Income Inequality

Pope Francis: A Gift To The World And Supporter Of Progressive Causes Shared With Barack Obama!

Ronald 14 Comments

Pope Francis has arrived in the United States, and will be here for six days, traveling to Washington, DC, New York City, and Philadelphia.

It is clear that Pope Francis is a gift to the world and a supporter of progressive causes that he often shares with President Barack Obama!

This Pope is, clearly, the best Pope in the sense of promoting reform, since the time of Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) and the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Francis has made enemies among conservative Catholics and evangelical right wing Christians, who do not pursue the true message of Jesus Christ, the promotion of the poor and the disabled and the sick.

Pope Francis has condemned predatory capitalism which has no concern as to its effect on the poor.

Pope Francis has spoken up on climate change and global warming, infuriating those in the conservative movement and the Republican Party who only think about profits, and reject science.

Pope Francis has attacked the growing income inequality in the world, a dangerous disease that threatens global stability.

Pope Francis has worked to resolve problems in the Catholic Church, and to have a more open mind on divorce, abortion, gay rights, and other controversial social issues, while not wholly backing all of these cultural changes.  But he has demonstrated greater tolerance of differences and opened up a sense of change, which is desperately needed in the Catholic Church, if it is to grow and prosper in the long term.

Pope Francis has engaged in bringing about the restoration of a relationship between the United States and Cuba, something long overdue.

Pope Francis has worked to help Syrian refugees, and generally to encourage immigration reform around the world, as to reject immigrants is against the American historical tradition, and worldwide would be the growth of another Holocaust, as Jews and other refugees suffered in the Second World War.

Pope Francis is a transformational Pope who, hopefully, will have a long range effect on the Catholic Church and the world.

Pope Francis has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is hoped that he will win it, as he richly deserves it!

We Can Look Forward To The Obama-Pope Francis Meeting In Late March!

Ronald 6 Comments

The announcement by the White House that President Obama will meet Pope Francis in Vatican City in late March, after attending meetings and visiting several nations in Europe earlier, is a great development!

It will allow our path breaking President, who has shown great courage in many areas of domestic and foreign policy, to meet a Pope who has shook up the Catholic Church, and affected attitudes on a multitude of issues in less than one year in the Papacy!

The two men share a concern about income inequality, the greatest concentration of wealth in the hands of a few in America and world wide, and the horrible poverty and deprivation that exists in much of the world, including one out of six Americans, many of them children, in America.

Both are concerned for human rights worldwide as well, and both understand the discrimination that has been visited against women, and gays and lesbians, and the Pope is also aware of the sexual abuse of women and children by evil elements in the Catholic Church, along with the corruption in the Vatican Bank.

Both Obama and Pope Francis have been called Marxists, and Socialists by the right wing, but they wear such appellations with pride, while laughing at the lunatics who profess such ridiculous statements about two brave men, who will be well remembered in history for their principles and values!

The Poor Often Forgotten: The White Underclass

Ronald Leave a comment

Whenever there is discussion of the problem of poverty, the tendency of most people is to assume that poverty is found only in the city ghettos across the country, and that poverty is found only among African American and Hispanic and Latino communities.

The thought that there might be millions of white poor people in rural areas and in the suburbs, particularly since the Great Recession hit in 2008, which has caused the loss of more jobs and foreclosure of homes on a massive basis than ever in the past 80 years, has not been generally recognized.

Many of the white poor are single mothers with children, but also includes families where both mother and father have lost their jobs, and also people in their 50s and 60s who are unlikely ever to get a full time job ever again, sadly, and also senior citizens and the disabled who are in a terrible state of affairs when it comes to medical care and having adequate money for food and other necessities.

Of course, there are minorities in the same boat, but in actuality, there are many more forgotten whites than minorities. And instead of the Republican Party being willing to recognize this reality, instead they love to use the race card to imply that the vast majority of poor are nonwhite, when just the opposite is the case.

The growing income inequality and education gaps are the true crisis for America’s future, and we do not see the Republican Party willing to address this truth, but instead utilize fear and hysteria to keep many whites from voting for the party who really cares about their future, the Democrats under Barack Obama!

The Dangers Of Extreme Income Inequality! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, and millions are facing the loss of their homes, all of this caused by Wall Street, the banks, and the powerful corporations, we get news that the corporate world has seen its best quarter of economic growth and profits in the sixty years since such records have been kept! 🙁

While the elite flaunt their wealth and arrogance in the face of the “little people”, who they have helped to exploit and put into dire poverty and desperation, the country faces a social crisis of massive proportions, and yet it is the corporate wealthy who spent extreme amounts of money to put their Republican allies back into power on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives! 🙁

Against any regulation or reform of the Obama Administration, the intent of the super rich is to continue the exploitation of the masses that they have been engaged in during the past decade! 🙁

No amount of arrogance seems to be enough, as no matter how much profit these corporations make, and no matter how much personal materialism the super rich gain, it is never enough! 🙁

The level of selfishness and greed is unlimited, but there are signs that the social tensions that are rising as people become cornered and desperate might reverberate on all of us in increased bloodshed and violence by victims who see nothing to lose! 🙁

The situation we face is extremely scary, as constant exploitation could lead to violent revolution and destruction of the entire society, all because of the small percentage of the population who possess no ethics, no conscience, no morals in their pursuit of personal gain! 🙁

What a sad commentary it is that the American capitalistic system could be sowing the seeds of its own destruction through unwillingness to realize limits in the public interest! 🙁

The Congressional Budget Office: Growing Inequality Of Wealth Since 1979!

Ronald Leave a comment

The Congressional Budget Office has released research that shows the tremendous inequality of wealth that has occurred since 1979, coinciding with the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s and the Bush II tax cuts of the 2000s!

38.7 percent of the income growth went to the top one percent, with 15.6 percent going to the next four percent, and 9.4 percent to the next five percent! That means that 64 percent of the income growth went to the top ten percent of the American population, based upon income! 🙁

The bottom 90 percent received the remaining 36 percent of the income growth, with the 80-90 percentile gaining 11.5 percent, meaning a grand total of 75 percent of all income growth was among the top 20 percent of earners! 🙁

Is there any way that, in a country which promotes “equality of opportunity” and a so called “level playing field”, we can justify such outrageous inequities, and feel that it is wrong to expect those most successful to contribute more to the betterment of American society through higher taxation rates? 🙁

How much wealth and materialism is too much, and how much lack of concern for those less fortunate can a democracy sustain, without wondering about the so called “American Dream” being phony and just a myth? 🙁

If the average American, particularly those in the bottom 80 percent fully understood what has been going on in the past 30 years, they would refuse to back a party which promotes MORE inequity and MORE greed and MORE materialism for the wealthy! 🙁

The problem again is ignorance is NOT bliss, but rather destructive of the social order and the future economic stability of the United States! 🙁