Economics, Labor, Capitalism, Trade, Poverty (Also see Taxes)

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“Sell Off All Fossil Fuel Investments Now”

March 18, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The April 2018 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” explores an important aspect of the climate crisis that has been largely neglected. If people pay attention to this aspect, we can protect the climate and also save ourselves from serious financial losses. The climate crisis has forced the world to start significantly shifting away from coal and oil. We must shift away from all fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) much more rapidly in order to protect Planet Earth – and all of us – from catastrophic climate disruptions. Sharply reducing our consumption of fossil fuels will financially hurt the […]

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Read Glen’s thorough report on converting to a peace economy

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, we had occasional wars and then de-mobilized afterward. But after World War II we launched the Cold War and maintained a permanent war status. We also created a “permanent war economy.” Massive military spending year after year – decade after decade – since the 1940s – has distorted and disrupted the U.S. economy and hurt our society in many ways. Typically when we think of military spending, we think of the budget and the trade-offs between military spending and spending for better purposes.  However, far beyond such budgetary trade-offs, military spending causes systemic harm to our […]

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Watch “Solutionary Rail” TV program for creative solutions!

February 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Use your computer (the December 2017 episode of the “TV Programs” part of www.olympiafor.org or any of several relevant topic links on this blog,  www.parallaxperspectives.org) to watch Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s December 2017 TV interview about Solutionary Rail, a fascinating and attractive “win-win-win-win” for fuel efficiency, the climate, local communities, workers, and more. This interview is online now and forever. Also, you can read a thorough summary of what we said during the interview. “Solutionary Rail” Olympia FOR’s December 2017 interview program explores a remedy for several of our nation’s problems that is both creative and exciting. This remedy would […]

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The welfare states (“nanny states”) are better for business investors too.

February 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Conservatives like to denounce the “nanny states” that take care of people’s health, invest in good education, and serve the broad public interest in other ways. Conservatives instead prefer neoliberal “free-market” governments that do NOT invest in those, but rather keep governments small and weak so businesses can dominate those nations. Actually, an article from the very “free-market” and “free-enterprise” business-oriented Forbes magazine (cited on page 15 of the Jan-Feb 2018 issue of the economically left Dollars & Sense magazine (www.dollarsandsense.org) reported some important economic findings. “[I]n 2016 Forbes ranked Sweden number one on its list of the top countries […]

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Despite Trump’s behavioral distractions, he is accomplishing MUCH — but the WRONG stuff!

January 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Powerful interests run their agenda on two tracks: 1. For public consumption, they say nice propaganda, platitudes, etc., and they also put out a carnival of entertainment, scandal, eye candy, etc. 2. Meanwhile, apart from public view they do horrible things. So, for example, while LBJ and Nixon kept saying they wanted peace in Vietnam, they actually were escalating the war. Trump promised jobs, promised to “drain the swamp,” etc., but he has been doing the opposite. Both parties do this, and so does big business with “greenwashing” advertising campaigns while they hurt the environment. We must pay attention to […]

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What vehicles’ “How’s my driving?” signs REALLY mean

January 12, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

I keep seeing various businesses’ cars and trucks with a sign on the back, asking “How’s my driving?”  They provide a phone number for people to call in order to report bad driving. This reflects badly on those businesses in 2 ways: 1.  It shows that the company does NOT trust its employees to drive safely, so it calls upon the general public to monitor their behavior. 2.  It shows that the company makes bad hiring decisions. If they hire people who are not competent as drivers, in what other ways are their employees not competent? Both of these are […]

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Besides Protesting What We Oppose, Let’s Also Organize to Achieve Positive Goals

January 12, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

by Glen Anderson We need to keep protesting against the cruelty, corruption, injustice and violence that continually assault us. But if we spend most of our time and efforts fighting the bad stuff, the oppressors will continue to have the upper hand because they can keep throwing bad stuff at us and we will always be on the defensive. We need to spend most of our time and efforts taking the initiative to organize for the positive goals that we want instead. We need to be proactive, envision the future we want instead of the current mess, and organize to […]

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“Empowering Ourselves for Profound Democracy”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In modern American society, people recognize that giant impersonal systems have too much power, and often they oppress us.  These include big business corporations that cheat us out of our money, destroy our environment, outsource our jobs to low-wage countries, buy the politicians who make the political decisions, and own the media that control how we perceive the world and what we learn and think about political issues. The big impersonal systems also include governmental systems that make wars despite public opinion and protect big business interests in defiance of the public interest. All of the problems we face seem […]

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“Honduras”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In the early morning of June 28, 2009, about 100 soldiers from the Central American nation of Honduras forced their way into the bedroom of Honduran president Manual Zelaya, kidnapped him while he was still in his pajamas, and forced him into exile in another country. This military coup – backed by conservative business leaders – overthrew a freely elected president. Latin American nations unanimously denounced this military coup against democracy. U.S. politicians and news media have distorted the realities, so the American people do not understand what really happened, or why. The crisis has continued ever since.  Human rights […]

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“Converting to a Peace Economy”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, we had occasional wars and then de-mobilized afterward. But after World War II we launched the Cold War and maintained a permanent war status. We also created a “permanent war economy.” Massive military spending year after year – decade after decade – since the 1940s – has distorted and disrupted the U.S. economy and hurt our society in many ways. This is the topic of the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s December 2010 TV program. Every year Congress makes decisions about how much money to spend for which purposes. For example, Congress could spend less on nuclear […]

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“Create a Publicly Owned Washington State Bank”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Serious problems require bold, creative solutions!  The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s January 2011 TV interview explores a creative solution to help our state’s economy. Even during hard financial times, a lot of money flows through the state government. Property tax payments, sales tax revenue, payroll taxes, fees for licenses, and other revenues arrive at various times. From time to time the state pays out this money for salaries, equipment, supplies, rent, payments to local governments, and so forth. What happens to the money while the state has it? The state deposits most of it with the big Wall Street banks […]

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“A Nonviolent Society for the Common Good”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In recent years American society has experienced a serious upsurge of anti-government rhetoric, including threats of violence against members of Congress – and in January 2011 an actual shooting. We have seen a continuation of war, torture and human rights abuses by our government, cutbacks in vital social and health services, a mania for privatizing public services, intolerance of minority races and religions, and an overall breakdown in the sense of our common humanity. Are these interconnected?  Do they have common roots? Can we find solutions that will resolve these problems and restore our public ethics and our common humanity? […]

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“Real Democracy, Not Corporate Personhood”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

“End ‘Corporate Personhood’ and Other Power Grabs” In its January 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that big business corporations can give as much money as they want to election campaigns. By a 5-4 majority (all 5 were appointed by Reagan or George W. Bush), they overturned a century of settled law that had protected election campaigns from excessive corporate interference. This decision further entrenched the bizarre notion that money is “speech” and that corporations are “persons” with free speech and the same civil rights as living, breathing human beings. The Citizens United […]

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“Causing and Exploiting Economic Crises”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

What do Wisconsin’s Republican politicians, the political aftermath of 9-11, the Wall Street banking crash, and the federal budget crisis all have in common? In each case, a crisis (real or contrived) was used as the excuse to impose preconceived agendas of radical right-wing policies upon our political and/or economic lives. The Patriot Act, for example, was not a carefully crafted response to the 9-11 attacks. Rather, it was a massive collection of proposals for stripping away Americans’ constitutional rights to privacy, due process, and so forth. These proposals were too radical to ever be passed by Congress during normal […]

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“Washington State Needs Tax Reform”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The State of Washington experiences recurring budget crises, so the Legislature keeps making drastic cuts.  Revenue keeps falling short of the needs, so they keep slashing and slashing. They have cut funding for state employees, state parks, K-12 education, higher education, health care, assistance for our poorest people, and pretty much everything. But it’s never enough. The Governor and state legislators scrutinize everything on the expenditure side, but they have been refusing to seriously examine the seriously dysfunctional revenue side. They don’t seriously examine “tax expenditures” – various tax breaks, exemptions and loopholes. Some of these have existed for decades […]