Income Inequality
“That is not fair!” How many times have we heard that from our children or perhaps at work? Human beings are hard wired with a sense of fairness-of what is right and what is wrong. Most people believe that they should be fairly compensated for the work that they do. Most workers believe that a Corporate Executive Officer (CEO) of a company should get a little more than the average worker since they run the company. But over the last sixty years, a little more has turned into a whole lot more and we should be very concerned about this.
Since 1950, the ratio of ...
WHAT IS TO BE DONE with the POLITICS OF RESENTMENT?
(This is the fourth article based on the book The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker by Katherine Cramer.)
Katherine Cramer says “So the problem, for me, is this. We are in a time of increasing economic insecurity and of stark policy bias in favor of the affluent, and yet the politics of resentment draws our attention to our animosity toward each other rather than in ways in which the political system is not working for anyone but the very few.”
1. Policy makers need “to reassess what is going on in rural ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XVI THE DEATH THROES OF EMPIRE
“Men and women of the United States armed forces in armored vehicles patrol the streets of Baghdad. They pass in the way of so many who have come before them: the Egyptian charioteers of Ramses II, the Macedonian phalanx of Alexander the Great, the Roman legionnaires of Caesar and Trajan, the Crusaders of Richard the Lion-Hearted, the legionnaires of Napoleon, the Camel Corps of Lawrence of Arabia. All of these have come through the Middle East. Many of them have come with the best of intentions, by their lights, to bring stability, even freedom to the Middle East. All ...
RETIREMENT PLANNING IN WISCONSIN
(Joyce Luedke is part of POWRS (Protect our Wisconsin Retirement System.)
Here is my summary of our June 24th POWRS Renewal Meeting with Karen Holden—UW-Madison Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Consumer Science.
Karen Holden referred to her research on retirement planning in the following articles.
https://www.ncpssm.org/RetirementSecurity/karen-holden-bio.pdf
https://aging.wisc.edu/research/affil.php?Ident=24
I. Financial literacy education.
A. This is crucial for the populace as a whole, but essential for people who do their own planning. Many ...
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT WISCONSIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT WISCONSIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
ATTEND THE SUMMER SUMMIT ON AUGUST 23
By WIS. PUBLIC EDUCATION NETWORK
TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
8:30 A.M.
WAUWATOSA, WISCONSIN
We need you to help us make our Summer Summit the education event of the year. This is our opportunity to come together to connect, learn, and strategize.
What can we do where we live to support Wisconsin public schools? What can we do together as a statewide coalition? How can we maximize our impact? What's happening right now that we need most to understand and connect around?
At the ...
SPECULATING ON THE EU VOTE
Last week the British voted to leave the European Union. The next day stock markets all over the world declined precipitously. The DOW in this country dropped 610 points in one day. According to Reuters news agency, global stock markets “lost” $2 trillion in value the day after the vote. Why did this happen? What does it mean?
Wild fluctuations like this often occur with stock markets. The news media, pundits, and investment hucksters, of course, always have explanations. The usual spin is that “investors” have lost confidence, or they are “taking profits,” ...
Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate Race and Social Security
On Social Security the contrast between Wisconsin's two candidates for the U.S. Senate could not be greater. Russ Feingold (D) and Ron Johnson (R) are polar opposites on what should be done with this highly successful and popular program.
Senator Ron Johnson has said Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.” Johnson, along with many reactionary Republicans, want to make Social Security voluntary and allow younger workers to invest their Social Security contributions in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The article “Attacks on Social Security Continue in Wisconsin” ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XV: AN EMPIRE IN DECLINE
There is a life cycle to empire - a historical evolution in the birth, maintenance, and loss of world preeminence. Conceived brutally through conquest, or peacefully as in the transfer of power from Great Britain to America after the first and second world wars, the birth of a new empire is always led by the relocation of major centers of knowledge in science, technology and engineering. This is so because the long term outcome of leadership in these fields is a genuine increase in human wealth — in the ability to sustain ever more humans with an ever rising standard ...
POLITICAL LEADERS USING THE POLITICS OF RESENTMENT
Author Katherine Cramer says, “I call this book The Politics of Resentment because there are other ways to make sense of politics than by relying on ideas about which of one’s fellow citizens are getting more than their fair share and who among them is underserving. I draw attention to a kind of politics in which people do not focus their blame on elite decision makers as they try to comprehend an economic recession. Instead they give their attention to fellow residents who they think are eating their share of the pie. These interpretations are encouraged, perhaps ...
WHAT IS THE KEY TO WISCONSIN’S ECONOMIC SUCCESS?
The July 7, 2016, Price County Review described Governor Walker’s June 29 visit to Phillips as a blitz. He flew in, was ushered to the Municipal Building by law enforcement and security personnel for an invitation-only listening session for 20-30 people and a brief interview by local media, was escorted to United Pride Dairy near Phillips to announce $3.2 million in Youth Apprenticeship (YA) state grants, then was escorted back to the airport and flew away.
During his announcement, Walker noted “The key to Wisconsin’s future success rests in our ability to provide ...
