Vital Concerns for the World: Thanks for the comments

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thanks for the comments

I want to thank all those who have made comments on the earlier blogs. That there has been that much interest in what I wrote has been a complete surprise.

I do understand the comments of those who object to my characterizations of some of the people mentioned in the blog, and I apologize if I have offended anyone.

What readers of this blog can't know is that Rita and I have a particular and personal admiration for Susan Boyle's achievement, as we have a son whose life-experience has been much like hers. And he happens to be almost the same age. So we read into what she did much that is intensely personal. Being our son's parents has had a profound effect on our lives. I would in no way want to demean anyone in my attempts to express how and why Susan Boyle's achievement touched us so deeply.

Again, thanks for reading it.

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A major source of the American debt problem

Notable Concerns

"Not one has taken responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history." Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rica, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith.
The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. AlJazeera 10/15/11
GE, America's largest corporation, paid no taxes last year even though it made 5.1 billion dollars profit in the country [and even more outside the country] [source: same as below]
In 2009 the richest 5% held 63.5% of American wealth; the bottom 80% controlled 12.8%. [source: same as below]
Between 2000 and 2007 the richest 10% in America benefited from all of the average growth in the period. In the post WW II period the top 10% benefited from only one third of the growth, the bottom 90% benefiting from the rest of the growth. [Economic Policy Institute, cited by Bob Herbert, NYT 3/26/11]
In 2010 a "premier" investment bank paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000. [Bill Gross Pimco Investment Outlook Feb, 2011.]
In 2005, one-quarter of the corporations in America making a trillion dolars in revenue paid no taxes.
The 833% Medical Insurance Ripoff: Medicare charges 3% for service; the health insurance companies in Missouri charge 25% for services
The richest 1 percent of Americans have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
The richest 1 percent of Americans receive more income than the bottom 50%. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/dec/10/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-viral-speech-says-top-1$ >