Poverty // Current TV

Ontario Premier's Speech Disrupted

Premier dalton mcguinty of ontario: speech disrupted by anti-poverty activists

mollymew
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Voice in the Wilderness: Amenities in Poor Households - America vs. India

AMERICA POOR IS HIGH CLASS COMPARED TO OTHER NATIONS

charkeseharvey
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BANG! You're Very Poor

Much has been said about how multi-millionaire candidates relate to the middle class.... more

omnipotentpoobah
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9 days ago
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Matthews: Romney is ‘one of the bad guys’

By David Edwards Tuesday, January 31, 2012 22:05 EST Mitt Romney may have won the... more

KB723
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9 days ago
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Soylent Green & The Republican Road to Recovery!

Just as a reminder of what road we are heading for, I had to bring this up! Our... more

WalmartRamen
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15 days ago
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1 comment

Aware Guide - Sundance Premiere: Finding North

49 million people in the U.S.—one in four children—don’t know where... more

AwareGuide
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17 days ago
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We Can't Wait

"Ok BO!!! You 'Announced' all kinds of BS, but in the light of Day,... more

KB723
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17 days ago
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Buffett hits Romney on Buffett rule

He makes his money the same way I make my money. He makes money by moving around big... more

KB723
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18 days ago
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Romney to protesters: ‘Take a hike’

By David Edwards Monday, January 23, 2012 At a campaign event in Florida Sunday,... more

KB723
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18 days ago
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50 comments

Romney: I ‘lived in the real streets’

By David Edwards Friday, January 20, 2012 Multimillionaire Republican presidential... more

KB723
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21 days ago
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103 comments

Poverty to the point!

You need to understand the point that this is peoples work force, the poor! The... more

WalmartRamen
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28 days ago
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Obama defending the same class interests as Romney, only with slightly different tactics

".....While both Romney and the Wall Street Journal suggest that the Obama administration is “anti-business” and promoting “class warfare,” the reality is that the Democratic Party defends the interests of corporate America and finance capital just as assiduously as the Republicans, as demonstrated by its expansion of the bailout of Wall Street begun under George W. Bush.

Obama has packed his administration with ex-bankers, including every one of his White House chiefs of staff: Rahm Emanuel, who raked in $18 million during a brief tenure at Wasserstein Perella; William Daley, formerly Midwest vice-chairman of JPMorgan Chase; and now Jacob Lew, a former top official of Citigroup at its internal private equity unit. These individuals were just as ruthless and predatory in their financial operations as Mitt Romney.

Romney underscored this equivalence Tuesday morning on the CBS program “This Morning.” He declared that the Obama administration had proceeded in the same way in its reorganization of the auto industry as Bain Capital had in reorganizing smaller companies. “In the general election,” he said, “I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins of General Motors and Chrysler, closed factories, closed dealerships, laid off thousands and thousands of workers. He did it to try to save the business. We also had the occasion to do things that are tough to try to save a business.”

The pseudo-populism of Gingrich and Perry is transparently phony. Today they are compelled to denounce Romney’s financial record to serve their own immediate political needs. But both have decades-long political careers serving the same corporate interests that they now choose to characterize as “vulture” capitalists.

The growth of parasitism and financial speculation is not a wart on the face of an otherwise healthy capitalism, but an essential aspect of the profit system in its advanced stage of decay. As World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board Chairman David North pointed out in his 2009 lecture on “The Capitalist Crisis and the Return of History:”

“The operations of firms such as Kohlberg Kravis were not merely the product of personal greed. Rather, the decay of the industrial base of American capitalism found expression in the destructive activities of ‘Merchants of Debt’ such as Kohlberg Kravis and Drexel Burnham Lambert. While, as is shown by every index of economic activity, the global position of US-based manufacturing continued to decline precipitously, financial speculation became the principal means by which the American bourgeoisie enriched itself. In 1980, only 6 percent of corporate profits were realized in the finance industry. By 2005, the finance industry generated 40 percent of corporate profits. That is, the fastest way to accumulate wealth was not by engaging in production, but by staying as far away from it as possible.”

The exaggerated response from the Republican right to the campaign rhetoric of Gingrich and Perry demonstrates the acute sensitivity of the ruling class to any public reference to the seething class antagonisms in American society. (It is worth noting here that another Republican presidential hopeful, former senator Rick Santorum, declared during last Saturday’s debate in New Hampshire that “there are no classes” in America.)

The Occupy Wall Street movement touched a powerful chord among working people because it raised explicitly the question of economic inequality and the polarization of society between the 1 percent at the top and the rest of the population.

A survey released Wednesday by Pew Social & Demographic Trends confirms the growing consciousness of social divisions. The survey found that 66 percent of Americans saw strong or very strong conflicts between rich and poor, an increase of 19 percentage points from 2009. Another 23 percent saw some conflict, while only 7 percent said there was no conflict. The poll found that conflict between the rich and those struggling to survive was a bigger issue, in the minds of those surveyed, than conflicts among races and ethnic groups or between immigrants and those born in the United States.

Obama and the Democrats are well aware of the explosiveness of these social tensions. Hence their turn to the populist rhetoric denounced by Romney and the Republicans as “class warfare.” Obama, however, is defending the same class interests as Romney, only with slightly different tactics. His aim is to use the purely verbal acknowledgement of social divisions to disarm working people politically and thus enable his administration, or its Republican successor, to continue and intensify the pro-corporate, anti-working class program which is the consensus of both parties."

Please see link for the entire post.".....While both Romney and the Wall Street Journal suggest that the Obama... more

VFORVENDETTA
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29 days ago
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Great Ideas That Work: Denver Inner City Parrish 12.16.11

Video w/4 of 11 'Great Ideas That Work' re: hunger, food pantry... more

KimDoyleWille
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30 days ago
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Barclays Bank has been shortlisted for the 2012 Public Eye ‘shame award’

Barclays Bank has been shortlisted for the 2012 Public Eye ‘shame award’ due to its financial speculation on food prices. Anti-poverty campaign group the World Development Movement, which nominated the bank, says its activity is fuelling hunger and poverty worldwide.
Barclays is estimated to make up to £340 million a year from speculating in food ‘futures’ markets, making it the biggest UK player in the markets. Research by the World Development Movement shows that a massive influx of speculative money in food markets is driving sharp price spikes, sending the cost of food soaring beyond the reach of the world’s poorest people. Financial speculation on food nearly doubled between 2006 and 2011.
Barclays CEO Bob Diamond responded to the Occupy movement by telling the BBC in November that banks must be “better citizens”. But Barclays has ignored calls from campaigners to put the basic human need for food before the profits it makes from speculation.
Amy Horton, campaigner at the World Development Movement, said today:
Barclays is essentially gambling on food prices, at the expense of millions of people who cannot afford to buy food as a result. Speculating on food is reckless in the extreme and governments must take action to curb it.”
Online voting begins today for the ‘people’s award’, while a panel of judges will choose a winner for the ‘global’ award. The winners will be announced on 27 January in Davos, Switzerland, to coincide with the World Economic Forum.
Campaigners are calling for tough European regulation to curb excessive speculation on food by Barclays and other investment banks and hedge funds. The US has already moved to regulate food markets, and similar rules are under discussion in the EU. But the UK government is blocking attempts to introduce effective European legislation. The World Development Movement’s online comedy series ‘The Real George Osborne’ aims to put pressure on the UK Chancellor to back regulation.
The Public Eye Awards are run by Greenpeace Switzerland and the Berne Declaration.

For more information please contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7820 4913 or (+44) (0)7711 875 345 or email miriam.ross@wdm.org.ukBarclays Bank has been shortlisted for the 2012 Public Eye ‘shame award’... more

Scott_Pert
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1 month ago
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The Truth About Ron Paul

WARNING: Due to the Highly Controversial Nature of this article, it is recommended... more

Anarchadiator
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1 month ago
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4 comments

Santorum to Mother of Cancer Survivor: People with Pre-Existing Conditions Should Pay Extra!!!

During a town hall in Keene, New Hampshire this morning, Rick Santorum told a mother... more

KB723
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1 month ago
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206 comments

A Nightmare on Wall Street…

By Muriel Kane Friday, January 6 Filmed in glorious black and white, this Twilight... more

KB723
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1 month ago
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10 comments

Why a financial transaction tax? A way to tax the rich

Debate is currently going on regarding instituting a financial transaction tax on certain trades of 0.25% that could raise billions to basically slow the short term investment volatility that has made Wall Street now little more than a crap table at a casino. This is an interesting report that gives answers regarding what it is, Europe's response, the U.S.'s response ( hint: Geithner tried to talk others out of it to the cheering of Corporate America) and the all out effort by Wall Street to stop it.

Personally I think it needs to be considered as a viable way to curb the high-frequency stock trades that drive short-term financial thinking and provide a way for us to tax the rich in a way that will not end the world but enrich it for the whole. There are a myriad of ways such income could be used but of course that is assuming it is handled in a diligent and prudent manner.

Also, it is not just about the money but the moral investment along with the financial that ensures growth and sustainability not only of the investment but the environment. You simply cannot have true growth in a short term market timeframe. As we have seen it only leads to collapse and environmental devastation.

There was a time when people who were entrepreneurs with big ideas sought out longterm investing in the hopes of those ideals not only making profits over the longterm, but also in bringing about an atmosphere that was not exclusive, predatory, or tipped to only favor one specific entity at the expense of all others.

However, this is a symptom of a bigger societal problem where quick fixes and getting everything fast has infected every part of society. Fast food, instant messaging, fast internet connections at lightning speed and quick fix democracy (case in point the 2000 USSC decision that picked the wrong man as president) are just a small sampling of the society we have made where fast transactions for quick profit and gratification without considering the longterm consequences in comparison to sustainability have now also led us to a climate tipping point as well. And yes, that is insane and needs to change if we are to save our markets and ourselves.Debate is currently going on regarding instituting a financial transaction tax on... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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Monsanto's drought resistant BT corn is a FAILURE- no more effective than non GMO

Failed "Drought Tolerant" GMO Corn Won't Help Farmers! The US... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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15 comments

Make Poverty History - Orphans of Nkandla

A short extract from the Orphans of Nkandla film . Brother and sister try to cope with... more

Scott_Pert
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1 month ago
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