Where Garibaldi When You Need Him?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14774526

A small Italian town of just under 600 has declaired independence from Italy. They even had issued their own money.

After all, the mayor says, Italy was once made up of dozens of principalities and dukedoms. As he says, the landlocked republic of San Marino still manages to survive, so why not Filettino?

Now I don't think that Italy is in any danger of breaking up. In fact, other than giving the wold yet another reason to laugh at the Italian government I don't think much will come of this. The Italian government will quitely wait for the media attention to go away and then tell the town to knock it off or see how they like trying to get along without any money from the government. Or, if they feel like playing hardball, electricty.

Still, stunt or not this has to be one of the inovative protests I've seen in a while. It's a good, hard slap to the boys in Rome who'll be forced to do SOMETHING lest a horde of Italian Rick Perrys start cropping up.

Let's all raise a glass to creative thinking! 

Income Inequality Revisited

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

When so much income goes to the top, the middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going without sinking ever more deeply into debt — which, as we’ve seen, ends badly. An economy so dependent on the spending of a few is also prone to great booms and busts. The rich splurge and speculate when their savings are doing well. But when the values of their assets tumble, they pull back. That can lead to wild gyrations. Sound familiar?

Third world nations tend to have a lot of wealth concentrated at the top. Why do some people think that this is what we need for America? To emulate as closely as possible conditions in third world nations?

We might have enlarged safety nets — by having unemployment insurance cover part-time work, by giving transition assistance to move to new jobs in new locations, by creating insurance for communities that lost a major employer. And we could have made Medicare available to anyone.

Agreed on all counts.

How has Germany done it? Mainly by focusing like a laser on education (German math scores continue to extend their lead over American), and by maintaining strong labor unions.

Labor unions are socialist!!!!

The main point:

The economy cannot possibly get out of its current doldrums without a strategy to revive the purchasing power of America’s vast middle class.

What do people think? Do we need to focus on strengthening the middle class, even at the cost of the upper class? Do we need more government involvement to make this happen? Is income inequality even a problem in the first place?!

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/jobs-will-follow-a-strengthening-of-the-middle-class.html?_r=2