4 posts tagged “economic justice”

In an interview with the Washington Times, McCain's top economic adviser Phil Gramm tells America to suck it up and stop complaining about the economy:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

Are all of you whinning when you buy groceries and gas for your family? Well, stop it. McCain doesn't like it.

Gary Hart offers us some great NY's resolutions for the USA: equal rights for all, respect for our constitutional guarantees, includeing habeas corpus, economic opportunity.... Well, you can read it.

Gary Hart: The National Interest and 2008 - The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-ha...

There is something called the national interest. It is not an ideology. It is not the possession of a single cabal of self-appointed imperialists. It is not achieved by substituting consensus for principle. It is not "bipartisanship" for its own sake or in pursuit of bad policy. And it is not a euphemism for oil. Email Print Comment Our national interest is the product of more than two centuries of national history which constitutes an amalgam of colossal mistakes, most notably Iraq, and grand sacrifices and noble actions. It required a terrible civil war to establish that slavery was not in our national interest. It required a cold war to establish that alliance and collaboration was in our national interest. Oil dependence, climate change, nuclear proliferation, concentrated wealth, fear of terrorism, theocracy, empire, corruption in government, an arrogant and ignorant executive, and violation of civil liberties are not in our national interest. Equal rights for all, respect for our constitutional guarantees, including most notable habeas corpus, economic opportunity, regulation of market excess, our natural heritage and environment, fairness, justice, and checks and balanced government are all in our national interest.

By 54-43, all Senate Democrats and a few Republicans attempted but failed to end a filibuster of the minimum wage bill passed by the House. Opponents of the filibuster needed 60 votes to prevail. The bill would have raised the minimum wage over two years from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

The last time the mimimum wage was raised was 10 years ago in 1997. In the past ten years, Senators pay has increased from $133,600 in 1997 to $168,000 currently.

An person earning the minimum wage and working 40 hours per week with no time off would receive an annual gross salary of $10712.

This vote was an attempt to put the bill through without amendments. Of course special interests want their amendments. This offends me as a human being and as a Christian. Christ taught us to help the poor. Evidence has proven that raising the minimum wage actually helps small businesses, plus the increase is over two years.

Opponents of an increase in the minimum wage have long argued that because many small businesses are labor intensive and largely employ low-wage workers, such businesses will experience sharp cost increases in the wake of a minimum wage increase, with the result that they will reduce employment levels. To test this claim, FPI compared small business job growth and economic performance between the higher minimum wage states and the remainder of states from 1998 to 2003, the latest year that an analysis for small business is possible. FPI's results consistently contradicted the standard argument of minimum wage opponents. In fact, small businesses in the higher minimum wage states as a group had faster job growth (6.7%) than for the other 40 states combined (5.3%). The higher minimum wage states also saw a greater gain in the number of small businesses, and greater growth in total payrolls and average pay per worker for small employers. [fiscalpolicy.org]

Elected officials in the county in which I live, Cherokee County, Georgia USA, passed a law about two weeks ago that would make it a criminal act for anyone in an unincorporated area of the county to rent a home or other housing to an undocumented alien. The county commission is made up of five white male Republicans, and the vote was unanimous.

I believe the only way to end the immigration from Mexico is for there to be economic justice in Mexico so that people there do not have to choose between staying with their families or feeding them. Our policies with Mexico only benefit the oil and other corporate interests. Our nation's entire history with Latin America has been one of colonialism and military or economic imperialism. Why do you think Hugo Chavez has such a negative view of our government (but not of our people)?

As an American, however, I would like secure borders. I do not like porous borders that make it easier for criminals and terrorists to slip through. But building a fence...all I think of is the Berlin Wall, the Jewish Warsaw ghetto, and the fence that Israel is building on the lands of Palestine. I want no walls or fences. I want security instead. How best to achieve that is the crux of the issue. Which is cheaper and also the real solution?

• Spending huge sums of money on fake security (that make you feel secure) but don't do much else except waste our money --or--
• Changing our economic and foreign policies with Mexico and the rest of Latin America to help bring economic stability to that region?

More on the solution to the big issue later. As a Christian, I ask is there room at the inn for all of our neighbors, especially during this holiday season? Whatever I think of immigration policies in this country, politics aside, there has to be room at the inn. What would Christ do? Yet here is what I am faced with. Not only do I live in a county that offends my religion, but I have to pay for it too. I've been considering moving from this very RED suburban county to the BLUE oasis in Atlanta proper. It's coming up with the cash now that prevents that, but in time, that is one of my possible plans.

Commissioners in Cherokee County vowed this week to defend a controversial ordinance that seeks to prevent landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. They dug in days after a California city withdrew a similar law due to costly litigation.

"We're prepared to carry through for a while," said Commissioner Jim Hubbard.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund plan to sue "in the next few weeks" to challenge the constitutionality of an ordinance the Cherokee County commissioners approved 5-0 on Dec. 5, said Jamie Hernan, a metro Atlanta lawyer who is helping draft a lawsuit.

On Wednesday, the City Council in Escondido, Calif., killed a law that made it illegal for landlords to rent to illegal immigrants. A judge had blocked enactment of the ordinance after a lawsuit challenged it last month.

A city statement said the council acted because "continuing the present policy approach would be unnecessarily costly." The city estimated that it could have had to pay its attorneys more than $1 million to defend the ordinance if the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, the city said, it faced the prospect of having to pay plaintiff attorneys' fees. [ajc.com]

If these laws are upheld, they be coming to a location near you. Write letters. Make phone calls. Pray. Get mad. Do something. I wrote my commissioner. I spoke up at church. The church social justice group, oddly named Matthew 25, is going to have dialog on this issue in new year.

If I were a landlord in the county, I believe I would openly violate the law as a civil protest. I just have to think what Jesus would have done. That belief guides me.