Category: Society
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The Great Gatsby Curve
The Great Gatsby Curve illustrates the connection between concentration of wealth in one generation and the ability of those in the next generation to move up the economic ladder compared to their parents. The curve was introduced in a 2012 speech by chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger, an economist and a…
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James Baldwin on the White Man’s Necessity for a Nigger
Hi, I’m a bit embarrassed that I have not dedicated a space on this blog to talk about one of my favorite intellectuals: James Baldwin. In 1965, Baldwin visited Cambridge University for a historic debate against the leading Conservative “intellectual”, William F. Buckley. The debate took place at the debating hall of Cambridge Union surrounded…
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Examples of the Inherent Corrupt Nature of Corporations
Hi, In 2004, Joel Bakan published a book titled: The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Balkan argued that Corporations are inherently corrupt because they are legally bound to place profit over everything, even the public good. The book was turned into a successful film and a movement was launched. I agree with Bakan’s…
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United Way Study: 44% of Americans Cannot Make Ends Meet
Hi, In October 16, 2005, Citigroup came out with a brochure for investors called “Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances”. The brochure was an honest assessment of the world where it explained that “there is no such animal as “the U.S. consumer” or “the UK consumer”, or indeed the “Russian consumer”… There are rich consumers,…
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Detrimental Influences: Negro Encroachment
In June of 1937, surveyors from the Federal government-sponsored Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) visited Philadelphia neighborhoods to warn banks away from lending in areas with large number of African Americans. These surveyors assessed the favorable and detrimental influences. “Favorable: Good transportation. Detrimental: Negro encroachment.“ Read the surveys your self: West Philadelphia survey, South Philadelphia survey,…
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David Hume on the Passing of Property
David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1742) Part II, Essay XII – OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT “But to whom is allegiance due? And who is our lawful sovereign? This question is often the most difficult of any, and liable to infinite discussions. When people are so happy, that they can answer, Our present sovereign,…
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Military Propaganda in Sports, Movies, and TV
Ever wonder why there are so many military commercials during American sports games? It’s pretty obvious. On November 4, 2015, U.S. Senators Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and John McCain (R-AZ) released a new joint oversight report exposing widespread evidence that the Department of Defense (DOD) has been paying professional sports teams in the National Football League (NFL),…
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Aristotle on Oligarchy vs Democracy
Aristotle’s Politics, ~350 BCE, Book 3: Oligarchy is when men of property have the government in their hands; democracy, the opposite, when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers The argument seems to show that, whether in oligarchies or in democracies, the number of the governing body, whether the greater number,…
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Religion: The Original “Fake News”
Let’s talk facts, truth, and “fake news”. Without question, the idea of “agreeing on a basic set of facts” has become one of the pressing issues of our time. There’s been a ton of material written on these subjects since the 2016 US presidential election. Durham University in England published a paper titled America and the…