Number of articles with the word ‘inequality’ in U.S. newspapers - October 2010 through October 2011.
We could take a tiny bit of credit, but that’s not the point: The inequality is the point.
“I can’t tell you how people dressed for this year’s party, but I can tell you about last year’s. That’s because a former employee of Steven J. Baum recently sent me snapshots of last year’s party. In an e-mail, she said that she wanted me to see them because they showed an appalling lack of compassion toward the homeowners — invariably poor and down on their luck — that the Baum firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against.”
—On the Halloween bash at the “foreclosure mill” law firm of Steven J. Baum
Read Persephone Magazine’s epic take-down of the bullshit being peddled by this mythical bootstraps college student.
“
Five hundred strangers in a park will never themselves be the engines of any profound societal transformation. But if what I saw last night is real, if OWS is offering a critique that resonates in content — if not necessarily in form — with a broader and more eclectic swath of the country, then maybe those five hundred strangers are pounding on a door that’s a bit less well-armored than it looks.
Maybe what they have to offer isn’t a plan so much as an opportunity to have a bigger conversation, or even just an invitation to continue and expand a conversation that’s been going on in small ways in small places for a long tim
— Angus Johnston on the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Elizabeth Warren for President! “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.”
“ I want a new capitalism. Not fueled by wars. One that doesn’t pass on its wealth to a handful of white guys and call that free trade. One wherein the elderly actually get paid their retirement monies. We’ll have capitalism, but we’ll also have socialism. And education and basic compassion and health care. I’m talking about a system that rewards hard work and ambition but cares for it’s weakest child–and being called a feminazi for saying these things will be considered treasonous.
Labor Day Links
Let’s get it over with and rename the holiday “Capital Day.” We may still celebrate Labor Day, but our culture has given up on honoring workers as the real creators of wealth and their honest toil — the phrase itself seems antique — as worthy of genuine respect.
Mother Jones shows how labor is getting screwed by corporate America:
GOOD compiles a list of 10 great things we can thank unions for.
Sarah Jaffe says it’s time to choose a side:
It’s time for America to remember what the labor movement gave it; time, while we’re barbecuing and kissing summer goodbye, to gear up for the fight of our lives. A fight for all of our lives—for decent jobs and living wages, for time to spend with our families that isn’t spent worrying about how we’re going to pay the bills. It’s a fight that started a long time ago, and we’ve grown so accustomed to what it won for us that we only realize those winnings when they’re being taken away from us.
“ The word “shameful” doesn’t even begin to describe it. Still, we steadfastly refuse to invest in anything that might help to keep this country’s workforce viable in a world economy, because it might also help the poor. Anything that helps give the working or middle class a fair chance at helping America succeed is branded the socialist machinations of a doomed welfare state. It is as if we would rather see our nation fail than risk letting our neighbor’s kid have it any easier than we did.
— Larry Womack on the “penny wise, dollar foolish, unconscionably cruel and supremely misguided age of austerity we’re living in.”
“ That isn’t “shared sacrifice,” it’s asking the poorest, oldest and sickest among us to give up a piece of their meager security in exchange for the wealthy giving up some tip money and the defense industry giving up a couple of points of profit. It’s stripping the nation of necessary educational, safety and environmental protections while the wealthy greedily absorb more and more of the nation’s wealth and the corporations and financial industry gamble with the rest.
— Digby on the last-minute debt ceiling “compromise” that’s coming together.
![[Via]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lonvfdU51v1qb0v6po1_500.jpg)
