Links for 07/09/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: It seems what can be said about Bolivia can be said about parts of the United States where great wealth and prosperity mix with great poverty and a lack of public services. Sadly, some so called Catholics want those services cut even more - as if there is a pool of jobs some place that the poor are ignoring. Prosperity, as he uses it, is essentially capitalism and much of what he describes as the common good fall under social services (or as the right wing would them, socialist services - wear the label proudly!).
I like Blue Nation's piece. A few comment. First, Unions are less powerful because the tax code gives CEOs a personal incentive to bust them. In the old days, obscene income amounts were taxed away entirely, so there was labor piece and a bit of inflation. Reagan's cuts changed that, as did pervasive efforts to ignore law in many administrations. Second, Unions are, of course, political. When I proposed shifting the discussion of private accounts in Social Security to include those accounts holding mostly insured employer voting stock, with each person getting an equal credit from the employer contribution (rather than linking that credit to wages), the AFL-CIO went nuts, as this was opposite of their political agenda with the Democrats. Third, bankruptcies in industry are often caused by looting company and pension assets for the benefit of vulture capitalists, like Mitt Romney, or because credit departments, like in the car company bankruptcies, were making bad loans (like letting people roll over their current car loan when they wanted a newer car - which could not support both loans if it failed). Fourth, if only unions created more conflict. To my eyes, they have lost their socialist edge.
At least it was not a cat playing the piano.
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