I visited the website of the 5th largest political party in the US, ranked by ballot access, a communist one -- not, however, the Communist Party USA -- and saw "For the planet to live, capitalism must end."I like that they're environmentally aware, but I disagree. I don't think that environmentalism and capitalism are fundamentally opposed. I ( Read more... )

feelin' like the entire point of global politics now is to keep the bubbles from popping, the money from the bubbles is paying politicians to keep the bubbles from popping ( Read more... )

Let's call him Dustin, he's a writer for a southern homemaker's magazine, he's got a degree, probably in one of the humanities, from a school we've heard of, and he wrote for the school paper, and he found his way into writing as a food critic for a southern homemaker's magazine ( Read more... )

"If I ask myself what would today be the most radical demand to make upon our own system-that demand which could not be fulfilled or satisfied without transforming the system beyond recognition, and which would at once usher in a society structurally distinct from this one in every conceivable way, from the psychological to the sociological, from ( Read more... )

"I’m not a socialist; I believe in capital markets."

--Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI)

I try to remember that socialism and capitalism are best used as tools rather than as belief systems. Sometimes market forces are helpful. Sometimes public ownership is helpful. Sometimes we need to regulate markets, sometimes regulations are counterproductive ( Read more... )

I'll forever have fits with the term "degrowth" because in general I prefer to be for something than against something.  Like, I'm pro universal suffrage.  I'm also anti-authoritarian, but I'd rather say I'm pro universal suffrage and pro civil liberties because those are more specific.  I'm also pro republican democracy.  You could be an anti- ( Read more... )

It would be a fun experiment to set the maximum wage in the US at $7.25/hour for a year.  Instead of the minimum wage, make it the maximum wage.  How many of my readers would survive 2023 if they and their employed adult household members were each paid only $7.25/hour -- and had to lock up any savings, pensions, home equity, government assistance ( Read more... )

BarbaraNickel.pdf (5771k file)

In the capital [of Mexico], five American dollars will buy you a three-course meal and a beer. You are told that high-end sex workers charge $150 per night. With the rent you paid for your two-bedroom in Crown Heights [Brooklyn], you could afford a luxurious apartment downtown. And yet some people here have as much wealth as the bankers of ( Read more... )

Well, it started out like a crazy week, with the plumbing emergency on Monday morning in the midst of Maids Day and taking T to the train station and RTO, but T was able to stabilize the plumbing before we left the house, and the pro took care of the immediate plumbing needs on Tuesday morning, so I've been chill since then. Work is manageable, I ( Read more... )