Attacked by Washington Post Pop-up Ad

Wow, my mac PowerBook just had a siezure, chugging and chugging, rainbow wheel, for a long time, seemingly frozen dock... barely got to my Finder file directory... then I saw a black and red Washington Post advertisement box. I clicked it off and *sigh* the chugging dissipated, rainbow wheel went away, I had my computer back.

Does the media trust do this on purpose? Was I just hacked? WTF? Just paranoid? LOL

San Jose, CA Board of Ed Stands with WI Unions

Jan Jose, CA Board of Education approves resolution in support of Wisconsin public workers - MORE

Paste into Twitter: http://t.co/bufQOIM

Purpose of the Economy

The field of economics is rife with bias due to powerful selfish interests that influence this social science.

Science or art or what? Henry Hazlitt, in 1946, suggested that "The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence:"

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

I'm not sure this encapsulates the whole of economics, but it does define what the economy should provide for society. That is, it should operate for the broader benefit of society and not merely for the minority establishment. This is the purpose of the economy and this principle should underlie the study of economics.

The Masses Know their Place

From an elitist writing on "The Revolt of the Masses." He separates the elite from the masses.

There exist, then, in society, operations, activities, and functions of the most diverse order, which are of their very nature special, and which consequently cannot be properly carried out without special gifts. For example: certain pleasures of an artistic and refined character, or again the functions of government and of political judgment in public affairs.

Previously these special activities were exercised by qualified minorities, or at least by those who claimed such qualification. The mass asserted no right to intervene in them; they realised that if they wished to intervene they would necessarily have to acquire those special qualities and cease being mere mass. They recognized their place in a healthy social system.

Sources:

The Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega Y Gasset, original 1930, translation from Spanish, 1932. W.W. Norton & Co.

US Economy in the Pocket of 1/100th of 1 Percent

This graphic is jaw-dropping. The yellow ball, representing the wealth of one one-hundredth of one percent (0.01%), doesn't even fit into the graphic. Whereas the bottom 90% of Americans is the tiny blue ball.

How Rich are the Superrich?

The top 400 of America's richest aristocrats hoard as much wealth as the bottom 155,000,000 people. - Michael Moore at a Madison, WI rally, March 5, 2011.

Sources:

Mother Jones, It's the Inequality Stupid, March/April, 2011.

GDAE Podcast - Episode 43

We Are Wisconsin

• Security Industrial Complex: A concern of both conservatives and progressives. Coleen Rowley, former FBI agent discusses the glut of information being collected and the needle-in-a-haystack syndrome.


• Has the Sleeping Giant Awoken? Michael Moore Madison, WI speech, 3/5/11.
  

Selfish Interests Bias Economics

An insight published in 1946 that holds true today:

Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in say, physics, mathematics or medicine -- the special pleading of selfish interests.

Source: Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt