The French Model: Will Climate Change Spark a World Wide Revolution?

by Nomad

Can we afford to ignore the growing impact of climate change on the stability of nations? Are we facing the potential of a global chaos that will make the French Revolution look like a playground squabble?

On the Brink

Scientists tell us that the world stands on the brink of a radical shifting of the global climate patterns.  From the data, we can at the very least assume, the effects will be unpredictable and it is very likely that there will be more losers than winners.

However, if you think that those dire predictions lay in the distant future, you would be incorrect. A report from the UN's climate science panel last year noted that climate change has already cut into the global food supply. What caught the attention of the government officials from 115 countries who reviewed the report was a blunt and categorical statement. 

Climate change, the report warned, could threaten all aspects of global food security. At this time there was enough evidence, the scientists said to say "for certain that climate change is affecting food production on land and sea." 

That is not based on projections but effects found in real-time.

A Quote about Income Equality...from 1908

by Nomad

The book, Labor and Neighbor: An Appeal to First Principles, was publish in 1908, one year following the untimely death of its author, Ernest Crosby.

Class Mobility: Why Moving Up is Just a Dream for Many American Children

by Nomad

Recent studies about class mobility in America reveal some interesting findings on upward mobility- the core principle of the American Dream. 
They suggest that one key factor between making that dream a reality or not could just be where you happen to live.

A recent study, commissioned by  the Equality of Opportunity Project and funded by the National Science Foundation, made some interesting correlations. Researchers found that areas with greater mobility-where people can rise out of the class they were born into- tended to have five characteristics: 

• less segregation, 
• less income inequality, 
• better schools, 
• greater social capital,
• more stable families. 

Researchers are quick to point out that the study was more about finding patterns. The study was not an attempt to decide what is a cause and what is an effect.  In any event, the findings themselves provide valuable information about the state of cyclical poverty in the US.

Where You Call Home

One factor is simply where you live. For example, the cards are stacked against the poor in the Southeast and the industrial Midwest. Basically, if you are poor there, you're stuck. 

On the other hand, if you are born poor in in the Northeast, Great Plains and West, including in New York, Boston, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Seattle and large swaths of California and Minnesota, you may be able to climb out of the inherited hole. At least, there's a chance.