Friday Wisdom

.BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED--

FOR THEY ARE THE ONES

WHO LET IN THE LIGHT!

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God Bless the University of Southhampton

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Imagine: Your clothing could generate more power than your gadgets need!

Every physical movement we undertake expels some energy, so wouldn’t it be awesome if we could capture all of that ambient force and turn it into power with some practical value? The scientists at the University of Southampton may have figured out a way to do just that. Steve Beeby and his brilliant team at the university’s School of Electronics and Computer Science are developing an energy harvesting film that can be screened directly onto any piece of clothing. This innovative film will use a combination of printing processes and active-printed inks to create garments able to capture up to 67 watts with each step! Barely detectable, this little innovation could soon be clearing the path for low-cost and flexible energy harvesting textiles.

I am in awe, truly: Science and research are amazing.
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Where the Wild Things Are?

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The amphibians are dying off on six continents due to a newly evolved fungus (amphibian chytrid fungus).
Honey bees are experiencing Colony Collapse Disorder.

Bumblebees are threatened.

Fish are high on antidepressants that we flush down our drains.

Bats are in the northeast are being wiped out by White Nose Syndrome and Gd fungus.

And now it seems as though the very plankton itself is under extreme threat. In fact, the population has dropped about 40% since 1950.

Who knows what will be come of the shrimp, oysters and other sea food in the Gulf?
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"The Stuff of Which Dictatorships Are Made"

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Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944:

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

[So here, then, is] a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

Seems simple enough. Someone had better start listening.

"People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

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There Are Myths AND Then There Are Facts

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James Roosevelt, FDR's grandson, spoke at the National Press Club Friday, 6 August, 2010, about Social Security, past, present and future. He spent a good deal of his 30-minute speech speaking to the attacks on Social Security coming from the Deficit Commission. (Emphasis added.)

Now let's take a true measure of where we are. Social Security has been the most effective government program; it has been the most responsible government program. Social Security costs are funded out of its own dedicated revenue stream. It does not and cannot borrow money to finance its operations.

There is no deficit financing. Social Security is the epitome of Yankee frugality. It could not be better managed. Social Security returns more than 99 cents to beneficiaries on every dollar collected. I dare you to find a private investment plan that can claim that.

The United States does not have a social security crisis. It never did. What we do have is fear of a crisis. It is fear that has been fed by the propagation and accumulation of myths about the program. If we let our fears rule our judgment we will undo the greatest government program in our history, one that has eliminated poverty for millions of Americans and supported millions of families in time of need. This brings us to the current National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. While I am deeply supportive of President Obama's efforts to control the burgeoning federal deficit, I am deeply concerned that he has instructed that everything has to be on the table, including Social Security.

I'm afraid that by placing Social Security under the purview of the Deficit Commission we are contributing to the mythology of fear around Social Security. That mythology says the program is heading for bankruptcy and is unsustainable. That mythology says the program will not be there for our children and our children's children.

I am concerned that although Social Security contributes nothing to the deficit it will be targeted by its enemies on the commission. Its enemies have failed on their frontal assault on Social Security but now they have been given cover by a Deficit Commission.

The opponents of Social Security have been biding their time waiting for an opportunity to attack Social Security without being seen as attacking it. The Deficit Commission could be that opportunity.

As Paul Krugman recently pointed out on his blog, the deficit hawks want to have it both ways when it comes to Social Security. They want to treat Social Security as just another program in the federal budget so they don't need to credit it for the quarter century and billions of dollars worth of surpluses it has accumulated. Surpluses which of course, are denominated in those worthless IOUs anyway.

But they want to view Social Security as a program unto itself when the times come that its payments exceed its annual revenues, which we said before is projected to occur in 2017 so they can claim it is going broke.

It is completely nonsensical and deceitful to try to have it both ways.

And, so, they should not, under any circumstances be allowed to have it both ways.

Social Security must be protected.

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A Choice

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few....we can't have both. -Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Consider: in 1928 the richest 1 percent of Americans received 23.9 percent of the nation's total income. After that, the share going to the richest 1 percent steadily declined. New Deal reforms, followed by World War II, the GI Bill and the Great Society expanded the circle of prosperity. By the late 1970s the top 1 percent raked in only 8 to 9 percent of America's total annual income. But after that, inequality began to widen again, and income reconcentrated at the top. By 2007 the richest 1 percent were back to where they were in 1928—with 23.5 percent of the total. -- Robert Reich in Unjust Spoils, The Nation, July 19, 2010

To save our democracy, Congress must reinstate the pre-Bush era tax rates for those with over $200,000 in taxable income. It is a common lie that this will be an Obama tax increase. It is not. The expiration was part of the original bill.
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Top 5 Social Security Myths

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This is way too important not to spread around.

(BTW, thank you Miss Duke for teaching me not to split my infinitives. --Sorry, this was an inside thing, Miss Duke being my high school English teacher. Boy, was she good.)

Rumors of Social Security's demise are greatly exaggerated. But some powerful people keep spreading lies about the program to scare people into accepting benefit cuts.

Myth: Social Security is going broke.

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.3 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T'). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.¹ After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits--and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers retirement decades ago.² Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

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Myth: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.

Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than did 70 years ago.³ What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly--since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.⁴ But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

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Myth: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.

Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed. But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share. If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.⁵ Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.⁶ But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.

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Myth: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs

Reality: Not even close to true. The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.⁷ The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market--which would have been disastrous--but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.

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Myth: Social Security adds to the deficit

Reality: It's not just wrong -- it's impossible! By law, Social Security funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.¹

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Sources:

1."To Deficit Hawks: We the People Know Best on Social Security" New Deal 2.0, June 14, 2010
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/06/14/to-defict-hawks-we-the-people-know-best-on-social-security-12290/
2. "The Straight Facts on Social Security" Economic Opportunity Institute, September 2009
http://www.eoionline.org/retirement_security/fact_sheets/StraightFactsSocialSecurity-Sep09.pdf
3. "Social Security and the Age of Retirement"Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 2010
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/social-security-and-the-age-of-retirement/
4. "More on raising the retirement age" Ezra Klein, Washington Post, July 8, 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/more_on_raising_the_retirement.html
5. "Social Security is sustainable" Economic and Policy Institute, May 27, 2010
http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/social_security_is_sustainable/

6. "Maximum wage contribution and the amount for a credit in 2010." Social Security Administration, April 23, 2010
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/240

7. "Trust Fund FAQs" Social Security Administration, February 18, 2010
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html

8. "To Deficit Hawks: We the People Know Best on Social Security" New Deal 2.0, June 14, 2010
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/06/14/to-defict-hawks-we-the-people-know-best-on-social-security-12290/

Pass it on to everyone you know, especially those who keep spreading the lies. And even if you don't send it to someone who needs it, you can keep this at hand for your ultra Republican brother-in-law who is always getting in your face.

So, relax and enjoy the next family gathering.
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