“‘The Brainwashing of My Dad’ brings together diligent research into the history of the conservative media movement along with personal stories from everyday people,” Smith said. “It shows how damaged a relationship can become after a loved one gets hooked on right wing media.”
Some part of our national income is spent on collective purposes — the common good. Should decisions on how to spend that money be made by (a) individuals who earn the money deciding how to spend it or (b) representatives elected by the voters deciding?
Rather than spend money on advertising, they invested in hiring more full-time employees, closing on major holidays so employees could spend time with their families, and offering a 100% guarantee of satisfaction on every item they sold.
I started out in the lower middle class. My early family life, growing up in the Pacific Northwest in the ‘50s, had its difficulties and challenges. I was working outside the house by age of nine in order to become financially independent. But I was I white, male and fairly clever, and that made every difference and my life journey much easier.
Regular people all over America are keenly aware of the corrupting influence of money in politics. They are rightfully angry. The DNC just gave them one more reason for their anger.
Why are we in fact subsidizing housing for wealthy people? Not only are we subsidizing housing for the wealthy, we’re doing it to the tune of billions of dollars a year. This can’t possibly be a good thing, and we should stop it.
We have expanded our purview a bit to include a few other issues: raising the minimum wage, more disclosure of political spending, and generally trying to help regular Americans have the same kind of political influence as do the wealthiest Americans, in addition to making the tax system more fair.
My family and millions of others like us came to America during a time when America had an implicit social contract. It was a time when key policy makers realized that the best investment that the nation could make was in its own citizens. So that those citizens would have the chance to lead decent and productive lives. It was a time of national wisdom, humanity, and humility.
An upcoming Epix documentary series, “America Divided,” will investigate social, economic and political inequality. Patriotic Millionaires Norman Lear and Lawrence Benenson are working to bring it about.
Across the country efforts to increase the minimum wage are being debated, fought for, and increasingly victorious.
I don’t see refragmentation; I see the winner-take-all economy. A few decades ago, there was plenty of room for the tenth best car service or the twentieth best restaurant, or the seventh best book store. Not any more.
What is happening is that the ultra-wealthy are using their disposable income to buy political influence, then using that influence to get laws passed that allow them to collect rents.
NEW YORK — Morris Pearl, a former managing director of the world’s largest investment company, walked out of his three-bedroom Park Avenue co-op on a recent rainy morning and headed to a Beaux Arts-style members-only club. He fit the scene seamlessly, greeted by smartly dressed attendants who knew him well.
Does the United States Congress think that big companies should be able to spend money on politics, secretly?
In this new TEDx Talk, Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Myer fortune invites the planet’s wealthy to “come home” – not withdraw – and humbly invest in building resilient and healthy communities. He urges his fellow wealthy to join networks like the Patriotic Millionaires to advocate for tax fairness, living wages and a campaign finance system that reduces the influence of big money and politics.
Just donate a few tens of thousands of dollars to a Senator and then when he reaches out to extend his thanks, explain to him the grave injustice to which the bank is subjecting you to, and explain how it could all be made right by just adding one harmless little non-controversial paragraph to the Trust Indenture Act.
For progressives like myself, the Institute for Policy Studies’ finding that twenty Americans own more wealth than half the population presents a frustrating puzzle.
Patriotic Millionaire and Amalgamated Bank CEO Keith Mestrich was profiled in the Washington Post for the banks responsible practices and commitment to workers.
Morris Pearl: I have worked hard in my life, but there are plenty of people who worked far harder than I have at actual backbreaking jobs, whether it’s driving buses, taking care of the sick people in the hospitals or rescuing people from fires. They pay tax at a much higher rate than I do.
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Far too many business leaders today define the success of their company solely by the profit it generates. That’s one reason why so many Americans are losing faith in major corporations – they’re tired of seeing a mentality that puts profit before people, whether those people be the companies’ employees or their fellow citizens.