The Powerful Can Do as They Please

by Nomad

Income Inequality and North Carolina Health Care: A Tale of Two Extremes

by Nomad

Without the Medicaid expansion, health care for the poor of North Carolina has become a real problem.  Of course, you'd never know it by the looks of salaries paid to CEOs of  non-profit healthcare organizations. 

To put it bluntly, If you are poor in North Carolina, don't even think about getting sick.

  

The Tarheel State is one of 20 states that rejected Obamacare's optional Medicaid expansion. Governor Patrick Lloyd "Pat" McCrory and a Republican-majority legislature left healthcare coverage as it stood, covering some 1.9 million residents, around only a fifth of the state's population. 

Surviving in the Gap
Not everybody was happy with the arrangement. Advocates of the expansion claimed that another 500,000 people might have been added to the rolls, including tens of thousands of childless nondisabled adults.  

USNews reported last October that there was a good reason for this dissatisfaction. The states' Medicaid program is broken.

Bureaucratically antiquated and growing faster than state revenues, it has gone over budget in three of the past four years, and its taxpayer cost and total enrollment have both doubled over the past decade. Last year, it cost North Carolina taxpayers $15 billion, nearly a third of the budget and more than twice what the state spent in 2003.

At the end of 2015, Gov. McCrory signed into law a bill to reform North Carolina's overgrown and out of control Medicaid program.

However, this reform will take, by the official estimate, around four years to become fully implemented. Supporters claim that it will reduce existing spending by 2%, saving hundreds of millions every year. 

How accurate that is is anybody's guess. But one thing is clear, until then, the uninsured poor in the state are going to have to live with things as they are. 

The Surprising Connections You Might Not Know Between Religion and Income Inequality

by Nomad

Religion may be the "opiate of the masses" but there's another side to this story and it's not pretty. If religion is indeed a drug, then who are the drug dealers? This post looks at the interesting connections between the ruling class, religiosity, and inequality.

Rich People, Poor People, and Religion

A recent study in the Social Science Quarterly reaches some interesting and unexpected conclusions about the relationship between income inequality and the rise of religion.

The authors of  the article Economic Inequality, Relative Power, and Religiosity analyzed countries around the world the levels of income equality and the level of religiosity over a two-decade span. Their conclusions are worth a closer look. 

Let's start by defining the terms. What exactly is religiosity anyway? The sociological term "religiosity" can be considered the overall religiousness of a given culture or nation or group. In other words, the degree in which religion affects our day-to-day life. 

In the study, there were twelve benchmarks, from the percentage of people who felt that religion played an important factor in their lives to a percentage of people who took time to pray, those that believed in Hell and sin and the number of people that believed in a Divine power. This evidence was matched with the levels of income inequality in the same countries.

Some of the findings in the study were less than surprising. For example, the authors found that Muslim countries were considerably more religious than other religious societies, and Catholic and Orthodox societies were more religious than Protestant ones. The lowest religiosity was found among Communist or formerly Communist countries.
Nothing shocking there.

The Surprising Thing

Other things they found confirmed what many of us tend to believe anyway. The study determined, for instance, that there is a very strong relationship between how economically developed a country is and its religiosity: less developed countries are significantly more religious.

Quote of Ancient Roman Poet Martial Just as True Today

by Nomad

A cynical observation about economic inequality has been handed down to us from Ancient Imperial Rome. Here are the words- as true today as they were then- of the poet, Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis)

If you are a poor man now, Aemillanus, a poor man you will always be. Nowadays, riches are bestowed on no one but the rich.

Things really haven't changed much since mankind's boyhood days. At one point in Roman history, the state of politics became so corrupted that the position of emperor was actually auctioned off to the highest bidder.  We haven't gotten to that point yet. Or have we?

When it comes to the Congress, the problem is a more basic form of corruption. We can thank the Supreme Court for further opening the doors by its preposterous rulings giving corporations more and more influence in campaigns. Another quote by Martial should have given the esteemed justices pause for thought.

Whoever makes great presents, expects great presents in return.

A Nation Adrift: Studies Confirm The Slow Sinking of the US Middle Class

by Nomad

Due to economic policies of going back 30 years, studies show, the American middle-class is withering on the vine. While the US may still be the richest country in the world, that wealth has not trickled down to the middle class at all, compared to other nations. The effects of this shrinkage of the middle class could spell big trouble in America's future. 

Falling Behind

Most of us have known for quite some time now but a New York Times article has recently confirms the fact. According to an analysis of the numbers based on surveys reviewing the last 35 years, figures show that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.
In other words, the impact of income inequality based on flawed policy is driving Middle-class families to the point of extinction.

The numbers, based on surveys conducted over the past 35 years, offer some of the most detailed publicly available comparisons for different income groups in different countries over time. They suggest that most American families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality.

Hardly startling news, of course, but the proof is fairly conclusive when compared to other countries. 
If studies are anything to go by, then it isn't that America overall is being poorer, only that the middle-class is withering away. The top half of the income scale is still wealthier than any other nation. Indeed, when it comes to global economic growth, America is still a powerhouse, but that's not the problem. The problem is the middle class is clearly not benefiting. 

While America might remain the most wealthy country in the world, the actual distribution of that wealth has changed considerably since our parents' day. As a New York Times article explained:

With a big share of recent income gains in this country flowing to a relatively small slice of high-earning households, most Americans are not keeping pace with their counterparts around the world.

And a comparison of nations makes pretty grim reading. While median income has risen in other countries, in the US, adjusting for inflation, median income per capita has remained virtually unchanged since 2000.

The same measure, by comparison, rose about 20 percent in Britain between 2000 and 2010 and 14 percent in the Netherlands. Median income also rose 20 percent in Canada between 2000 and 2010, to the equivalent of $18,700. Other income surveys, conducted by government agencies, suggest that since 2010 pay in Canada has risen faster than pay in the United States and is now most likely higher. Pay in several European countries has also risen faster since 2010 than it has in the United States.

The cause of the decline are obvious but that doesn't mean they are easy to fix. There will be no quick fixes. It will take compromise and concerted effort to reverse the trend. 

That's something that seems to be in short supply in Washington.  

Billionaire Tom Perkins' Kristallnacht Fears: Isn't There a More Accurate Historical Parallel?

by Nomad

Recent remarks from one member of the super-wealthy class comparing the treatment of Jews to how the 1% is being treated by progressive stirred a lot of controversy. That should have been expected.

The Nazi comparison was deeply flawed but another historical period- the time just before the French Revolution- might be a lot closer to the mark.

Recently venture capitalist Tom Perkins raised a bunch of eyebrows after comparing the so-called persecution of wealthy Americans to the Nazi campaigns against the Jews. As high level executive in many computer and technology related companies Perkins' net worth has been estimated at $8 billion. 
In an open letter to the (News Corporation-owned) Wall Street Journal, Perkins  said:

"Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich.'

Progressive war? And he did not stop there.

"This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?"

Progressive radicalism descended from Nazism? Really? What kind of education did this man get? Home-schooling?