Wakeful Video Weekend 2021-11-07 (10 videos)

Request: Please share with others. I, for example, can no longer share on Facebook, having been locked out of my account.

Summary: two humorous videos, one heart-wrenching one, and all insightful. Issues: governments, capitalism/feudalism vs socialism, twin-party tyranny, digital chains, stupid-making schools, injustice system, and mentality for change.

Stars and channels: thejuicemedia, The Problem With Jon Stewart, Democracy At Work (Richard Wolff and David Harvey), Second Thought, Bad Faith (Joy Gray an Yanis Varoufakis), The Jimmy Dore Show, Freshtastical, mediasanctuary (Chris Hedges), …

Topics:

1. Humor: Governments’ Fossil Fuel Behavior (“Honest Government Ad”)
2. Humor: Jon Stewart on Socialism
3. Capitalism: Why Our Rising Prices (Inflation), Cold War upon China
4. Our Decline Since the 1970’s
5. Right-Wing Twin-Party Tyranny
6. Mentality: Work vs Labor, Becoming Good vs Being Enslaved (Star Trek vs. The Matrix)
7. Modern Feudalism
8. Our Growing Digital Chaining
9. Our Stupid Public Schools
10. Our Prison-Using Oppression System vs Christian Caring

Wakeful Video Weekend 2019-12-29 (21 videos)

Main issues treated by this week’s video collection: the cheating and rule of the rich, and the many angles of our immigrant nation.

Stars & Channels: Double Down News, Richard Wolff, Lewis Black, The Laura Flanders Show, VICE News, BuzzFeedVideo, NowThis News, As/Is, Ralph Nader & Harvey Wasserman, The Real News Network, Academy of Ideas, and several more…

Topics:

1. Fighting the Oligarchy ***
2. Great Wolff Speech from 2013 ***
3. Corporate Tax Cheats – How & How Much (prime example: Amazon)
4. The Rich Doubling their Wealth while we Struggle to Live
5. U.S. (Anti?)-Immigrant Nation
6. The Buyers’ Labor Market
7. Empire: The Afghanistan Scam
8. U.S. History: Especially Election Fraud & Green vs Nuclear Power
9. News: The Real Reason for R&D Sanctioning Against a Russian-EU Gas Deal
10. Public Brainwash: The People Played by Schools & Media
11. Music: Let’s Recall our Immigrant Ancestry – Immigrants are Human Beings
12. Music: Colorful America (Star Spangled Banner)
13. Humor: Lewis Black on 2019

Good short discussion of the UBI from Australia (Podcast-Video)

It makes sense to me that the personal exemption from income tax is like a basic income guarantee, but sadly not universal because people so poor that they fall below it don’t get it in full. Completely income-less people (like the long-term unemployed) get none of it! How is that fair? It’s yet another part of our system that from so may angles gives to the haves and takes from the have-nots.

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Economist Peter Martin on Universal Basic Income and Automation”)

Another point made: when too many jobs disappear, the idea of time being money will no longer hold true. (it still does now, though; so I appreciate donations to this site, sharing of links to what appears here, or contributed fitting posts, because my time and money are limited)

~

Ending Note: It takes me at least 100 hours a month to research and write for this site. If you find any value in what I do, please consider becoming a patron and supporting this site with an automatic monthly donation of $1 or more. If you can’t afford this, then don’t, but please share my posts, tell folks about my online course offering, refer others to this site, refer me to paying outlets, partake in discussion, or contribute essays of your own. Thanks. Only together can we change the world. 🙂

UBI to Balance the Scales of the Economy — to a Degree — and Change the Meaning of Labor (Video)

There seem to be two groups of people who are at the forefront of discussing (and usually wanting) a universal basic income (citizen’s dividend, free money not just for the rich): IT professionals and artists (in the broad sense, comedians included). The former because they are right at the cutting edge of robotics and artificial intelligence giving them a first class view of the coming tsunami of jobs automated out of existence. The latter because they have always been intimately familiar with low and precarious income. Since I have belonged to both groups, it is therefore no surprise that I love the idea (when properly implemented and not left alone as a single silver bullet, as I know that no single program will cure all ills — other things like a Federal Job Guarantee and pay-with-assets would also help, best when used together).

Since I have already presented a lot of proponents and arguments from the first group, it may be time to showcase a video from the second. Thanks to Cindy Matthews, another great blogger who alerted me to it. Yes, this one is really good:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Universal Basic Income Will Change Labor”)

Some good points: 

Andrew Taggart: Our Cultural Obsession With Work

It’s ridiculous. We live in a time when jobs are getting scarce (off-shored or automated away), more people working are not needed to produce enough as we already produce an abundance (we just don’t distribute to everybody!) — and, yet, many people have a hard time letting go of the idea that we all must spend most of our lifetime in paid jobs lest we be immoral or have no purpose in life.

Here are the thoughts of one guy about our cultural obsession with work:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Can Universal Basic Income End Our Cultural Obsession With Work? | Philosopher Andrew Taggart”)

Note: A family emergency is cutting down on my time to post this week. In itself, this serves as evidence that our obsession with money and paid labor is wrong-headed and our internal war over grabbing the largest possible pieces of the pie and kicking others to the curb makes for a sick society. Where have our morals gone?

~

Ending Note: It takes me at least 100 hours a month to research and write for this site. If you find any value in what I do, please consider becoming a patron and supporting this site with an automatic monthly donation of $1 or more. If you can’t afford this, then don’t, but please share my posts, tell folks about my online course, refer others to this site, refer me to paying outlets, partake in discussion, or contribute essays of your own. Thanks. Only together can we change the world. 🙂

Healthcare and the Tax Breaks Gambit

For many long decades, corrupt politicians have been baiting voters with measly little tax breaks while giving huge tax breaks to the rich and simultaneously cutting government services that help the citizenry, thereby actually costing us tax payers more money, rather than less, since we have to make up for the reduced government services and tax breaks for the rich out of our own pockets. These dishonest politicians have consistently shifted the savings from government service cuts to their billionaire cronies in the form of huge tax breaks, and this year they are at it again (Trumpcare and the proposed budget). The super-rich parasites, who receive these giant tax breaks and live a life-long vacation watching their dividends roll in, all pay only half the tax rate (typically 15% not counting loopholes and foreign tax havens) of what the rest of us, who actually work for our living, have to pay on our hard-earned income. Economist Richard Wolff explains some of this in this interview you might want to watch:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “The GOP’s Latest Plan to Rob the Poor & Reward the Rich…”)

So, please tell me, when your life becomes unaffordable because the rich don’t pay their share and more and more wealth is transferred to them, how does that make your life better? These tax cut promises are just a sales pitch to sell us a reverse-Robin-Hood system.