Thursday
Sunday
That's fine, Gov. Rick Perry, Texas can go ahead and secede from the Union
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas grabbed national attention again this week during the anti-tax teabag ruckus by suggesting that Texas might just at some point get so fed up with federal taxation that they'd want to secede from the United States. He bragged that the Texas economy is in good shape compared with other states, let alone compared to the "federal budget mess," said Fox News.
I say we call that bluff. I live in Texas; I know that Texas is, according to State Representative Eliot Shapleigh, "On the Brink." Here's a small sample of Texas's rankings compared to the 50 U.S. states (1=high, 50=low):
State Government Taxes & Spending
- Tax Revenue Raised Per Capita--------------49th
- Tax Expenditures Per Capita------------------
50th - Per Capita Spending on Mental Health-----46th
- Parks & Rec-----------------
---------------------49th - Police Protection----------
----------------------48th
Education
Percentage of Population over 25 with a High School Diploma---50th
State of the Child
Percentage of Uninsured Children---------1st
Health Care Issues and Environment
- Percentage of Population without
- Health Insurance-----------
-----------------1st - Air Pollution Emissions-----------
-----------1st - Green House Gases Released------------
----1st - Toxic Chemicals Released into Water-----1st
- Hazardous Waste Generated-----------
-----1st - Carbon dioxide emissions-----------
--------1st
Workforce Issues
- Income Inequality between the Rich and the Poor--2nd
- Job Discrimination Lawsuits------------
-----------------1st
Public Safety
- Number of Executions----------
-------------1st - Number of Gun Shows---------------
--------1st - Number of Registered Machine Guns------1st
- Deaths by Floods/Tornadoes----
------------1st
Sorry, Gov. Perry. There's not a lot here to brag about. And there's even less if you look at the entire listing in Shapleigh's document. So, should Texas decide to secede, it might actually be doing the rest of the states a favor. Because, quite honestly, it looks to me like Texas might be pulling the average down.
Sliding Scale Bake Sale Reveals Plight of World's Women
I attended a local event at the Women's Intercultural Center for Women's History Month/International Women's Day last week that paired a special movie screening with a "sliding scale bake sale." Cupcakes and drinks cost a dollar each. But women got a special deal: those without children paid $.90, married moms paid $.73, and single moms paid $.60 for those same $1.00 items.
A sign explained what was happening:
--------------------
"WHY THE DIFFERENT PRICES?
We don't mean to discriminate. But this is a
SLIDING SCALE BAKE SALE
The prices reflect the REAL WAGE GAP
between men, women, and women with children.
Even today, for each dollar that a man earns, a woman can expect to earn $.90, a married mom can expect to earn $.73, and a single mom can expect to earn $.60.
If this seems unfair at a bake sale, imagine how it feels in the real world, WHERE RENT AND FOOD ARE NOT SOLD ON A SLIDING SCALE.
Info source: www.momsrising.org"
--------------------
Tuesday
all the same under the skin
in this economic downturn in america, it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. i try not to. that doesn't mean that i don't appreciate everything i have and the fact that i live in a land of excess. i do. but it makes me aware that because i have so much- many have nothing. america has always been the land of plenty for most, but we have always had our share of poverty too. we don't like to think about them, but their numbers are growing.
i just read a post with a few interesting links- about poverty, malnourishment, need:
one in 5 humans starving
this earth cannot survive the billions we have become but that doesn't tell the whole story. human beings run on a monied system and the folks with the most money- always win. if you take the planet as a whole- and look at the inhabited continents- most of the world is poor. it isn't just ethiopia that is starving anymore. i just want people in this country to be aware that because of poverty, war, drought, blight, and myriad other issues- one in 5 people on the planet are currently starving.
what can we do? grow our own food; consume less overall; pressure washington to pressure other western nations to stop propping up dictatorships in impoverished nations and to put together plans to help our fellow human beings. we can help end poverty globally by working together for peace and realizing that for all of our differences- we are all the same underneath- human beings.
one.org
Sunday
The Daughters of Hope
Anger at the way things are,
and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are."
Continued: Social Justice Quiz 2008
Click below for the answers to (and documentation of) today's segment of the quiz.
8. How many people in the world do not have electricity?
9. People in the US consume 42 kilograms of meat per person per year.
How much meat and grain do people in India and China eat?
10. How many cars does China have for every 1000 drivers? India? The U.S.?
11. How much grain is needed to fill a SUV tank with ethanol?
12. According to the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1% of Americans earns what percent of the nation's adjusted gross income?
A) 5%, B) 10%, C) 15%, D)20%
Social Justice Quiz 2008 (click below for answers)
1. How many deaths are there world-wide each year due to acts of terrorism?
2. How many deaths are there world-wide each day due to poverty and malnutrition?
3. 1n 1965, CEOs in major companies made 24 times more than the average worker.
In 1980, CEOs made 40 times more than the average worker.
In 2007, CEOs earned how many times more than the average worker?
4. In how many of the over 3000 cities and counties in the US can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment?
5. In 1968, the minimum wage was $1.65 per hour.
How much would the minimum wage be today if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968?
6. True or false?
People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries.
7. How many people in the world live on $2 a day or less?
Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008
1. 22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year. Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims.
Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. "Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007."
2. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds.
Bread for the World. Hunger Facts: International.
3. Today's average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker's pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general.
Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007. 1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute.
4. In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US.
Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour. In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs.
Source: Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
5. Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars. Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008.
The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.
6. True. The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually. Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc. The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006. The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars. As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and others. This does not count private donations which, if included, may move the USA up as high as 6th.
The Index of Global Philanthropy 2008, page 15, 19.
7. The World Bank reported in August 2008 that 2.6 billion people consume less than $2 a day.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Poverty-Brief-in-Eng...
[More Social Justice Quiz next Sunday morning.]
Cross-posted on Border Explorer.
LinkWithin
8. World-wide, 1.6 billion people do not have electricity. 2.5 billion people use wood, charcoal or animal dung for cooking.
United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, pages 44-45.
9. People in the US lead the world in meat consumption at 42 kg per person per year compared to 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China.
People in the US consume five times the grain (wheat, rice, rye, barley, etc.) as people in India, three times as much as people in China, and twice as much as people in Europe.
"THE BLAME GAME: Who is behind the world food price crisis," Oakland Institute, July 2008.
10. China has 9 cars for every 1000 drivers. India has 11 cars for every 1000 drivers. The US has 1114 cars for every 1000 drivers.
Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future (2007).
11. The grain needed to fill up a SUV tank with ethanol could feed a hungry person for a year. Lester Brown, CNN.Money.com, August 16, 2006
12. D: "According to the figures, the richest 1% reported 22% of the nation's total adjusted gross income in 2006. That is up from 21.2% a year earlier, and is the highest in the 19 years that the IRS has kept strictly comparable figures. The 1988 level was 15.2%. Earlier IRS data show the last year the share of income belonging to the top 1% was at such a high level as it was in 2006 was in 1929, but changes in measuring income make a precise comparison difficult."
Jesse Drucker, "Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow," Wall Street Journal,
July 23, 2008, page A3.
Cross Posted on Border Explorer.
Concluding segment of Social Justice Quiz 2008 next Sunday morning.