Fundamentalists regardless of the scripture that they cling to are simply incapable of deviating from their well worn paths; they passionately adhere to a dogma driven philosophy regardless of outcome.

What is true? What is false? Politicians wedded to a political ideology are exclusively focused upon instilling a uniform public mindset. Any individual viewpoints that are inconsistent with those espoused by the political, business, and intelligentsia elite are targeted for ‘vaporization’.

Regardless of which media inspired label you’ve chosen to proudly wear – disavow it, tear it off now! There’s a whole plethora of them: conservative, liberal, moderate, Libertarian, Socialist, Democrat, Republican, the list is endless. Why proudly proclaim a faith in something that repeatedly fails to deliver and forces you to adhere to an ideology that denigrates you’re other divergent viewpoints? Why proudly belong to political parties that consistently disregard the demands of the people in order to faithfully execute the edicts of their business masters?

The fact of the matter is the majority of people are apolitical, love their country, expect results over excuses, unflinchingly adhere to realism, don’t believe you can get something for nothing, and understand the importance of strong communities. We don’t get out of bed every morning with a burning desire to distort the truth, spin lies, spend money we don’t have keeping a rich neighbor’s bank flush with an unlimited supply of cash, or asking the well-off in our communities to support our extravagant wants in return for favors that ultimately would destroy or impoverish the lesser off in our communities.

That’s right we’re all generally decent people. So why do we constantly align ourselves with malignant organizations that destroy all that is decent in the pursuit of squeezing more from those with the least to give? These organizations have their tentacles lunged deep into our democracies; they will not release them until they have turned blue and have exhaled their last breath.

Over 250 people participated in an informational picket a Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon "roundtable discussion" against the Employee Free Choice Act on Thursday, February 19, 2009. Labor union representatives asked to be included in the program to present the other side. They were refused. The event was held in the Ole Bethlehem Hotel on Main Street in Betlehem, Pennsylvania. The crowd on the sidewalk was around ten times larger than the Chamber group inside.

The Congressman slipped into the event by a side door. At several points, protestors chanted, "outsource Dent!."

Protesters included 43 union organizations, The Controller of Northampton County Stephen Barron, Pennsylvania State Representative Joe Brennan, Allentown City Democratic Chair and former Congressional candidate "Sam" Bennett, Lehigh County Democratic Chair Rick Daugherty, Northampton County Democratic Chair Joe Long, Moravian College Democrats, Moravian Students for A Democratic Society, Bethlehem City Democratic Committee, Lehigh Valley Democratic Coalition and many other groups. The protest lasted nearly 3 hours. Hundreds of flyers giving details about the real truth concerning the Employee Free Choice Act were distributed.

Gregg Potter, President of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council was a key organizer. The Lehigh Valley Building Trades turned out in force.

Richard Bloomingdale, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, joined Stephen Barron on Democratic Talk Radio earlier that morning during a program about the Employee Free Choice Act and the demonstration planned later that day. Democratic Talk Radio is a pro-labor radio show that broadcasts on Thursday mornings from WGPA SUNNY 1100AM in Bethlehem. Democratic Talk Radio endorsed the protest and participated in the picketing.

The Morning Call newspaper ran front page stories on the protest the morning of the event and the day after. Local television (Channel 69) covered the event. The picketing generated many other favorable news stories and helped educate voters in Pennsylvania concerning the details and importance of the Employee Free Choice Act.

-----------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is a note from Gregg Potter, President of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council on the event.

Good afternoon,

Attached is a piece from the Allentown Morning Call that appeared on today's front page. There is also an accompanying video that gives perspectives from Congressman Dent and Labor. I want to personally thank the 43 locals and over 250 members who came out to protest the actions of Congressman Dent.

I am listing the locals who attended, and if I omit you, I apologize. It was a rather hectic day.

I want to publicly thank Bill Newhard and the Lehigh, Northampton, Pike & Monroe County Building Trades Council for their incredible participation. You all made this happen! Keep up the great work!!

AFSCME 1435, Northeast Pa. Area Labor Federation, UAW 677 Retired, Catholic School Teachers Union, CWA 13500, 13000, District 13, PSEA, UFCW 1776, USW 2599, 547, SOAR, 10-86, 807, Roofers 30, SEIU 32BJ, 1199, SEIU/PSSU 668, Airline Pilots Assoc.

Road Sprinklers 669, Insulators 23, IBEW 1600, 375, 607, 143, 1319, 229

Carpenters 600, Bricklayers 5, 30, Sheetmetal Workers 19, UNITE HERE, OPIU 277, National Writers Union, Plumbers 690, IUPAT 703 and 1269, IUPAT District Council 21

Glaziers 252, Bethlehem Firefighters, APWU National and 268, Lehigh Valley Labor Council, also, special thanks go to Rep. Joseph Brennan, Northampton County Controller, Stephen Barron, the Moravian College Democrats, Lehigh County Democratic Chair, Rick Daugherty, Northampton County Democratic Chair, Joe Long, Nancy Tate, of the LEPOCO Peace Center, LVDC and also Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan for stopping by during the Chamber event.

Labor was fortunate enough to gain front page space two days in a row in the Morning Call, and there is a follow up article scheduled for this Sunday.

Thanks again for all those who participated!! You all made me very proud to be union!!

In unity & solidarity,

Gregg Potter

President, Lehigh Valley Labor Council

610 360-9491

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5chamber-q.6790432feb20,0,7960884.story

Sens. Carper and Kaufman Join Gov. Markell for Press Conference

Wilmington, DE - Sens. Tom Carper and Ted Kaufman (both D-Del.) and Gov. Jack Markell (D-Del.) will join together to give Delawareans a first overall view of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that the President signed into law on Tuesday, and how this legislation will impact our state.

With record job losses and deficits sending Delaware’s economy deeper into a downward spiral, the three top elected officials will talk about the overall economic recovery bill and what these new funds will mean for Delaware, including creating and protecting thousands of jobs in Delaware, starting long-overdue infrastructure projects and providing swift assistance to the thousands of Delawareans whose lives have been upended by this recession.

Carper, Kaufman, and Markell will be joined by labor, business and community leaders at the Department of Labor tomorrow for the announcement. Each will speak for 10-15 minutes and then field questions from media.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

11:30am - 1:00pm

Press Conference

Department of Labor

4425 North Market Street

Wilmington

Democratic Talk Radio has given our Ist Annual Labor Hero of the Year Award to Fran Friel, President of the Pennsylvania Postal Workers for moving his union convention from the hotel in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania to honor a picket line by the Laborers (LIUNA) Local 135 and the Painters (IUPAT) this past summer.

They encountered significant legal costs and maybe other even larger financial costs by their actions in support of the union brothers and sisters in the building trades. We at Democratic Talk Radio love this example of real labor union solidarity and want to honor it.

Fran Friel and his fellow union leaders from the American Postal Workers Union truly believe that an injury to one is an injury to all. For Fran and the rest of members of the Pennsylvania Postal Workers Union, these are not just words. Their actions show their conviction and sincere devotion to labor solidarity.

When asked to comment on their actions, the President of the Painters (IUPAT) District Council 21 Ken Kraft stated, “THEY not only supported our union I feel they supported the entire building trades movement by not having the convention at a place that uses non-union workers from out of state and then EXPECTS Unions to just book there anyway... It was a great example of how we get it together once in a while between the building trades and the other Labor Council type Unions... But it is also a shame, in Europe NO-ONE would find this unusual, they still get it over there...�

Millions of labor heroes exist in the work force of America. They all deserve recognition and our sincere admiration. Democratic Talk Radio honors them every day for their contribution to economic opportunity and justice.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information, please contact Democratic Talk Radio host Stephen Crockett. Crockett can be reached by phone at 443-907-2367 or email at demlabor@aol.com. The Democratic Talk Radio website is http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com.

I will remember the last 8 years of financial destruction here in the US and the bloodshed of millions of civilians on a global scale. most honest political and financial experts consider him the worst leader america has ever had and this is why.


Worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression
Lied about the war in Iraq
No WMD's found in Iraq
Vetoed health coverage for kids
Ignored law, allowed torture
Illegal wiretapping
Had enough info to stop 9/11 and didn't, hid that fact from the public
Lost Bin laden at Tora Bora
Crassly unconstitutional signing statements
Stripped resources from Afghanistan and sent them to Iraq
Didn't catch Bin Laden
Allowed Al Qaeda to regroup in Pakistan Afghan war out of control
Lied about reducing greenhouse emissions, ignored warming
Muzzled warming scientists in NASA and elsewhere
Political appointments to Department of Justice and political prosecutions
Cheney, Rove, and others in contempt of Congress -- refused to tell the American people the truth
Fooled public into believing Saddam was involved in 9/11 when he knew otherwise
Made light of inabilty to find WMD's


Please sign the petition to investigate Bush/Cheney for war crimes. Then pass it on to everyony you know that will sign it.

http://www.petitiononline.com/856798/petition.html

Emily's List endorsed Sara Feigenholtz for Rahm Emanuel's congressional seat.  She has entered the race for a vote in March.  She is a SCHIP supporter and advocate for family, women, and children's issues.  Here's a photo from her grassroots campaign.

Political villains were rampant in 2008. It was impossible to give a single award for the injustices committed for solely political reasons this past year. For the first time ever, Democratic Talk Radio was unable to even narrow the infamous winners to just two. We have selected three “Villains of 2008� to share the award.

Our first choice is obvious. Fox News wins the first 2008 villain slot for their disinformation campaign against ACORN. The efforts of Fox News to provide political cover for Republican efforts at voter suppression during the 2008 elections were, in the opinion of Democratic Talk Radio, the lowest thing ever done by Fox News.

The second winner for 2008 political villain is George McGovern. Fans of Democratic Talk Radio may be surprised by this choice. Frankly, we never expected to be giving a former Democratic Presidential candidate a villain of the year award. However, McGovern has lent his name to the Right-Wing, corporate effort to undermine workers’ right to unionize. George McGovern has allied himself with the anti-worker efforts to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. His TV commercials are frankly an open act on working Americans. McGovern has disgraced himself by joining with the most anti-working class political forces in America and misleading the American public on the nature of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Senate Republicans out to destroy the American auto industry and the United Auto Workers union are our third villainous winners. Senator Corker of Tennessee, Senator Shelby of Alabama, Senator McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Vitter of Louisiana and their fellow Senate Republicans put the interests of foreign corporations over the interests of the American economy. Since all were opposed by the United Auto Workers in previous elections because of their militantly anti-worker voting records, their efforts are obviously motivated by personal political considerations that directly undermine the national interest. These Senate Republicans have sided with foreign companies to drive down the wages and healthcare benefits of American workers.

The hero of the year selected by Democratic Talk Radio is Al Franken. The American nation should be delighted at his political courage and determination. By insisting that all the votes be counted in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, Franken has set a good example for all candidates running for office and for American voters. American Democracy has been strengthened by his resolve.

Al Franken will be a great asset should he eventually prevail when all the votes are finally counted. Norm Coleman has been very aggressive in his attempts to undermine a free and fair counting of the ballots.



For more information, contact Stephen Crockett at 443-907-2367.

This Sunday, December 21: Vice President-Elect Joe Biden is a guest on ABC-TV's "This Sunday With George Stephanopoulous."

This will be VP-Elect Biden's first interview with "This Week" since the November election. He will discuss issues, priorities, White House Cabinet appointments and budgets under the Obama-Biden Administration, his reactions to an auto bailout and a new economic stimulus package, and his upcoming inauguration celebration on January 20, 2009.

"This Week" airs Sunday on local ABC channels throughout the United States. In the New York City area, it airs at 10:00 am ET. Here are some other cities with "This Week" local air times:

Los Angeles, 8:00 am
San Francisco, 8:00 am
Boston, 9:00 am
Chicago, 9:30 am
Houston, 10:00 am
Washington DC, 10:00 am
Detroit, 10:30 am
Philadelphia, 10:30 am
Atlanta, 11:00 am

Turnout in presidential elections hit 40-year high
37 mins ago [Dec 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_el_pr/voter_turnout

WASHINGTON – Enthusiasm among blacks and Democrats for Barack Obama's candidacy pushed voter turnout in this year's elections to the highest level in 40 years.

Final figures from nearly every state and the District of Columbia showed that more than 131 million people voted, the most ever for a presidential election. A little more than 122 million voted in 2004.

This year's total is 61.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters, the highest turnout rate since 1968, when Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey, said Michael McDonald, a political science professor at George Mason University.

States finished certifying their election results this weekend, including California on Saturday. The Electoral College was scheduled to elect Obama president on Monday, with electors meeting in each state to vote in a largely ceremonial procedure.

Turnout increased for the third straight presidential election, encouraging news for those who have warned about voter apathy. Four years ago, 60.1 percent of those eligible voted. ...

The number of registered Democrats jumped in many states, helping to propel Obama to a larger share of the vote than Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Early voting hit a new high, with about 41 million people — or more than 31 percent — voting before Election Day, either by mail or at designated sites, according to returns compiled by The Associated Press. Early voting accounted for 22 percent of the votes cast in 2004. ...

Voter turnout increased substantially in newly competitive states such as Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina, which all went for Obama after decades of favoring Republican presidential candidates. Turnout also increased in some Republican states with large black populations, such as Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia.

North Carolina, which had competitive elections for president, governor and Senate, had the biggest increase in turnout, from 57.8 percent in 2004 to 65.8 percent this year. ...

Minnesota, with a competitive Senate race that still hasn't been decided, had the highest turnout rate, even though it dropped slightly, to 77.8 percent. It was followed by Wisconsin, Maine, New Hampshire and Iowa.

West Virginia and Hawaii tied for the lowest turnout rate, at 50.6 percent. Arkansas, Utah and Texas came close.

In all, the turnout rate increased in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Turnout dropped in some states that did not have competitive presidential contests, such as Utah and Oregon. Oregon had been a battleground in previous presidential elections and the state had a competitive Senate race. ...   Read More »

According to The Legal Times, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest and longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court, will swear in VP-Elect Joseph Biden as Vice President next month on Innauguration Day.

Vigorous and sharp at 88, he has served on the court for 32 years. In criminal-law and death-penalty cases, Stevens has voted against the government and in favor of the individual more frequently than any other sitting justice.

He files more dissents and separate opinions than any of his colleagues. He is the court's most outspoken defender of the need for judicial oversight of executive power. And in recent years, he has written majority opinions in two of the most important cases ruling against the Bush Administration's treatment of suspected enemy combatants in the war on terror -- an issue the court is revisiting this term when it hears appeals by Guantánamo detainees, challenging their lack of access to federal courts.

Justice Stevens was named to the Court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. It is rare for a Vice President to be sworn in by a justice appointed by a president of the opposite party, so Vp-Elect Biden's choice to have Stevens swear him in can be seen as a bipartisan gesture -- though Justice Stevens is usually regarded as one of the most liberal justices on the Court.

According to family members and former law clerks, Justice Stevens still writes the first draft of his opinions. He uses the Internet, studied French before a recent vacation in Europe, and has become hooked on Sudoku number puzzles.

In addition, Stevens he has survived prostate cancer and had a bypass heart operation in the 1970s. Since then he has followed a low-fat diet, eating only a grapefruit for lunch.

The system of Corporate Governance in America is broken. We must destroy the auto companies as the only way to fix the problem. read more at http://blog.franklynch.org/2008/12/03/we-must-nationalize-the-auto-companies-because-sneaky-auto-executives-cheating-on-bailout/

Notice the rush of the Big Three Auto companies' executives to collect the bailout from Congress in time for them to pay themselves hundreds of millions in bonus for Christmas!!

Barack Obama must require that none of the auto companies' executives receive any bonus this year.

Further, Barack must require that they all work for $1.00, One Dollar annual salary in 2009.

Anything else is a total rape not just of the taxpayers, but a rape of all America.

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has named a longtime aide to Sen. Joe Biden to fill the U.S. Senate seat Biden will be vacating for the vice presidency.

At a news conference in Wilmington this afternoon, Gov. Minner said she would appoint Ted Kaufman to fill the vacancy.

Edward E. "Ted" Kaufman is a member of the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition project and Co-Chair of Vice-President Biden's transition team.

He was Senior Adviser to Senator Biden on the Obama Biden Presidential campaign. He has held a senior position in all of Biden's federal campaigns.

He was on Biden's Senate staff from 1973 through 1994, nineteen years as Chief of Staff.

It was not immediately clear if Biden would resign his Senate seat before or after he begins his seventh term in January. However, he must resign before being sworn in Jan. 20 as vice president.

Speculation on Biden's successor had centered in recent weeks on his son, Attorney General Beau Biden. Last week, however, the younger Biden announced that he planned to fulfill his National Guard duties and wouldn't accept an appointment to his father's U.S. Senate seat.

We wish you good luck and much success, Ted!

Vice President-Elect Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) has just named three new White House staff positions:

Ms. Cynthia Hogan will be counsel to the newly-elected Vice President. She previously served as Chief Counsel to Senator Biden during his time in the United States Senate, and served as Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1995 she assisted with the drafting of anti-terrorism legislation.

When she worked for Committee Chairman Sen. Biden, they successfully passed the landmark 1994 Violence Crime and Control Act and the Violence Against Women Act. She also advised him during the Supreme Court nominations process for both Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Mr. Moises V. Vela, Jr. will join the White House staff as Director of Administration to Vice President Biden. From 1996-2000, he served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Advisor on Hispanic Affairs for Vice President Al Gore. Most recently, Vela was the founder and a partner at The Comunidades Group, a multi-family acquisition and operations company headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Mr. Biden's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, has named Catherine M. Russell as her new Chief of Staff. Most recently, Ms. Russell served as Chief of Staff to Mrs. Biden during the presidential campaign.

She also worked as a Senior Advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on international women's issues. During the Clinton Administration, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General.

Senator Biden remarked, "Cathy Russell has a unique blend of policy and management experience, combined with an ardent commitment to ending injustices around the world. Cynthia Hogan is a brilliant lawyer who was instrumental in guiding the Senate Judiciary Committee though some of its most important challenges in both crime control and judicial selection, and has shown incredible legal acumen and integrity over her career. I'm grateful to have Moe Vela, a man with experience in White House management and broad outreach skills on my team."

We wish them the best of luck and much success in their new jobs!

President-elect Barack Obama today named Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. as the next U.S. Attorney General. He has accepted the position, pending a Senate approval.

Mr. Holder will be the first African-American U.S. Attorney General in American history.

He was former Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1997 to 2001. He also served as Acting Attorney General under President George Bush for a few weeks until the Senate confirmed John Ashcroft as the AG nominee.

Last year Mr. Holder joined Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor. And most recently, he became part of a three-member Vice Presidential selection committee with Caroline Kennedy and Jim Johnson.

He is 57, and married with three children.

VP-Elect Sen. Joe Biden has tapped VP Gore veteran Ron Klain to be his chief of staff.

Earlier in his career, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Byron White during the Court’s 1987 and 1988 Terms and worked on Capitol Hill, where he was Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Klain had also previously been close to Sen. Biden through his service as counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Committee, when Sen. Biden was its Chairman.

Ron Klain was portrayed by actor Kevin Spacey in the 2008 film "Recount."

Congrats, Mr. Klain - you've got a great new boss!

With each cycle of the income crisis negative feedback loop an accelerating economic decline moves the global economy spiraling downwards into an abyss that will eventually end in total economic collapse. Systemic declining real wages starting over 40 years ago has laid the fragile foundation that fed a continuing drop in consumption when credit could no longer be a sustainable proxy for income among low to middle wage earners. Even if credit was suddenly available - average Americans are already highly over leveraged. These factors triggered a negative feedback loop of declining real income available to 95% of the citizenry, falling consumption directly proportional to falling incomes, and declining business revenue accompanied by job lay-offs & retail price declines (deflation) all completing each successive feedback loop cycle. All along the course of the feedback loop cycle theses effects oscillate across the general economy in a continual downward slope of economic decline that translates into falling GDP and national capital stock destruction that occurs at an ever increasing exponential rate.

Reversing an income crisis 'drain spiral' becomes more difficult with the passage of time since unemployment and capital stock destruction exponentially increases across a number of income crisis negative feedback loop cycles. The longer a government waits to enact substantial fiscal stimulus targeted at low to middle income citizens the more and more 'income emaciated' these citizens become thus making it much more difficult to push the entire economy up out of the income crisis spiral.

Eventually, the nation's capital stock becomes so inconsequential from an economic perspective and the number of citizens who are unemployed so numerous that the government becomes the sole income generating agent (presumes the government has infused the economy with insufficient fiscal stimulus and/or is still making government expenditures into the private sector) in an extinct standalone private economy that has reached the terminus in an income crisis deflationary economic spiral.

Reaching the terminus point is a foregone conclusion without substantial (10% of GDP) government fiscal stimulation of the 'real' economy. At this terminus point economic activity in the country has been completely extinguished from successive negative feedback cycles down economic gradients with ever accelerating declines in GDP and national capital stock destruction.

Infusing the supply side (financial sector - or top of the pyramid) with government bailout capital will do absolutely nothing (covered in many of my previous essays) to get the 'consumption engine' of an 'income starved' economy running again. Effectively, there is no substitute for bold decisive action on the part of government policy makers in implementing a substantial fiscal stimulus program that immediately creates sufficient stable employment (not a token number of jobs) at a sustainable higher tier private sector wage rate. This must be immediately followed up with rebuilding the nation's capital stock to pre-income crisis levels through infrastructure investment in an industrial base that lends itself towards taking advantage of a nation's competitive advantage in multiple areas. In the case of the United States it has been determined that long term stimulus investments (substantial) that target the creation of a 'Green Industry' sector would have the potential of employing millions of Americans across all professions within two main program branches comprised of manufacturing and delivery. Subsidiary industries would also be created either directly through government and/or private sector capital infusions that would ultimately employ a cross section of every professional occupation group that has been placed on the unemployment rolls during this income crisis.

The global community has so little time left in which to act decisively. We are racing ever faster with each passing day down a cold dark abyss towards the terminus of economic collapse. We must act now, not later.

Posted on my blog 11/5/2008 at:
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

It's impossible to conclude that our economic environment is not subject to the same diversity that comprises our natural environment. Given that an economy is a subset of the society that wrests itself from an unforgiving natural world riddled with chaos, why do some branches of economic thought continue to rationalize humankinds pecuniary endeavors down to neat tightly, clean, predictable outcomes. The structure of an economic system must reflect the multifaceted and diverse characteristics of the world in which it operates - a world of varying personalities all interacting in incoherent ways.

Our universe is not clean and orderly it-s very, very messy - nothing ever seems to work out according to the best conceived plans. It is therefore imperative that we not endeavor to extend our subconscious world view of tidy, neatly trimmed 'lawns' to any natural substrate in the living breathing messy struggle for life. There are no 'lawns' of perfectly crafted conception in nature so why extend the improbable to a natural world substrate? A prairie ecosystem is full of tall grass of varying varieties, riddled with ground squirrel holes, snakes in some regions, muck, and a variety of wildlife not allowed to intrude into our comfortable neat complacent checkerboard communities. But the interaction between the two does result in changes that affect both.

Similarly, our economic system must reflect the realities or 'ground truth' inherent in the natural environment, societal structure, and impractical, irrational interspersed behavior of the human substrate. So why continue to refine any economic model based upon illusion by further perturbing an already tumultuous society by injecting policies that don't align with any existing observable dynamic?

Over the past few years we've been led to believe that the Laissez-faire neoclassical economic realm of illusory conceptualization would translate into this wonderful world guided by some 'invisible hand'. Ours would be a service sector oriented economy never again requiring the utilization of dirty hands, and strong muscles. Every citizen would magically be endowed with all the necessary intellect, desire, and personality to expand the service sector into the preeminent sector of employment. There was just one problem with the distorted nation state competitive advantage simplistic view of our globe - it still left a substantial segment of our population underemployed, and unemployed because they just didn't fit into the special mold of a service sector laborer.

Expanding the concept of competitive advantage outside of its original boundaries centered in a particular industry was just another attempt to mold reality (only perceptually achievable by propaganda) to fit illusion. Over the past few decades we've been deluding ourselves into thinking that a viable economy can function stripped of its manufacturing sector. It has become abundantly evident that an economic system crafted for the benefit of the larger community cannot operate solely as a service sector economy devoid of a sustainable manufacturing base.

Competitive advantage must mold both the service sector and manufacturing components across industry segments that are jealousy defended by national policies within a completely economically integrated world. No economy can be sustained under just one of these core economic components they both must be merged together in order to achieve some semblance of economic and societal sustainability & stability.

We have witnessed the effective subversion of an already inherently unsustainable service sector nation-state competitive advantage model into something contrived and contorted beyond its illusory construct. Perpetuated by the 'information age' propagandists we were led to believe that an economy could be solely built upon a technologically oriented service sector. Factories were no longer needed within an economy based solely upon intellectual labor. The problems with this early nation-state competitive advantage centered model were three fold. First, it was myopically constrained to a nation-state centric advantage that never expanded across borders. Secondly, it failed to account for the unpredictable effects of human behavior within a tumultuous greed enhanced global society. Thirdly, as already conveyed, the competitive advantage of a technologically oriented service sector was too broad in scope to be maintained at the nation-state level.

But what mutated from this touted elegant distortion of reality was driven by the second factor, the uncontrollable greed educed by Laissez-faire religious tenants that encouraged human behavior contrary to the maintenance of sustainable and stable communities. Any behavior was permissible in the corruptly focused short-term greed addicted behavioral state. What evolved was a belief system built around the individual to the exclusion of the community a credo that any means was justified even the 'slash and burn' pillage of entire nation-states to fulfill the unquenchable desires of the few wealthy elite. Labor arbitrage became the 'club' of choice wielded by the 'strong arms' of an army of mercenary lobbyists fielded to sustain the wealthy fiefdom's ability to exploit workers by any means imaginable.

With so many interconnected messy threads weaving throughout our society, class consciousness, across unique behavioral responses to stimuli, and the turbulent at times dangerous physical world we inhabit it is abundantly clear that any economic theories must be conceived in the forge of reality. It is a reality that recognizes a simple requirement of all human beings - fairness. Without fairness or some form of equity, infused with equality the best conceived seemingly realistic policies will be nothing more than distorted illusion cloaked in a thin veil of reality. Human beings are very adept at perceiving whether certain aspects of their societal framework is fair, or slanted towards the interests of those ultimately in control. No amount of 'packaging' will deceive a community of citizens over the 'long haul' - this is aptly reflected in the current rejection by the general populous of the trickle down supply-side greed based economics benefiting the few practiced over the last few years.

Quakers believe that we are all our brothers keeper, that when we act in the best interests of our fellow human beings we serve the better interests of our communities. Thus, realizing that in order for a sustainable, stable economy to transpire we need to include everyone; those who desire or are suited to work in a vibrant manufacturing component, others who excel in a service sector intellectual or assistance driven component, and those who must be cared for by a compassionate community (government) because their unable to survive in either component of a competitively oriented sector of our economy. It is also important to integrate our nation-state economies into an 'International Economic Congress' whereby the interests of Capital (businesses) and Labor can be democratically resolved, and a coordinated oversight of all economically related endeavors can be achieved for the betterment of the entire global community. We are on the cusp of an appreciation that transcends any past global paradigm shift - our movement towards a sustainable, stable world community is very achievable. Let's make it happen.

Originally posted on my blog at:
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/