I’m now much more sympathetic to the ‘99 per cent’ analysis. First, a closer look at income growth figures suggests that, while the 19 per cent have enjoyed rising incomes, they’ve only barely maintained their share of national income. The redistribution of the past three decades has gone from the bottom 80 per cent to the top 1 per cent.
That suggests the possibility of a policy response in which the main redistributive thrust would be to reverse this process. This would almost certainly involve higher tax payments, but this would be offset by the restoration of public services, which are in economic terms a ‘superior good’, valued more as income rises. The top 1 per cent can buy their own services, and are largely unaffected by public sector cutbacks, but that’s not true of the 19 per cent.
Another important factor is the growth of economic insecurity. The myth of the US as a land of opportunity for upward mobility has been replaced by Barbara Ehrenreich’s Fear of Falling (another good source on this is High Wire by Peter Gosselin). Even if people in the top 19 per cent are doing well, they are less secure than at any time since the 1930s, and their children face even more uncertain prospects.
Percentiles — Crooked Timber
14 OctCleanup of Zuccotti Park Is Postponed – NYTimes.com
14 Oct“Late last night, we received notice from the owners of Zuccotti Park — Brookfield Properties — that they are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation,” Deputy Mayor Caswell F. Holloway said in a statement.
“Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use,” Mr. Holloway said, “and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown.”
From Canada to Meetup.com, the Journey of a Protest Meme – NYTimes.com
14 OctTwo days after the start of the Occupy Wall Street protests and thousands of miles away in Nebraska, the movement began to gain online cohesion independent of the magazine.
A 25-year-old artist and designer in Nebraska, foiled in her attempt to travel to New York and take part in the protest, created a simple digital hub for the proliferating Facebook and Twitter accounts calling for the occupation of central squares in other cities.
“Wow, it would be really great if there was a Web site that collected information about all of these,” the designer, Ella, said she recalled thinking.
via From Canada to Meetup.com, the Journey of a Protest Meme – NYTimes.com.
Permaculture, a Beginners Guide
14 Oct“Permaculture offers a radical approach to food production and urban renewal, water, energy and pollution. It integrates ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry in creating a rich and sustainable way of living. It uses appropriate technology giving high yields for low energy inputs, achieving a resource of great diversity and stability. The design principles are equally applicable to both urban and rural dwellers” – Bill Mollison
Told to Leave Park, Wall St. Protesters Talk Strategy – NYTimes.com
13 OctOccupy Wall Street faces a major practical/tactical decision, and so does Mayor Bloomberg.
At meetings in the corner of the park, protesters discussed strategy in light of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s announcement Wednesday night that the Occupy Wall Street protesters would have to leave temporarily starting at 7 a.m. Friday so that the park could be cleaned. Many have called the evacuation order a pretext for shutting down the protests permanently.
Some people advocated nonviolent resistance. But the wider consensus seemed to be that if the protesters cleaned up their own sleeping bags and tarps and pieces of cardboard and made the park better than new, the city and the park’s owners, Brookfield Properties, might relent and let them stay.
via Told to Leave Park, Wall St. Protesters Talk Strategy – NYTimes.com.
My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters | Politics News | Rolling Stone
13 OctThe only reason the Lloyd Blankfeins and Jamie Dimons of the world survive is that they’re never forced, by the media or anyone else, to put all their cards on the table. If Occupy Wall Street can do that – if it can speak to the millions of people the banks have driven into foreclosure and joblessness – it has a chance to build a massive grassroots movement.
via My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters | Politics News | Rolling Stone.
Rajaratnam Is Sentenced to 11 Years – NYTimes.com
13 OctThe fallen hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam received the longest prison sentence on record for insider trading on Thursday, a watershed moment in the government’s aggressive two-year campaign to root out the illegal exchange of confidential information on Wall Street.
Vital Bus Lines are Closing, Leaving People Stranded
13 OctFrom Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, to Town Square, USA, thousands upon thousands of people rely on public transportation to take them to jobs, shopping, to the doctor, and so forth. But bus lines are closing in cities across the nation and leaving people stranded in their homes, especially poor people and old people. It’s happening in Detroit, Longmont (Colorado), Washington D.C., and in my neighborhood in Jersey City, NJ.
Three neighborhood associations met at the Monumental Baptist Church last night to make plans on how to meet the crisis. While there is some reasonable hope that the abandoned routes will be taken-up by other providers, it is clear that this is a recurring problem that must be met by sustained action.
What’s happening in your neighborhood? Have any bus lines been closed in the last two or three years? Are bus lines being closed in the near future? What will happen to people stranded by these closures?
How is it that the so-called richest nation on the planet cannot figure out how to provide transportation for ALL of its citizens?
If you’ve got a story, put it in the comments.
Other stories below the fold. Continue reading
Voters Are Fed Up with American Institutions – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com
13 OctBut the broader message of this election, whether it be the Tea Party on the right or the Occupy Wall Street protests on the left, is that the American people are fed up. There is the potential for third party candidates to run on both the left and the right, and a group that I am working with, Americans Elect, is in the process of obtaining ballot access in all 50 states for a centrist, bipartisan ticket.
via Voters Are Fed Up with American Institutions – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com.
Occupy Wall Street Protests a Growing News Story – NYTimes.com
13 OctAs the Occupy Wall Street message of representing 99 percent of Americans has spread across the country, news media coverage of the Occupy movement has spread, too, to the front pages of newspapers and the tops of television newscasts. Coverage of the movement last week was, for the first time, quantitatively equivalent to early coverage of the Tea Party movement in early 2009, according to data released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
via Occupy Wall Street Protests a Growing News Story – NYTimes.com.
Truth and Traditions 