax breaks.

This idea that things aren't 180 degrees different from here on out is annoyingly sticky. Wealth inequality in our time(the last 100 years) was based entirely on hoarding fossil fuels. How exactly is anyone gonna make money doing that moving forward?

 

[mspohr]

This idea that things aren't 180 degrees different from here on out is annoyingly sticky. Wealth inequality in our time(the last 100 years) was based entirely on hoarding fossil fuels. How exactly is anyone gonna make money doing that moving forward?

Before fossil fuels, agriculture was the source of inequality (feudalism, etc.). Going forward, it will be tech corporations.
I think the point is that it would be best to not have wealth inequality but the rich have a nasty habit of taking over and controlling everything.

 

[mspohr]

Under Trump, American exceptionalism means poverty, misery and death

Under Trump, American exceptionalism means poverty, misery and death | Robert Reich

With 4.25% of the world population, America has the tragic distinction of accounting for about 30% of pandemic deaths so far.

And it is the only advanced nation where the death rate is still climbing. Three thousand deaths per day are anticipated by 1 June.

The coronavirus has been especially potent in the US because America is the only industrialized nation lacking universal healthcare. Many families have been reluctant to see doctors or check into emergency rooms for fear of racking up large bills.

In no other advanced nation has Covid-19 forced so many average citizens into poverty so quickly. The Urban Institute reports that more than 30% of American adults have had to reduce their spending on food.

Elsewhere around the world, governments are providing generous income support. Not in the US.

America is also the only one of 22 advanced nations failing to give all workers some form of paid sick leave. As a result, many American workers have remained on the job when they should have been home.