Democracy Blast

Food stamps in your county and state

The New York Times offers an interactive map of the United States showing rates of food stamp usage. While across the nation, 11.5% is the average number of people receiving food stamps, the areas in dark blue in the map show rates of 50% and above. By rolling your cursor over the map, you can see data specific to each county--including your own.

The data was collected in June 2009, and reveals that “The number of food stamp recipients has climbed by about 10 million over the past two years, resulting in a program that now feeds 1 in 8 Americans and nearly 1 in 4 children.”  

An accompanying article states that “More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare.”

What’s your experience of food stamps in your county?

To discuss food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), click on the “Comment” link below.  

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Corporations = humans; sky = limit

The Supreme Court decided last week that corporations have First Amendment rights that allow them to spend as much as they choose for ads in political elections, providing they don’t give directly to a candidate. This ruling, which passed 5 to 4, overturns a century-old law that placed limits on political campaign spending by special interests. 

The New York Times states that “The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted.” 

Those worried about the influence of unlimited amounts of corporation money coupled with no restrictions on when their ads can be run, might take heart in knowing that the justices agreed that Congress can require corporations to disclose their spending and to run disclaimers with their advertisements.  

As Susan Liss of the Brennan Center for Justice explains, “In Britain there is a law that requires disclosure of corporate political expenditures to shareholders, with specific numbers, and also requires pre-approval by shareholders before corporations spend their money on elections. And that system seems to have actually limited the amount of money that corporations have contributed in British elections.” 

What do you suppose the odds are that the current Congress would pass such measures? 

To discuss corporate political spending, click on the “Comment” link below.  

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Where to donate: Charity Navigator

If you’re responding to the natural disaster in Haiti or looking for a charitable tax write-off, you may be interested in independent information on charitable organizations.

CharityNavigator.org rates charities based on their organizational efficiency and organizational capacity. It currently rates charities responding to the crisis in Haiti, as well as its usual listings, including an Alphabetical Listing as well as: 

   

10 Most Requested Charities

10 Charities with the Most Consecutive 4-Star Ratings

10 Most Commented Charities

10 Least Reviewed Charities with High Ratings

10 Highly-Rated Charities with Low Paid CEOs

10 Super-Sized Charities

10 Slam-Dunk Charities

10 Charities Drowning in Administrative Costs

10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard Of

10 Charities Routinely in the Red

If you are able to, it’s a good time to give.

To discuss donating, click on the “Comment” link below.  

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Talking about money

 People are talking about money: you’ve probably already heard about the MoveYourMoney.info campaign, or seen its clever “It’s a Wonderful Life” mashup video.  Here’s the idea: move your money from the big banks to “smaller, community-oriented financial institutions that generally avoided the reckless investments and schemes that helped cause the financial crisis.”  The site helps find a local bank based on your zip code, and reports that since its campaign began on Dec. 29, daily traffic has more than tripled on a credit union finding site.   

Another popular (populist?) idea is microfinancing, which takes the loaning and borrowing away from banks and allows those with means to make small loans to those in poverty.  While Muhammad Yunus, who received a Nobel Prize in 2006 for his work, initially focused on third world nations, he expanded his vision to include America, and has inspired similar endeavors.  In addition to Yunus’s Grameen Bank, microfinancing sites include Prosper, Loanio, Fynanz Inc, and the Lending Club.

If you’ve been complaining about those banks that were “too big to fail” and which now seem reluctant to loan out the money they’ve received from US taxpayers, there are ways to put your money where your mouth is. 

To discuss microfinancing, click on the “Comment” link at the bottom of the Blast.  

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Are you in debt?

Meet the blogger of the site FinanciallyFlawed--One Mom’s Quest to Stop the Cycle of Crippling Debt.  She has just started her blog, and has just started digging her family out of credit card debt of nearly $37,000 and student loans that top $138,000+.  She explains how she and her husband racked up the debt, outlining their specific mistakes and the lessons learned from each.

Having taken the brave step of telling the world just how much they owe, she now intends to publicly work toward becoming debt-free, one day and one blog at a time. An early accomplishment: cutting up the credit cards. Log in to watch her progress, cheer her on--or become inspired to tackle your own “debt mountain.”

Or check out how the average U.S. consumer spends their paycheck. Trent, who writes the SimpleDollar is intrigued enough by this image that he intends to offer tips and info on each of the 21 items that make up the average budget--promising at least ten tips for each item, one a day for the next three weeks.  Like the FinanciallyFlawed Mom, he also spells out his earlier money errors that led to his personal “financial armageddon.” 

If you’re in debt, maybe you’ve made getting out of it a New Years resolution...if not, it’s not too late to do so.

To discuss debt, click on the “Comment” link at the bottom of the Blast.  

This weekly “Democracy Blast” is brought to you by Democracy Talking. 

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Do salaries match the value of work?

 

Here’s a wildly radical idea: what if society were to reconnect salaries with the value of the work preformed?  This startling concept is proposed by the U.K.-based new economic foundation in a paper entitled A Bit Rich: Calculating the real value to society of different professions.

Perhaps you won’t be surprised that the paper concludes that the lower-paying positions of a hospital cleaner, a recycling plant worker and a childcare worker are more valuable than the better paid City of London banker, advertising executive and tax accountant.  The report attempts to quantify the social, environmental and economic value produced by these roles, which were deliberately chosen to illustrate what nef regards as a social problem.  

The report states “The least well paid jobs are often those that are among the most socially valuable – jobs that keep our communities and families together. The market does not reward this kind of work well, and such jobs are consequently undervalued or overlooked.”  It’s conclusion: “there should be a relationship between what we are paid and the value our work generates for society.”

The report also offers some policy recommendations, including building social and environmental value into prices, and the introduction of a more progressive taxation.

This report focuses on England--how do you think its findings compare to American society?

 

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Meet the Interfaith Amigos

Photo by Josh Anderson for the NYTimes 

If you’re not yet already acquainted with them, the holiday season is a good time to meet the Interfaith Amigos.  Rabbi Ted Falcon, Sheik Jamal Rahman and the Rev. Don Mackenzie came together in the wake of  Sept 11 to conduct interfaith workshops--and they have ended up charming audiences with a mix of humor and their obvious deep friendship and respect.

Despite sometimes playing it for laughs, the amigos take on serious issues of faith. A recent New York Times article describes how, at a church in Nashville, the three clergymen “stood up one by one and declared what they most valued as the core teachings of their tradition. The minister said ‘unconditional love.’ The sheik said ‘compassion.’ And the rabbi said ‘oneness.’

The room then grew quiet as each stood and recited what he regarded as the ‘untruths’ in his own faith. The minister said that one ‘untruth’ for him was that ‘Christianity is the only way to God.’ The rabbi said for him it was the notion of Jews as ‘the chosen people.’ And the sheik said for him it was the ‘sword verses’ in the Koran, like ‘kill the unbeliever.’

‘It is a verse taken out of context,’ Sheik Rahman said, pointing out that the previous verse says that God has no love for aggressors. ‘But we have to acknowledge that “kill the unbelievers” is an awkward verse,”’ the sheik said as the crowd laughed. “Some verses are literal, some are metaphorical, but the Koran doesn’t say which is which.’”

In addition to Youtube, you can also find the Interfaith Amigos on Facebook and on their website. 

To discuss the Interfaith Amigos, click on the “Comment” link below.

Those hacked emails...

One of YouTube’s “channels” offers an engaging series of videos that you might want to check out.  A journalist/science writer has created the channel to “explain in simple terms the conclusions of scientific research and correct some of the unsourced crap you get fed on the Internet.”  As you can tell from the description, the channel favors a straight-shooter tone.

One of its most popular videos in its Climate Change series (145,000+ views) is “Those hacked emails.”  The subject is tackled with a certain humor and attitude.  Other offerings in the series include The Scientific Debate, Gore vs. Durkin, and Isn’t it Natural?   

In two days, the Copenhagen climate talks will come to a close, but there’s still much to be said about climate change.

To discuss the hacked emails, click on the “Comment” link below.  

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What’s your number?

 

The Environmental Protection Agency offers a nifty little “carbon calculator” to give you a ballpark estimate of your personal or family’s greenhouse gas emissions.  Okay, it may not sound like the most fun you’ve ever had, but check it out--it’s interesting to see how you compare to the average American.

As for how the average American compares to the average rest-of-the-world person--well, you’ve probably already guessed that we’ve got them all beat when it comes to producing greenhouse gases.

And that’s why the recent news that the EPA has concluded that those gases are detrimental to Americans’ health is so important. This “endangerment finding” creates the possibility of increased government regulation of emissions, regardless of whether Congress is able or willing to take action. 

At the U.N. climate change talks currently underway in Copenhagen, the world will be watching to see if America will lead the way--or will continue to drag both our feet and our massive carbon footprint. 

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Taking a Bath

 

According to professor John Sterman, people have a hard time grasping this simple idea: that a system can be overwhelmed if we put more into it than we take out.  Picture a bathtub with the tap running full force.  The drain is open, but more water is going into the tub than is going out. For some time the system continues to work--but eventually it is overwhelmed.

As NationalGeographic.com points out, the water level can represent many quantities in today’s world. “The level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is one. A person’s waistline or credit card debt—both of which have also become spreading problems of late—are two more. In all three cases, the level in the tub falls only when the drain runs faster than the tap—when you burn more calories than you eat, for instance, or pay off old charges faster than you incur new ones.”

Most people, including Sterman’s MIT students, believe that simply keeping emissions at present levels will be enough to overcome climate change.  Which means, as Sterman points out, “that means they think it’s easier to stabilize greenhouse gases and stop warming than it is.”

But Sterman also assures us that “People can learn this.”  The bathtub analogy is a great way to help us visualize what’s happening to our planet in terms of global warming--which is the first step in stopping it. 

To discuss the carbon bathtub, click on the “Comment” link below.  

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