Work Sucks. Make Work Suck Less
"Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements."-- From...
View ArticleAn MLK Memorial Stimulus Package
In the week that we celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, it's ironic that our nation's leaders settled upon a stimulus package that puts money directly in the hands of everyday...
View ArticleBizarro Bush: The next president should do The Opposite
"If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right."--Jerry Seinfeld to George Costanza on Seinfeld.If George W. Bush is the worst president in American history, then all...
View ArticleHow the Democrats Can Win the Tax Issue
The Republicans own the tax issue. It is the source of their power and their popularity with voters, especially the independents and "Reagan Democrats" who usually give them their margin of victory on...
View ArticleHow Obama and the Dems are missing the boat on taxes
Our job is to push the Democratic Party to the left. Why is it that the strongest tax proposal we have out there is to simply let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire? The wealthy must pay their...
View ArticleIt's Time for a Permanent Stimulus Package
As the Obama transition team prepares a serious stimulus package for passage in January, it's time to consider whether this should be a one-time only deal, or a consistent, long-term tool for...
View ArticleMLK and the Dream of Economic Justice for All
Great op-ed in Monday's Los Angeles Daily News by Al Sheahen, a long-time advocate for the guaranteed annual income: http://www.dailynews.com/...Sheahen writes:"In his 1967 book, "Where Do We Go From...
View ArticleA Bailout for the People
There's a lot for progressives to be happy about after the first month of the Obama Administration. His stimulus plan provides funding for much-needed infrastructure repairs and green collar jobs. His...
View ArticleLetter to President Obama on Fixing the Economy
As our economy continues to implode, a new solution with a long history has gained support among a group of academics, activists, and economists who gathered this past weekend at the 8th Congress of...
View ArticleDepression in Southern California Shows Need for EFCA
Tom Woodruff, director of Change to Win's Strategic Organizing Center, has a commentary up on Huffington Post right now that tells the story of the warehouse workers of the Inland Empire, who are...
View ArticleWhy We Need Employee Free Choice: Warehouse Workers United
Check out Grit TV with Laura Flanders today; she's got the story of the warehouse workers in California's Inland Empire. They have key jobs in the hub of the global economy, unloading, sorting,...
View ArticleSave the Public Option: Let individuals buy into Medicare
As the major newspapers write their obituaries for the public option, progressives across the nation are making it clear: no public option, no mandate to buy private health insurance.If it is true that...
View ArticleA New Economic Philosophy for the Left: Rise Up Economics
I believe that what's missing from the Democratic Party and the left in general is a cohesive economic philosophy that could guide our policies and present a compelling vision of the future to the...
View ArticleRobin Hood was Right
Robin Hood had its world premier last night at the Cannes Film Festival and could be a major summer blockbuster. As this timeless story comes back into our cultural consciousness, I'd like to take a...
View ArticleNew Jobs Report Just Goes to Show We Need to Re-work "Work"
The new jobs report is disappointing. Well, what else is new? Here's a reality check: There's not enough jobs for everyone. There never was, and there never will be. The problem is exacerbated now...
View ArticleGive the (oil, gas, lithium) revenues directly to the people
An interesting story this morning on NPR about an idea to make sure the people in Afghanistan and Africa benefit from lithium, oil, and other natural resources that have been found there: give the...
View ArticleJust Give Money to the Poor--and the Middle Class
The New York Times has a short piece today about successful aid programs in the third world where money is given directly to the poor.Today’s idea: Instead of relying on the waste-ridden global aid...
View ArticleWash Post business writer hits on the biggest problem in American economy
There was this amazing nugget today by Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein:It is only in the world of Chamber of Commerce propaganda that businesses exist to create jobs. In the real world,...
View ArticleWhy the Republicans Won: Progressives Don’t Have an Answer to the Jobs...
We had a Democratic President, majorities in the House and Senate, and a mandate to do something about the worst economy since the Great Depression. What went so wrong that millions of independents ran...
View ArticleWork Sucks, and There’s Not Enough of It
This holiday season, millions of out-of-work Americans and their families will be screwed by the Republican Grinches. Without an unemployment check, they will either be unable to find a job and have to...
View ArticleRobert Reich Nails It: We need to reorganize the economy
There's lots to like in Robert Reich's piece in the Huffington Post today, as he details how the Obama tax cut deal confirms the Republican worldview that big government is the problem with the...
View ArticleMiddle Class is Dying, and How We Can Save It
Today's Washington Post profiles people who have dropped right out of the middle class:The stock market has rebounded. Corporate profits are soaring. And yet, for millions of Americans, the lingering...
View ArticleMLK's Other Dream: Economic Justice and a Guaranteed Annual Income
Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial equality is closer to being a reality. Racism still exists and people of color still face many obstacles, but as our first black President's approval ratings...
View ArticleKrugman: Unions, Not Education, Solution to Disappearing Middle Class
Paul Krugman's column in today's New York Times makes the case that we can't turn the economy around and save the middle class simply through promoting higher education.Advances in technology and...
View ArticleLetter on Basic Income Handed to President Obama in Brazil
While in Brazil this past weekend, President Obama was personally handed the following letter (below the fold) from the US Basic Income Guarantee Network by Brazilian Senator Eduardo Suplicy, in...
View ArticleWe Need to Re-work Work
There was an interesting opinion piece on the nature of work in the NYTimes' The Stone philosophy blog on Saturday by Gary Gutting called What is Work Really For? It posits that "leisure, not work,...
View ArticleWhile Romney bashes Obama for being "soft on China," his tax returns show his...
The Romney Campaign keeps running ads decrying the loss of jobs to China, saying "it's time to stand up to the cheaters and make sure we protect jobs for the American people." But his 2011 tax returns...
View ArticleSensata creating jobs--overseas
Right wing nut jobs are out with more lies about Sensata Technologies today, the Bain company that's outsourcing 170 good jobs from Freeport, Ill. to China.First they claimed that President Obama was...
View ArticleTed Rall and the Basic Income for All
Just ran across this great column from cartoonist extraordinaire Ted Rall in support of a basic income. It's from last year, but it's perfect.Rall makes it very clear what the major economic goal of...
View ArticleFollowing Europe's lead on the basic income for all
Folks in Europe are currently campaigning for a basic income, which would provide a livable income directly to everyone as a human right, paid for by taxing the rich, financial transactions, carbon...
View ArticleThat Vision Thing: our need to search for Utopia
There was a nice piece in the Washington Post's Wonkblog on the basic income that reminds us of the real human need to strive for Utopia:Though establishing a basic income was once at the forefront of...
View ArticleJobs are not the answer
I just found this great opinion piece by Al Sheahan, author and activist for a basic income, on why it's income, not jobs, that matters:Nobody states the obvious truth: that the marketplace has changed...
View Article3 Ways to Fix Our Broken Economy
I read a lot of opinion pieces over Labor Day weekend about work, jobs and the economy, and I've been inspired by the fast food and retail workers who went on strike last week in more than 60 cities....
View ArticleBasic Income Can Make America Great Again
Another Republican debate is upon us, and it seems that Donald Trump’s poll numbers are down a bit in Iowa. Perhaps the Summer of Trump is behind us, and his candidacy will fade away like it did last...
View ArticleGeorge Will Plays Grinch for Home Care Workers
Just when you thought that George Will might have a heart that wasn’t three times too small, because he’s objected to some of President Trump’s worst abominations, he goes ahead and shows us his true...
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