PAMPHLETEERING

mrf: I always love your incisive and profound knowledge of the economic problems we are having in this country. The problem is, Americans are ... Too stupid to understand what you stated above

Yes indeed, mrf, you may be very right. If they “knew” and “understood”, maybe more of them would vote?

The message must be passed around and this Brave New World of blogging allows it to get out to a larger number than ever before in the history of mankind.

I read recently an interesting article recently about how Martin Luther succeeded in his Reformation by pamphleteering. It was just after the invention of the printing press.

Martin Luther was able to get his message out to a great many people by writing simple pamphlets. Of course, others who were of a different opinion employed pamphleteering as well - since these were slips of paper that were easily transmitted from hand to hand. He engaged (and won) a very effective religious debate that spawned the Protestant Reformation.

I need not go any further. If Martin Luther could wreak havoc to a decadent Catholic Church of his time, why should we not be able to obtain the Democracy that we deserve and which has been taken from us?

POST SCRIPTUM

I mean no offense to the Catholic Church or Catholics. History is history and we should nevertheless not forget passages from it that may embarrass our faith.

GREED BREEDING

They have to come together as a community and assure that they will not allow the criminality of our current Government to continue un-punished.
Until we begin to extract punishment for their corruption, there will be no change

Seeking justice and finding it are two different adventures.

The country has fallen on bad times, which I ascribe to one single act. That of Ronald Reagan at the beginning of his term who opened Pandora’s Box of Ills by instituting Greed (big-time) in America. He accomplished that by reducing marginal and capital gains taxation down to its simplest terms – from 22 to 25% of income (after deductions).

Such taxation is asking for trouble because it breeds greed - and trouble is what we got.

How to change the system? The system is broken in many places. The political process is encrusted by districting that assures a head-lock on Congressional representation by the two parties. That head-lock must be broken. The electoral process has become monetized allowing undue influence from a select group of the One Percenters who are “gaming the system”, thanks to the Supreme Court.

What are we to do in the face of innumerable odds? Give up? Bow down and bend our heads? I’d rather mine be cut-off before I kowtow to the GoonSquad of One Percenters.

The road back is long and difficult. We must adopt Progressive Values and for that to happen Americans must be educated in those values. They haven’t the foggiest notion of them. They are, in large, politically naive.

MY POINT?

Consider this: I know plenty of Americans who live in Europe permanently. Not many of them, regardless of the salary they make, would go back to the US. All pay much higher taxes by living-in-Europe. Why?

Because the governments here work for the People and not for Vested Interests by implementing Social Justice. Whazzat?  It is fairness in the way taxes are collected and then national budgets are dispensed.

So, how do we inculcate the American People with a sense of Social Justice - which they are apparently lacking? You talk of “criminal justice”, but such is not the same as Social Justice.

What you want is the Bad Guys brought before a court of law. Yes, I want that as well. We all want justice.

But it will not happen under the present circumstances of political leadership in Congress. Why? Because most are beholding to Vested Interests in order to get elected. And only 20% of them have any inkling of Progressive Values. Still, that 20% is a base to build upon.

As said by some else long ago: “It’s the system, stoopid!” We must change The System. The only way that may come about is to elect Progressive Candidates to Congress who will change electoral laws and institute a Supreme Court that will NOT finagle with the authenticity of those laws out of a warped sense of the Constitution.

Which means we need a Progressive Agenda for National Reform that gives a clear outline of what “Progressiveness” can mean to the American people. And then we go out and “evangelize” that message.

Maybe that will work, maybe it wont. But neither will we know if we don’t.

POST SCRIPTUM

I’m not in the business of Creating Reform Agenda’s. So, the above is just a contribution to the effort of “getting our Progressive Act together”.

Actually Lafayette you are right that there is a solution.

But depending on our elected leaders to do what is good for the Country instead of for the 1%  is a losing game.

From my thinking the only solution lies within the 99% people.  They have to come together as a community and assure that they will not allow the criminality of our current Government to continue un-punished.

Until we begin to extract punishment for their corruption, there will be no change.  The re-distribution to the 1% will continue unabated, ever faster, until our society crashes.  The 1% by then will be citizens of the next emerging Nation getting their hooks in to begin the Grand Parade all over again.

This is what they do, and what they have been doing, since the early 1700’s.

Lafayette - “They don’t see that it is nothing more than simply “gaming the system” by means of lax market regulation (that permits the high gains) and the Reagan Years deconstruction of higher tax levels.”

I always love your incisive and profound knowledge of the economic problems we are having in this country. The problem is, Americans are:

a) Too stupid to understand what you stated above
b) If not too stupid, then they actually believe exactly the OPPOSITE of what you’re saying: they LOVE the idea of “the American Dream” (i.e. incorrectly interpreted as they will be rich themselves someday)and they will give the wealthy whatever they want so that those pesky little regulations won’t affect their “Joe-the-Plumber” dreams
c) They are too apathetic to do anything about this situation because they’re comfortable in their little “capitalism cocoons” where the cheapest food, electronic devices and access to American Idol and McDonalds make their lives simple…..I call it “texting whilst eating filth.”

I was in college when Reagan was elected and I knew then, as I know now, that Americans are suckers for a good old “morning in America” story. They “believe” in all that nonsense about working hard and getting rich. In fact, I bet that tomorrow, most Americans would go to the polls and elect the same assholes who are in office today knowing full-well that these scoundrels will betray them in an instant….

From all of the polls, and they are taken incessantly, the people do
want what you are describing as a solution, Lafayette.  There is a will. 
i think they just, in their naiveté, as a collective, they do not see they
have a way.  Elections have an odd kind of existence both real and
abstruse, they are in a way abstractions even though we physically go
to the polls, mark a paper ballot but elections are done in pieces,
politician by politician and referendum by referendum.  The latter is
more accessible due to all the publicity public lawmaking gets. 
Education is a long run proposition.  But more acute action needs done
to galvanize the public into seeing that they must vote and learn who
would truly represent their best interests.  Glamour always works its
magic and celebrities bring to the hoi polloi the bewitchment they seek. 
Martin Sheen has become vocal and I think more celebrities will come out
of the woodwork as time goes on towards November.  It is going to be
real theater.  Will it be the artificiality of Kabuki as is the popular term
these days, or will it be Harold Pinter or Greek Komos?  Or will it be
Pirandello or Samuel Beckett?

CC: We are in trouble.

Indeed, but there is a solution.

Whilst we are at putting the Total Income Tax (Marginal plus Capital Gains) back up to some level above 80%, we also change Inheritance Taxes in order to claw-back the ripoff. We put inheritance taxes (since it is unearned income)  up to 85% as well for levels above 2.5 megabucks.

Otherwise, we continue our descent into the category of Banana Republic.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. But there is no will to raise high-end taxes. Americans obviously think its the reward fro “working hard”.

They don’t see that it is nothing more than simply “gaming the system” by means of lax market regulation (that permits the high gains) and the Reagan Years deconstruction of higher tax levels.

Thanks Lafayette for that update.  what that data reveals is that the mean for those missing years is about 19: (high -low,divided by 6 = an estimated STD Dev of 1.33)and to find the mean (3XStd Dev + lowest value =19).  If you do this on a calculator you might get a slightly different value but I’m just playing horse shoes and estimating.

Anyway it is more than 4 points higher (19-14.7) than the highest point on the earlier chart that ended in 1998.

What that means is that the re-distribution from the 99% to the 1% has been significantly accelerated over these last 14 years.

Simple words its going in the wrong direction and ever faster.

We are in trouble.

We have to have a change before we get to the edge of the cliff and we can’t wait until we can see the edge because by then it will be too late.

And Lefeller, Social Security is good until then if nothing is done, but how long will it be good for if the Government would give back the $5.6 Trillion I calculated they have used for things not Social Security, or even the $2.6 Trillion that they admit they owe for funds collected for Social Security but spent on things not Social security and never paid back?

Lets see the post office is making a profit but has a ridiculous retirement requirement hosed on them by Congress, Social Security is supposed to be solvent until 2036 if nothing is done to it. Now I do not know if Medicare is good or bad, but it seems to me if we had universal health care we would not need it?

If Paul Ryan is proposing it, I know he is doing it out of the goodness of his wallet and his compassion for the people, his people the 1 percent!

BY COMPARISON

Below I gave the effective income share of American One Percenters (Capital Gains inluded).

I should have given, as a means of comparison, another country’s same history, but from a place where high-taxation is way-of-life as is Social Justice and an Egalitarian Society (as well expats living in Monaco).

The same figures for Sweden:
1990   5,2
1991   6,95
1992   5,84
1993   5,93
1994   7,18
1995   6
1996   6,99
1997   7,61
1998   8,17
1999   9,3
2000   11,12
2001   8,62
2002   7,59
2003   7,62
2004   7,87
2005   8,99
2006   9,53
2007   9,95
2008   8,99
2009   8,41

They are about half that of the US.

(Heard in Monaco Harbor, from a Yank to a Swede: “My yacht is bigger than your yacht!”

And in return from the Swede to the Yank:
“Yes, and so are you and your wife!”)

THE ONE PERCENTERS - INCOME & WEALTH SHARES

CC: And if you look at all those charts giving useful information, explain why you were unable to find something showing the distribution in the last 15 years.

Your wish is my every command. From the Pickety data-base at the Paris School of Economics:

One Percent level income share (including Capital Gains), historical:
1995   15,23
1996   16,69
1997   18,02
1998   19,09
1999   20,04
2000   21,52
2001   18,22
2002   16,86
2003   17,53
2004   19,75
2005   21,92
2006   22,82
2007   23,5
2008   20,95
2009   18,12
2010   19,77

Income inevitably becomes Wealth and Net Worth (Wealth minus Debt), which is seen here (Scroll down to Pie Charts).

QED

OBSESSIVE INDIVIDUALISM

CC: Would you like to read a much more explanatory set of charts (and up to date)about the distribution of income?

Very lucid/poignant set of info-graphics. I hope they have impact.

And should you wish to compare income percentages across a global data-base, I suggest you consider the Mother of All Income Reporting Data Bases globally, here. (Pickety is a Professor of Economics at the school noted.)

CC: Try this link.

Yes, good link. Note that Net Worth is the result of Income. In fact, it is Wealth minus Debt and, thus, the consequence of Unfair Income Taxation.

Those same statistics were first noted on this web-site from the University of Santa Clara, here. The page also lists the referential studies behind the charts and lends them professional credibility.

MY POINT?

Both data-bases demonstrate the same conclusion: Obsessive Individualism has primed the Trickle-up Money Pump to a highly select minority, our Plutocrat Class.

Why we should elect them to Congress - thus determining our political destiny - is beyond comprehension. They cannot possibly understand how the lower- and middle-classes live. The Dem Plutocrats can sympathize but they have never shown the political courage to rectify the situation. They should leave the arena ...

POST SCRIPTUM

Despite those enlightened multi-millionaires who voted to end the Bush Tax Cuts - which would not have changed their tax-status all that much - they would still be paying total-tax rates (on marginal and capital gains taxation) of from 22/25% after deduction. (The Tax Code needs to be binned and totally rewritten. The one time that proposition was put before Congress, in 1998, it was defeated ...)

The fault is Tax Code systemic. Reinstate the higher rates - that America lived with for three decades between 1930 and 1960 - and the enhanced tax revenues will assist in diminishing the National Debt as well as assist in spending upon Social Justice.

HEARTS ‘N MINDS

She: Not just here on a closed system blog, but what exactly are you doing to affect what you have diagnosed?  How will you affect people to become participants in their own present and their children’s future?

You have asked the only question on this Forum that I have never known how to answer.

I am not sure that my physical presence in the US will be all that productive. Not as helpful as participating in forums with (what I hope are) convincing arguments.

When I visit stateside I participate in casual debates about politics, but I see very readily that people think I am from some other planet. Americans have no idea whatsoever of what Social Justice means.

And they need political leadership that is genuinely American - not some Yank dipped in the bath of European Social Justice.On One who comes back to America yelling, “Hey guys, look what I found over there!”

If I keep harping with social statistics that support my points, it is too convince people that Social Injustice is not merely a “the latest buzz”. It’s real and it is here to stay and America is way late in adopting it.

And if the notion of an Egalitarian Society cannot be installed at the grassroots level, as it is here in Europe, then Progressive Politics cannot capture “hearts ‘n minds”.

Fundamental Reform can only come about democratically, meaning a forceful consensus derived from the ballot-box.

Thank you Lafayette for the chart you posted at 8:34 AM 3/25/2012.  Since the two you posted are 10 years and 14 years old, Would you like to read a much more explanatory set of charts (and up to date)about the distribution of income?  Try this link.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

After reading this tell me what you think.  And if you look at all those charts giving useful information, explain why you were unable to find something showing the distribution in the last 15 years.

That is more Germain to where this country is going.

Oops, part of the first paragraph went missing.  I"m reposting here
because without it, less sense is made.  Well…relatively speaking.

So here goes again, and my apologies…

I cannot agree with you more, Lafayette. But I have a residual
question.  What is your plan to participate in that pedagogy of the
American people?  Not just here on a closed system blog, but what
exactly are you doing to affect what you have diagnosed?  How will
you affect people to become participants in their own present and
their children’s future? To get the attention of the American people,
even if it is to be a long haul, any plan has to be spashy in this day
and age of Hunger Games and Mad Men. Well, madmen of a different
order.

Agreed the ballot box is our only salvation, but to get the people to vote
for their best interests seems to be the nettle in the shoe.

your plan to participate in that pedagogy of the American people?  Not
just here on a closed system blog, but what exactly are you doing to
affect what you have diagnosed?  How will you affect people to become
participants in their own present and their children’s future? To get the
attention of the American people, even if it is to be a long haul, any plan
has to be spashy in this day and age of Hunger Games and Mad Men. 
Well, madmen of a different order.

Agreed the ballot box is our only salvation, but to get the people to vote for
their best interests seems to be the nettle in the shoe.

UPSETTING APPLECARTS

She: The historic disparities?  What more can we do?

The response to that question is easy – start with tax reform, which provides the tax revenues for other objectives. But getting to that point is practically Mission Impossible. Why?

Because Americans are fixated on jobs and not Income Disparity. Many more are becoming aware of the fact that they get less for each extra dollar earned. But they rarely ask why. They just complain.

So, the only solution is a very long (and perhaps dry) period of pedagogy - that is, simply explaining to the American people (not that they are being had, because more and more know that) why Progressive Reforms can make their lives better.

Making that case is not difficult, just time consuming. It is going to take therefore quite an effort because we are inured to “business as usual” and there is great reluctance to change habits for fear of the unknown.

In any great change that upsets applecarts, there is great reluctance to pursue. So any profound reform takes time to implement such that people can adjust.

Which is why it is important to start now because the benefits will take a long while to arrive. We are, in fact, seeking reform as much for our children as for ourselves.

Despite the millions that the Plutocrats might spend to maintain the status quo, nothing has the force of an idea whose time has come. Any democratic change must have its origins at the ballot-box.

Not thinking for a moment you have the definitive answer Lafayette,
but given that your first-rate assessment is true, and there is no reason
to doubt it, you’ve given some references that can be checked out, and
we can search even further on our own, but we also have the responsi-
bility to start thinking about how we can do something about it, then
start doing something about it.  Aren’t we doing anything about it?  Isn’t
the debate in the public forums addressing the disparities you have
pointed out?  The historic disparities?  What more can we do?  It has to
take place among those we elect to represent us to legislate fairness!  So
it is of extreme importance that the candidates who are in the position to
affect every aspect of our lives are vetted to every degree they can be.

AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS

“In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse—on steroids,” said Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times and possibly in the nation’s history.

The redistribution of income occurred a long, long time ago. There has never been, in America the slightest semblance of Income Fairness. The Pickety-Saez analysis of Income data, which go as far back as the earth 1910s when a national income tax was first exacted, demonstrate that it existed then. See the data from that study in this info-graphic here.

Note from the link that the One Percenters were earning (in 1913) 18% of ALL national income. Trace that data-line all the way up to the early 1980s whilst the share went down to 8% until the election of Reckless Ronnie Reagan at that time.

It was Ronnie who brought down drastically marginal and capital gains taxation throughout his tenure in office, a gift to those who funded his campaign. The share of the One Percenters shot right back up to garnering 18% of National Income where it still is today. (The 2010 data-point shows it at 17.42%.)

It is easy to assume that, in 1913, Income Unfairness had been worsened by the advent of the Industrial Age in the 19th century, but it existed even before.

And in terms of Income Disparity, America is back to where the data-set starts, in 1913 after a hundred years.

Seeing a problem, telling it to others, does not necessarily
mean the seer knows how to fix it.  It is kind of unreasonable
to expect it!  Being able to detect a travesty means one will not
commit the travesty themselves and how to prevent others from
being the perpetrators may not be within one’s own singular
power. It looks like the few who have posted here do expect that. 
How much can you do and what would you do
exactly to “fix” the social problems that we all face except the
upper echelons?  It is up to others, uh…ourselves, who have
sympathy with the seer and compassion for the victims. uh…
ourselves to figure out ways to “fix” the problem.

Paul Ryan took his plan right out of Ayn Rand’s playbook, make
that Right Wing playbook, which it is even worse than the last one
he proposed.  He would give a great deal more help to the upper
1% wealthy and corporate world, and give less than zilch to those
who really need it, the disadvantaged exploited Americans, calling
for privatization of all social safety net programs.  Oh yeah…let’s
let the corporations take over every aspect of our lives.  Why
sooner than we can imagine they will say where and when we
can go take a dump in our toilets!  His updated plan is more than
frightening, mannnn, I just don’t want the fucking Republicans
watching when I go to the toilet!  Did you know Ryan is so
enthralled with Rand that he requires his staffers to read “Atlas
Shrugged” and gives the novel out as gifts.

What are WE going to do about it?  BTW: Did you know Ayn Rand
collected Social Security? Isn’t that a hoot?

And sometimes government is the solution not the problem.

ObamaObamaObamaObamaObamaObama….it is all your fault!  You
awful one man!  Come on now….you know Paul Ryan just wants to
give more to the plantation owners!  What’s wrong with that?  Don’t
you remember Obama when your ancestor relatives, aunts and
uncles, slaved the plantations?  Hey man, get with down wid da
beeble.

If we beebles see the virtue in the one-payer health care system,
why the hell can’t we get the fuckin’ politicians to see it!  Why can’t
we get them to pass the legislation for it?  Why can’t we get the
bastards out of Washington?  Now you know why….
Shhhhhhhhhhhh

gerard

My idea of a success story would be honesty by the Government and politicians about Social Programs.

Honestly I see no more efficient way to administer Medicare than the one payer system.

Last year I commented several times that I looked up the figures on the cost of Health Care in America.  I also looked up the amount of money paid on claims by the Insurance Industry and found the difference.

I also looked up the average percent of revenue kept by both Private Insurance Companies and by Government Administered Programs.

Private Insurance Companies retained more than double the percent of Administrative fees compared to Government Administrated comparable costs.

Just keep in mind that no Government manager get the hundreds of millions of dollar bonuses that Private insurers do.

Once again a success story would be a single payer system administered by the Government - given that we would get the criminals out of Washington.

There have been a number of successful projects to close some of the social/educational/legal gaps in specific places, but (I suppose for various reasons of resistance like fear, lack of money, lack of qualified personnel) they don’t get “legs” easily.
IMO a lot of the lethargy comes from lack of an ability to believe in our own abilities—probably intentionally nurtured both by ourselves (to avoid responsibility) and by others (who don’t want things to change).
  For decades information and experiential narratives of success stories have been available. I remember reading decades ago a prison warden writing about how he and his staff vastly upgraded their treatment of inmates for whom they were responsible. It was largely a matter of a demilitarization in staff attitudes—not vast amounts of money, not profits, not religion or charity.  Yet nothing much happened after that one prison changed.
  Now there is a new book out on success stories dealing with “gangs” in inner-city areas. Again based on change of attitude. 
  The entire opening field of non-violent social action involves change of attitude. Not money. Not equipment. Not surveillance. Not politics.
  Frankly I wish all of us commenting here would cite success stories related to the many problems we try to discuss. It would be helpful and we would be contributing to a world we all would like to see.

Good Lord Bill, how could you post such a misleading article?

“When enacted in 1965, Medicaid, a centerpiece of the Great Society, was a safety net financed by federal and state funds. Although administered by the states, each state must meet federal standards for eligibility and benefits. Almost 49 million people receive benefits.”

The above is at best misleading.

Have you not noticed that there is a Payroll deduction on paychecks called “Medicare”?  Did you not know that most Medicare recipients pay a monthly premium when they go on Medicare, and that we also pay for a Medipak policy to cover that which Medicare doesn’t cover, and that amount can be significant.  And of course then there is also the Monthly premium for Drug coverage we seniors pay.

My, MY, My Bill and you conveniently failed to tell your readers that the Government has collect money for Medicare and Social Security in excess of what is paid out by the Government annually, and has never, repeat never paid out more for Social Security and Medicare that it has collected in any given year.

Now you need to be careful when you drink their propaganda, it is poison.

As an example, the Government claimed it had to borrow in 2010, to balance the books, but this was a lie.  With about $2.6 Trillion they have admitted that is owed to recipients for over collections in the past, and that the money owed for interest on that outstanding money would pay any shortfall for the next eight years, to me is a lie of omission of facts-unless you didn’t know this.

Social Security and Medicare are not bankrupt, it is the immorality and honesty of our Government that is bankrupt.

I think that I have calculated on Truthdig in the past that I believe the true amount owed to “funds” amount to about $5.6 Trillion instead of the admitted $2.6 Trillion.

Dear Bill, go back to the records and write a factual report concerning this issue.

i suggest that romney as president-elect would do nothing that the ONE PERCENT and another
10-20% supportive of the one percent would not desire.
i think that those who own america, run america. and i seems that the 20% who own 99% of it
have always ran US and always will.
once the 80%, which appears totally excluded from the governance would own 70% or 80% of
america only then would it obtain its fair share of running america.
and i am avoiding to justify its greater share in the governance yet to happen than the 20% had
enjoyed thruout US history on ‘truth’, ‘fairness’ ‘justice’, etc.
only numbers matter to me: 240million having 240million shares in political power and
16million having 60million shares.

“Putting Medicaid in the hands of such state governments
will mean that care for the poor will be subject to the
whims, prejudices, ideological leanings and budget cutting
tendencies of state legislators.”

And when “the poor” move out of those states to states
that are friendlier to their needs, do you think the
voters of the “conservative” states will object?

We need uniform standards of services and care across all
state lines.

By Surfboy,

“One is left rooting for the gangs in the hood!”

I do. Outside the police and the military, they are the only ones who practice the right to keep and bare arms. The rest of us are chicken.  bwwwAAAAAk!!!

Fuck this asshole and the rest of the gop

I’m becoming increasingly disappointed with the quality of your articles, which until recently I generally agreed with. This Obama good Romney bad simplicity is silly. Obama promised many things [including single payer health care] and delivered on none. Romney promising to govern like Attila the Hun , won’t happen you know this. Why indulge yourself in this silliness Why not find and support real alternatives? All the money being spent on these so called campaigns is simply money laundering through the media. It could be be better used feeding and caring for hungry American citizens.

Paual Ryans budget, is the best news our enemies could ever have gotten.

His vision for America is a nation wide Version of Appilachia, in which Americans are
turned into poor trash, living in their cars if their lucky, and on the strreets.

It is a vision of America that has the one percenters dancing with glee, for it turns them
into royalty. They will endure no austerities or privations.

Why would Americans fear foreign invaders after this? Just as sure as a foreign army
would take away our freedoms and turn us into slaves, this plan is a declaration of war
against the American people.

A lot of us who haunt “progressive/liberal” blogs simply can’t face the truth: We are a right-leaning society of sheeple who, when told we can become part of “The American Dream,” will vote our own executioners into office. Yes, indeed, elections do have consequences and as long as Americans keep voting against their own best interests we will see elites such as Romney and Ryan engineer the end of any semblance of a social safety net and watch the wealthy laugh all the way to the bank as it happens.

The most difficult fact to accept is that the wealthy are now so incredibly powerful that even if the sheeple wised up and voted the likes of Ryan out of office, the money would still trump the will of the people. But then again, the people seem more than willing to go to slaughter….....I recall the words of Timothy Leary: “If god is your shepherd, what does that make you?”

Bill, I’m all for your ability to give people all the information they need to know what is going on, who is acting in their defense and who is trying to destroy them.  But ... 
  Aren’t you leaving out the important step of making suggestions—as many ideas as you can research and set down in clear terms—of what has to be done to help them, and how they can help themselves?
  If they feel swamped and helpless, they can do nothing, and that’s just the way the usual media want them to feel, so that knowledge does little except scare them more than they are already scared. And keep them demobilized.
  Some of what you say ought to be empowering, I think. Like where to get information to give neighbors and friends, and that holding a house meeting to discuss the problem, or trying to engage local doctors in a discussion at a PTA meeting might be helpful, or ... 
  Somehow we have to learn how to move forward together on these many pressing issues and not just let them “happen.”