Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

Why Did The Democrats Get Wasted?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics

I don’t always agree with Greenwald but he is dead on in his analysis in this case. Over and over on television, it’s as if jobless and foreclosed on Americans simply don’t exist.

From Glenn Greenwald –

People are suffering economically and Democrats have done little about that. Beyond that, they failed to inspire their own voters to go to the polls. Therefore, they lost. By basing their power in Congress on Blue Dog dependence — rather than advocating for the views of their own supporters and implementing those policies — they failed, and failed resoundingly. Building their party around a large number of muddled, GOP-replicating corporatists not only creates a tepid and failed political image, but far worse, it prevents actual policies from being implemented that benefit large number of ordinary Americans. Democrats repeatedly refrained from advocating for such policies in deference to their Blue Dogs, failed to do much to alleviate the economic suffering of ordinary Americans, and thus got crushed. Anyone who thinks that Democrats lost because they were “too liberal” — rather than because Americans are suffering so much economically — is wildly out of touch, i.e., is a multi-millionaire cable TV personality who has spent decades wallowing in trite D.C. chatter.

It was American suffering that drove the voters.

No one at any time or any place told me they were voting against the Democrats because they had suddenly found a new political philosophy. People told me they wanted to vote against anyone in office anywhere, that they were all worthless, that they were all incompetent, (and most commonly) that they were all (insert seven or eight of the most vicious cuss words imaginable).

That’s not voter realignment unless you call wanting them all dead a political philosophy.

Americans want to be a vital concern for the government, not second to the banks, etc, etc,. but number one. They want help with their education, they want help finding jobs, they want government policies that keep jobs in the United States, they want a fair tax system.

Sometimes I tell people, friends and students, about some bizarre thing the government does (like allowing businesses to deduct the expenses of moving jobs overseas from their taxes – we pay for outsourcing). They ask me who they can write to, who they can e-mail or call.

I get to tell them the truth.

There is no one.

Every Senator and Representative in my state has voted to maintain those tax breaks and will continue to do so. There is no place to go. Not now, maybe not ever.

And if you have the foolish thought that an election is coming up in 2012 and you can get someone different. Well, the name of the candidate will be different, maybe the party affiliation will be different, but I can assure you they will vote to maintain those tax breaks.

American democracy does not work very well. There are only some issues that voting can effect.

Moving jobs overseas is a priority of both the Republicans and Democrats. They are both devoted the financialization of this nation and the destruction of its industrial basis.

There is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, no one to turn to. The door of the federal government is closed.

James Pilant

The American Standard Of Living!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics

Where does the United States stand in relation to other countries in standard of Living? Here’s our placement.

UN Development Index 15th

Human Poverty Index 16th

The Economist’s Quality of Life Index 13th

This is not very impressive. We have an incredible amount of money, power and resources in this nation – 13th at best?

How did this happen?

In 1973, we were number one.

James Pilant

P.S. If you click on the graph, it goes to full size. jp

Just For Fun – Just A Picture

On By southwerkIn Uncategorized

Pretty!

jp

Giving Credit For Agreeing With Me!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business1 Comment

I like most people like being told how smart I am. The next best thing to being told how smart you is to find agreement with your ideas. Here’s agreement with my thoughts. I get a certain guilty pleasure putting it up. This is a book review from the web site – Audiobooks Today Blog. Once I discovered the web site, I immediately favorited it. I’m not an audio book guide preferring to read but the book reviews are wonderful. You would enjoy it.

From the article –

THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY by Clyde Prestowitz is a chilling examination of why the American Century is over, and how emerging countries like China will own the 21st. It unravels the history of our giving up production while increasing our consumption of imports, and what this portends for the U.S. unless a radical change of course is undertaken now, (and Americans get back to work doing what they once did six decades ago). Ominously, few in America act as if our affluence or standard of living will ever change, and instead continue to look to the government for bailouts while watching ball games on TV, yet when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner visited Beijing University in 2009—and told students there that the dollar was safe—their response was that THEY LAUGHED. Not only are our remaining high tech jobs moving overseas, along with the plants that make computer chips, but service jobs are moving to India too. To top it off, even as our infrastructure is failing and our debt is increasing, our baby boomers are now starting to retire in record numbers, expecting the government to help support them. Narrated by Erik Synnestvedt, the audiobook pulls no punches in attacking the shrug-away “don’t worry” attitude of the Bush administration, and a universal shortsightedness that focused on quarterly statements while muleishly wearing blinders about the future. Unless we start exporting something other than soda and cigarettes, Prestowitz reveals, Americans will soon be forced to give up the “something for nothing” mantra that has characterized our accumulation of debt on the backs of “third world” producers (including cheap oil for much longer) as they acquire “first world” status from us by owning all our industries.

Like me, the author finds the policies of the United States to be disastrous over the long term. Soon, a visitor to South America, no matter what nation, will notice the obvious similarities to our nation except some of them have much better statistics. What I mean by statistics is infant mortality rate and life span. Some of these nations has overtaken us in these areas.

This country is 38th in life expectancy. The United States of American is second rate in life expectancy in comparison to Costa Rico (and Cuba).

Just great. What’s next? A high infant mortality rate?

Oops! We’re 33rd. For every 1,000 births in this country, more than six children die. Guess who we’re behind this time? Cuba and Slovakia.

There’s 195 countries on the list. I wonder with our infrastructure disintegrating and our hospital system headed toward disaster, how low we can go. Maybe we can hit a round number like 100? What do you think?

James Pilant

Robo-Signing Foreclosure Freeze Update (via Foreclosureblues)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure, White Collar Crime2 Comments

The guys at Foreclosureblues are hard workers and well informed. They have dubbed the current crisis, Robo-gate. I like it!

This is their update on the situation. It’s thoroughly excellent. It’s a good summary. It is worthy of your time.

James Pilant

Robo-Signing Foreclosure Freeze Update Robo-Signing Foreclosure Freeze Update Today, November 05, 2010, 7 hours ago | Sean O'Toole Here’s a quick update on the impacts we are seeing from “Robo-Gate”. For those that missed this major foreclosure news item, robo-gate refers to the foreclosure freezes implemented by various lenders after revelations that foreclosure filings were being attested to in a robotic fashion that may not have met legal requirements. In the beginning the freezes … Read More

via Foreclosureblues

Best of the Week- 7 November 2010 (via Sonia Jaspal’s RiskBoard)

On By southwerkIn ethics

Sonia Jaspal is always telling me things I don’t know. If you know me, you realize that this doesn’t happen all the time. Currently, the President of the United States is in India negotiating trade deals and explaining to the nation of India that taking American jobs is really a good thing for us. He was there during the celebration of a major holiday. Sonia Jaspal in this post explains the holiday and its importance.

Learn something New! Give it a read.

James Pilant

Best of the Week- 7 November 2010 This week India celebrated the festival of lights, Diwali. The sound of firecrackers is still ringing in my ears and everybody has binged on sweets and dry fruits. Everybody is spending Sunday recuperating from the excesses of Friday and Saturday. On Diwali, Hindus celebrate Prince Ram’s return to his hometown Ayodya after living fourteen years in exile. Let me go a bit back in Hindu philosophy. As per Hindu cosmetology, the world has a cycle of … Read More

via Sonia Jaspal's RiskBoard

Britain Moves Toward “Fair Use” Of Copyrighted Material On Internet!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business

From the BBC –

(Bizarrely, enough, the British are envious of our Fair Use provisions, and the article begins with praise for the American doctrine. This is bizarre, because there are current proposals in Congress to butcher these protections.)

“Over there, they have what are called ‘fair-use’ provisions, which some people believe gives companies more breathing space to create new products and services.

“So I can announce today that we are reviewing our IP laws, to see if we can make them fit for the internet age. I want to encourage the sort of creative innovation that exists in America.”

The six month review will look at what the UK can learn from US rules on the use of copyright material without the rights holder’s permission.

It will also look at removing some of the potential barriers that stand in the way of new internet-based business models, such as the cost of obtaining permission from rights holders and the cost and complexity of enforcing intellectual property rights in the UK and internationally.

If only we had the kind of forward looking leadership here to encourage a lessening of our over protections of copyrights (SEVENTY years plus the life of the author). What genius thought that was appropriate protection? Why should a publishing company hold those kinds of rights for so long? The only answer is that the publishing industry has a tremendous influence over legislation.

What that means in practice is that hundreds of thousands of works that should have passed into the public domain are lost to time, discarded by libraries, thrown away by owners who don’t realize their value, or simply decay into the dust. These things could be preserved for every future generation of Americans by web sites like Project Gutenberg.

But because of the rapacious greed of American companies and their minions in the Congress, a good sized chunk of American’s intellectual heritage is discarded like used toilet paper.

Imagine the writers and the thinkers who thought they were creating a legacy for their fellow citizens to be frustrated by the shallow fundraising of the the flag waving hypocrites of the American Congress. It is hard to think of more disgusting show of influence than these well financed companies and the Congress of the United States laying waste to American ‘s past for the long green.

James Pilant

White House Should Stop Protecting Banks

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime

Simon Johnson writes in the web site, the Baseline Scenario, about the Obama Administration’s protection of banks and failure to hold the mega financial institutions to standard of law and justice.

From the article –

The premise – and central mistake – of the Obama administration in 2009-10 can be summed up in what the president said to leading bankers on that fateful day, March 27, 2009: “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks”.

The organizing notion then, provided by Larry Summers and presumably Tim Geithner, was that the “responsible” administration would protect global megabanks from “dangerous” populists, in return for cooperation and better behavior.  This kid gloves strategy turned out to be a very bad bet – not only is it far from best practice with regard to handling failed financial systems (there must be consequences for executives and shareholders, at the very least), but it also allowed banks and their close allies to bounce back to profitability and use that cash (underwritten by the taxpayer) to oppose the administration on financial reform and, according to credible public reports, to funnel large amounts of money into various “populist” anti-administration midterm campaigns.

The article calls for White House support for Elizabeth Warren and the new agency to protect consumers from the depredations of financial predators. I strongly support that.

I want you to understand that I come to criticize the Obama Administration reluctantly but their actions make a mockery of ethics, of doing the right thing, and of carrying out their obligations to the law.

James Pilant

My Students (Revised)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Teaching

This is a shorter, more carefully revised version of my earlier “My Students” posting.

One of the things I like to teach my students is that they have no intellectual inferiority in regard to the Ivy League schools.

On the face of it, that may sound ridiculous, but it is not.

A great many of these heavily lauded (and immensely well paid) graduates of the schools blessed by the establishment have participated wholly and happily in the greatest financial debacle in history. Their well honed degrees disguised their incompetence, their stupidity, their lack of intellectual depth and their overwhelming sense of entitlement.

The fact that so many of these Ivy Leaguers journey off to cash in their degrees and their honor in various financial firms is a black mark against our educational system. You see, we depend on this system to produce the scholars, the politicians, and all those various professions which make nations function with honor and purpose. Instead we get a rush of graduates toward a predatory system of financial institutions.

My students would try to take care of their fellow citizens never forgetting where they came from and the struggle they must make to simply get a job in the current market. They deserve better. Nevertheless, from this crop is my hope, that these people, these individuals working to better themselves will be the leaders of tomorrow, not the children of the elite, not the well favored few, but my students.

It is not a matter of free will or gumption that keeps my students from being as successful as those. It is a well ingrained attitude, a lack of expectations, and a consistent contempt and suspicion of the educated. We can do better. We, the citizens, have a responsibility to our children to act the part of guides and supporters. I do not mean the blind support given whatever the merits. I mean a willingness to encourage excellence and the hard, difficult job of not submitting to the idea that some people are better. They are better when they prove it. My student can prove their excellence.

But learning is not just a matter of schooling. It is a life long endeavor. Most people stop when they put that piece of paper on the wall. But that is all they are, paper, wood pulp. If my students are to change this state, this country, and this world, there must be support and dedication to a lifetime of learning. A person who continues the task of development, of becoming, is inferior to no learner on earth, whatever their degree.

There are books and as long as there are books – as long as the great works of mankind – are readily available, any human being can become educated and developed. Any individual can build the power of understanding, a basic command of the ideas that govern this society, and a sense of purpose in their lives. But we have to believe. My students need that. My students need to walk in a community where people believe they are just as good, just as smart and just as capable as students from anywhere in the world.

All they have is the power of their minds and the determination of their hearts. If they only believe.

James Pilant

The Field Of Honor!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics

The bankers know exactly whom to blame for the housing collapse and foreclosure fiascos. It’s you — the devious American homeowner who wickedly borrowed the easy money they had on offer.

Jane Bryant Quinn writing for CBS Money Watch –


No blame to the lenders who dreamed up high-risk mortgages and doled them out to anyone with a pulse. No blame to mortgage brokers and bankers who misled customers into signing up. No blame to Wall Street for whisking risky loans into securities falsely labeled as “Triple-A safe.”

No, you’re the problem, for deliberately borrowing more from the innocent, trusting bankers than you could afford. And now, in foreclosure, you’re whining about a few false robo-signatures on documents that the lenders use to evict. You’re simply plotting get out of paying what you owe. “People aren’t taking responsibility for their own actions,” the self-righteous bankers tell each other at their watering holes. Kick ‘em out of their homes and let’s move on.

Talk about not taking responsibility. The bankers see the specks in their borrowers’ eyes and deny the logs that are in their own. On the field of honor, the entire financial industry has melted away.

I was planning to write something today along these very lines. She already did it, and it is much easier for me to put her stuff in a blog and justly praise her for it than for me to re-invent the wheel.

Great writing!

James Pilant