Archive
Deadly Fluff
Shredding the Safety Net
There’s widespread poverty in America today, though it’s sometimes hard to see how bad it is. Real estate development techniques and zoning rules, plus a healthy dollop of discrimination, force most poor people to live and work in neighborhoods many of us don’t often visit.
The Lineup: Week of July 25-31, 2011
In this week’s OtherWords editorial package, Marge Baker sums up the Supreme Court’s tendency to rule in favor of corporations in an op-ed accompanied by a Khalil Bendib cartoon. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do.
America Doesn’t Need a Tax-Dodging Industry
Like a pack of men in suits mud wrestling, Washington’s budget battle would be entertaining to watch if we the people weren’t about to get hurt.
Getting Main Street to Call the Shots
Thanks to massive bailout funding from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury, Wall Street survived the financial crash it created. This year, its titans are enjoying record share prices, corporate profits, and executive bonuses. The financial assets of America’s billionaires and the idle cash reserves of the most profitable corporations are at historic highs. Their biggest challenge is figuring out where to park all their cash.
Too Many Rulings are Supremely Courteous to Corporations
Americans realize that our rights and liberties depend on having a system of justice that we can trust. We know we should be able to show up in court to contest anything from a parking ticket to felony and make our case — whether we’re rich or poor.
Our Non-Nuclear Future
Several decades ago, three expert nuclear engineers told a congressional panel why they decided to quit: “We could no longer justify devoting our life energies to the continued development and expansion of nuclear fission power — a system we believe to be so dangerous that it now threatens the very existence of life on this planet.”
Injustice Department
It isn’t so much that I’m against balancing the budget. It’s that I think firing public employees is a lousy way to create jobs. I’ll say this for that strategy though: it beats throwing grandma from the train, which is the other big budget-cutting plan Republicans have in store for us.
Budgeting for Ignorance
Will Rogers said that when Congress is in session, the public gets the same panicky feeling as “when the baby gets hold of a hammer.”
Power Plays
Energy production is too vital to be left to private industry’s tender mercies. Therefore, sensible nations run that sector of the economy themselves. Unfortunately, there aren’t many sensible nations, and those that are often get invaded.
