Guess what: losing money matters more to most than endless wars and environmental degradation! Until everyone can profit on war and raping the environment, you can count on the protests against natural resource exploitation and a lawless and bloody presence overseas to be a bit anemic.
The Article: Better Pay Now by Paul Krugman in The New York Times.
The Text: ’Tis the season to be jolly — or, at any rate, to spend a lot of time in shopping malls. It is also, traditionally, a time to reflect on the plight of those less fortunate than oneself — for example, the person on the other side of that cash register.
The last few decades have been tough for many American workers, but especially hard on those employed in retail trade — a category that includes both the sales clerks at your local Walmart and the staff at your local McDonald’s. Despite the lingering effects of the financial crisis, America is a much richer country than it was 40 years ago. But the inflation-adjusted wages of nonsupervisory workers in retail trade — who weren’t particularly well paid to begin with — have fallen almost 30 percent since 1973.
So can anything be done to help these workers, many of whom depend on food stamps — if they can get them — to feed their families, and who depend on Medicaid — again, if they can get it — to provide essential health care? Yes. We can preserve and expand food stamps, not slash the program the way Republicans want. We can make health reform work, despite right-wing efforts to undermine the program.
The eloquent Briton digs into Nazi Germany and the language used for Jews to illustrate the persistent power of words, and what we might learn in the process.
When the season of giving rolls around, it’s so much more convenient and time saving to have those in need of charity to already be working under your roof.
The Article: Cut Corporate America’s Free Lunch, Not Food Stamps by Terrance Heath in The Contributor.
The Text: If Congress is serious about “fiscal responsibility,” they should cut corporate America’s “free lunch,” instead of voting for even more painful cuts to food stamps. It would bring in more revenue than any pseudo-savings from cutting food stamps.
Millions of Americans were pushed over the “hunger cliff” by $5 billion in automatic cuts to food stamps, when the increased funding approved by Congress in 2009 expired on November 1st. The increase was Congress’ response to rising numbers of Americans relying on food stamps as a result of the recession — from 26 million in 2007 to 47 million in 2012.
The increased meant to expire once the need subsided. The need hasn’t subsided. Thanks to an economic recovery in which 95 percent of the benefits have gone to the wealthiest one percent, the number of Americans who rely on food stamps has held at about 47 million.
