America Stops Laughing to Correct Apoplectic Republican Comic, Rush Limbaugh

Alternet has a plethora of interesting articles and often more interesting and informative comments. This link is to a comment thread to a short article about the right wing propagandist Rush Limbaugh, who is no repecter of the truth or even of facts. A comment by passnthru2 noted:

1. The richest 1 percent has 43 percent of the nation’s wealth—6 times that of the bottom 80 percent, which has just 7 percent
2. the richest 5 percent has 72 percent of the nation’s wealth—10 times that of the bottom 80 percent
3. the top 20 percent has 93 percent of the nation’s wealth—23 times that of the bottom 80 percent
4. the top 50 percent has 97.5 percent of the nation’s wealth—39 times that of the bottom 50 percent which has 2.5 percent

44 percent of Americans couldn’t get $2000 together if their lives depended on it, while the richest 400 families:

1. have $1.4 trillion, and yet,
2. pay under 14% income tax

These rich people and the big corporations they own are sitting on piles of cash, yet they refuse to pay decent wages, and do everything in their power to lower the workers wages, for example using professional bigots like Rush Limbaugh whose splenetic rants impress a substantial section of the redneck population. It explains why there is a recession, and illustrates the huge fault in capitalism.

The rich always want more, and have to drive up profits to get more. They can do it by charging more and by paying their workers proportionally or absolutely less. They can even move their businesses abroad and pay the domestic worker nothing at all! But when people have less to spend whether it is absolutely less through wage cuts or relatively less by price inflation, they cannot afford to buy as much as they could previously. The retail trade goes into recession, and manufacturing businesses follow.

RustyCannon observed that if they were to pay people better, retail and therefore industry would be stimulated. Poor workers necessarily spend what they receive in earnings. They do not earn enough to save it. So the economy would be stimulated if the rich would just realize that they are starving the economy of liquidity by their greed. If the rich will not do it then the government must. President Carter created jobs, then Reagan came in, cut taxes for the rich, and drove unemployment through the roof.

The theory was “trickle down”. Give the rich more tax breaks and less regulations and they will spend more readily, employing people to expand their businesses. It doesn’t work. Republican President, George W Bush did not create as many jobs in the two terms of his presidency as did Carter in the single term he had. The rich just begin to expect more tax breaks to accumulate more risk free wealth—it is easier than taking the risks of trading. 30 years of this has just lead to manufacturers closing factories and destroying lives at home to move maufacture abroad to low labor cost countries. 50,000 manufacturing companies went in the Bush administration alone.

The large and enterprising middle class that was the economic engine of the USA is being impoverished by the stranglehold the rich have on the nation’s ready money—the top 400 wealthiest own more than the bottom 150 million. The economy is starved of demand. Middle class wages have been flat for 3 decades, yet the cost of living has continued to climb. Two income homes are now needed just to get by. The middle class no longer has as much disposable income, and what it has is falling, leaving its demand for products and services lower, with knock-ons to other small businesses dependent on them.

When people, encouraged by the sleepwalking bankers, began using the equity in their homes, they created a false demand bubble, and a false sense of prosperity. Disastrous greed among bankers who thought our money was theirs, led them to gamble with those unsound derivatives. Trading them backwards and forwards each day yielded immense bionuses for doing nothing in the least bit useful. That bubble burst, leaving us in the mess we are in, yet with no will to regulate the banksters and the rentiers, and sustained “head in the sand” insanity among Republicans determined to tie down Obama, and bring him down, if at all possible.

Further cuts as demanded by the Republicans can only make the situation worse, and that is the fault of the Republicans themselves who ought to have accummulated in the good years to spend in the bleak ones. They spent through the good years and now, when spending is the only way out of depression, they want to cut. Strong financial regulation and a New Deal like FDR’s will be necessary to reinvigorate the economy—measures that Republican bigots like Limbaugh call socialism for the sake of their indoctrinated disciples.

Why Scientists Often Have To Repeat Their Studies

Harvard sleep expert, Dr Charles Czeisler, has spent about $3 million over the years showing that doctors who don’t get enough sleep make mistakes on the job. Yet long shifts for interns and residents are a staple of hospital culture, and, as anyone’s welfare in hospital might be at stake, one might have thought it important to rectify excessive hours.

But it has taken Czeisler the best part of three decades getting the medical establishment to acknowledge it, and still the rules governing doctors’ working hours remain hard to change. When he gave evidence that workers on rotating shifts at a chemical plant suffered from disrupted sleep, the medical establishment said doctors were different. Czeisler’s data “was dismissed out of hand”. They kept using the same argument even when tests had refuted it. When he published results showing that physicians’ 24 hour plus shifts contributed to car accidents and attention lapses at work, some said it might be true—but not for them!

In 2008, the Institute of Medicine issued guidelines calling for limiting interns’ and residents’ shifts to 16 consecutive hours. Eventually, authorities did cut back to 16 hours, but only for interns. Czeisler had studied interns, so the establishment claimed they had seen no evidence for residents! Now Czeisler is having to research whether residents’ performance also is affected by lack of sleep. “I can’t believe we have to do this extra study.”

Science cannot accept a single study as definitive proof of its findings. Some error could have been made or some bias have been inadvertantly built in, and any such mistakes need independent repetition of the study to discount error. Repeating a previous study which confirms it multiplies the reliability of both studies. Moreover, this case on the working hours of hospital doctors shows another reason why some research has to be repeated—a refusal to act on well established scientific work for political or economic reasons, or simply reasons of will.

Daniele Fanelli, an expert on bias at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, points this out. “People want to draw attention to problems” rather than aiming to find something new, especially when important policy decisions are being delayed by procrastination or lack of political will. Experts have to prove some things again and again to get decision makers to act. Some might object that it is not a scientist’s job to persuade decision makers, but it is the duty of all of us to do it, surely, especially when the proof is there that lack of action is costing lives.

“There are some subjects where it seems you can never publish enough”, says Ronald J Iannotti, a psychologist at the National Institutes of Health. “Think about the number of studies that had to be published for people to realize smoking is bad for you.” Almost 50 years after cancer and lung disease were first linked to smoking, work continues to be published because the extent of the problem is still challenged, not least by those who make money out of selling tobacco products. A detailed analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has had painstakingly to lay out that secondhand smoke in cars is bad for children. Many people will say that is too obvious to merit funding, but cigarette vendors, and those still addicted to smoking evidently still need reminding that harming the health of kids is not excusable—it is wrong.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are spoof awards to mock improbable research. One winner was a study that found nose picking was common among teens. Some might consider the research is not only pointless but in bad taste(!), yet it can hardly be said to be obviously so, and finding that it is common has health consequences. Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that is getting highly dangerous through its growing resistance to antibiotics (MRSA).

Iannotti says, even if initial findings seem self evident “you still need to establish the facts. That’s how science moves forward—incrementally”. Plainly not every study is equally worthwhile, and some studies approved for funding might be bad decisions, but the danger is that an over zealous aim to cut back on wasteful research will succeed only in cutting out useful research.

It would be far more useful to cut back on the excessive rewards given to bankers for not doing much at all, and to stop giving them even bigger rewards for wrecking the national economy. It is far more costly and ridiculous to reward useless bankers than it is to hand out funds for occasionally poorly thought out scientific studies. Bankers reward themselves with millions of dollars each a year. Many useful studies cost buttons by comparison, but no one seems to object to us giving megabucks to greedy bankers for doing little of merit.

Houston, a Glimpse into America’s More Caring Future?

The 2011 Kinder Houston Area Survey took in a representative sample of 750 Harris County residents—including 240 respondents contacted by cell phone. The University of Houston administered the survey. Survey author, Stephen Klineberg, co-director of the Kinder Institute and professor of sociology, said:

Houston is where America’s four major ethnic communities—Anglos, Asians, blacks and Latinos—meet in more equal numbers than almost anywhere else in the country. The challenges and opportunities of creating a more unified and inclusive multiethnic society will be seen here first.

As a city at the forefront of the country’s demographic revolution, Klineberg thought that Houston offers a glimpse into America’s future, and the survey’s assessment of the city may offer important lessons for strengthening the rest of the country:

• create policies that moderate the inequalities
• nurture a far more educated workforce
• develop cities into environmentally and aesthetically appealing destinations
• empower all members of a multiethnic society.

Though Texas is a red state traditionally wanting less government, a majority of Houstonians today (52 percent) said that government has a responsibility to help reduce the inequalities between rich and poor in America (up from 45 percent in 2009). This year 48 percent said that “government should do more to solve our country’s problems” (up from 36 percent in 1996). 72 percent of respondents thought most poor people in the US today are poor because of circumstances they can’t control (up from 68 percent in 2007, and 52 percent in 1999). Although 86 percent agreed “if you work hard in this city, eventually you will succeed”, 67 percent also think “people who work hard and live by the rules are not getting a fair break these days”.

Respondents are a bit more upbeat in their personal economic outlooks—26 percent (up from 20 percent in 2010) report improving personal financial conditions—but remain pessimistic about the long term national prospects—only 31 percent (down from 43 percent in 2007) believe that young people will eventually have a higher standard of living than adult Americans today:

Houstonians feel that the bleeding has stopped, but a robust recovery is not yet on the horizon.

Stephen Klineberg

78 percent disagreed with the statement “A high school education is enough to get a good job”. The percent of people who spontaneously mentioned education when asked to name the biggest problem facing people in Houston jumped to 7.6 percent this year from just 1.7 percent in 2009 and 2 percent in 2010:

There’s a new awareness that this is now a high tech, knowledge based economy and there aren’t many good jobs for people without a college education. Education is more important than ever. Long gone are the days when you could get a job out of high school, work hard and make enough money until you retire. The resources of the knowledge economy are not found in factories, they are situated between the ears of the best and brightest, who can live anywhere.

Klineberg

Public support for new initiatives to improve the quality of life in Houston has remained firm or grown stronger across the 30 years of the survey. Area residents support measures to enhance the city’s green spaces and bayous, revitalize and preserve urban centers and improve air and water quality.

Though most respondents (52 percent) said they would prefer to live in a single family residential area, a large minority (45 percent) would choose an area with a mix of homes, shops and restaurants. In 2010, 41 percent said they’d prefer a smaller home within walking distance of shops and workplaces, rather than a single family home with a big yard “where you would need to drive almost everywhere you want to go”.

Asked how they would feel if a close relative of theirs wanted to marry a non-Anglo, 8 percent of the Anglo respondents this year said they would disapprove, down from 13 percent in 2002 and 23 percent in 1995. Among the Anglo respondents under the age of 30, 93 percent said they would approve of such intermarriage, compared with 69 percent of those 60 or older. Seventy percent of Anglos under 30, but only 35 percent in the older group, said that the increasing immigration into this country today mostly strengthens American culture. 73 percent of the younger respondents, compared with 52 percent of those 60 or older, said they are in favor of granting illegal immigrants a path to legal citizenship if they speak English and have no criminal record.

So, older Houstonians’ attitudes toward diversity, which will continue growing rapidly, are in conflict with younger Anglos more comfortable with the demographic trends.

Is the Wagon Rolling Against the Robbing Rich?

Amid the recent fiscal carnage in Washington several studies of the US have been published concerning the situation of the average American. First, IMF economists analyzed the US public deficit and debt levels, and their relation to the demands aging Baby Boomers will place on the government’s Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs, while the birth rate lags at a record low:

The United States is facing an untenable fiscal situation due to the combination of high fiscal deficits, an aging population and rapid growth in government provided healthcare benefits.

IMF study, An Analysis of US Fiscal and Generational Imbalances:
Who Will Pay and How?

To “go a long way in returning the United States to a fiscally sustainable path”, the US government must cut the entitlement programs and especially healthcare—among the most expensive in the world—that face rapidly rising costs in coming years. Americans will have to pay more taxes and the government will have to cut spending on Baby Boomers—those Americans between about 45 and 65—and their immediate heirs.

To eliminate all current deficits and long term shortfalls on social plans for the current generation “would require all taxes to go up and all transfers to be cut immediately and permanently by 35 percent”, and “delay in the adjustment makes it more costly”.

Unless currently living Americans pay more in net taxes or unless government spending on current generations is curtailed, future Americans will face net tax rates that are about 21.5 percentage points… higher than those facing current newborn Americans.

Of course, the IMF is an arm of US foreign policy, or rather, an arm of the international policies of the US uber rich class who rule the world for the sole purpose of making themselves richer than their already obscene levels of riches. The IMF always makes the people pay whenever the rulers of any country get its finances in a twist by their greedy machinations. The ruling clique in the US are among the main beneficiaries usually. It is time they paid! Normally, they pay least, often nothing!

But the average Yankee seems amazingly placid, or gets worked up over the wrong enemy, all too often supporting the greedy manipulators because they are all too easy to fool. Often, they seem to think that they are themselves among the uber rich, but less than a single percent of the population are. That one percent have gotten three times richer in real terms over the last 30 years, while the average Yankee has got poorer once inflation is accounted for.

Not surprisingly, more Americans say that their financial situation is worse not better in recent years. For the first time since 1972, 31.5 percent of Americans are “not at all” satisfied with their financial situation compared with 23.4 percent who are “pretty well” satisfied (General Social Survey, NORC, University of Chicago).

Americans are also more insecure about employment. A record 16.4 percent thought it “likely” (fairly or very) that they would lose their job or be laid off. As few as 52.2 percent thought it “not at all likely” that they would lose their job or be laid off, easily the lowest confidence ever recorded by the GSS. Those who thought their standard of living was “much better” or “somewhat better” than their parents declined.

The General Social Survey—which NORC has conducted for forty years based on 2,044 interviews—is a biennial survey that gathers data on contemporary American society to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes.

On top of these, American “happiness” has been measured and took some blows, but some American stoicism shone through here. While only 28.8 percent of Americans, the lowest percentage since 1972, were “happy”, another 14.2 percent were “not too happy”. Happiness was hit mainly because of the economy and people’s own finances. Even so, 85.8 percent of Americans were “happy”.

Not all aspects of happiness fell during the downturn. 97 percent of marriages were judged to be “happy” (very or pretty), and 86.0 percent of Americans claim to be “very satisfied” or “moderately satisfied” with their work, a steady average since 1972.

If anything, it suggests that the average American lives in a cocoon. They are concerned for themselves and their immediate family, and are satisfied that they are not being repossessed like the family over the street, and still have a job to hang on to. Despite the hugely vaunted Christianity of the Christian nation, the average American is indifferent to his neighbour, as long as he’s all right.

The motto is not “Do unto others as you would be done by”, it is “I’m all right, Bud, You look after yourself”.

Fortunately, recent proposed cuts in public services have been firmly rebutted by encouraging united strength and purpose. Is the US sleeping Leviathan waking up? Let’s hope so, then you smug financiers, corporate bosses, bankers and bought men will have to watch out! Once enough of the people stop being taken in by the great Washington Repucrat-Demoblican farce, then the wagon of unity may be rolling, and the callous and greedy exploiters of the rest of us will be crushed by its irresistible momentum.

How the Bankers’ Greed is Ruining the US Internationally

The United States has slipped from second place to 13th out of 34 countries in the number of students enrolled in university, and it is stagnating in science teaching—in 17th place—and doing poorly in math, in 25th place. In contrast, more Chinese are enrolling in universities, which means there will be more scientists in China than there are in the US, driving up Chinese scientific output, said Penn State professor Caroline Wagner at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

At a time when the greed of bankers has forced United States and Europe to make severe cuts in government spending on social services, but also on support for industry and science, China has significantly increased spending on science and technology, said Denis Simon—a professor at Penn State University who is also the science and technology adviser to the mayor of the Chinese city of Dalian—at the AAAS meeting. Simon said that the Chinese hope to spend around 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the sum of a nation’s annual output, on research and development by 2020.

In the United States, Republican lawmakers are talking about trimming a billion dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public research institute, and slashing funds for other science and research agencies, negating the billion dollar boost President Barack Obama proposed for science and health research in his 2012 budget. Republicans want to make Joe and Jane pay in poorer wages and conditions for the trillion dollar US deficit, much of which was incurred by the treasury in bailing out moribund banks “too big to fail”. Knowing that, the mainly Republican banksters milked their bonus scam—collecting huge bonuses for selling and reselling junk bonds in a type of Ponzi scheme which inevitably would collapse, but not before bankers and financiers had lined their pockets at the expense of the taxpayer.

The Republicans also want to slash funds for education by some $5 billion, even though Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, has warned that the United States must better educate its kids, especially in science and math, or risk becoming uncompetitive in the global economy.

Another sign that China is moving to the top of the science league, the number of quality scientific papers coming out of the country—measured by how often they are cited in other studies—is growing exponentially. How often a peer reviewed scientific paper is cited by another scientist is a key measure of quality. The proportion of Chinese papers being cited is up, while the proportion of citations of US and European papers is down. China already produces more research papers in the fields of natural science and engineering than the United States, which as yet remains in total the biggest producer of scientific papers in the world. But Wagner warned:

On current trends, China will publish more papers in all fields by 2015.

Congressmen Bail Out Firms to Protect their Own Investments

Equity ownership, stocks and shares owned by politicians, influenced their legislative and financial monitoring activities. The financial interests of politicians increased the probability that banks received bailout money, how much support these institutions received and how quickly.

Representatives’ stock ownership influenced members of the US House of Representatives to bailout the financial sector by voting for the bills HR 3997 on 29 September and HR 1424 on 3 October, 2008. In the initial vote, the likelihood of voting for the bailout was 41 percent for non-investors and 58 percent for equity owners. In the final vote, the likelihood was 55 and 69 percent respectively.

Congressional equity ownership in a given firm was also shown to affect the probability of receiving a bailout, the bailout amount and the timing of government support to that firm. Congressional committees with jurisdiction over the finance sector can affect regulatory outcomes. Equity ownership of members of these congressional committees affects bailout decisions, largely due to the powerful members in each committee, the chairs and ranking members.

Lobbying is indubitably an important means of exerting influence in politics. In the United States, campaign donations also matter. What has gone virtually unnoticed thus far though is that politicians also are investors. Part of their wealth rests with firms whose wellbeing falls under their legislative and regulatory influence.

Professor of Business Laurence van Lent of Tilburg University in the Netherlands and Ahmed Tahoun of Manchester Business School (UK) drew these conclusions on the basis of an analysis of 555 publicly listed financial sector firms, 295 of which received government support under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Cash Bailouts Are Frittered as Added Executive Compensation

A business study of corporate bailouts has found that debt relief is more successful than cash injections. It revealed that, in the year after a cash bailout, executives paid themselves and some employees higher compensation!

Executives of firms that receive cash almost immediately give their employees and themselves raises.

Professor Kenneth Kim

The study of the performance of 104 corporate bailouts in 21 countries between 1987 and 2005, was carried out by Kenneth Kim, associate professor, and Zhan Jiang, assistant professor, at the University at Buffalo School of Management, and Hao Zhang, assistant professor, at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

They found also that bailed out firms could recover to a point where their performance was as good as before, depending upon several factors. Recovery was best for firms that had had a sudden decline for reasons outside management control, or because they had problems servicing their debt. Firms that had declined more gradually with no significant external factors, or were unprofitable, were genuinely sick, and could not recover as well despite the bailout, though many did survive. Kim noted:

The former were profitable, they just needed a hand. So, it makes more sense to rescue firms that have been otherwise strong than to keep afloat “prolonged decliner” firms that have been weak or inefficient for some time.

Firms recovered least from governmental bailouts, because governments:

1. don't monitor firms after the bailout as closely as large shareholders and banks
2. may bail out a firm to keep people employed or to keep the economy going, regardless of the firm's performance
3. are more inclined to bail out firms with government connections.

Media Manipulation of the Poor Prevents Wealth Redistribution

Nate Kelly, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Peter Enns of Cornell University studied of economic inequality and public views of government redistribution programs by analyzing hundreds of thousands of responses to survey questions from 1952 to 2006.

The results are very revealing about the mentality and conditioning of poor Americans, and poor Americans certainly now includes a large chunk of people who like to consider themselves as middle class! One would imaging that people struggling in hard economic circumstances would appreciate government assistance, but they do not in the US. Kelly found:

When inequality in America rises, both the rich and the poor become more conservative in their ideologies. It is counterintuitive, but rather than generating opinion shifts that would make redistributive policies more likely, increased economic inequality produces a conservative response in public sentiment.

As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, both oppose government welfare programs. At present, in the US, governments cannot act to change inequality. As Obama is finding out, the poor even oppose measures that help them! Poorly off subjects, asked if they thought the government spent too much money on welfare, inevitably replied “yes”, and still do even though inequality over the last few decades has zoomed in the US.

This isn't because are unaware. They know about the huge wealth differences in the US. The reason is, the authors conclude, because the elites, political leaders and media moguls, distract and shape public opinion. In good economic times the media focus on individual achievement, and so the poor resist government programs. But in bad economic times, the media emphasize government welfare programs as handouts, and no one likes a self image of being a beggar or a hobo down on their luck. Kelly observes that:

What is clear from our work is that the self reinforcing nature of economic inequality is real, and that we must look beyond simple defects in the policy responsiveness of American democracy to understand why this is the case.

He means, of course, that leaders like Obama who would like to redistribute the huge inequalities in US wealth have not been utterly lacking in the US, but the US propaganda machine is so successful that too many people just cannot bring themselves to admit they would welcome it. They are conscious enough about their own poor circumstances, but simply do not realize how the US media manipulate them. Obama and anyone equally public minded are bound to lose until poor Yankees realize the rich and their media are pissing on them from a great height!

Americans Favor Federal Research Funding on Science and Medicine

Research!America commissioned a national poll which found most Americans (58%) would vote for a candidate who wanted higher federal spending on job creation and federal health research funding. 91% of Americans think research and development (R&D) is important to their state's economy, and 71% said investing in health research is important for job creation and economic recovery.

Despite strong public support for research funding, the poll found that 53% are not well informed about the views of their senators and representatives on medical, health and scientific research. Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America said:

Our poll findings show that Americans understand very clearly the connection between greater investment in research and economic growth and job creation, yet too few know their candidates' views on research. I urge all Americans to find out where their candidates stand on these important issues.

88% of Americans said it is important for Congress to work on a bipartisan basis to research to make health a top national priority. Research!America's chair, former Illinois Congressman John Edward Porter said:

Research investment is absolutely essential to America's future—for our health and our economy—and it's essential that candidates for Congress understand this. Each dollar invested in research produces more than double that amount in economic output. Americans deserve leaders in Congress who will work together to achieve sorely needed results for our nation's health and economic challenges today and in the future. Medical research, science and innovation are investments we simply cannot afford to postpone.

The poll also found:

• 87% think a good use of tax dollars is military investment improving health for service members and veterans
• 84% say the US should work to improve health globally through research and development
• 88% think basic scientific research should be supported by the federal government
• 87% say he US should adopt the aim of other countries to spend 3% of GDP on research and development
• 74% say US competitiveness and future economic prosperity depends on education and training in science, technology, engineering and math
• 84% say prevention and wellness reduce health care costs, and 77% say research helps solve these rising costs
• 70% favor federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells
• On balance, Americans favor speeding up the time it takes the US Food and Drug Administration to approve drugs: 42% say is too long, 12% say not long enough and 28% say it is about right.