I also wrote a negative review in the App Store. Where you get your money from does matter, doesn't it? (I'm honestly asking.)
It comes down to values and power. The fate of America turns on the outcome of a contest between forces aligned behind two competing economic systems with dramatically different values, structures, and agendas. One is the greed-driven, money-serving corporate-ruled Wall Street Economy that measures its success exclusively by the financial profits it generates for the already rich. It neither acknowledges nor accepts responsibility for the economic, social, environmental, and political devastation it leaves in its wake.
The other economy is comprised of the democratic, community-rooted, market-based life-serving Main Street economies that ordinary people are rebuilding across the nation and around the world. This emerging New Economy measures success by its contribution to securing adequate and meaningful livelihoods for everyone in a balanced relationship to nature.
Huh. Interesting take, but the first paragraph seems to be an “Incredible Hulk” version of the second paragraph since the second paragraph describes what the Western World was like for quite a while.
This is why I always take issue with people telling me I’m anti-corporate—I’m not. I just believe in moderation. I’m 99% sure that if we go back in time with how corporations are run (not just to make as much money as possible, aka, not to the extreme) we’d see a return to the good old days of the American economy. I think we need to regulate the shit out of corporations, passing laws that prohibit any outsourcing of ANY and ALL jobs, ban tax incentives for businesses completely, make it a jailable offense to hire illegal immigrants, force environmental and worker safety standards, require products be made with materials ONLY found inside the country and put caps on executive salaries.
Will this kill a lot of businesses in the US? Damn right it will. But only the assholes. Good people who run businesses are already doing this sort of thing. RIGHT?
Oh, you say you’re a good person who is running a business that would be killed by this draconian, sweeping changes? Well, good riddance then. Because if you’re not caring about your workers, your customers, the environment, and you’re only in it for the money you can’t call yourself a good person.
We need to grow up and face the music. Our economy is falling apart around our ears and we’re mostly pretending it isn’t. Only sweeping changes like this will make a difference. We need to pull back from the extreme we’ve let the corporations get to.
Oh and the “emerging new economy” the original post refers to? I have no idea what the fuck they’re talking about. Nothing “market-based” ever has a “balanced relationship to nature.” We need to constantly ride the levels of regulation. Sometimes we need a bit more and sometimes a bit less, but clearly, we need a LOT more right now as corporations are just a bunch of sociopathic Godzillas.
I reblogged a post from Newsweek's Tumblr and added a bunch of commentary over on website666.com earlier today but thought it should be on my main blog, too, since money and banks are something that we all deal with. The first bunch of text is from the Newsweek post, my commentary follows:
Bank of America: “A new $5 fee to replace debit cards took effect in September; a rush overnight order costs $20. Previously, both services were free.”
Chase: “In February, Chase introduced a new basic checking account with a $12 monthly fee, up from the previous $6. The fee is waived for customers who make direct deposits that total $500 a month or maintain a minimum balance of $1,500.”
Citibank: “Starting in December, Citi said it will raise the fee on its basic checking account to $10 a month, up from $8. Customers will have to maintain a balance of at least $1,500 or sign up for direct deposit and online bill pay to avoid the fee.”
Wells Fargo: “The bank also plans to test a $3 monthly debit card fee starting Oct. 14. The fee will be applied to checking accounts opened in Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. The fee would be in addition to the fees ranging from $5 to $30 that Wells Fargo already charges.”
It’s a real shame banks have completely lost sight of what they’re core job is: to take our money and loan it to other people with interest. That interest is supposed to be how they make money. They’re not supposed to charge us so they can make money off of our money. It’s that sense of entitlement that the rich always accuse everyone else of having. So blatantly hypocritical.
But not all banks are abusive like this. I switched to an online bank which charges no fees period and, in fact, pays me interest. I’ve made 70¢ since I signed up in April. How much has your checking account made you?
The bank is called Ally. They used to be GMAC but rebranded at some point. They’ve been good to me so far. It’s a huge pain in the ass to deposit money, though. You have to mail a check in or do a wire transfer. I have an account with Square and it still takes a week (or so) to see the money, though Square claims a “next-day payout” on their site. I suppose I could transfer money from my Paypal account, but that would take 3 days still.
One of the nice things about Ally is that they refund all ATM fees. Since they don’t have any ATMs, you’re going to get charged for using other banks’ ATMs but this bank will refund those fees at the end of the month. So, there are alternatives to the BABs (Big Asshole Banks).
The sad thing is that I tried to go to a local bank—as in, a bank that only exists in the city I live in. Sadly, they wouldn’t let me open an account because I didn’t have a state ID at the time. This is a very odd requirement as Washington Mutual, a bank with ATMs all over the country, didn’t seem to mind my California ID when I opened my checking account with them back in 2008. Of course, WaMu got swallowed whole by Chase, whom I left earlier this year because they added fees.
We’re facing a world that is less and less favorable for the individual. But there are choices you can make that can save you money. You just have to hunt for them.
Once again we see something else that Big Money is doing to harm little individuals. Why do rich people think they're entitled to every last dime they can milk out of us? Why do we not resent them for their greed? Why isn't just surviving enough for these people? For many of us, surviving is all we can do.
On their "about us" page, they say: Our goal is to bring the most attractive, high quality, and smooth riding fixed gear/single speed bicycles to the market at the lowest price possible. Now take a look at those prices above. $400+ a POP. Now look at how "attractive" they are. They kinda look like those bikes that were chained to a bike rack or a tree years ago but got stripped for their best parts. AKA, these guys are full of shit. I'd love a nice minimalistic bike, with one gear and not a lot of moving parts--but to spend four times what I'd spend for a 15-speed at Target? That makes no sense.
Corporations are people, my friend.
GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, on why the U.S. shouldn’t raise taxes on corporations to shield Social Security and Medicare from cuts. “Everything corporations earn goes to people,” he told the audience. (via officialssay)
Bahhahahahahahahahah! I laugh to keep from crying. Right, Mitt. Right.
(via baxterp2)
#Indeed.
Now, if only corporations ACTED like people, instead of mindless greed-machines. >_<
Check out what the guy who used to play Kryten on Red Dwarf had to say about the London riots and what one feminist had to say about who is to blame for them and then be sure to read the comments.
The only way out of the vicious economic cycle is for government to adopt an expansionary fiscal policy — spending more in the short term in order to make up for the shortfall in consumer demand. This would create jobs, which will put money in peoples’ pockets, which they’d then spend, thereby persuading employers to do more hiring. The consequential job growth will also help reduce the long-term ratio of debt to GDP. It’s a win-win.
This is not rocket science.
Robert Reich, Vicious Cycles: Why Washington is About to Make the Jobs Crisis Worse (via underpaidgenius)
Actually, I disagree. There’s a disconnect between what the government does and the actual job creation (notice how you almost never hear anyone talk about literally how a government encourages job creation?*). The “job” cellphone call is dropped by corporations—the so-called “job creators.” They seem to be in a fetal position, refusing to spend any of their profits on actually hiring people. They’ve already got a shitload of money, so what can the government do to persuade them at this point? Nothing.
In short, we’re screwed until big business can start to understand their place in the American eco(nomic)system.
*The always interesting Planet Money podcast once talked about what governments can do to actually encourage job creation—which is not much. All they can do is “create an environment in which companies would want to invest” (I’m paraphrasing). In other words, government has already done all it can do at this point. It’s up to SOMEbody to make the first sacrifice and us workers have nothing left to sacrifice—big business, however…
How Ma Bell Shelved the Future for 60 Years
Gizmodo’s Tim Wu blogs about how innovation was stopped in its tracks, effectively, due to capitalist interests. Funny how we’re all told capitalism is great for innovation. Too bad that’s only true until innovation might damage the current business model. Take the example of the answering machine that existed in the office of a Bell Labs engineer… in 1934.
Tenn. Fire Department Allows Home to Burn Down over Unpaid $75 Fee
From today’s Democracy Now:
In Tennessee, a local fire department refused to put out a house fire last week because the homeowner had forgotten to pay $75 for fire protection from a nearby town. The firefighters showed up to the scene of the fire and then watched as the home of Gene Cranick burned to the ground. Cranick’s neighbors had paid the $75 fee, so when the fire spread across the property line firefighters took action, but only to save the neighbor’s property. The local mayor defended the actions of the firefighters. South Fulton Mayor David Crocker said, “Anybody that’s not in the city of South Fulton, it’s a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don’t.”
Congratulations, Capitalism! You’ve cost a family their home and even their pets. YAY!!
The Free Market really IS awesome!
I don’t have AIDS/HIV, but I am puzzled as to why governments on both state and federal levels seem so disinterested in resisting greed and passing laws that benefit the rich or vetoing them if they don’t.
From NYC’s housingworksbookstore:
This week Gov. Paterson vetoed a bill that would have addressed an outrageous injustice.
Thousands of poor New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS in government-subsidized housing pay up to 75 percent of their income toward rent. In some cases, this leaves New Yorkers to live on just $12 a day.
The vast majority of people in government-subsidized housing pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. It’s no wonder, then, that the State Senate and Assembly voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that would offer the same benefit to poor HIV-positive people in subsidized housing—and no wonder Paterson promised to sign it.
If passed, the bill could have helped stabilize housing for at least 10,000 struggling New Yorkers.
But the governor broke his promise. He vetoed the bill.
Join our Fight the Veto! Twitter and Facebook campaign asking state representatives to override that decision. (via Housing Works: Join Our Facebook and Twitter Campaign to Fight Paterson’s Rent Cap Veto!)
I feel like it’s useless to fight this trend. Money talks and corporate money talks LOUDLY—the Supreme Court made sure of this and there are very few individuals who can compete with the finances of mega-corporations. Also, there seem to be no ways to become that powerful/rich without compromising your morals on some level or another (or several).
We can protest as much as we want, retweet and “Like” on Facebook as much as we want, and the powers that be can simply ignore us. Largely like they’ve been doing for the last ten years.
