Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of Contents *Featured Articles Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback Commentaries from Our Members Jack Gilles on Selling Housing Mortgages Virginia Paulsen on Homebuyers Share the Blame Dick Burkhart on a New Global Financial System* Jack Smith: McCain’s Personal Attacks a Diversion Dick Burkhart’s Voting
Recommendations Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef What Will Obama’s Grass Roots Organizers Do?* How Will the Depleted Republicans React? State and Local Links to the Beef 29 Reasons to Vote No on Proposition 1 Gates Report: Tax Reform Recommendations Nation and World Links to the Beef Two Opposing Responses to Our Financial Crisis* Avoid Foreclosures and Produce Affordable Housing* Our Liberal Spirit Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and Competent Spending ·
Investment for Productivity ·
Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental Protection and Energy ·
Security and Equal Rights ·
Justice and Peace Everywhere ·
International Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives
oppose all of these Let’s End Our National Nightmare Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More
on Conservative opposition to our American Dream Washington State’s 4 Major Needs Federal Funding for Health
and Education ·
A
Progressive Income Tax ·
Replacing
Republican Legislators Quote of the Week Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher
(1911-77)
Calendar of Events
Friday, October 17 – 19 at
Sunday, October 19 at 1 PM at
Sunday, October 19 at 7 PM at Highway 99 Blues Club (1414 Alaskan Way, Seattle) – Seattle NOW Blues Benefit: Polly O'Keary & the Rhythm Method, Suze Sims, Teri Ann Wilson, Stacy Jones, the Paula Maya, LJ Porter and Lady A & the Baby Blues Funk Band!. Sponsored by Seattle NOW and the Women's Voter Project. $10
Thursday, October 21 at Noon at
1026
Tuesday, October 21 at 5:30 PM at
K&L Gates (
Saturday, October 25 at 5-9 PM at Bell harbor International Conference Center (Pier 66, 2211 Alaskan Way, Seattle) – 28th Annual NARAL Pro-Choice Washington Liberty Ball Auction and Masquerade. $125. For more information.
Monday October 27 at 5:30
(registration and cocktails), 6:30 (dinner) at the Westin (1900 Fifth Avenue,
Seattle) – 15th
Annual Warren G. Magnuson Awards Dinner & Awards Ceremony
with special guest speaker Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother. Sponsored by
November 12 – 14 – Green Business Bootcamp. Sponsored by Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability (NBIS). $500.
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Communication with Our Members and Feedback
I have compiled all of my
commentaries on our economy into one document which is posted on
our website. I believe one hour
spent reading them will make you better informed than the vast majority of
Americans, including many of our congress members. Without
understanding our economic crises, their causes and needed solutions, you are
unable to act responsibly to correct the situation which affects all of
us. Dave Thomas
Take
a crash course (2½ hours) about our American economy (video).
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Michael Moore’s latest movie ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free.
Sign up for a free
Brave New Films subscription to inform more people about the Real John McCain.
Obtain documentary
political films from First Run Features.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Washington CAN offers volunteer and paid
canvassing opportunities. For more information.
Petitions and Donations
Tell
our presidential candidates to address economic security, health care and
social security.
Tell
our presidential candidates to support hate crimes legislation.
Tell John McCain to end
his campaign of hate.
Tell
Washington Department of Health to continue including organic milk options for
WIC families.
Download
a petition and collect signatures to tell our next president to act to protect
Darfur.
Commentaries From Our Members
Jack Gilles on Selling Housing
Mortgages
Just
before we left
Virginia Paulsen on Homebuyers Share the Blame
While we are all blaming banks, other lending institutions and Wall Street
for the current economic collapse, looking deeper is more revealing. Between 1980 and 2007 homeowners sold their
homes at the highest possible price, often making considerable amounts of money
beyond any investment in their houses. Home buyers without realizing their
economic limitations bought houses, often mega mansions, at grossly inflated
prices, leading to the housing bubble.
Home buyers did not read their mortgage contracts or seem to be able to do
the math about the full costs of a subprime, interest-only or ARM mortgages. The bottom line is that Americans who sold
and bought houses during this time have only themselves to blame for the
current economic crisis if they bought beyond their means. Unfortunately, their
decisions are having a far wider and deeper negative impact than just
themselves. Virginia Paulsen
Dick Burkhart on a New Global
Financial System
Demand
a new Global Financial System. The economy is global, finance is global, but financial
regulation is not global. Nor is there a sound global currency or system of
credit. It is time to push hard for a new global financial system. And
to include all countries in the design and governance of this system.
To insist
that this currency and credit be backed by real wealth – actual human and
natural resources or services. And that transactions in this currency be taxed
to support this new system. And that credit be directed toward the creation of
a sustainable economy for future generations.
This, not bailouts, will both "restore
confidence" and a sense of reality. Please communicate this to your
congressional rep and senators, as I have.
Dick Burkhart
Jack Smith:
McCain’s Personal Attacks Are a Diversion from Our Economy
Published by
I am a retiree who has saved all my life to prepare for a rainy day in
retirement. John McCain, Sarah Palin and their Republican friends have brought
me a downpour. In one month, my rainy day fund has decreased by more than 10
percent. At the loss rate they have created, I will be sleeping under the
bridge sometime next year.
Barack Obama has been spending a major portion of his campaign explaining
how he will deal with the difficult
37th LD
Democratic PCO Dick Burkhart’s Voting Recommendations
I. Federal Offices
President: Barack Obama
7th Congressional
District: Jim McDermott
II. State Offices
Governor: Christine Gregoire
Lieutenant Governor: Brad Owen
Secretary of State:
Attorney General: John Ladenburg
Lands Commissioner: Peter Goldmark
Sup. Public Instruction: Teresa Bergeson
Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kreidler
37th District Rep 1:
37th District Rep 2: Eric Pettigrew
III. State Supreme Court Judges
Pos # 3: Mary Fairhurst
Pos # 4: Charles Johnson
Pos # 7: Debra Stephens
IV. Court of Appeals Judges
Pos # 5: Linda Lau
Pos # 6: Ann Schindler
V. Superior Court Judges
Pos #1: Tim Bradshaw
Pos #22: Holly Hill
Pos #37: Jean Ritschel
VI. State Initiatives
Initiative 985 (Tim Eyman): No
Initiative 1000 (Death w Dignity): Yes
Initiative 1029 (Long Term Care): Yes
VII. King County Charter Amendments
Amendment # 1: No
Amendment # 2: Yes
Amendment # 3: Yes
Amendment # 4: Yes
Amendment # 5: Yes
Amendment # 6: Yes
Amendment # 7: Yes
Amendment # 8: No
VIII. Seattle Levies
Proposition 1 (Parks): Yes
Proposition 2 (
IX. Sound Transit
Proposition 1 (Expand rail & buses): Yes
Liberals and Democrats
Who Is
the Real John McCain?
John McCain has been proud of his moral principles, but these seem to be falling by the wayside during his failing campaign for our presidency. First he said he couldn’t control outside allies who dishonestly attacked Barack Obama. Then McCain’s campaign began dishonestly attacking Obama, with McCain repeating the lies. Now McCain is stirring up his audiences to express hate and violence toward McCain. For more. For more. For more. All this from John McCain who says he puts our Country before his campaign. Shame.
Barack Obama’s
Coattails
Democratic
presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ran campaigns largely independent of
our Democratic Party and other Democratic candidates. They appointed
Barack Obama has integrated his campaign with our Democratic party and with the campaigns of Democratic congressional and state candidates. As Barack Obama’s popularity increases in both Blue and Red states, our increasing number of voters for him will often also vote for Democratic congress members and state executives and legislators. As a senator, Obama has already established excellent relations with Democratic (and some Republican) congress members. His coattails will produce many grateful new congress members, governors and state legislators. This will greatly increase his ability to pass and implement his proposals. He will have less need to compromise his proposals with Democratic and Republican congress members who have been influenced by lobbyists for wealthy and powerful special interests.
A major question is “to what extent Obama will use his political capital to quickly restore our American Dream or instead husband his capital for the long run.” I believe that moving forcefully to quickly restore our American Dream will be a profitable political investment, which will replenish and augment any political capital that he spends. President Roosevelt’s all out efforts during his first several years led to increased Democratic victories in the 1934 elections. Barack Obama would be well advised to emulate President Roosevelt’s presidential approach. Dave Thomas
What
Will Obama’s Grass Roots Organizers Do?
Barack Obama’s campaign has trained and deployed thousands of grass roots organizers. Throughout most of our states. To win the election. What will they do after the election? Turned on and trained, we can expect many of them to continue grass roots organizing.
Some
will continue to focus upon politics, doing grass roots organizing to elect
Liberal candidates, to pass Liberal
legislation through initiatives and to influence legislators and other
government officials. Others will
organize grass roots groups to press for a variety of Liberal reforms. In our
We can expect that these grass roots organizers will continue to be active, forming a vital part of our Democracy. We can expect that grass roots organizing will continue on a much increased scale. We can expect that our New Politics will be much more bottom up and less top down.
How
Will the Depleted Republicans React?
I anticipate that the Republicans will not only lose the presidential race. They will lose many House and Senate seats outside the South. Many of the losing Republican congress members will be the Republicans who are so-called moderates (inconsistent Conservatives). This will leave the Republicans as a consistently Conservative cult, consisting mostly of southern (and some plains and mountain states) congress members, not respected by voters in the rest of our country.
These remaining Republicans will have no clear leader. John McCain and Sarah Palin will have been soundly defeated. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Huckabee and Fred Thompson all failed in the Republican primaries. Some of the Republican Congressional leaders may be defeated. The remaining ones have no national following. Prominent Republican leaders from the past such as Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay and Bill Frist are identified with past failures. President George Bush is thoroughly discredited. The Republican convention revealed their lack of potential leaders compared to the Democrats. The competition for Republican leadership may be fierce.
Some hopeful leaders will argue that Republicans should stick with President Bush’s New Conservative practices. Others will decry the corruption and cronyism of President Bush’s administration and argue for returning to traditional Republican principles of less government and less spending. Still others will argue for becoming more compassionate and environmental. For becoming Liberal Lite to compete with our Democrats. It is unlikely that Republicans will reach agreement on any of these approaches.
The Republicans will become more irrelevant and more outspokenly angry as the Democrats offer to work with them, but pay little attention to their ideas which are so opposed to our American mainstream. The attention of our voters will shift to arguments among Democrats upon how far and fast they should go in Reclaiming our American Dream. Funding jobs at the expense of balancing our federal budget. Universal health coverage and care now or only after adopting a compromised alternative. Taking on the lobbyists for the wealthy and powerful special interests. We will see and be involved in Democratic struggles with Republicans screaming from the sidelines. Dave Thomas
Here’s the Beef
Change has already occurred: the grass roots organizing of America.
Obama family at our Democratic Convention (Great Video)
Large commercial media downplay Barack Obama’s lead.
Lousy economy trumps race as a voting criteria.
Republicans don’t attack Barack Obama for being black. They attack him for being foreign.
John McCain’s Pinocchio politics.
Barack Obama supports fair pay for women. John McCain opposes it.
John McCain has a miserable record of not supporting our troops and veterans.
Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s proposals would affect our states differently.
Conservatives seeking to decrease Liberal voting are lying about voter fraud. For more.
Democratic and Republican controlled debates leave many important issues unaddressed. For more.
State and Local
Endorsements
for General Election Candidates
29 Reasons to Vote No on Proposition
1
Proposition 1 is seriously flawed, just as it was
last year, when the voters soundly rejected it. Its passage would result in a
major setback for the future of our region, including for its transportation.
Eastside
Rail Now! , which is strongly in favor of increased rail transit, has
compiled an
extensive list of reasons to vote "No" on November 4.
Eastside
Rail Now: Background Information:
Eastside
Rail Now! differs from other (ERN) organizations that are opposed to
Proposition 1 (a) in that it is a genuine grassroots movement, (b) because it
is truly in favor of rail transit, including new construction throughout the
region, and (c) because it is strongly opposed to additional freeway expansion.
ERN was launched by about a dozen
This strategically located, 42 mile rail line runs
from
Sound Transit’s description of
their East Link project which Proposition 1 will fund.
Aubrey
Davis and James R. Ellis support Proposition 1
Gate’s Committee
Report: Washington Tax Reform Recommendations
In developing replacement and
incremental alternatives, the Committee focused on the following problem areas:
regressivity, adequacy, volatility, neutrality, economic vitality, and
simplicity. This section provides a
summary of the recommendations the Committee includes in its final report.
Although the report contains many other alternatives deemed worthy of
discussion and consideration, the Committee believes that the following
alternatives deserve special attention. It should be noted that the Committee
proposes alternatives and recommendations with an eye to revenue neutrality,
consistent with the charge it received from the Legislature.
Incremental Alternatives
The following incremental changes
are recommended for adoption except where inconsistent with replacement
recommendations. The Committee realizes that some of these alternatives will
increase revenue and others will decrease revenue. To maintain revenue
neutrality, it would be necessary to either generate additional revenue from
another source to offset the effects of those alternatives that reduce revenues
or reduce revenue from another source to offset the effects of those
alternatives that increase revenues. The Committee recommends the following
incremental alternatives.
1. Address adequacy.
• Extend the sales tax to consumer services.
To broaden the sales tax base, this
alternative recommends including certain personal services such as beauty and
barber services. The Committee developed this alternative in response to
research showing significant erosion of the tax base due to a shift in
consumption from tangible personal property to services.
• Extend the 0.5 percent excise tax currently
applied to watercraft to motor homes and travel trailers as well. Consider
increasing the rate from 0.5 percent to 1 percent on all three types of
property.
Research shows that motor homes,
travel trailers, and boats are another source of leakage from the tax base.
Many are used as substitutes for vacation homes, which are subject to the
property tax. This alternative would expand the
• Review tax exemptions every ten years to make sure
economic and social goals are achieved.
This alternative is in response to
concerns that the state economy and business practices are changing so rapidly
that exemptions may outlive their usefulness. This alternative helps ensure
fair application of tax incentive programs by requiring a periodic review of
whether the programs are meeting established policy goals.
• Avoid dedicated taxes.
The Committee recommends avoiding
dedicated taxes that bear no clear relationship
between taxpayers and those who
receive benefits. Research indicates these taxes are costly for businesses to
comply with and government to administer.
2. Address volatility of the
current tax system and also the volatility in any replacement tax system that
may be enacted.
• Create a constitutionally mandated “rainy day
fund.”
This alternative supports creation
of a rainy day fund to address the volatility of the
existing tax system and the
volatility in any replacement system that may be enacted. Research demonstrates that constant rate,
constant base tax revenues grow faster than the economy in good economic times
and contract more than the economy in poor economic times. The proposal is to
create a constitutionally mandated rainy day fund with automatic triggers for
saving and spending the reserve funds.
3. Simplify tax
administration.
• Streamline the sales tax.
The Committee supports the efforts
of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project to enact uniform sales tax definitions and
other measures of tax simplification. These efforts will facilitate the
possibility of subjecting remote sales (such as e-commerce) to state tax
requirements. The ability to tax remote sales would also help stem erosion of
the retail sales tax base. This would also help the competitive position of
• Simplify local B&O taxes.
The Committee also supports the
ongoing efforts of local governments, business
representatives, and legislators to
develop a simplified municipal B&O tax structure that satisfies the goals
and concerns of its stakeholders.
4. Improve economic
vitality.
A number of alternatives mentioned
earlier address economic vitality. The flat rate
personal income tax shifts the
relative tax burden from businesses to households. The streamlined sales tax
project also diminishes the sales tax collection burden on
• Increase the small business B&O tax credit
from $35 to $70 a month and index the credit to adjust with inflation.
Research reveals that new businesses
pay a relatively high tax burden. Increasing the B&O credit decreases the
state tax burden on small new businesses.
• Exempt construction labor from sales tax.
This alternative addresses economic
vitality and harmony with other states.
5. Address regressivity.
• Continue to impose an estate tax in the amounts of
the state credit allowed under prior federal law.
This alternative addresses
regressivity by maintaining a current tax on high net worth households.
See all of our Washington Tax Reform Commentaries in one document.
Assisted Suicide?
Assisted
suicide is seldom necessary. All that’s
needed is a medium kitchen size plastic bag and a string, large enough so the
oxygen is slowly depleted. A sedative or
several martinis helps to keep relaxed. For more. To protect others, a signed note of intent
should be left.
Here’s the Beef
See who’s filing to
run for Washington state and federal offices.
I like all the things about Ron Sims that David Brewster dislikes.
Dino Rossi’s environmental record is poor. Governor Christine Gregoire’s record is excellent.
Democratic 40th LD Representative Jeff Morris campaigns to upgrade state education funding formulas.
Due to global warming, trees may replace mountain meadows at Mount Rainier and other mountains.
Bill Grinstein and Gary Lock defend Superintendent of Instruction Terry Bergeson’s achievements.
Former Supreme Court Justices Utter and Ireland charge Dino Rossi violated campaign finance laws.
Nation
and World
We must return from our
present Borrow and Consume (and Speculate) Economy to our former Earn
and Invest economy. This is the most important thing to understand about
what went wrong to create our present economic mess. And to understand the solutions which we must
implement. The transition will be
painful. But a slow transition will only
prolong the pain. As we have seen with
Fareed Zakaria’s Newsweek October
20, 2008 cover story
agrees more with the thoughts expressed here more than any other I have
found. Thomas
Friedman comments similarly. For more.
Through requiring larger
down payments, margin requirements to reduce leveraging, regulation to reduce
fraud and enforcement of these regulations, we must reduce speculation and
related borrowing. For
more. Through tax and interest rate policy, we must
reduce excessive consumption. Interest
on loans should no longer be tax deductible.
This will not always be popular, given the extent to which we have
become addicted to borrowing, speculating and consuming. For
more.
In spite of Conservative opposition,
we must make public investments by national, state and local governments. We must also stimulate private investments to
create jobs. We must increase earnings
from jobs to reward workers with their fair share of productivity. Through encouraging unionization; increasing
and indexing our definition of poverty, our minimum wage and our earned income
tax credit; and other means. Creating
jobs and increasing earnings will be politically popular.
Imagine that your earnings
are 20-30% higher. Imagine that you save
10% or more. Imagine that your return on
low risk investments is only several percent above inflation. Imagine that your income comes more from your
earnings and less from speculative investments.
But by saving more, paying larger down payments for purchasing a house
or car and investing more in low risk investments with lower earnings, your
purchases and investments are more secure.
As we began to binge on
consumption, Small is Beautiful and other books were published which questioned
our vision of our economy. Instead of
orienting to producing more stuff, they argued that our economy should be
directed to making our lives more wholesome.
Realizing our values of knowledge, acceptance and control, beauty,
intimacy, responsibility. Producing
stuff and services should be means toward these ends.
I invite you to read this
pleasant little book, imagine your ideal life and ask how our economy could
serve your ideal life. I predict that
you may believe that having more leisure time to pursue your interests
individually and collectively is more important than maximizing your income to
purchase more stuff. You may believe
that public infrastructure and safety nets are be important to enabling your ideal
life. I would appreciate receiving your
comments for publication. Dave Thomas
Two Opposing Approaches to Our
Economic Crisis
The ‘Bail Out’ approach is
to assist the large financial companies who got us into this mess. This supposes that these large companies are
indispensable for providing the credit that our economy needs for legitimate
borrowing needs. Our
government would buy their mystery securities or otherwise provide them
money. With the aim of strengthening
them, we might or might not buy these securities cheaply. We might or might not arrange to recover our
money if the mystery securities don’t appreciate in value. Perhaps by taking preferred shares in the
companies we bail out.
The ‘Bail Out’ approach
rewards the companies which got us into this mess. It may involve our government in becoming
part owners of these companies, at least temporarily. This is the approach that
Both Liberals and
Conservatives should oppose long term government ownership. It is one thing for our government to
regulate markets to keep them fairly oriented to serving our public. It is another thing for our government to
manage companies. A task for which they
are generally unsuited. Private
management of these companies has been abysmal, primarily due to the infectious
greed that occurs in non-regulated markets.
But regulation can produce well managed private companies. Better managed than they would be by our
government.
An alternative approach
would be to rate financial companies according to the extent to which they
avoided speculation in mystery securities.
Then loan money to those who rate highest (often small local and
regional commercial banks) and, so that they can provide the capital necessary
for qualified businesses and qualified purchasers. For more. For
more.
A financial analyst has told
me that such ratings are possible. And
enough non-speculative financial companies can be identified. Such that some of the larger ones can be left
to their deserved failure, while still providing enough credit for legitimate
purposes. An advantage of this approach
is that the variety of smaller local financial companies would have less
lobbying clout than the large financial companies that successfully influenced
deregulation.
Of course the influential
lobbyists for these speculative firms will support the first ‘bail out’
approach and oppose the second approach.
Note that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former Treasury
Secretary Robert
Rubin
both had careers working with speculative firms. Hopefully, our Barack Obama administration
will appoint a Treasury Secretary with a different career background.
Unfortunately, our government
has begun spending $125 billion to buy shares of 9 large banks: Goldman Sachs Group Inc,
Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells
Fargo & Co., State Street Corp and Bank of New York Mellon. For more. For
more. For more.
Now we are bailing
out failing financial companies. Should
we bail out our health care system?
See Stirling Newberry’s
posts on Daily Kos concerning our economic crisis, its causes and solutions.
JOBS! JOBS!
JOBS
JOBS!
JOBS! JOBS! JOBS which pay workers what they earn. Well paying JOBS. JOBS which increase our productivity and
solve other problems:
·
Maintaining and improving our physical and social infrastructure.
·
Conserving
energy and other resources, which we presently waste. For
more. For more.
·
Creating alternative
energies,
which uses sustainable resources and doesn’t produce pollution. It should not produce greenhouse gases which
produce global warming pollution. For more.
·
Creating and implementing new technologies relevant to our health,
education, housing and other needs.
·
Preserving and improving our social safety net and improving our human
resources. Universal access to
quality health care. Universal access to
quality education. For
more.
·
Create
concentrated housing, especially affordable housing near jobs. To reduce the damage to our environment. To reduce the cost of providing utilities. To reduce the amount of commuting, fuel
consumption, congestion and polluting.
To increase the time that people have to spend with their families,
civic activities and other interests.
For
more. For
more. For
more. For
more.
Barack Obama and other Democrats are now getting
it. Their primary emphasis until our
election and hopefully into next year will be creating jobs. For more. For more. This will be popular with most people, except
die hard Conservatives who oppose all public investment. Once legislation is passed to fund and
promote jobs, we can expect employment to begin increasing.
Conservatives, some Blue Dog Democrats and others
will push to reduce deficit spending.
Demand for investment to create useful jobs will increase emphasis upon
eliminating spending that does not produce useful outcomes. For examples, many non-productive subsidies
and spending for irrelevant military equipment.
We have the most expensive and inefficient
health-care system in the industrialized world, the most wasteful energy usage,
the lowest savings rate, the worst maintained infrastructure, and a complex and
corrupt tax code. For more. For
more. It’s surprising that we aren’t
doing worse than we are. After 8 years
of inaction or negative action, we can expect that our Democrats will move
quickly in 2009 to begin turning all these failings around.
Avoid Foreclosures and Produce Affordable
Housing
Some people who face foreclosure are not qualified
to own a house. Others are qualified,
but obtained a loan which is unduly large or has unduly high interest
rates. In either case, our government
may be able to acquire the house inexpensively, enabling the lender to avoid
the expense of foreclosure, maintenance and resale in a poor market.
The government could then resell the house at a
lower price, with the condition that the new owner cannot resell the house at a
price higher than the price he or she paid for it plus inflation. The house should be sold to the defaulting
owner if he or she is qualified. If the
defaulting owner is unqualified to buy the house even at a lower price, the
house would be sold to someone else, who will occupy it or rent it out. If the house is rented out, the defaulting
owner may be given a preference to rent it.
This approach accomplishes several worthwhile
objectives. The lender is able to avoid
the expense of foreclosure. The house is
not foreclosed, perhaps to be vacant to the detriment of the house and
neighborhood. The house becomes an
affordable house. The new owner or
tenant pays less for their house. For more. For
more.
Here’s
the Beef
Management by crisis. How about some proactive management?
A brief history of our financial bubble and collapse.
State regulators tried to stop the bubble, but were thwarted by federal officials.
A whistle blower about unregulated speculation in derivatives was ignored.
A former congressman says financial company lobbyists influenced congress against regulation.
What five economists think about our financial collapse.
Making more credit available may support our environmentally unsustainable consumption.
Are we losing more natural capital each year that we have lost in our current financial collapse?
Environmental organizations oppose support for dirty fuels.
We can afford the costs of restoring good jobs with fair earnings.
Most people never had large amounts in the speculative 401(k). Now they have less.
A variety of electric cars are being developed and beginning to be sold.
Our credit crisis goes global.
Our U.S. has lost the right to appoint the president of the World Bank
Our Liberal Spirit
Small Is Beautiful
I strongly recommend that you read E.F. Schumacher’s book, Small Is Beautiful. Imagine that our economy is oriented to satisfying our basic values instead of our greed for more stuff. We would be spending less time working for earnings and less time commuting. Less of our work would be manufacturing, construction, transportation and financial and other managerial services. More work would be delivering services which care for others.
We would buy, consume and store less stuff. And spend less time securing and maintaining our stuff. Some of us might spend more of our time in social activities. Others might spend more time alone, pursuing various interests. Being freed from our present time constraints, we could avail ourselves of many opportunities.
Spending less time doing things which are not satisfying in themselves, we would have more flexibility to achieve a balance among our family, work, civic and leisure activities. We would be less exhausted at the end of days. Less likely to sedate ourselves with trivial television and other means.
Does this seem too idyllic? Europeans now work less and enjoy more leisure than we do. What would we lose if we acted more like they act? Think about what you would do with your time.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for
liberals
Barack Obama said we should not just leave
These books all question whether an economy should be oriented to increasing production and consumption of stuff, instead of being primarily focused upon helping us realize our values. They were responses to the realization of environmental limits, but went beyond concerns with conserving resources to concerns with realizing other values.
Edmund S. Phelps, 1962, The
Goal of Economic Growth
E. F. Schumacher, 1973, Small Is
Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered
Mancur Olson and Hans H. Landsberg
(eds.), 1973, The No-Growth Society
Willis W. Harman, 1976, An Incomplete Guide to the Future
E. J. Mishan, 1977, The Economic Growth Debate, An Assessment
Hazel Henderson, 1980, Creating Alternative Futures, The End of
Economics
Hazel Henderson, 1981, The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives
to Economics
Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol
(eds.), 1981, The Crisis in Economic Theory
Robert Kuttner, 1984, The
Economic Illusion, False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice
Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen,
William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven M. Tipton, 1985, Habits of the Heart
Thomas Michael Power, 1988, The Economic Pursuit of Quality
Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb,
Jr., 1989, For the Common Good,
Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment and a Sustainable
Future
Frances Moore Lappe, 1989, Rediscovering
1989, Redefining Wealth and Progress, New Ways to Measure Economic, Social and Environmental Change
Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen,
William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven M. Tipton, 1991, The Good Society
George P. Brockway, 1991, The End of Economic Man, Principles of Any
Future Economics
George P. Brockway, 1995, Economists Can Be Bad for Your Health
Frank Ackerman, David Kiron,
Free Member Advertising
Hire Our Lake Hills Neighbors
,
· Auto Repair, price varies depending on job (but always fair), Jaime Speicher (AAS Auto Repair Technician) (425-746-2353)
·
Babysitting for infants (occasional
evenings and weekends) - $5 per hour-
·
Data Entry- $10 per 12 font, double
spaced page-
· Debt Elimination Counseling, Seminars and Workshops – price negotiable – Sherry Brandt (206-356-8034, somerev2@comcast.net)
·
Home Repair- prices vary, depending
on job-
·
Home
Repair and Remodeling,
·
Housekeeper,
price negotiable –
·
Life Support
Therapies,
· Private Piano Lessons (students must have a piano), afternoons - Anna Khosrowian (378-7938), price negotiable
·
Psychotherapist,
accepts insurance - Sandy Mathews
(462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)