The Lies And Propaganda About How Working Americans Have It So "Great" Have Never Been More Pronounced

The mind boggling stat from The Sunday Denver Post (p. 11A) that the U.S. is the only nation in the OECD that mandates no paid vacation days was hard to swallow.   Even more difficult,  when employers (91 percent) do offer such time off, only 70 % of workers take advantage.

Recall here that according to surplus value theory proposed by Karl Marx in his work, Kapital, if the labor value sold as a product or service is L, and V is the labor value embodied in the production of the item or service then the surplus value S is:

S = L - V

If an employee then earns $36,000 a year for generating a service or whatever other labor, and yields 6.2 days of his vacation time to the Boss Man, this translates to roughly $150 per working day assuming 20 such days per month. Then 6.2 days given up per year on average amounts to $930.

Then, by this reckoning V is the yearly paid labor or $36,000 and S is the unpaid labor or $930 per year. . The amount of labor expropriated per year is therefore equal to $930. Now, add in possible employee extra costs of $1,000 - say for health care or unpaid sick days - and you have $1,930 of labor exploited. 

Meanwhile, the rate of surplus value per year, or the rate of yearly exploitation is:

S/V = ($1,930)/ ($36,000) = 0.053

In other words, the company or Boss Man is extracting 5.3% more work per year out of his forlorn employee than that employee is being remunerated.  It was computations similar to these that led a statistics outfit called Hotwire to conclude American workers were leaving nearly $126 billion total "on the table" - and that was 7 years ago. 

Those who do take their paid vacation days too often remain willing hostages to their email or cell phones - effectively working even on vacation.  But this is small potatoes compared to the other indignities paid labor is having to withstand in the country - even when the economy is "doing great' according to Donnie Dotard.  Alas, too many American workers aren't aware of the bill of fake goods they've been handed because, well, most do not read the financial press.  (Which may be just as well given the gigabytes of pure propaganda and hog swill peddled therein, which we'll get to.)

But a bit of perspective first. Probably no truer a statement ever appeared than barely 21 years ago, in an issue of Psychology Today no less (July-August 1998, p. 10. Includes graph):

"Starting in the mid-1970s, the nation's quality of life parted company with its wealth, and the gap between social health, and GDP is now bigger than it's ever been."

A graph of 'quality life indices' vs. GDP (ibid.) shows the measured divergence. More recent data also suggests that we are currently a much sicker society than at that (PT publication)  time and beyond what anyone imagined. The marginalization of the workforce is surely one major barometer of that: the inability of so many millions to secure enough remuneration from one job to afford rent in most U.S. cities. The GINI coefficient is also trending worse (i.e. greater inequality), and there's more recent research disclosing how it portends social and economic upheaval..

Have things really changed for the better since the 2008 financial crisis? Well, the recession finally gave way to a tight labor market with many jobs, but alas too many of these jobs don't pay the freight.  By that I mean that one such job will not earn you enough to pay for rent in a decent place, say here in Colorado Springs.  That rent now approaching $1,100 a ,month,  whereas the average worker's wage here is just above $20/ hour.  Do the math and it does not favor the lower wage renter!  (Rent or mortgage should be no more than 30 % of total monthly expenses.)

According to a recent TIME article  ('Living on Tips'',  Sept. 2-9, p. 40)  food service (wait) jobs now number 12.2 million and continue to proliferate across the country even as manufacturing  jobs  (currently at 12. 8 million ) continue to suffer attrition.  Mainly owing to Trump's ongoing, relentless trade war with China, which will see further high end wage losses to the service-gig sector.

  Perhaps as many as twice that number of  12.2 m cited in the TIME article  are either stuck in Amazon- controlled warehouse jobs or gig jobs like Task Rabbit, Task Easy, Uber, Grub hub etc..   Worse, those workers who've lost manufacturing or coal mining jobs are often tossed headlong into the expanding gig  or service sector which pays 40-50% less than their original jobs - which also had benefits. We also learn (p. 42) that those who lose jobs in a recession usually move down the income scale and seldom move back up.  They are stuck in positions like "personal care aide ($24,020 median wage)",  "food prep worker ($21,250 median wage" and "wait staff ($21, 780 median wage)" - none of which is adequate to pay for rent in most areas of the nation now.

And yet we are informed by the likes of WSJ op-ed columnists Phil Gramm and John Early ('Americans Are Richer Than They Think', Aug. 22, p. 15A)  that if the pointy- headed gov't statisticians and economists just stopped "overstating inflation" all would be well given such "overstatement leads to understatement of America's well being".  In other words, hell, you'd then actually be richer than you've been led to believe!  And indeed this would be dramatically reinforced if "consumers always bought the same amount of goods and services."

Which make one wonder what planet (in what alternate cosmos)  these two nattering nabobs inhabit, because it sure isn't the US of A on this planet Earth.  I mean,  if I purchased pork chops one week and they were priced (at Safeway or King Soopers) at $.1.50 /lb. then came back the next week and found them at $2.75 a pound, there is no way I am purchasing the same amount. I may then elect to decrease my purchase from 3 lbs. of chops to 2 pounds.  The same, obviously applies to other goods  such as shoes, jackets, shirts or shorts, and services - including haircuts.  Speaking of the latter, those were once $10 per haircut for a senior here in the Springs and I usually went once per month. They are now $13 per cut, and so I go every two months.  My point:  only an independently wealthy person like Gramm would always buy the same volume of goods and services irrespective of costs.

The claptrap of the two WSJ writers was also corrected in a followup letter ('The BLS Strives To Track Inflation Accurately',  Aug. 30, p. 12A) written by one William W. Beach Ph.D., Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  In the reply he writes:

"In constructing the (price) indexes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics follows the guidance of the International Labour Organization's  consumer price index manual, an internationally recognized authority on price index theory and practice. In fact, the U.S.  CPI not only meets the best practices recommended in the manual, it exceeds many of them.  Thus we take issue with the authors' notion that the BLS produces ;bad measures of inflation'"

But, of course, that is Gramm's and Early's intention. To muddy the water on inflation indexes to try to snooker American workers that they really have it much better than they believe. Hell, don't go buy those high-priced pork chops or chicken thighs! Don't believe your lying eyes or pocket book! Just believe our codswallop!  You'll be richer for it!

Another letter writer (Jim Smedra) actually pulls up the two propagandists directly, writing:

"Messrs. Gramm and Early state that inflation readings (about 2 %) are overstated. I disagree. The Journal has published several articles describing how Americans are struggling with higher costs for homes, rent, health care, college and vehicles.".

A third WSJ letter writer clobbers the pair from a different direction, that rising debt is the real culprit, not overstated inflation, i.e.

"The measure of inflation today isn't rising prices but rising debt - the opposite side of the ledger. Debt is nothing more than collapse of purchasing power, or 'what your money buys'."

Which, of course, is why so many young Americans can't afford rent or even a first mortgage in Denver, or Colorado Springs.  Their purchasing power simply isn't enough to buy in.  Plus, most are already saddled with enormous student loan debt. So they either have to rent  chintzy rooms at $550 a month, or share an apartment with 3 or 4 others. Those are the choices granted.

But let's remind ourselves Messrs. Gramm and Early tried a similar stunt back in May when they churned out 'The Myth Of Wage Stagnation', (WSJ, May 18-19, p. A15) trying to argue that if we just added employer benefits to the wages actually earned everyone would be seen to be paid much better.   But that increment, or any other tack-ons the pair propose, is still not going to get those Denver workers a new home or apt.   As we learned (Denver Post, May 15, p 2A):

"A middle of the road home in metro Denver now costs more than five times the median household income, a record. "

Again, a lack of purchasing power, which then leads the buyer to have to take out more debt than he or she can afford - if they can afford a down payment at all.  But looking all through the median household worker economy this is what we see: exploding debt because the wage standards have collapsed to the point they can't support current purchases, whether of homes, special services, or even medical care.  The Fed's recent stat showing that nearly half of most middle income earners can't even afford a $400 emergency expense was one of the biggest shockers in the past 4 months.  Then there was JP Morgan's prediction that U.S. households will pay an extra $1,000 this year thanks to Trump's trade war.  Yet Gramm and Early don't mention any of this.   They also would be taken more seriously if they'd referenced the WSJ piece of August 1: 'U.S. Workers' Wage Growth Levels Off' (p. A2) which noted that even the pitiful little increment increase in compensation gains of American workers had "leveled off"

Wage stagnation a myth? Propaganda!  Americans are really richer than they think? Even more propaganda designed as a kind of  'opiate' for the masses to imbibe.

Another reality needle puncturing the fantasy balloons of Gramm and Early appeared August 30, on page A3, e.g.

Historic Asset Boom Passes by Half of Families - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/historic-asset-boom-passes-by-half-of-families-11567157400

Wherein we learn the decades long economic boom has effectively passed by nearly half of American families who "still have 32 percent less wealth than they had in 2003 adjusted for inflation".  Americans ricer? Only the top 1 percent who saw the value of their assets soar with the over heated, cheap money infused Stock market.

Lastly, bear in mind when the glowing jobs numbers and low unemployment stats are trotted out, they don't tell the full story. That is,  "The BLS official unemployment rate only counts as unemployed those who are available to work and actively searching over the past 4 weeks" to find a job.  Not counted are the 2.3 million -plus between the ages of 25 to 54 who have basically dropped out since 2000.

What becomes of these, what has become of hem? Most likely they live mainly in debt - as one of the WSJ letter writers pointed out - but this isn't being wealthy or rich.   Then there is the underemployment rate for those who are working. Especially forlorn are those with a B.A. or B.Sc. degree and working in an Amazon   Those who may have aspired to get a decent job with benefits that makes use of their degree- but to no avail.

Well these workers definitely need to read the book The Winner Take All Society -to explain  why the U.S. has a narrow 'pyramid' of jobs with quality conditions.   At the very narrow peak or top (Google engineers, software testers, etc.) are the few winners in terms of salary and benefits.  

Thus the observed asymmetry in the U.S. job market(Ch. 6, 'Too Many Contestants?', p. 102):

"Market incentives typically lure too many contestants into winner take all markets, and too few into other careers. One reason involves a well documented human frailty: the tendency to overestimate our chances of prevailing over our competitors."

Adding:

"The decision to compete in a winner take all market is akin to buying a lottery ticket. If you win you win many times more than if you were in a less risky career. If you lose, you earn much less."

The takeaway in terms of newly minted Ph.D.s  for example,  is don't obsess over getting into a university teaching job for status - because that is a winner take all market - too many competing. So you are as likely as not to lose the lotto and end u an adjunct on food stamps, e.g.

http://chronicle.com/article/From-Graduate-School-to/131795/


Better by fare to snatch a good paying job at a private or STEM high school, where the students' caliber often compares favorably with 1st, 2nd year university students. 

As for one way workers can correct the imbalance between capital and labor, well take all your paid vacation days! Don't leave any on the table which amounts to a de facto pay cut for you.  Also don't take cell phones or activate emails on holidays.  To do so merely keeps playing into the exploiters' paws.

See also:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/2/1883053/-Something-interesting-happened-at-a-Labor-Day-Parade-in-Trumpland?detail=emaildkre

And:

Corporate America | Worker's Rights

The 5 Biggest Corporate Lies about Unions

The Easy Cure for American Psychosis and Mental Disorders

Twenty percent of Americans with moderate to severe mental disorders, nearly half of those suffering from explosive reaction syndrome, and another 5 percent with borderline personality disorder or psychosis - who when pushed to the limit blow up, kill fellow workers, or go berserk in other ways. As reported in one SciAm piece, after a survey of American workers, "half of the surveyed workers  confessed that they were reaching a breaking point after which they would not be able to accommodate the deluge of data."  These were workers in assorted information fields.

Meanwhile, the ugly stats concerning Americans' lack of time for relaxed vacations casts a grim shadow that connects with the above:

- Over  $150 b "left on the table" each year in terms of unused vacation days

- 577 million unused vacation days each year

- 55 percent of vacation days that are taken always occur with office work taken along

WHY are Americans doing this for the capitalist one or one-half or 0.001 percent? So the high fliers can eat even more foie gras and enjoy 18 holes on St. Kitts every month, as their wives lavish in rose wine wraps every day? Of course, most workers will cite "fear" as the prime reason, meaning that if they take those days then they may likely return to find themselves without a job, never mind they might get ill from the added stress.

But the other unspoken reason, or let's say less spoken reason, is that the capitalist elites have brainwashed their workers into believing that vacation down time (REAL down time) is for wimps and pussies. So, we don't take them, or if we do, make sure to drag along our smart phones with tons of office work. This plays directly into the hands of the managers and CEOS - most of whom are proven sociopaths or psychotics - but why should they care if they can make workers psychotic too? And each instance of a worker going bonkers is used as justification to replace workers with machines, or dispatch their jobs to India, or China.

Meanwhile, Terry Hartig, an environmental psychologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, has done a study in Sweden where anti-depressant prescriptions were tabulated monthly between 1993 and 2005, and compared the frequency with work periods and vacations. (In Sweden, at least 5 weeks or 35 days of paid vacation time are mandated each year - accounting for why these citizens live longer and spend less on health care than Americans.)  Hartig and associates found (Surprise, surprise!) that the more vacation days consumed the more the prescription numbers dropped - and exponentially! This was true for both men and women and for workers as well as retirees. There were also far fewer instances of workers losing it even while at work.(Relaxed workers who were ticked off by fellow employees "usually smiled rather than flipped the bird.")

As noted in the SciAm article:

"Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life. A wandering mind unsticks us in time so that we can learn from the past and plan for the future. Moments of respite may even be necessary to keep one’s moral compass in working order and maintain a sense of self."

In contrast to the European Union, which mandates 20 days of paid vacation (the Netherlands has 26), the U.S. has no federal laws guaranteeing paid time off, sick leave or even breaks for national holidays. This is disgusting! Even more so that  a survey by Harris Interactive found that, at the end of 2012, Americans had an average of nine unused vacation days. And in several surveys Americans admitted that they obsessively check and respond to e-mails from their colleagues or feel obliged to get some work done in between occasional swims, and going on a sightseeing junket.

Can you say 'lab rats' trapped in an invisible cage by their employers - getting rich off of these pawns?

Recall here that according to surplus value theory proposed by Karl Marx in his work, Kapital, if the labor value sold as a product or service is L, and V is the labor value embodied in the production of the item or service then the surplus value S is:

S = L - V

If an employee then earns $36,000 a year for generating a service or whatever other labor, and yields 6.2 days of his vacation time to the Boss Man, this translates to roughly $150 per working day assuming 20 such days per month. Then 6.2 days given up per year on average amounts to $930.

Then, by this reckoning V is the yearly paid labor or $36,000 and S is the unpaid labor or $930 per year. . The amount of labor expropriated per year is therefore equal to $930. Now, add in possible employee extra costs of $1,000 - say for health care or unpaid sick days - and you have $1,930 of labor exploited (this is assuming of course, the worker wouldn't have fallen ill had he taken his days and not been stressed out - leaving his immune system prey to flu, or other serious illness, even a stroke or heart condition. Of course in the latter cases the additional worker costs would be much greater!)

Meanwhile, the rate of surplus value per year, or the rate of yearly exploitation is:

S/V = ($1,930)/ ($36,000) = 0.053

In other words, the company or Boss Man is extracting 5.3% more work per year out of his forlorn employee than that employee is being remunerated.

And we won't even tabulate the additional psychiatric interventions or prescription drug (anti-depressant) costs because Mr. American refuses to take his allotted vacation days but insists on being a dumb drone instead while Boss Man laughs his ass off (see captioned cartoon above). (We also won't add in the costs in jail time, to his family, in going berserk at work!)

It's time Americans cease allowing their greedy capitalist employers to eke out over 5% per year of surplus value from their hides. Get your 'commie' caps on, then read Marx' Kapital, and join the 'Occupy That Vacation" movement! NO MORE FREE LABOR TO THE 1%!

Yes, it's great that MongoDB honcho Max Schireson is taking time off now to spend with his family - but no one should go ape shit over it or break their hands clapping. I mean, the guy is hundreds of times wealthier than most of his employees so can afford it. Hell, he probably profited handsomely from unused vacation days by his workers to enhance that yearly (S/V) exploitation rate.

What we need is most average American workers putting their feet down and saying 'NO More!' But given the degree most are infected by the Calvinist work meme, I doubt things will ever change. Most Americans would rather remain half-sick, mentally unstable worker drones than seize that precious commodity of time to anchor their lives and families.  So expect many more to come apart at the seams in the years ahead!

Raleigh, NC Highway Ice Fiasco - Blame Greedy Bosses & Corporations!

The news this morning that Raleigh, North Carolina drivers left hundreds of cars abandoned on major highways, and state police responded to 2,000 accidents, is beyond comprehension. Evidently, from an on the spot report by CBS' Wyatt Andrews from Raleigh, workers were expected to show up for work yesterday morning - even when it was known an ice storm approached, but were to be "released early".  The employers evidently  believing their charges would make it back home in time. Didn't these idiots see what befell Atlanta barely two weeks ago? Why didn't they have the sense to tell their workers to "just stay home"?

You do not just "escape" at the last minute from an ice storm! Once it begins to fall, you're screwed! It covers the highways, roads and critical friction is lost, making it near impossible to move. Having been exposed to at least two ice storms, one in Columbia, MD and another in Topeka, KS it is nothing to make bets on. The very news one is approaching means you get your ass off the road, stay inside and remain calm.

In other words, the memo is that you always err on the side of caution. If you're a school superintendent that means you close schools, no ifs, ands or buts. If you're an employer, you inform your employees no need to come to work. So why did Raleigh's businesses have workers come in, as opposed to telling them not to worry?

I do not buy that they were caught 'off guard'. The experience of Atlanta two weeks ago was already fresh in mind or should have been. Also, as the  current storm moved to the NE they would have known Atlanta's businesses already ( the day before ) had told workers to stay home- so why didn't Raleigh's companies do likewise?  The only conclusion is that the greed heads still thought they were operating a slave plantation, and they demanded 'face time' at least part of the day - to ensure their precious profit margins didn't shrink too much.

So, they were prepared to put their workers in harm's way to save a buck. And not one of them evidently wanted to be the first to break rank and tell employees not to come in - to instead stay home, stay off the roads and be safe.

But this is all part of an ongoing corporate tapestry to squeeze every last ounce of work out of employees. It's why American workers now put in an average of 3 weeks more per year than their counterparts did in 1973, and it's why diseases like the stomach bug, aka norovirus, spread - because employers are too chintzy to give workers sick days. If they take a day or two off because of non-stop vomiting - well, they're either fired or they lose their pay for time missed.  So... far better to get customers sick, as at restaurants, and then spread it all over tarnation than to give some down time.

It's also why telecommuting has fallen off.  The vast majority of bosses simply don't trust workers to get the job done at home - despite the fact it would save nearly a half million gigatons of carbon being deposited in the atmosphere each year.

It's also why Americans, despite having 10-14 days of vacation days, don't take most of them. "Boss man" wants them in or doing skypes or whatever, so hey....don't go too far near the beach!  Recall the MONEY report from Jan.-Feb., 2012,  with statistics compiled by Hotwire, American workers were leaving nearly $126 billion total "on the table" (or if you will, in the hands of their employers, companies as unpaid labor) as the value of their total vacation days left untaken. This amount was based on the average of 6.2 days of vacation left unused per worker.

This is absolutely insane! No wonder so many workers are going psycho and engaging either in violent behavior, or shooting up drugs or drinking themselves into oblivion.

As the Money report pointed out, this doesn't even begin to assess the full value that these employees are giving away. Add in the health care spending by stressed employees (mainly those who choose not to take their full allottment of vacation days) and it amounts to "2½ times the figure for nonstressed co-workers" who DO take the days coming to them. This stat from the Health Enhancement Research Organization (ibid.).

Recall here that according to surplus value theory proposed by Karl Marx in his work, Kapital, if the labor value sold as a product or service is L, and V is the labor value embodied in the production of the item or service then the surplus value S is:

S = L - V

If an employee then earns $36,000 a year for generating a service or whatever other labor, and yields 6.2 days of his vacation time to the Boss Man, this translates to roughly $150 per working day assuming 20 such days per month. Then 6.2 days given up per year on average amounts to $930.
The there is the Mother Jones piece: All Work and No Pay on how corporations have actually sped up their processes to wring more productivity from workers, while not increasing their pay. Slavery anyone?

Few American bosses or companies, understand - alas, that they would get more from their workers if they chose to respect the workers' time more. That includes allowing time off for illness, allowing time off to care for a family member - both preferably paid, and allowing workers to take their entitled vacation days without fretting they will be fired or lose a promotion.

Finally, bosses ought to be aware and gracious enough to tell workers not to come in   - not even for a frickin'  morning - if an ice storm is on its way that will put them at risk.

The companies in Raleigh NC ought to have known better than to have put so many tens of thousands in harm's way as opposed to coughing up some of their damned profits.

Let's hope they learn in the future!

Christian Charity Hypocrites are a JOKE!

Atheist students in Denver get banned books after delivering food items and cash donations. Most are committed to such donations but also to government as being a lever for social justice- unlike the fundies who squawk about government - but are first at the door for their own handouts, benefits!  

Hypocrisy is always a peculiar infection because the person most afflicted doesn't see himself as anything like a hypocrite. Because of that, his writings, blogs or whatever, come across as jokes because he himself doesn't fit within the parameters he names.  Consider the fundie blogger who recently lambasted "Obummer" as a "Socialist" and any who follow the social justice theme as being demonic tools.

Immediately, one must roar in laughter at his ignorance because Obama is in no manner, shape or form a "socialist" even by the most daft, stretched definition. Only an ignoramous would label him so. He is a centrist, and that's being generous. No one who's a true Socialist would remotely consider putting Social security on the federal cutting room floor, or Medicare. Nor would a true Socialist have set up any "Deficit Commission" to afford the looney tune deficit hawks an inroad into possible social cuts. So Obama is only a Socialist in the minds of the intellect -gutted who also believe Hitler was a Socialist. (He was a National "Socialist" but the name was a ruse to deflect attention from his fascism.)

Anyway, these same flakes that can't get right Obama's political-economic orientation, then have the chutzpah to rail against Social Justice imperatives, as being "unbiblical". They claim - and cite chapter and verse - to show that people are to donate via charity to assist the poor, and not depend on the government. Yet they themselves are first in line waiting for their disability or other benefits - from the GOVERNMENT! What's at the basis of such cognitive dissonance?

Well, the same dynamic that rails and howls for Veterans' benefits to be protected, while glossing over everyone else's benefits. As if the rest of the nation doesn't count, and those who served in Peace Corps, or in Doctors without Borders, or taught in poor schools are simply 'citizens non grata'.  Zeros.  Hence, it is their very near -sightedness and prejudice which blinds them to the truth.

The other irony is that they are foursquare ready to defend and protect the riches of the wealthiest, forgetting the ancient biblical warning that "it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven".  

Meanwhile, under principles of Social Justice one has the concept of "excess wealth": i.e. owning or possessing material or wealth abundance far in excess of one's normal human needs. I gave examples of this earlier, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/02/wealthiest-one-percent-get-even-more.html

Thus, when the average American CEO earns 346x more than the average American worker, he is plausibly accumulating excess wealth. The likely way they are gaining such enormous advantage is via the expropriation of worker labor.

By way of example, Marx in his work Kapital  postulated a theory of labor expropriation by which all those who labored in whatever form were made poorer and expendable at the hands of owners and their capital. If the labor value sold as a product was L, and V is the labor value embodied in the production of the item, then the surplus value S is:

S = L - V

Let us say, as an illustration, that a craftsman working for a company is paid $10 an hour to make beautiful mahogany chairs by hand. He takes 10 hours to make one chair, thereby imparting a discrete labor value of 10hr x $10/ hr = $100 into the chair, invested in his blood, sweat and maybe tears. The chair is then sold at retail for $1,000 by the company. Then the surplus value S is:


S = $1,000 - $100 = $900

Hence, in this light, V is the paid labor and S is the unpaid labor. The amount of labor expropriated is therefore equal to $900.

Meanwhile, the rate of surplus value, or the rate of exploitation is:

S/ V

In this case: S/V = $900/ $100 = 9

The appeal to charity or charitable giving as a substitute for government, is meanwhile appealing to certain Xtianoids, but alas impractical. About as much so as Newt Gingrich's idea (in the 2012 campaign) to set up bases on the Moon, given our budget deficits....thanks to unpaid for wars, tax cuts. The facts, however, show it is impossible to sustain all those in need (and these are mainly working poor, not "welfare queens" as the Right seeks to portray) merely by charity.

First, the amount of charitable giving would have to increase nearly 350 times to even meet half the needs of those who regularly need food stamps or medical interventions, because their $8.15 /hr Walmart checks can't cover all expenses. Second, charitable giving by its very nature is external condition dependent. Thus, we beheld after the 2008 market crash it fell more than 40% and food kitchens, pantries ran bare because so many were unable to give - having lost up to half of their 401ks. Thus, unless charitable giving is regimented and rendered predictable - like a gov't VA disability check- it can't be depended upon. "Salvation" will only get you so far in this world, and no where in the next.

The nasty facts of a nation like the U.S. boil down to one: because we have such a miserly social welfare net, people are led to seek a mythical entity for their relief of earthly sorrows. The primary finding of recent research (e.g.  FREE INQUIRY, Vol. 29, No. 1, ‘The Future of Religion’) is that religious belief and activity is a superficial coping mechanism easily cast aside when the majority in a given society enjoy true (not faux) democratic government, and a secure, comfortable and middle class lifestyle.

The core of research (largely statistical) also hows the primary reason the U.S. is a statistical outlier in its hyper- religious belief is income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient).  This index has seen inequality increase ever since Bush Jr. was handed his presidency, compliments of the five Supremes, in 2000. (Gini coefficient’ registers the degree of economic and income inequality in any given nation, referenced as a decimal, or more often (in non-technical venues) as a plain number between 0 and 100.)

While Euro nations with greater government protections, services prosper, the U.S., with its historically lower taxes, fewer public safety nets, and more poor than rich (by more than a 25:1 ratio) displays a greater disparity than any other nation. Moreover, it displays a much greater social pathology. Understanding the basis of this pathology doesn’t take a genius. As anyone with more than air between the ears can see, on examining state by state budget deficits now exploding, in every case “re-balancing” is being done on the backs of the poor, the disabled, the elderly and the homeless. The results are predictable: loss of health care, loss of jobs and loss of overall security, as well as increase in drug use, violent criminality and prostitution.

Other factors and pathology –distress indices have already been well documented by Michael Parenti in his book, The Dirty Truth, and these include the U.S. having the highest rates in: teen pregnancies, STDs, infant mortality, suicides, homicides, rapes, incest, child abuse, marriage failure, alcoholism and drug use, as well as industrial accidents and disabling outcomes,  establishing a large population of the chronically disabled and poor. The conclusion is inescapable: given the mass insecurity and economic discomfort:  the victimized citizens will turn to the aid and protection of specious supernatural powers since they can’t expect any relief from government. Fundagelical religion is one of the worst to feed this meme, since it claims to have the sole lock on truth and boils it down to a simple formula: Believe in the Lord JC.  British philosopher Nicholas Humphrey, in his superb book Soul Searching, has an excellent explanation for this clinging to God and religion in the U.S. :

"Religions and quasi-religions offer remarkably effective medicine for orphaned minds. As Jung said: 'They give a human being that sense of wholeness, which he had as a child, but which he loses when he leaves his parents"

In other words, these fundy and other religions keep people in a state of infantilization. In this state it's easier to blame the weak or the poor for their own predicaments, than it is to stand behind government doing the right thing. As the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it:

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Because most of these blinkered religous zealots consume most of their free time wallowing in their good book, they have no time to read widely or beyond it to learn the facts....hence their dumbed down notions, i.e. that Obama and Hitler were "Socialists", and Social justice is a "creation of Satan", etc.
The hard core fundy nut, rejecting government for his sustenance or support, thereby seeks God and religion for solace and a sweet teat to provide the comfort and nurturance otherwise missing in his arid life. The irony is that these same sufferers pillory Europeans as having a “Nanny state”,  but at least the Europeans have a genuine entity from which to elicit assistance, as opposed to a phantasm of the mind.


It is no coincidence that religiosity is low in every first world nation with universal health coverage and high in the only without it. What else can the hapless, beaten-down American do when denied coverage for serious illness? What else besides seek the assistance of his imaginary god, who now also becomes his cost-free healer? (Btw, I don't regard "Obamacare" as true universal health care, since people must pay for their own private insurance as opposed to being covered by one single payer-gov't agency.)

But never mind, in his febrile delusions he will be sure to insist on the rights of the richest to amass more wealth. Never mind they're doing it at HIS expense!

Let's Not Confuse the 3 Amigos with a Guy Like Mitt Romney!

Kudos and salutations to the "Three Amigos" - a trio of Maryland educators who just won a one-third share of the Mega lottery, for takings of $218 million. As the Director of the Maryland State Lottery noted, it's exactly people like these, of humble means, that one likes to see with such major winnings. In this case the "amigos" (a 20-something and 50-something female teacher, and 40 -something male administrator - none opted to be identified yet, a good thing) deserve our congrats and praise. Evidently, from the news stories circulating (such as on last night's ABC News) all had money problems of different degrees.

This win now solves them as each will likely end up with at least $35 m if taking a lump sum and after taxes.

This is not a lot of money compared to the billionaire tycoons in our society, or those like Reep candidate Romney who have made so many hundreds of millions via the expropriation of others' labor, they opt not to make their total earnings a matter of public knowledge. This is, of course, their choice but it brings a cloud of suspicion on their heads as to the origins of that wealth.

Recall from Karl Marx' work Kapital, his theory of expropriation by which all those who labored in whatever form were made poorer and expendable at the hands of owners and their capital. If the labor value sold as a product was L, and V is the labor value embodied in the production of the item, then the surplus value S is:

S = L - V

For arch-capitalists like Romney in his various past companies, therefore, the lower V the value of actual paid wages for his workers, the higher S - the unpaid labor, and the more wealth expropriated. Meanwhile, the rate of surplus value, or the rate of exploitation is:

S/V

So if V, the paid labor wage is low enough, the capitalist parasite can make unseemly wealth off his workers at every turn. By the time he then sells his company - and ditches his workers (including via mergers or straight sell-offs) he can approach billionaire status.

This is NOT the same as a humble school teacher pinching her pennies for groceries, and possibly a home mortgage too, who suddenly comes into sudden wealth via a fortuitous numbers pick on a lotto!

Yet, the Rightists - always eager to confuse and conflate- have no problem spieling about how the two classes are the same and therefore, HEY! - 'What's A Fair Tax Rate for Mega Millionaires?' (WSJ, April 11, p. A13 by Brian J. Gaines and Douglas Rivers).

The authors correctly note that polls often show Americans favor raising taxes on millionaries or 'families earning over $250,000 a year" and so endorse the "Buffet Rule". The sly authors, however, then ask:

"And as for the polls, do they imply that Americans want the new mega-millionaires to pay more than 35% to the Feds?

It turns out that most Americans do not think that 35% or anything close to it is a fair tax rate, even for bizarre windfalls such as winning a lottery."

But what these two clowns don't grasp, is precisely what the polled Americans do! That instantly won money, as in a chance lotto, is NOT in the same category as massive wealth accumulated by rich tycoons via slow, grinding expropriation of others' labor. Hence, Americans' suggestion of a "10% tax or less" is well within the bounds of this thinking. These Americans have an inkling of what they sense is fair and that the mega-millions winners are different - but they may not be able to articulate it like the WSJ authors.

Indeed, the WSJ piece authors' efforts to try to portray the Americans polled as inconsisent or confused actually comes back to bite them on the ass.

The truth is that nearly every other nation recognizes lotto winnings to be in a special class from acquired wealth - in the sense we don't know exactly the origins of the latter. (But again, given the capitalist purview, expropriation in some form is a good bet).

In this sense, in most other countries, the sudden winnings accruing from a lotto are NOT taxed, period. The U.S. in that sense stands almost alone as a taxing nation, not only for lottos but other winnings such as for prizes awarded - the Nobel Prizes among the best known. Only we tax Nobel Prizes which is really an insult on the global scene. What we ought to be doing is taxing defense contractors and their ilk 500 times current rates and letting lotto and Nobel winners keep all their serendipitous gains.

Thus, there is no conflict of perceptions and the authors are wrong to try to create any. The multi-millions of these mega-winners is simply not in the same wealth category as somebody like a Mitt Romney or "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap who likely wrung their wealth from the hides of thousands of workers at their beck and call.

In the ideal world (or if they were in a nation other than the U.S.) the "Three Amigos" would keep all their winnings while Mitt Romney would have his earnings (including via rentier wealth accumulation) taxed at a minimal rate of 50%. And THAT would be letting him and his ilk off easy compared to the 1950s, when the top marginal rates were at 91%!