A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values? -William Greider

Cute Commercial Though
I go to the gym everyday at lunchtime, at the gym they have t.v.'s in front of all the cardio machines, so I watch CNN for a half hour while I work-out, almost every day without fail there is a commercial for a company called BlueHippo, which sells electronics, mainly computers. The reason the commercials interested me was that they made a huge point of saying how they didn't check your credit, and how the computers were paid off on an installment plan, etc. so obviously the company is geared towards selling to people with lower incomes or those who have had credit problems, okay cool, we definitely have a digital divide in this country, any effort to reduce it would be a good thing, right?, well, maybe not, I was instantly suspicious of BlueHippo as I am with any company that seems to be set up to entice working class people or those with limited incomes, I mean the whole no credit check, instant approval stuff always raises a red flag in my mind. So I went online to research them, and wow, the Baltimore Better Business Bureau has a page just for them, located here, here is a quote "the Bureau processed a total of 1055 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period.", also see this piece at consumer-law.lawyers.com, or this one from the Illinois attorney general, or here from the Bad Business Bureau, or here for the BlueHippo Wikipedia entry, I mean the list just goes on and on, and on. Ive never had any personal experience with BlueHippo so I cant say if they are ripping people off or not maybe they aren't, they might be an okay company, but what I can say based on all the complaints and lawsuits is that you should definitely do your research on this one. Also really look at their prices, for example on their website the laptop that is offered is $49.99 PER WEEK, for 52 weeks, plus a $99 activation fee, that works out to $2698, wow, now check out the laptop, 256 MB RAM, 40 GIG's, 1.6 MHz processor, I mean not exactly top of the line, it also says it comes with $700.00 worth of free software, I checked out their software I had never heard of almost any of it, and alot of it is freeware, so I took the specs and tried to find computers comparable to the desktops and laptops from BlueHippo online, I did, they were around $400 or so for the desktops and not much more for laptops, well they weren't exactly comparable the $400 computers I found from the big computer retailers actually were better computers, I mean $400 versus $2698, I am just blown away. The difference between the computers I found and the ones that BlueHippo offers are sadly obvious, the computers I found from the big retailers checked your credit before allowing you to finance the computer, BlueHippo as it loudly advertises does not, thus the cost of having bad credit works out to $2400 or so. Being poor sure is expensive.

From The Onion

Atlas Shrugged
Article in LA Times, "The City Council today voted overwhelmingly to require hotels near Los Angeles International Airport to pay their employees wages and benefits equal to $10.64 per hour -- the first time that Los Angeles has demanded a "living wage" from businesses who have no financial relationship with the local government". That's right a Living Wage, the only downside is that its limited to so few employees, but that's okay, at least its a start, LA is definitely moving in the right direction, and hopefully nothing happens like what happened in Chicago, when Mayor Daley sold out the workers of Chicago. This story is just one example of the increasing shift in this country to populism, type in "living wage" into Google news and see how many laws have been passed across the country, people are angry, they've been beaten, kicked, exploited, and robbed for too long, there is a righteous indignation brewing in this country, just waiting to explode.
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LA Times "City Council Approves Living Wage"

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

-Langston Hughes

“Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort.”- Marshall McLuhan

The Rights Of Man
Article from NYT about a huge walkout in Smithfield Packing Company's plant in NC, the most interesting thing is that the hundreds of workers who walked out were all non-union. The walkout was fueled by a number of issues, the recent firing of many illegal immigrant employees, poor working conditions, high injury rate, and what employees felt were the companies efforts to stop the workers from unionizing (see National Labor Relations Act of 1935). It is ridiculous what we let these big companies, trusts, and industries get away with in this country , when are more people going to realize that without a union they don't have a voice, that without a union the company has all the power and they have none, people need to realize that unions and the power of collective bargaining are not just important, they are necessary, all across Europe unions are strong, but in America people say they don't need them anymore, open your eyes, take a look around, we need unions more the ever.
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NYT "Hundreds, All Nonunion, Walk Out at Pork Plant in N.C."

Hard Times
Every year the USDA issues their report about peoples access to food in the U.S., and specifically how many are going hungry. The Washington Post just wrote an article on the report, and about two interesting things that can be found inside it, the first are the numbers "The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times...The number of hungriest Americans has risen over the past five years. Last year, the total share of food-insecure households stood at 11 percent.", the second is that every year that the USDA put out this report it used the term hunger for people who couldn't afford to buy or get food regularly, now those people are referred to as having "very low food security", same meaning, but the latter definitely sounds alot less harsh and bleak, but no name change can hide those numbers.
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Washington Post "Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry"

So Good

How cool is this site, http://www.community-wealth.org/ is all about people reclaiming their communities through " raising the financial assets of individuals, by increasing the level of “common” assets within a community that are locally owned, and by leveraging the use of funds from institutions that are based in the community (such as city governments and universities) for community-benefiting purposes.” I really like this site, its run by The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, the executive director of the Democracy Collaborative is Gar Alperovitz, who's book "America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy" embodies the same principles and ideas as the site and the Democracy Collaborative. Alot of people think we should wait for the government to act to make things better for us, but honestly. I am sick of waiting, this country is going in the wrong direction, the idea of http://www.community-wealth.org/ is that instead of sitting around waiting and hoping things will get better, we as individuals and as communities should start taking matters into our own hands, all to often we forget that in a democracy it is we the people who have the power, its time we started using it.
SEE ALSO
America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy
By Gar Alperovitz

I picked this book up at Borders by chance awhile back, I never got around to reading it until recently, but when I did, wow, I was blown away, I had never heard of Gar Alperovitz but as soon as I finished his book I looked up everything I could about him online, which is how I first found the above website, his book is like a quiet call to arms, its full of great info and real ideas about how to change things to create a more just and equitable America.

In Praise of Protectionism

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NYT "House Rejects Vietnam Trade Bill"

Um....Well, We Learned To Trust The Germans Again
Piece in LA Times about the health insurance industry coming to the aid of the 46.6 million Americans who lack health insurance. I imagine these gestures are genuine, after all they are losing out on 46 million premiums, not to mention the bad press lately, plus with the Democratic sweep and all, I guess they figured the bell was tolling for them. Basically the plan is vague but the insurance companies want to provide health care to everyone within ten years through a mixture of increased federal programs and tax breaks for people to buy their own coverage. Sounds okay, anything is better then what we've got now, and the sooner we start doing anything productive in health care the better, its only going to get worse, and I'm glad that we are moving forward and all, but kinda saddened that it's more the companies making the first move rather then my elected representatives, oh well, I guess the health insurance companies aren't all bad, after all the Germans killed millions, the insurance companies only kill roughly 18,000 people per year through lack of medical coverage.
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LA Times "Hope for millions without health coverage"

please feel free to leave any and all comments, or email me, im starting to think this whole blog thing might be an exercise in futility

From Consumers League of New Jersey

What's Next ?

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NYT "What Organized Labor Wants, at a Glance"

Kinda Good, Kinda Bad....But Mainly Bad
NYT piece about the marriage of philanthropy and consumerism, everything from Bath & Body Works candles with $2.00 going to an AIDS foundation, to a Saks $750.00 leather jacket for which a percentage goes to help the homeless. It seems to be a really emerging trend with everyone from GAP to Macy's getting inboard. I think most people would agree that this is all good news, companies and consumers together fighting some of the worst problems in our society, but...there is something about all this that never sat well with me (I never bought the Live Strong bracelet), maybe its that capitalism and philanthropy are such odd partners, or the idea that with these purchases a person might feel absolved from guilt or a have less of a desire to do more, maybe its because it seems so halfhearted on the part of the consumer, but mainly, I think its because the corporations are making money, lots of money off of it, I mean yeah, they are donating a percentage to charity but maybe you wouldn't of bought it, or maybe been less inclined to by it, or of bought less, had it not been for the fact that its for a good cause, in that case the company has made money, and in the end thats what bothers me using human misery and suffering to sell candles and ipods, and making money off of it. Save your money for the future, go volunteer in a soup kitchen, feel great.
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NYT "Candles, Jeans, Lipsticks: Products With Ulterior Motives"

Far From The Madding Crowd
NYT piece about the struggle of the New York rich to get a decent education for their children, and how more and more they are turning to ultra expensive and exclusive Private schools, all so their children can get a "superior" education that they just cant find in public schools, with the...you know, unwashed masses and all. Read it and weep, it's like The Great Gatsby, except sadder.
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NYT "Leaving the City for the Schools, and Regretting It "

From www.fguide.org

Pigeon Coops For The Poor
Plan in NYC to construct low income housing on top of the roofs of libraries. In NYC like many cities, land is expensive and low income housing in great need so cities are trying to find creative solutions to building public housing. I mean, at least they're trying, right?
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NYC "Stranger Than Fiction? Having People Live on Top of Branch Libraries "

“If one benefits tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, is one morally implicated in their predicament? Or are basic rights of human existence confined to the civilized societies that are wealthy enough to afford them? Our values are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others.”1

Notes From The Underground
Older but great piece from NYT, all about just how easy it is to slip a few rungs down to economic ladder and into poverty. That goes for everyone, whether you work at Costco or your a college professor, all it takes is a company downsize, a battle with Leukemia, a mistake, to realize just how everything can "rest on foundations of sand"1.
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NYT "America's 'Near Poor' Are Increasingly at Economic Risk, Experts Say"