To gerard: A friend says I have amazing talent of intuition, etc. So it’s luck I picked the day of your birthday, or my friend is right.  It happens a lot.  I hope your day was wonderful.  I am doing art as can to mark my 18th Leap Year Birthday at 72 on Feb. 29th. I celebrate all month as I have to go 3 years without an official birthday inbetween leap year days.

Gerard - You’re welcome!!!!!!

larkohio -There was a time when workers could actually go to their local authorities or a labor attorney or to someone who cared about the plight of and injustice against working people.

Nowadays there is nothing but disdain for working folk. The only important voices that seem to matter are those of “businessmen” (corporations, “the man”).

And who do you think hates working people the most…..working people….because they’re the ones who voted for the very people who cut their throats in the name of “capitalism” and “the American Dream.”

Mr. Freeze:  Thank you very much!  I appreciate the well-wishes a lot.

An Alternative to Capitalism (if the people knew
about it, they would demand it)

Several decades ago, Margaret Thatcher claimed:
“There is no alternative”. She was referring to
capitalism. Today, this negative attitude still
persists.

I would like to offer an alternative to capitalism
for the American people to consider. Please click on
the following link. It will take you to an essay
titled: “Home of the Brave?” which was published by
the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:

http://evans-
experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm

John Steinsvold

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and
expecting a different result.”
~ Albert Einstein

One of my jobs is a part time one as a server in a family restaurant.  They make us declare enough tips when we clock out to meet minimum wage, or we are not allowed to clock out.  If you complain, it matters not.  If you complain too much, they will just not schedule you and your job is history.

Gerard - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I knew from some of your other posts that you were reaching 100. I’m truly amazed and I feel fortunate to have you here!!

Have a wonderful birthday celebration.

Edward Ellis:  What gift packs are you referring to—or did I miss something?  Could be. Anyway ... if you can’t actively participate in a movement of your choice, you can always participate in a local branch or start a group where you live, or write letters to editors of local papers—which they usually take, but not oftener than once a month!  Anyway, every little bit helps, and good luck.

sanda1sculptorNYC:  Thank you very much for the greeting.  You even hit the right day. How did you know that?  We are getting ready to go out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Two more birthdays, and I’ll make it to 100. And to think, I nearly died when I was born.  Just goes to show you—miracles abound! We could use a few political miracles here in the good old U.S.A. these days, couldn’t we!

I’m wondering how someone living well
below the poverty line, that wants to get
active, is supposed to afford it? I can’t
afford any of the gift packs. These gift
packs, it seems are available only to
those well above the poverty line. But I
suppose you’ll take any labor I wish to
donate. T-shirts are for…...?

To gerard: Happy Birthday.  I left you a late comment when you posted it was almost your birthday.  Mine is Feb. 29th - I’ll be 18 again.  (I was formerly commenting on here as NYCartist.)

adam - Your dull and ill-thought-out comment is proof that you yourself need to go back for a lesson in economics. I’ll just make one point:

Unions comprise a small (I believe 7%) of the workforce today. How does that translate to unions “eliminating jobs?” In this regard your persectvie is pretty shallow. The reason why wages have fallen for both regular and union workers in this country is pretty simple: when 100’s of millions of Chinese are producing virtually everything we consume for virtually little pay, there’s simply nothing for Americans to do.

eh, young and old, hear this, will ya? in US [and not just in US] poverty, nescience,
misoneism, exploitation is waged [created] with great gusto and sanctimony.
these are foundations of US system of rule. the wagers are also known: one percent and
clergy!
to exploit, bedumb/benumb, mislead, torture; render unknowdgable, angry, fearful,
divided, etc., is to obey declaration of independence, laws, bill of rights.

eh, folks, there are no evil spirits, ‘god’, or her will OUT THERE; all that is in OUR HEADS
and nowhere else.so, don’t hold it there any longer.  [ok, there may be a god, but it is
OUT THERE S’MWHERE; so present no burden on us]

Yes, you’re right on (or off as the case may be) the money. And it aint easy livng on $1000 a month.

Yet everything else—EVERYTHING—keeps going UP in price.

It’s like a bucket losing a cup of water a day while we add half a cup.

It’s only a matter of time.

Well, the time has come to bring everyone, including the poorest of poor SSI elders out of poverty.
If the powers of capitalism cannot manage to employe or pay people, a negative income tax should be filled with a check bringing everyone to at least poverty plus 25 percent.

Now, watch even Obama deny the poor and draw the elderly under the bus with cuts in COLAs. Did you know the average SSI elder actually gets less than 1000 per month !

treating americans or rather some 30-70 of them as humans would violate US ideology, bill of rights,
constitution, laws; and one of its mainstays: the right of a person to pursue hisher happiness.
that’s an inalienable right and appears openended. so extracting maximum profits in a work place by its
owner represents owners pursuance of happiness.
s/hes not breaking no law, or violating bill of rights—s/he’s actually fulfilling US ideology, bill of rights,
declaration of independence….
and even people going to iraq, afgh’n…and people who are sending them there are behaving as the
infallible US constitution and ITS foreign policy commands.
whatever the dogma demands, dogma gets. and there just aren’t libertarian, liberal, progressive,
democrat, and republican infallible constitutions or foreign policies.
there is always one INFALLIBLE CONSTITUTION and IDEOLOGY in US and never two or more.
so, don’t think that ron paul has his own infallible policy! if he does and would try to implement it once
he’d be elected he’d be deposed or killed, there is no way army, cia, fbi, judiciary, and politicians would
permit it! thanks, bozhidar balkas, planet earth!

I don’t know about all of you, but to speak ill of “capitalism” in this country seems to be a sin against all mighty god. To even suggest that there be any sort of equity, egalitarianism, any “economic compassion” is sacrilege in today’s “wonderful world of the rich and famous.” Remember the scripture from “the book of WS”: thou shalt worship at the altar of the market for there thou shalt find salvation! Cursed is he who is not making at least $250,000 per year and sheltering the capital gains at 13.9% for thou art sub human and deservest to die!!!”

Why do laborers have NO CHOICES beyond those offered by the corporate-state? Well, for one thing, look at the barriers to micro-scale competition that protect our corporate nobility…zoning restrictions, licensing fees, regulations that favor cartelization of production and commerce, artificial property, etc., etc.

All have the effect of barring huge segments of the population not only from competing with big business on a local level, but ALSO from making big business compete for their labor!

Our masters, left and right, decided, about a century ago, that the individuals who make up the rabble are either too stupid or too crooked (or both) to mind their own affairs. In order to retain their own elite status, the “progressive” statist-technocracy sold out a restive working class to the statist-plutocracy.

It’s been all hand-wringing and bandaids ever since.

I used to “honestly” believe that the wealthiest elitists at the very least supported some distribution of resources to lift the entire society, but I think that I was wrong.
I guess that the 1% want to drive through their gates to find birds singing, beauty and peace throughout, being fanned by palm leaves, massaged with exotic oils and then while driving out the gates, to the private jets, seeing the rest of the people living in the gutter and pissing on their walls.  A feudal system with a class of untouchables - namely the 99%

Follow-up:  The Baruch mentoring program tells little except nice comfortable ethical standards cliches, as might be expected.  However ...
  This question keeps resurfacing in my mind:  ‘There is no reason why the 1 percent can’t donate, not just money, but ideas, learning skills, mentoring,” he (the previously referenced Mr. Zweibel) said.”
  The facts deny his assertion, as far as I can tell.
The entire Wall Street crowd seems conspicuous by their silence on problems ethical, financial, political that are literally haunting the 99% of their lower-caste brothers and sisters. Yet presumably they all had these “mentoring” courses in previous business school courses??? How come the yawning gap?
  Have I missed articles in Forbes, WSJ, Business Week? (Entirely possible!) Anybody care about this question who has information concerning the attitudes of the 1% toward what is going on in the big world beyond Wall Street?  Anybody care?

Obviously, because before Occupy began, we didn’t care enough—we being the average Joes and Joans
in the millions. Question now in our laps is:  Do we still not care enough?
  According to that great beacon of information, NYT, “Joel B. Zweibel might seem to fit the protesters’ stereotype of a 1 percenter: A retired senior partner at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, he spent his career representing big banks ... said the Occupy movement made him furious, not at the protesters but at some of his wealthy colleagues. ‘There is no reason why the 1 percent can’t donate, not just money, but ideas, learning skills, mentoring,. he said.”
  It could be a mistake to write off all of the 1% before trying to find out what people like Zweibel
could contribute to breaching the gap.  He has a “mentoring” program he instituted at Baruch College.  More later.

Tuscany:

Why has he lied on every issue since becoming president?

Just one of many ways in which the Occupy movement is spreading—Interfaith Workers’ Justice in Chicago:  The activists, young and old, who are occupying Wall Street and financial districts in other cities, are capturing the imagination of many Americans, in part because they have tapped into widely felt concerns. You may or may not agree with or even understand everything the Wall Street protestors are trying to say but they have offered a teachable moment for our congregations. This is a good opportunity to talk together, within the context of our faith, about what we are doing and could be doing to help families hurt by this economy.
Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations can send for specifically prepared Congregational Discussion Guides under title “We are the 99”.
  “In just eleven years, IWJ has organized a national network of more than 70 interfaith committees, workers’ centers and student groups, making it the leading national organization working to strengthen the religious community’s involvement in issues of workplace justice.”