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Economic tension is turning us against each other
Struggling to make ends meet makes people less tolerant and less supportive of one another. Inequalities in wealth and lifestyle cause people to blame each other. When there is enough for everyone, people share without any problems. When there is unemployment and insufficient wages, people resent each other. Civil servants against private sector employees, whites…
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The big change
Karl Marx demonstrated that capitalism would experience numerous crises due to its inherently unstable functioning, which penalizes the majority of the population. Companies cannot differentiate themselves from one another solely through their machinery, because their competitors also have machinery that they can push to its limits. Human labor can always be pushed to do more…
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Mission Possible – Options
Achieving long-term social and environmental development goals requires a systemic approach. In every country, there are very different opinions on what should be done. We must live together. No group, whether on the right, left, or center, can impose its will on the rest of the population. Punishing part of the population is unnecessary. Governing…
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Our lives depend on the upcoming midterms
Aggression serves no purpose. Insults, lack of restraint, denigration, wanting to punish others, and violence have serious consequences. intransigence has serious consequences on both the left and the right; it is the best way to loose elections. It creates enemies. Improving the world does not mean accusing others. We need more tolerance on both the…
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Financialization, deregulation and securitization transactions
Before the 1980s, banks couldn’t use people’s deposits as collateral for investments. Banks were not allowed to use their customers’ deposits to invest them. Up until the early 1980s, when you owned a share in a company, a building or a field and wanted to buy or sell other shares, the state levied transfer duties.…
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Ayn Rand is popular today; but her ideas lead to destruction, what are the solutions?
Ayn Rand’s ideas have grown since the early 2010s. Between 2012 and 2020, her book Atlas Shrugged was the second biggest seller in the USA after the Bible, thirty years after her death. Friday essay: We all live in the world of Ayn Rand, egomaniac godmother of libertarianism. Can fiction help us navigate it? –…
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Das moderne rote Tuch
nn sich die Menschen organisieren, um ihre Bedingungen zu verbessern, gibt es Ergebnisse. Sie brauchen keine Vertreter, die für sie und an ihrer Stelle sprechen. Wenn Gewerkschafter auf Kosten der Gewerkschaftsmitglieder leben, dann setzen sie sich nicht mehr für sie ein, sondern machen ihnen Angst, damit sie in der Gewerkschaft bleiben. Wenn die Beschäftigten schlechte…
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The Modern “chiffon rouge”
When people organize to improve their conditions, there are results. When people organize to improve their conditions, there are results. They don’t need representatives to speak for them, instead of them. When staff unions live off the backs of union members, they no longer defend them, they scare them into staying in the union. If…
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Arizona, Nevada and California Dream
Californians are leaving California because housing is terribly expensive, and beggary and poverty are everywhere on the streets. Inequality is toxic: the state has the most billionaires and the most homeless people in the US. Tens of thousands of residents of Nevada and Arizona are seeing their housing prices soar as a result of the…
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We’re all in it together
The Republicans, Richard Nixon with the opening up to China in the 1970s and Ronald Reagan with the relocation of manufacturing to Mexico in the 1980s, put quantities of products on the market at lower prices than before. This was presented as a gift to purchasing power. It gave people more disposable income. Landlords then…