Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Bread, Circuses & Bombs – Decline Of The American Empire – Part Two / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I discussed the similarities between the Roman Empire and the American Empire at a high level. In this article I’ll delve into some specific similarities and rhymes between the fall of the Roman Empire and our modern day empire of debt, decay and decline. I’ll address our expansive level of bread and circuses and how defects in our human nature lead to people willingly sacrificing their liberty for promises of safety and security. All empires decline due to the same human failings and ours is no exception. If anything, ours will be far more spectacular and rapid due to our extreme level of hubris, arrogance, willful ignorance and warlike preference for dealing with foreign powers.
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Third World U.S. Where One In Three Children Are Under The Poverty Line / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
I often call the US a "third world country". Of course, in some ways I am kidding as the original meaning of 1st, 2nd or 3rd world countries was the following:
After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
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Thursday, November 06, 2014
Away with the Skylarks / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Tom Naysburn writes: “Skylarks” as I read the Rastafarians call them, are a blight on our society. Able, but refusing to work, is an unforgivable state, and a welfare system which helps promotes this dishonourable cause is a shame on us all. For that statement to hold, the minimum working wage must be able to trump hand outs which of course represents an additional cost. So how can this aspiration be achieved?
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Wednesday, November 05, 2014
What is the Alternative to Keynesian Corporatism? / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.” From The General Theory by John Maynard Keynes
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Monday, November 03, 2014
How Do You Feel About Child Poverty? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I often find myself wondering what people, people in the street, western people in general, my readers perhaps, think when they see something like the recent Unicef report, Children of Recession: the Impact of the Economic Crisis on Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries, which states that child poverty in developed nations has risen significantly.
How many of you who live in Europe still see the EU as something good and beneficial when you see that not only does Greece today has 25% unemployment and 55% youth unemployment, and its child poverty rate also went up from 23% to 40.5% since 2008? Or do you put the blame not with the EU, but elsewhere?
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Friday, October 31, 2014
Only a Pawn in Their Game / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Apocalypse Now Or Nirvana Next Week? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Theory of Hydra
Dovetailing seamlessly with the unstated political goal of dumbing down society beyond and below the dementia threshold, the cult of Multiple Threats to the economy, society, the environment, the rule of law, the status of western civilization and electric power plant capacity at times of peak demand have at least one common thread. That is downsizing and dumbing down. This affects everything whether it is public knowledge and awareness or the ability to face challenges of any kind - like the shock of finding out that expensive windfarms don't work when the wind doesn't blow “but we didn't know that”.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Humanity Accelerating to What Exactly? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_Mills
We humans have been changing the world around us for tens of thousands of years. It's pretty much what we do, we shape and we change the existing environment through design and then indifference to the results of our actions.
The sheer scale and lightning fast speed of change since the 1950s has been almost unbelievable. So incredible and so sweeping are the changes scientists call the last 65 or so years the 'Great Acceleration'.
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Sunday, October 26, 2014
The American Dream Is Still Possible, Just Not in the US / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ron_Holland
Although there are no firm statistics on the number of Americans living outside the US, the US State Department estimates that somewhere between 3 and 6 million Americans now live offshore. I think this is a low estimate and the number is clearly growing.
I now live in Canada but often travel back to the United States. Driving through Customs near Buffalo is usually not a big ordeal but it does involve a time-wasting delay much like visiting the post office or any other US government bureaucracy. But governments should police their borders, as this is one of the few legitimate functions of a central government.
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Sunday, October 19, 2014
Wealth Inequality Is Not A Problem, It’s A Symptom / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
A comment on an article that comments on a book. I don’t think either provides, for the topic they deal with, the depth it needs and deserves. Not so much a criticism, more a ‘look further, keep digging, and ye shall find more’. And since the topic in question is perhaps the most defining one of our day and age, it seems worth it to me to try and explain.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Janet Yellen is Wrong About the Cause of Wealth Inequality / Politics / Social Issues
By: Sy_Harding
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in a speech on the subject on Friday, that she is “greatly concerned by the extent, and continuing increase, of wealth inequality in the United States.”, noting the “significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top, and stagnant living standards for the majority.”
She is echoing economists’ growing concerns of recent years.
The statistics are shocking. A 2012 academic study by NYU economist Edward N. Wolff, ‘The Asset Price Meltdown and the Wealth of the Middle Class’, revealed that the richest 5% of Americans hold 88.9% of the nation’s wealth. A study by European Central Bank economists estimates that just the richest 1% of Americans control 35% of the wealth.
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Friday, October 17, 2014
Either You're The Butcher or You're The Cattle / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
I know many people have no interest in watching the boob tube because 99% of the programming is either mindless drivel or government sanctioned propaganda. It's the 1% that reflects the deeper themes and moods engulfing our society. Television shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead reflect the darkening mood of this intensifying Fourth Turning. I wrote one of my more pessimistic articles called Welcome to Terminus in April regarding the season four finale of the Walking Dead series. I essentially argued we are approaching the end of the line and the world is going to get real nasty.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Gordon Brown, Business and the Monopoly Motive / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Tom Naysburn writes: Adam Smith said if you left businessmen in a room together they would collude and fix the market or attempt to build monopolies. Adam Smith didn’t become infamous because he was inaccurate. What a shame his fellow Kirkcaldy resident, Gordon Brown didn’t have the same insight. Mr Smith’s invisible hand trumps Mr Brown’s withered left fist, every time. Gordon Brown regulated the people and forgot about the stealth concentrations of power in the banks and mega corporations. They say you shouldn’t look back with anger, but that old dog has had his day. Fast forward to the here and now and we see nothing changes under the sun, unless forced to.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Student Movements: A Subject of Human Geography / Politics / Social Issues
By: STRATFOR
Sim Tack writes: As student protests in Hong Kong continue, memories of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations naturally spring to mind. Less iconic but no less notable were the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which began as a student movement; the 2007 Venezuelan protests, which started with a group of students demanding constitutional reform; and the 1929 protests in Paris, which challenged the role of churches in education.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Decline Fear And The Unique Nation / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Mass Psychology of Decline
Unknown to some, the fear of decline and a highly developed theory of decline is certainly one of the longest-running features of modern western society and culture. The decline paradigm can be claimed as emerging either before, or simultaneously with what the Oxford Dictionary defines as “the dominant social paradigm” - in which “progress” features as the supreme value of western society.
Sunday, October 05, 2014
Escape From New York - Fragility and Delusions / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
I live only a two hour drive from New York City, but it is a world apart from my daily existence. I’ve visited the Big Apple probably a dozen times in my life, but never for longer than two or three days. I have a soft spot in my heart for NYC because it is where I proposed to my wife on a bitterly cold December evening in a horse drawn carriage ride in Central Park, twenty five years ago. But, I can honestly say that I never feel comfortable in the city.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Ron Paul - Scottish Referendum Gives the People Reasons to be Hopeful / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Even though it ultimately failed at the ballot box, the recent campaign for Scottish independence should cheer supporters of the numerous secession movements springing up around the globe.
In the weeks leading up to the referendum, it appeared that the people of Scotland were poised to vote to secede from the United Kingdom. Defeating the referendum required British political elites to co-opt secession forces by promising greater self-rule for Scotland, as well as launching a massive campaign to convince the Scots that secession would plunge them into economic depression.
Friday, September 05, 2014
The Collapse of Income REAL Wealth in Something for Nothing Societies / Economics / Social Issues
By: Ty_Andros
In this final chapter of Useful Idiots and the Something for Nothing society, we show the final elements leading to the societal and economic collapse that we are currently caught in. The system I have outlined here and in previous chapters is INSANE when viewed through the lens of history. Unfortunately, our leaders and our society have forgotten it and, therefore, we are doomed to repeat it. Nothing will stop it and very little can be done to slow it down. You must embrace it, acknowledge it and turn it into your opportunity rather than your demise. We are at the tail end of an insanity seen throughout history, which began now almost 100 years ago. We are at the end game in the near future. If you haven't read the previous chapters PLEASE DO SO as it will connect the dots for you.
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Western Economy - This Is As Big As We Will Get / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
This is it. This is the biggest we’re going to get. We won’t grow anymore. Not bigger, not wider, not taller (just thicker perhaps, in the sense of more stupid). I return to this from time to time, and still I never see even just one voice in the media with even one hair’s breadth of doubt about the overarching theme of growth at all costs. Is this a sign that economists and other poorly educated people have taken over the world, or is it simply what we are all programmed for?
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Shaun Wright to Resign as SYPCC, Rotherham Mega Child Abuse is About Religion Not Race / Local / Social Issues
By: N_Walayat
The clock is counting down on what is inevitable if not an imminent statement from Shaun Wright resigning as South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner as he comes under intense pressure not just from political opponents but also from his own Labour party as a consequence of a litany of failures under his watch as the councillor with responsibility for Children's Services in Rotherham from 2005 to 2010, in the wake of revelations that at least 1400 girls in the care of Rotherham children services were were abused by in large part local asian men of Pakistani origin that Rotherham's politicians, Police and Council agencies collectively turned a blind eye to for over a decade.