A Staggeringly Lopsided Economic Recovery
http://www.thenation.com/blog/196113/staggeringly-lopsided-economic-recovery
Just how strong is the economic recovery? Democrats have offered somewhat contradictory answers to that question recently. The picture President Obama painted in last week’s State of the Union address was mostly rosy. “The shadow of crisis has passed,” he declared, citing “a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production.” And indeed, the US economy added more jobs in 2014 than it has since 1999, and unemployment is at its lowest point in more than six years.
The competing, bleaker, view—described most forcefully by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren—is that the good numbers don’t accurately reflect the reality lived by America’s workers. Middle-class families “are working harder than ever, but they can’t get ahead,” Warren argued in an early January speech. “Opportunity is slipping away. Many feel like the game is rigged against them—and they are right.” The tide may be rising, but it’s failing to lift most of the boats.
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute demonstrates as much. In the vast majority of US states, the top 1 percent of earners captured at least half of the income gains during the first three years of the economic recovery. In seventeen states, the 1 percent raked in all of the income growth. Those at the top of the economic ladder in Nevada, for example, saw their incomes grow by 40 percent between 2009 and 2012; meanwhile, other Nevadans incomes actually declined, by 16 percent.
The Northeast is the most unequal region, in part because of the concentration there of financial-sector and other executive-level jobs, said Mark Price, one of the authors of the report, on a conference call with reporters. Still, the pattern is consistent whether in Alabama or New York: the benefits of economic growth “have been flowing increasingly to this tiny fraction of households across most of the states.”
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That Jetsons future we were all looking for did come. Except we didn't reap the benefits of our own labors, they reaped the benefits of our labors. And now we have to change all that. Recognizing the problem is step number 1.
The corrupt system is dying. Let it. Get as far away from it as possible. It won't be pretty when all the screaming starts, but it's like losing one's teeth or one's virginity, it's a must. You just can't stop it.
You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, my grandfather used to tell me. I didn't know what he meant back then. I do now.
Like Bucky sez, build it and they will come......
- We can't wait for everyone to catch up. We have to start without them and hope they come to their senses in time. In the meantime, we do what we know works. With today's technical capabilities, anything is possible. Creating stand alone habitats that can operate outside the grid is key. Some have begun experimenting with the possibilities:
Earthship Biotecture
Earthship.com
TheValhallaMovement
Growing Power
Permis (Permaculture)
Geoff Lawton: Designing Permacultures
LA-Guerrilla-Gardening.org
''Growing your own food is like printing your own money.'' ~Ron Finley: Guerrilla Gardening Artist from South Central LA
