Midcan5's Blog

The simple and recommended way to view life and politics in America. Note: While Glenn Beck is named in the title, this method applies to many political, historical writers, and opinion makers. In today's partisan culture some can do no good and others no wrong. Balanced critical thought has vanished from the American landscape. If you have ever read a book by a socialist, communist, or Marxist you are a socialist, communist, or Marxist. If you have ever criticized business for exploiting labor you are a socialist, communist, or Marxist. If you have ever thought democracy should serve all the people, you are a socialist, communist, or Marxist. If you have ever thought helping people is part of the government's function, you are a socialist, communist, or Marxist. If you have ever thought 'Welfare' could have a positive impact in America, you are a socialist, communist, or Marxist. If you have ever had your picture taken with a person who believes society o...

"Anti-government rhetoric is once again all the rage (pun intended) in the United States. Neoconservatives, indomitable Reaganites, and the Mad Tea Party all inveigh against the federal government—its taxes, its programs, its bureaucracy, its regulations. Unlike the political Left, they are not worried about domestic and international injustice, exorbitant military spending (the one portion of the national budget they would not reduce), or the diminution of civil liberties. Nonetheless, given that anti-government rhetoric, it’s worth considering whether the Mad Tea Party and the libertarian Right have anything in common with anarchism itself." Caroline Hamilton, an Americanist, teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. Her most recently scholarly article was published by The Journal of American Studies in the Spring of 2010. She is writing a book about Alexander Hamilton. Read article here.

Even when you disagree with him, John Kenneth Galbraith is worth a read. This book while short touches on key aspects of a just society, a society Americans experienced after the Great depression till recent times. What happened that America became so divided and so separated by wealth and privilege? The ideas contained in this short book point to what American values were not too long ago. "In this slim volume, eminent economist Galbraith tackles the question of what, exactly, is a "good society." Most Americans would agree with the components of Galbraith's "good society": economic growth; universal access to education; and protection for the young, old, disabled, and the environment. He parts company with the pundits in his disbelief that the "good society" can be obtained through adherence to a particular ideology, arguing instead that rigid philosophies must be abandoned and each issue considered in all its complexity. With his usual elegan...

Excellent piece that covers many parts of the economic and job puzzle. "In 1915, a statistician at the University of Wisconsin named Willford I. King published The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States, the most comprehensive study of its kind to date. The United States was displacing Great Britain as the world's wealthiest nation, but detailed information about its economy was not yet readily available; the federal government wouldn't start collecting such data in any systematic way until the 1930s. One of King's purposes was to reassure the public that all Americans were sharing in the country's newfound wealth. King was somewhat troubled to find that the richest 1 percent possessed about 15 percent of the nation's income. (A more authoritative subsequent calculation puts the figure slightly higher, at about 18 percent.)" "...Today, the richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's income. What caused this to hap...

After all, if you fail and fail and fail, isn't it just like Americans to give you another chance. Think of the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox. It could be there is just a curse on the republicans since Coolidge and Hoover, and this time they may just do well. Americans have short memories. Remember Newt Gingrich, he tried didn't he? Oh, I don't mean marriage. And the real estate bubble, S&L Scandal and bailout under Reagan/Bush, just small potatoes compared to George W. Bush. And let's not mention the Great Depression. Who needs safe food, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Healthcare, child labor laws, secure banks, safe investments, folks, have faith, this time they may actually do OK. Why consider track records when you have their rhetoric? - Our first republican commentator: "The magnitude of the fiscal wreckage and the severity of the economic dangers that resulted are too great to permit such an easy verdict. In the larger scheme of democrati...

Thumbs up for all who bought and buy American made. Read and pass on. Ideas can be powerful things, and when used for the good can result in good. Ideas have power and if the idea that buying American, buying in stores that pay fairly is a good thing, and looking at where things are made becomes a way of thinking, then we have accomplished a big thing. There is no need for tariffs and other regulatory complications, all that is necessary is that America makes products that are reasonably priced, and Americans buy them even when the cost is slightly higher than the import. That seems simple, but isn't simple when the very workers who create many of these goods, in Unions particularly, are seen in a negative light. Instead of whining about America as the Tea party does, why not push the idea that buying and supporting one of the foundations of our current lifestyle, Unions and 'made in America,' is still needed today, get out there and spread around ideas that praise th...

"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.  Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tiny blasts of tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us."  Pogo According to a recent Harper's Index 10,149 US companies are now foreign owned. The average net worth of a white woman between 36 and 49 is 42,600 dollars. For a non-white woman it is five dollars. The CEO of Nike, Philip Knight is the sixth richest man in America. He is worth five billion dollars. "By 1992, Nike had eliminated nearly all of their U.S. work force in favor of low-wage Asian producers." 'As of 2004, the richest one percent of Americans possessed sixty percent of all wealth in the country, while the bottom forty percent accounted for a whopping two-tenths of a percent.' 791 American companies listed in URL below outsource their w...