Major focus of this week’s video collection: our system treating us like trash and how a new system could do the opposite. Part of this also: our mentality and culture. Some key issues: capitalism, socialism, Universal Basic DIVIDEND, warmongering & terror state…
Stars & Channels: Richard Wolff (Democracy At Work), Noam Chomsky, Meagan Day & Jimmy Henders, Michael Parenti, The Hill, The Intercept, Michael Brooks, Jimmy Dore, Yanis Varoufakis (DiEM25), NonCompete, and more…
Topics:
Our System Treating us Like Trash ***
The Worst Economy in Our Lifetimes **
Teacher Strikes = People Strikes (Kept Secret by the MSM)
This weekend’s video collection of political, economic, and societal issues – both problems and their solutions – is mixed with significantly more written commentary than usual, basically merged with an article. The writing is added to tie the clips together and also enhance the understanding they bring. This particular compilation is also dominated by a heavy focus on one big major theme that is growing in popularity and public discourse: the concept of a Universal Basic Income. Here are many of the pros and cons and how a UBI fits into the big picture. Other topics: an ethical society, news on the corporate media, healthcare, Tulsi Gabbard, liberty, whistleblowers (Manning & Assange), top-run dividedness of the people, Venezuela’s economic reality, and a political comedy session.
Topics:
UBI: Introduction
UBI: Active & Passive Incomes, Taxed or Not
UBI: Just Printing Money for a UBI is not the Correct Way
UBI: Social Context and Effects of a UBI
UBI: A panel discussion with further insights
UBI: Here is another pretty good discussion
UBI: The UBI-Scam-Worry on the Left
UBI: Well Made Point Concerning the Ethics in Our Society
Lee Camp Exposes Our Ayn-Rand-Style Corporate Media
Healthcare: An American Tourist’s Healthcare Experience in Europe
Tulsi Opposes Torture and Regime Change Wars
Where is our Freedom Party?
Talk: Chelsea Manning, Grand Juries, College, Mega Corporate Non-Free Market
Our History: The Divided Poor Utilized by the Rich
As Thanksgiving is coming up and many of us hopefully manage to team up with family or friends, awkward tensions over political issues may arise. Therefore, today I share articles, mini-pieces, and videos to prepare you well.
On Thanksgiving we meet to celebrate our communal connections, our sense of belonging, the things we either have or hope to have some day, or a famous past that we profit from in the present — such as past inventions, medical developments, economic and political developments… uh, oh… maybe not the latter… It may be worth to take a look at a path towards a Good Life for All or at issues that cause tension in our families or circles of friends, and a possible way to resolve them constructively.
For this purpose, I today share links to:
prior Thanksgiving posts worth revisiting and
some videos that may help in overcoming tensions with our fellow celebrants
Something not everybody yet understands is that we need to work on our perception and mentality in order to solve our zoo of severe societal problems, such as our bad economy, our corrupt politics, denied healthcare, rampant debt and bankruptcy, the lack of good jobs with benefits, the lack of personal liberty, a world of repeatedly crushed dreams — a plethora of troubles that reflect a transition from a cooperative, neighborly, compassionate human culture to a wolf-eat-dog society.
Since we are so caught up in our current superficial fights over an economic band-aid here or a party-political tactic there, we are often too distracted to look at the underlying causes or even be aware of them. One way to bring them back to the surface is to briefly glance at our preceding generations in which our world changed to the messed-up world we live in today.
Glance #1: Most of our ancestral generations lived as hunters and gatherers, having no bosses to answer to and no money to worry about. Their work was authentic and genuine: hunt and gather food, make your own clothing, housing, and tools, and share with your tribe members as needed (both giving and receiving, thus everybody benefiting from strength in numbers). Continue reading “To End Wage Slavery”→
A very varied weekend video collection of informative reports and interviews sporting Richard Wolff, Chris Hedges, Abby Martin, Michael Lewis, David Pakman, Jimmy Dore, and others. The topics range from unfair taxes, a People’s Alliance¸ billionairebadness, the false-hearted celebration of business frauds and billionaires, the thieving stock market culture, U.S. Empire and its death economy, and the U.S. lottery of life to how incredibly cheap some of our corrupt politicians are. Five sections:
The Class War from the Top and the Bottom Fighting Back
More Billionaire Badness
U.S. Empire
Political Corruption
The U.S. Lottery of Life
I. The Class War from the Top and the Bottom Fighting Back
How our taxes are set up to gouge the many on behalf of the few:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Richard Wolff On How US Tax System Favors the Rich “)
As Richard Wolff concludes, naturally the Trump/GOP Tax “Reform” didn’t fix any of this injustice (instead, it made it worse… the fox guarding the henhouse).
Richard Wolff on socially responsible income redistribution and the People’s Alliance:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Richard Wolff On Taking Care Of The Elderly And The Disabled Maine Style “)
Comment: As long as it won’t be repealed by the plutocracy, the financing of old age care in Maine should likely work, like it did under FDR when he heavily taxed the rich. Unfortunately, merely taxing the rich while not undoing the imbalanced wealth and income distribution of our economic system that creates the rich in the first place, showed itself to be only a short term solution under FDR, because the rich (at least some of them), feeling outraged over having their privileges curtailed somewhat, bribed and propagandized democracy and an educated citizenry out of existence and used the co-opted government to roll the New Deal back to where there is precious little left; and they are coming for that tiny residue now, too.
II. More Billionaire Badness:
In line with this week’s mini-series “Vapid Lives of Destruction,” here are two more telling videos revealing the rottenness of our reverse-Robin-Hood system and the spoiled brats straddling it at the top:
More Billionaire Badness :
Limitless taking from fellow humans to become rich beyond measure:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Inside The World Of The Global Super-Rich“)
Note on language and narrative: One should never call making or receiving unearned money “earning” money.
Pertinent quote: “For everyone who’s making money [at the stock market], someone is losing money.” It is really important to realize that their are two… well… let’s say three ways of making money: (1) by producing something of value or providing a valuable service (honest work), (2) by doing BS jobs or holding a paid BS position (a lot more these days than most folks realize, for example useless bureaucracy), (3) stealing from others (typical at the stock market and other investment schemes plus any other forms of assets hoarding)
How the rich and the reverse Robin Hood system are often celebrated by idiots, sycophants, and that special kind of human hyena who dedicates his life to climbing up the dungheap of our warped society (probably involving cheating those he promises to help with their business ideas, and definitely stealing from workers if he does get involved in the creation of a capitalist business). I must say this youtuber gets on my nerves (just like the majority of wealth reporters who constantly drool and cheer): always smiling and going ‘wow’ ‘wow’ ‘wow’, feeding right into the sick mindset that hoards and shows off wealth on one end and ignores the misery created by that stealing and hoarding on the other end of the equation where people starve, are homeless, and get zilch opportunity in life! I wouldn’t watch this youtuber during or shortly before a meal. You have been warned:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “THE BILLIONAIRE LIFESTYLE OF DUBAI !!! “)
And, yet, sometimes there is a glimmer of hope, or at least honesty:
Some plutocrats are more forthcoming than our corporate media stooges:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Michael Lewis: Nobody Understands the Stock Market“)
Before you feel depressed from all this rigging reported here, call to mind that learning about these things enables us to fight for radical systemic change.
III. U.S. Empire
Abby Martin interviewing Chris Hedges on the American Empire:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Abby Martin & Chris Hedges: War, Propaganda & the Enemy Within”)
The Death Economy – David Pakman interviewing John Perkins, author of Hoodwinked and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man“)
IV. Political Corruption
How cheaply some enemies of the people are bought:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Woman Dragged From Public Meeting For Exposing Corruption“)
V. The U.S. Lottery of Life
The Humanist Report tells the story of a man who almost lucked out:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Uninsured Man Could Finally Afford Doctor Visit After Lottery Win, But It Was Too Late…”)
Concluding word: Let us always have news of the corrupt rigging of our civilization strengthen our resolve to cure it.
~
Ending Note: It takes me at least 100 hours a month to research and write for this site and work on my book. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this site with an automatic monthly donation of even as little as $1 or more. If you can’t afford this, then don’t, but please share my posts with as many friends as possible or help in other ways. Thanks. Only together can we change this world. 🙂
One of the false narratives in our politics is the one about free stuff, often also referred to as “entitlements.” Let’s correct the propagated myth right here and now:
It’s the billionaires who get the free stuff! Most of it! Loads of it! That’s the very definition of being rich. The rest of us have to work for our money while the billionaires get their money for free, milking us for it in a whole bunch of ways. Continue reading “The Freeloaders Are at the Top”→
Twelve great videos befitting our Thanksgiving week. The first is a report on the current GOP tax scam and the near future our oligarchs are planning for us. Ack! The other 11 videos are thoughts from around the world about the UBI portion of the great future we must fight for. Various angles, differing views… I left out the bogus status-quo-worshipping and economic-evil-justifying claims from disgusting people since I don’t want to spoil anyone’s weekend… luckily I didn’t come across a lot to begin with. Phew! — So, let’s move on to a bunch of thoughtful and uplifting, yes uplifting (except for the 1st one, I suppose), weekend videos.
I. The Present Mess:
The future the current lords are planning for us:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Bankers Unwittingly Admit Tax Cuts Don’t Help Workers“)
II. Thinking About the Future — Various Views on a UBI
In my “holy trinity” proposition[1][2][3] of a great economic system forming a shared assets economy using these three parts – a universal basic income (inherited citizen’s dividend), an earned (through work) assets dividend, and a public monetization of needed work (federal job guarantee) – the UBI is one of the currently most discussed measures:
Even the rich see sense in a UBI (mostly a safeguard against our pitchforks, for sure):
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Why the World’s Richest Say a Universal Basic Income is Good Policy!”)
The beautiful vision of an achievable future, this Thanksgiving, is one that goes beyond merely resisting Trump or the GOP’s tax heist. It even goes far beyond merely installing Medicare for All or getting money out of politics. The beautiful vision for this Thanksgiving is one of a Star-Trek-like economy of the “live long and prosper” mantra, in which we all live lives of plenty.
Contrary to the doubts of many, it is eminently achievable in a modern economy where we overproduce and waste food and things like there was no tomorrow, there being produced enough for everybody’s needs (although many never get it), and where the rapid rise of automation will soon make most human labor unnecessary to produce everything we need and want.Continue reading “A Beautiful Future (Happy Thanksgiving)”→
Yesterday, I introduced Yanis Varoufakis’ proposal of work compensation via shared assets as a means to end the division between an owner class and a working class. These assets would provide an earned residual income combining perfectly with an inherited Universal Basic Income (UBI) and a Federal Job Guarantee, to create a virtually Utopian society of prosperity for all, a society in which everybody would be financially secure and, if they so wished, could earn a desired raise of their income in a fair and reliable fashion.
In this combination of a quasi-holy trinity, the UBI — which is a citizen’s dividend based on our national economic resources that we all, not just a few plutocrats, deserve to inherit upon our birth — would provide a safe minimum income for everybody, gainfully employed or not, while the asset-based work compensation would provide a raise for those who want more money, and the federal job guarantee would provide paid work opportunities often missing in a purely profit-driven “free” market — as the millions of un- and under-employed wannabe-workers who are desperately looking for properly paid jobs these days clearly show.
Since the article was getting a bit long, I decided to perform further elaborations in a second article, which is the one on hand. Basically, in this article, I want to flesh things out a little more, both the current system and the one we can aim for, and also what we must do to get there.Continue reading “The Shared Assets Economy – Part 2”→
Something that Yanis Varoufakis proposed in a speech I previously shared on a Video Weekend got stuck in my mind, making me want to dedicate an entire article to it. An article I have announced and promised a view times. Today, I finally fulfill that promise to me and you.
Besides explaining the mechanisms of democracy’s decline, in his speech, Varoufakis also proposed an amazingly fair economic system, one that would end the division between an owner class (from which arise the robber billionaires who ruin this world for the rest of us) and a working class. In this model, we would all become owners. If you want to skip to this part of Varoufakis’ recorded speech, it stretches from 10:00–11:49 minutes:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Capitalism will eat democracy – unless we speak up | Yanis Varoufakis”)
Varoufakis lays out an ingenious alternative to – or variant of – capitalism, a kind of fairly shared capitalism or universal ownership society, a fairly shared assets society — a Star-Trek-like utopia instead of the Matrix-like dystopia where we are currently headed. It is an intriguing economic system where there is no more disparity between wage-based and asset-based income, a system where we all become asset holders and will no longer be ordered around by a few ownership lords who condemn us to live out our lives as their oppressed serfs and puppets.Continue reading “What if We Were Paid for Work in Assets rather than Ephemeral Wages?”→
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