Things are about to happen in the United States

Ok, let me be clear in the first sentence of this post that I am not saying that the United States is about to turn into anything like Egypt.  I don’t want to be accused of fear mongering, but, I think maybe this is what America felt like in 1967 or 1968.  It feels to me that we are on the edge of some serious changes in the United States and my friends, people DO NOT LIKE CHANGE.  I’d like to take this idea from the big picture down into the specifics of where I work.

First the big picture, our deficit is massive and the government is going to have to take on the big ticket entitlement programs in government, everyone knows this but no one wants to deal with it.  You can see a lot of these recommendations in the Deficit Commissions report. 

Out of the big programs I think the one change we will absolutely see is the raising of the retirement age for purposes of stabilizing Social Security.  Friends I’ve known this was coming my whole adult life, with people living longer and budgets running shorter one solution is to up the age of retirement.  It lessens the amount of time people collect benefits and lengthens the time people pay in and that makes great strides in solving the financial issue with the program.  So plan on working a bit longer my friends, if you are currently under 40 and probably if you are under 50 years of age.

The second issue is budget cutting in general on both the federal and state level.  Living in the state of California I can tell you that all of us are about to feel some real pain in the coming year.  This will come in the form of higher taxes, reduced benefits and lower or stagnant salaries while costs start to rise. 

Finally a seriously disturbing trend is the attempt by government to remove the rights of, or reduce the influence of unions that represent state employees.  This includes state workers, teacher, firefighters, police and of course teachers and state workers are the first ones being taken on over this issue in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, the governor has proposed that unions only be able to negotiate over salaries and have no collective bargaining rights over anything else, that includes sick days, vacation, and pensions.  This is an assault on unions and considering what willmost likely bankrupt most of us later in life is health care and too little money in retirement, this is a big deal.  Next up, most likely New York, as Governor Cuomo has been making similar noises there.

All of these things can be lumped under a single term, austerity measures, these measures brought about riots in Greece last year and given the response in Wisconsin and the images of joyous rioters around the world on TV, I think you’ll see the same here.   A line by the band Sublime about the Rodney King riots points out, and I think quite accurately, that those riots weren’t about Rodney King, but about the situation people were living under and that will be the reason again. 

People are stressed, I see it in my co-workers right now, things are very tight for people, they have less money, because of cutbacks in staffing they are working harder and that can only work for a time before people start to crack.  As austerity measures start to bring these issues home, well, people are going to react, stay tuned.

Why you should care about protests in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt

Several weeks ago there was a governmental overthrow that occurred in Tunisia and it is easy to write off Tunisia as a tiny country that has no impact on life in America, more about Tunisia at the following link:

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/16/132975274/Social-Media-Gets-Credit-For-Tunisian-Overthrow

Then there were protests in Yemen and we’ve talked about Yemen before, first a post about the recent protests:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12295864

And what we’ve discussed about Yemen previously:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/the-next-big-terror-threat/

Finally, unless you’ve been in a coma for the last week you probably know that there are massive protests going on in the country of Egypt.  The protestors on the street, in what have been relatively peaceful protests so far; seem to want one thing, Hosni Mubarak out of office.  Mubarak has been the ruler of Egypt for nearly thirty years and the people of Egypt are demanding a change, you can read more about Mubarak at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosni_Mubarak

At this point a natural question arises were the neocons correct about the Middle East?  Are we seeing the results of the policy of forcing democracy on other countries?  An interesting discussion on this topic is available at the following link:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/30/matthews-were-neocons-right-about-middle-east-was-bush-better-equippe

Personally, I don’t see a stable democracy in Iraq or in Afghanistan, and there are still plenty of non-democratic governments in the Middle East including Iran and Saudi Arabia.  What seems to be occurring in the streets of the Arab world is not related to Islam and democracy but a very simple issue, basic human survival and the gap between those who have power, money and control and those who are struggling to survive.  Unemployment, poverty, and lack of education and opportunity is what the people are calling for in the streets of Tunisia, Yemen and especially Egypt.

So why should you care?  You are safe at home and watching Egypt on CNN, so really why should you care?  Ok, first this can impact our economy, in a minor way if Egypt’s economy generally melts down without too much violence.  If however things in Egypt really disintegrate and there is an interruption in travel through the Suez Canal, which is controlled by Egypt, then it could be a very big deal.  That interruption would cause oil coming out of the region to travel an additional 6,000 miles around Africa and that will impact oil prices.  You may have noticed gas prices creeping up recently and I think you can count on the creep continuing with what’s going on in Egypt.  If it really goes south there could be a significant increase in gas prices and as we have seen that impacts prices across the board in the US.

However, I’ll give you an even bigger reason to worry about what’s going on in these countries.  The issues that are being taken on in Egypt, poverty, education, unemployment, and the prosperity gap, do not only exist in these countries.  Looking at Greece, Spain, the UK and the United States this issue exists everywhere and is getting worse.  My friends, there is a limit to how long a person can suffer, can watch his/her children suffer while others have control of his/her life.  At some point people will say no more and express themselves, and then, all bets are off.  So why should you care, I’ll tell you, the country you live in, is not as different from Egypt as you might like to think.

Welcome to Sustainable Sundays

Welcome to Sustainable Sundays

If you read this blog regularly you know I have a standing Fun Friday post where I try to post something to raise a smile for anyone reading the blog.  Starting with the first Sunday in the New Year I’ll be posting a Sustainability post each Sunday.  Sustainability is not only a vital and currently popular issue in America but it is the field that I was educated, trained and worked in as well as an area I’m currently very involved in.  The point of these blogs is not to convert anyone to a new environmental ethic, or make anyone feel bad about the way they live.  Instead my focus will be to educate folks about some of the issues related to sustainability, provide some ways in which you can live more sustainability and hopefully show how the triple bottom line concept of sustainability provides good things on the social, environmental and economic fronts.

One of the things I think it will be important to remember and so I will add to each sustainability post, is the definition of sustainability that I operate under.  The original definition of sustainability is ecological sustainable economic development, the concept from its inception links economics and the environment.   I’m posting a link to a few early posts from this blog to give you some idea where I’m coming from on these types of issues:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/dont-call-me-an-environmentalist/

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/carbon-dioxide-is-not-pollution/

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/save-the-earth-no-save-your-ass/

New York State Assembly imposes moratorium on fracking

The New York State Assembly has voted to place a moratorium on the controversial method of natural gas fracking in New York.  The link that follows provides the details:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/n-y-assembly-approves-fracking-moratorium/?hp

For those of you who don’t know what fracking is you can read the following:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/bp-and-the-oil-industry-are-only-part-of-the-danger-and-haliburton-is-involved/

And here is a previous post on what’s going on in New York:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/an-update-on-drilling-and-fracking-hearings-in-new-york-state/

The Current Trend in Prosperity Rankings for the United States

So recently the annual Legatum Prosperity Index rankings were released and I’m happy to say that the United States has ranked once again in the top 10.  The rankings are based upon a set of factors including: economics; education; governance; health; entrepreneurship; safety and personal freedom.   To take a look at the annual ranking you can click on the link below:

http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx

The disturbing thing however about the rankings is that this year the United States was number 10, a pretty good ranking.  However as you can see in the link below, in 2009 we were ranked 8^th and in 2008 we were ranked 6^th.  A trend that does not bode well for America and only part of the drop is related to our recent economic troubles.  I worry that this trend will continue in the United States as our government seems ever more willing to clip our civil liberties and increase our taxes.  Our current budget woes will cause local and state governments to make cutbacks to services over the next three to five years and I fear that these actions will cut ever deeper into our Prosperity Index ranking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legatum_Prosperity_Index

Are we selling out Hispanic Americans in Arizona for Campaign Contributions?

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.  This is the first line of a story from National Public Radio that I heard last week.  The story that followed completely pissed me off, it didn’t surprise me in any way but just added to my growing negative opinion of our government.  Apparently, prison corporations working through their lobbyists, and a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and even the name sounds sinister.  Legislative exchange, so legislation in exchange for what, well money of course, in the form of business dealings sure but money none-the-less.  So effectively, prison corporations in conjunction with ALEC met together in a hotel room in Washington, DC and came up with the verbiage for the Arizona Immigration Law that would put lots of illegal immigrants in prison for a very profitable government per diem for the illegals incarcerated.   Which works out for the Corrections Corporation of America since they foresee a significant portion of their future revenues coming from immigration enforcement and customs.

So the law was passed in Arizona and who cares where it was written, I mean it was objectively passed by the legal representatives of the state, right?  It was a popular bill once introduced, 36 co-sponsors immediately jumped on the bill, unheard of in the Arizona Legislature.  Then the bill went to the governor who I am sure carefully considered the bill and then objectively decided to sign it.  Well, maybe not so objectively, all 36 sponsors had received campaign contributions from the prison lobby and two of Governor Jan Brewer’s top aides are both former prison lobbyists.

So in essence, a bill that has been reviled around the nation, that puts a presumption of guilt on any Hispanic looking individual in the state of Arizona, is vindicated for being motivated by racism.  Worse than that, it is motivated by greed and the obsession of being re-elected to the point of selling your honor.  Now I think we all understand there is a racist element to the bill as well, so Hispanic American’s in Arizona are getting screwed due to racism and greed.  What the hell is happening to this country?  The link to the NPR story is below:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741

Let’s Stop Credit Score Discrimination

There is something that has been going on for a while that I really feel needs to be ended, and that is allowing your potential employer to base their decision on whether or not to hire you based upon your credit score.  Now I know my conservative friends are going to give me a hard time over this and yes before you accuse me otherwise, I do believe and support the idea of free enterprise.  However I also believe in people to have the right be judged on their abilities and not some number generated by a triumvirate of credit bureaus.

Given the potential inaccuracy of those numbers not related to your actual actions I feel it is wholly unjust to use it as a metric of whether or not I’m a good employee.  First, given the increase in identity theft your credit score may get hammered at any time because someone has stolen your identity.  Should the period between the theft and use of your information and a job interview coincide you might not get a job offer due to someone else stealing your identity.  Even worse, your potential employer isn’t going to say we didn’t hire you because of your credit score, they are just going to say sorry, you didn’t get the job and actually delay the amount of time before you are alerted to the identity theft.

Secondly, often people who are going through a divorce can have their credit score destroyed by the inappropriate actions of their soon to be ex-spouse.  Often times this can be a root cause of the divorce, so I ask you, should your future career be held hostage to the fact that your ex-ruined destroyed your credit financing his mistress’ breast enhancement and spa recovery, or because he got underwater on her condo that you weren’t even aware you co-owned.  I think this system is especially unfair to people who are financially linked to people going through addiction and substance abuse, or even worse whose credit has been destroyed because of their now dead spouse’s medical bills.  Is that fair, sorry your wife died of cancer but because of the screwed up health care system in the US we’re going to hammer you again.  Just plain wrong in my opinion.

Now once again before my conservative friends jump me, yes people should be vigilant about their credit histories and that is their responsibilities.  But even for a vigilant person, it can take years to clear up issues from identity theft or even mistaken identity by a credit agency.  In the end, I hope what it really ends up meaning is that the companies who take this type of action end up getting burned, but the karma wheel doesn’t always spin so fast.  Sometimes you have to be the helping hand of karma and in this case, legislate this type of activity as discriminatory.  I’ll take a better solution from anyone who can accomplish the same things without involving attorneys.

The link below is to an article on the issue:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/consumer&id=6058241

Die Prop 23 Die!

In the link below you can see the latest polling results for Proposition 23 which is attempting to make California a better business environment for big oil who is primarily bank rolling the proposition.  However, the election is still two weeks away and I would encourage everyone, as always, to get out and vote.  I hear Mickey Mouse is gaining on both Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown with my paper ballot helping the cause.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll-20101025,0,1234526.story

An Actual Year of Sustainable Living, what worked what didn’t

A really great post from Susan Carpenter’s Realist Idealist column from the LA Times.  Susan has spent the last year trying to live more sustainably and has experimented on various levels at her home with using: chickens, composting, solar energy, grey water systems, water catchment etc… In this article she relates what has worked and what has failed miserably over the last year.  She also attaches cost analysis to each item, a fantastic article for anyone looking to live more sustainably at home.

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-realist-main-20101016,0,7206697.story?page=1

The True Cost of Fossil Fuels

The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) is possibly my favorite newspaper, they have a really in-depth news section that actually has news stories and a great spread of both domestic and international news.  Also they don’t seem to be particularly wed to either a conservative or liberal bias and often when there is something going on in the world I will turn to the CSM to get their take on it, along with the New York Times the CSM is the only other paper I read regularly or trust as a news source.  Even more so for anything having to do with the environment and the link below is a fantastic example.  The article focuses on what Economists refer to as internalizing externalities, fancy terms for actually accounting for the true cost of something.  In other words, it may cost a manufacturer $10 to make a product, however that cost does not consider the environmental impact of the production process, so if that pollution takes $2 to clean up then the true cost of the product should be $12 not $10, but in our society that $2 cleanup cost gets dumped on all of us.  Check it out, it’s a good read:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Energy/2009/1119/the-hidden-costs-of-fossil-fuels-and-biofuels-too