I happen to think that our three branches of government have already been captured and assimilated by major corporate interests and the 0.1% of the population at the top of economic pyramid. Unfortunately, I've become so cynical that I believe a corrupted system won't change until it fails first.
But, in case you may be one of those people who believes that change can be accomplished before failure, the following soon-to-be released documentary may appeal to you.
Robert Reich, secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, and director Jacob Kornbluth discuss economic inequality in America in their Sundance film "Inequality for All."
Robert Reich isn't the only one who thinks there's hope even when the system is stacked against the American public.
ReplyDeleteFormer US Vice President Al Gore has said US politicians serve the interests of wealthy industries, rather than the interests of the public. Speaking to Sian Williams on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, he added that television coverage of current affairs "selectively represents information that is paid for".
For that reason, he ruled himself out of a return to office, calling himself "a recovering politician" attempting to avoid a "relapse".
Source: BBC News: Gore's problem with politicians
You'll continue to hear the optimists joyously proclaiming that the unemployment rate continues to fall, and that it's a sign of a recovering economy. But before jumping on the optimists' bandwagon, let's take a look at what Federal Reserve Governor, Sarah Bloom Raskin, recently had to say about that growth in job creation -
ReplyDelete"These currents of globalization and technological change continue on their path, making it more likely that workers who were laid off during the recession would be unable to find reemployment that is of comparable quality to their previous jobs.
About two-thirds of all job losses in the recession were in middle-wage occupations--such as manufacturing, skilled construction, and office administration jobs--but these occupations have accounted for less than one-fourth of the job growth during the recovery.
By contrast, lower-wage occupations, such as retail sales, food service, and other lower-paying service jobs, accounted for only one-fifth of job losses during the recession but more than one-half of total job gains during the recovery.
As a result of these trends in job creation, which could well have been exacerbated by the severe nature of the crisis, the earnings potential for many households likely remains below what they had anticipated in the years before the recession."
From the The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, July 2013, Chicago Fed Letter -
ReplyDeleteFor the unemployment rate to decline, the U.S. economy needs to generate above-trend job growth. We currently estimate trend employment growth to be around 80,000 jobs per month, and we expect it to decline over the remainder of the decade, due largely to changing labor force demographics and slower population growth.