In all other industrialized nations people who get sick get medical care without fear of the financial consequences of medical expenses. They may have to pay for insurance or they may pay in taxes, but no matter how poor a family is, its members health care is covered. But not in the United States. In the … Read More
For its first 200 years the American Republic slowly, sometimes infuriatingly slowly and at horrific human cost (e.g. the Civil War) expanded the franchise. In 1870 the 15th Amendment gave blacks the right to vote. In 1920, the 19th Amendment extended the franchise to women. In 1924 Congress granted Native Americans citizenship and thus the right … Read More
One more report decrying the scale and potential for mischief of our large banks might pass unnoticed except for its source: the Federal Reserve System, the oversight wing of large banks. When the regulatory center of capitalism blows the whistle on the actual center of capitalism that’s big news. In the lead essay of a new … Read More
While the nation’s biggest banks, with a taxpayer bailout of more than $2.5 trillion and counting, continue to refuse to write down the principal on a mortgage to allow people to stay in their homes, Boston Community Capital (BCC) is showing what is possible. This small non profit is buying houses out of foreclosure, selling them … Read More
Source: Mother Jones
On February 8, 1921 twenty thousand people, braving temperatures so low that musical instruments froze, marched in a funeral procession in the town of Dimitrov, a suburb of Moscow. They came to pay their respects to a man, Petr Kropotkin, and his philosophy, anarchism. Some 90 years later few know of Kropotkin. And the word anarchism … Read More
Recent comments by Mitt Romney, the probable Republican nominee for President all but guarantee the inequality issue will remain front and center this election year. When asked whether people who question the current distribution of wealth and power are motivated by “jealousy or fairness” Romney insisted, “I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class … Read More
A few weeks ago John C. Nienstedt, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis wrote a widely publicized letter to a priest threatening to strip him of his “ministerial assignments” if he spoke out against a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In addition to banning dissent the Archbishop directed parishes to form committees to work for … Read More
