How the Greens gaslight us all . . . but especially the poor.

How the Greens gaslight us all . . . but especially the poor.

 
"According to the World Bank, between 1990 and 2019, as emissions surged, the proportion of the world’s population in extreme poverty fell from 38 percent to 8.4 percent. Food production similarly soared from 2000 to 2020, with global primary-crop production rising by 52 percent, meat production by 45 percent, and vegetable oil production by 125 percent. Those figures well outstripped population growth and resulted in the daily caloric intake rising in every region of the globe. At the same time, the real global economy nearly doubled in value."

https://www.city-journal.org/article/climate-reactionaries?

"Solar and wind are incapable of delivering the power needed for industrialization, powering water pumps, tractors and machines — all the ingredients needed to lift people out of poverty. As rich countries are now also discovering, solar and wind energy remain fundamentally unreliable. No sun or wind means no power. Battery technology offers no answers: today there are only enough batteries to power global average electricity consumption for one minute and 15 seconds. Even by 2030, with a projected rapid battery scale-up, they would last less than 12 minutes. For context, every German winter, when solar is a

its minimum, there is near-zero wind energy available for at least five days — more than 7,000 minutes."

Opinion: The rich world became wealthy by exploiting fossil fuels | Financial Post

"It Is often reported that emerging industrial powers like China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh are getting more power from solar and wind. But these countries get much more additional power from coal. Last year, China got more additional power from coal than it did from solar and wind. India got three times more electricity from coal than from green energy sources, Bangladesh 13 times more and Indonesia an astonishing 90 times more. If solar and wind really were cheaper, why would these countries not use them? Because reliability matters.

The usual way of measuring the cost of solar simply ignores its unreliability and tells us the price when the sun is shining. The same is true for wind energy. That does indeed make them slightly cheaper than other electricity sources: 3.6 US¢ per kWh for solar, just ahead of natural gas at 3.8 US¢, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But if you account for reliability, their real costs explode: in 2022, one peer-reviewed study showed an increase of 11-42 times, making solar by far the most expensive electricity source, followed by wind."

Bjorn Lomborg: Why solar and wind power aren’t winning (yahoo.com)

"Smartphones, computers and electric vehicles may be emblems of the modern world, but, says Siddharth Kara, their rechargeable batteries are frequently powered by cobalt mined by workers laboring in slave-like conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kara, a fellow at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and at the Kennedy School, has been researching modern-day slavery, human trafficking and child labor for two decades. He says that although the DRC has more cobalt reserves than the rest of the planet combined, there's no such thing as a "clean" supply chain of cobalt from the country. In his new book, Cobalt Red, Kara writes that much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called "artisanal" miners — freelance workers who do extremely dangerous labor for the equivalent of just a few dollars a day."

'Cobalt Red' describes the 'horror show' of mining the element in the DRC : Goats and Soda : NPR

Make your voice heard in your investments

What can you do about the "DIE" (diversity inclusion equity) mania infecting the corporations in which you or your pension are invested? And start calling it DIE, because that's the intention. It's certainly not "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

DIE has nothing to do with good values or Biblical morality or basic fairness. And no, the poor benefit the least. And the middle class foots the bill. The purpose of a business or corporation is to make money for the investors and to allow the CEOs to make ridiculous salaries while benefitting all the employees, but if they can punish the little guy start up competition by schmoozing with the latest fad and Democrat bosses, they will. It's the capitalist way. Without government interference and over regulation (to benefit their buddies), capitalism still frees the most people and in the last 30 years has lifted millions out of poverty. Back in 1990, The World Bank reports that 1.85 billion people lived in extreme poverty, but by 2013, the figure had dropped to 767 million. Socialism didn't do that. Socialism holds people back. It killed 100,000,000 in the 20th century. Capitalism works from the bottom up. The poor who risk their lives to cross our borders know that; our politicians don't. Nevertheless, smart capitalists fight the competition by joining what appears to be the enemy (socialism).

First, you'll need to start reading the documents that come with your investments. Second, you'll have to start voting. Yes, it's a pain. And I rarely read that stuff. Third, you may just have to write a letter or join/support a conservative political organization (not the GOP!).

Here's what I got from TJX today--that's formerly Zayre, and includes TJ Maxx and Marshalls. It has 4,557 stores in 9 countries, and based on the lie and line from the Left about Asians, I suspect many stores or suppliers are based in Asian countries. The DoJ tracks hate crimes (a stupid idea, I think), and this figure is so low that most cities report zero, and that which is reported is primarily black on Asian. It ignores the liberal crime of discrimination at Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

TJX annual report for 2020: "The increasing violence against the Asian and Pacific Islander communities is another stark reminder that injustice exists and that we must continue to work toward a better future for all. We are committed to listening to, and learning from, our Associates and taking actions to do better. We also broadened our charitable giving strategy to provide more direct support to Black communities, and increased our global giving to provide an incremental $10 million in grant funding over 2020 and 2021 to organizations that are actively working to support racial justice and equity. Hate has no place at TJX. In terms of environmental sustainability, we were pleased to exceed our goal to reduce our greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions per million dollars of revenue by 30% by the end of fiscal 2020, against a fiscal 2010 baseline, by achieving a 47% reduction. We also announced a new GHG goal, which is a 55% reduction in emissions from our direct operations by fiscal 2030 against a baseline year of fiscal 2017, a science-based target aligned with the United Nations’ Paris Agreement guidelines."

"Global giving" to organizations supporting racial justice is just blackmail. No black child will benefit. It's probably BLM, Inc. which has recently been in the news for the billions it's taken in from gullible white led corporations and white liberals so its Marxist founders can buy mansions and protest. It does not promote jobs or education, it exists to stir up trouble and make its founders rich (an old trick for non-profits which they probably learned from clever white people).

We all know that the Paris Agreement guidelines hold back American companies and allow Chinese factories to belch coal fired smoke and send us wind power blades that can't be recycled when they've ended their "service." When you see them filling up our prairies they are ugly as sin.
And no one even knows if reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) is a good thing--you've been told that. Science certainly doesn't agree. It's throwing billions at a future problem you can't measure and can't define, instead of improving life on the planet right now in real time.

So, you'll need to vote or write. Make your voice heard. Stop letting the Left drown you out!!!

The old Democrat line again

At a Townhall yesterday, Biden said, "No one should work 40 hours a week and live in poverty." According to government statistics, no one does. Even during the Clinton administration decades ago, it was shown that to avoid poverty 3 things are required.

1) Finish high school,

2) be over 21 and married before having children, and

3) have a full time job.

Just those three can lift most children from poverty and break the cycle. If both parents are working 40 hours a week even at minimum wage (the old one) the family won't qualify for poverty programs because their income would be too high. It's not that there aren't exceptions like mental illness or intellectual deficiencies, alcoholism, drug abuse and illness which might prevent full time work, but overall, Joe is lying to us.

This speech was the old Democrat chant and whine for more money to redistribute among their faithful, and that ours is not a land of opportunity. You can never make America great again under Joe because legislation will prevent it.

Democrats continue to make these 3 simple rules, articulated in the 1990s by Ron Haskins in a Brookings report, difficult for the low income.

1) They denigrate and ridicule the value of marriage/children in all the cultural areas they control,

2) they weaken the necessary moral principals to sustain the education system by focusing on intersectional, racial and social issues leaving millions of children uneducated in the basics for employment, and

3) they make it difficult for young people to get good employment through programs that punish the employers, like raising the minimum to job killing levels.

Franklin Country death rate from Covid: .0066

I've been looking at the Ohio "Dashboard" for Covid this morning. The state fatality rate is .012 from Covid with 922,143 cases and 11,695 deaths. If your loved one has died of Covid, that's 100% for your family, however, closing down the state and listening to terrifying news every evening for .012 death rate seems callous for the rest of us, especially the elderly who can't see their families, and the young adults whose careers and businesses have been shattered.

Now a look at the counties. Huge differences in cases and death rates. Our three largest counties are

Franklin (Columbus, the largest, has gained 13.2% since the 2010 census), death rate .0066

Cuyahoga (Cleveland which was the largest in the 2010 census, but has lost 3.5% in a decade) death rate .013

Hamilton (Cincinnati) death rate .0069

Franklin Co. had the most cases, and the lowest death rate.

I looked at the race/age/poverty figures, and Cuyahoga (Cleveland) is older, with a larger minority population, and higher poverty rate. I'm no expert in statistics, but the spread between the races appears much smaller than the age spread. Because the co-morbidities increase with age, this could be the reason. In developing countries, for instance, the death rate is lower than the U.S. and Europe even though they don't have as good a health system. They have younger populations. (And maybe they were allowed to use HCQ?)  My friend Anna Loska Meenan, a retired physician, says India’s death rate is a fraction of USA, and they can buy HCQ over the counter.  Trump was right and was demonized by the media and the medical establishment.

https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards?

More files for the trash

I'm throwing out files from 40-50 years ago. I was a Democrat then. I wrote to anyone who would listen/respond from Robert Lazarus to the chaplain at the Ohio Penitentiary, from the Principal of my kids' school to the public library director, from the Columbus Dispatch editor to our church's education director--about prison conditions, bank practices that hurt the poor, story hours that included racist or weak female story lines, the number of black clerks that Lazarus hired for Upper Arlington Kingsdale, fair housing practices and the morally squishy material from ELCA. I remember attending meetings to discuss the need for a local food warehouse that was going the "end" hunger, and a planning group for a community center for Upper Arlington. I was carrying posters at the state house about the ERA. I was beyond woke, but I was asking specific people and companies to change their policies. I wasn't asking the government to do it. I guess I should have organized some protests and thrown bricks through windows instead of writing letters. 

What if Joe Biden had worked as hard on these issues as I did? Maybe he might have made a difference in his 40-something years in "service."

Poverty simulation workshop at Ohio State

Another way for poverty pimps to earn a living--put on workshops for churches, non-profits, and academe. OSU is promoting yet another one. Participants get to feel virtuous by planning a budget using government programs guaranteed to keep people in their place--including the ones who sign up. It's an industry supporting the middle class.

There's nothing like a job to pull someone out of poverty, but consciousness raising never reduced single motherhood, or a poor education, or a prison record, or mental health challenges. Unmarried parents is the primary cause of childhood poverty. Back in the day (early 80s) when I worked for the state of Ohio and either attended or planned these gatherings (we didn't call it simulation then, just information on state and federal resources) we were told by those above us, our experts and leaders who lived on government grants, that one needed to earn at least $10/hour to go beyond what the state/federal programs could offer. For 1983 that was unheard of! Those of us earning our living doing this didn't make that unattainable salary. I don't know what the figure is today, but the 2019 median income for middle class was $68,703. The government, btw, has no official definition for middle class.

Leanne Brown is not a poverty pimp, but she wrote a hugely successful cookbook on eating well on $4/day SNAP budget. And she made it free. She's a Canadian. https://www.leannebrown.com/cookbooks/... I don't know if the OSU poverty simulation teachers will tell you, but I'm telling you, these are really great, nutritious and cheap.

Which cities have the highest rate of unmarried families?

Smartest Dollar this week features cities with the most single parent families--also the poorest in society (as a group--not all single parent families are poor). Ohio doesn't score well--Cleveland (73.3%) and Columbus (49.4%), #1 and #8. For smaller cities, Dayton (70.1%) was #1. https://smartestdollar.com/research/cities-with-the-most-single-parents-2020?

The solution for government workers (deep state and elected) is to throw more money at it. But when you look at the stats, either in print or in a graph, it primarily took off after the War on Poverty and affected more blacks than whites. In the worst days of Jim Crow, Blacks had a higher marriage rate and lower unemployment than whites. Driving dad out of the home with promises of government assistance in his place has been very harmful for the black family. But whites have followed the trend with marriage being considered a non-essential until other needs are fulfilled.

Also, not mentioned in this article is the effect of the pill and abortion in convincing women that they could go it alone.

Then when you see which ethnic group has done the best in solving this, it isn't whites, it's Asians, who have the highest marriage rate, the lowest unemployment and the highest education rate of any group in our society. It doesn't even mention that in the article, but you can check it in other sources.

Marriage, not government programs, is the solution to child poverty. What does BLM want to destroy? The nuclear family--i.e. marriage--because of its link to personal property and religion. Which group as the highest rate of child poverty because of unmarried parents--blacks. This is a statistic BLM will tell you is racist, because marriage is racist.

You don’t have to go 3,000 miles to become a missionary

Apparently my subscription to Magnificat lapsed a month, and I didn’t get the August 2020 issue, so I decided to reuse the August 2019 issue.  This morning’s reading (which I don’t recall reading last summer) included a story about Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.  I’ve always had a soft spot for him, even though I’ve only read a few items by the popular 19th century American writer.  I remember him for the 4 titles in the deck of cards “Authors” a game which my mother and grandmother encouraged for slow Sunday afternoons at Grandma’s house at her farm near Franklin Grove, Illinois.

Rose was the daughter of two prominent, socially connected families, the Hawthornes and the Peabodys. After she married George Lathrop, also a writer, the couple converted to Catholicism. Later his alcoholism which worsened after the death of their only child Francis, caused them to separate, but she never stopped caring and praying for him.  I haven’t read enough about her life to find out what led her to care for impoverished cancer victims, but that’s the direction of the rest of her life. One article I read noted she was a friend of Emma Lazarus, the poet, who first introduced her to the horrors of 19th century poverty.  At first it was just her working along for the cancer victims, then another volunteer, and eventually, she was allowed to establish a Dominican order,  Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. 

". . . service to Christ's poor did not simply mean that this lady of culture, education, and social status would put on an apron and offer gifts from her abundance. She decided to live among the poor, to beg for them as they did for themselves, and to establish a home where they could live in dignity, cleanliness, and ease as they faced their final days on earth . . .There was to be no class system, no 'upstairs/downstairs' for her residents. She and her religious sisters would be the servants. The residents would be the object of all their care and concern."

There are 3 houses, and one is in Atlanta, Georgia.

https://georgiabulletin.org/news/2018/12/family-chaplain-speak-of-hawthorne-dominicans-life-changing-oasis/

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/rose-hawthorne-daughter-nathaniel-becomes-candidate-catholic-saint/

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/faith-and-character/faith-and-character/the-remarkable-rose-hawthorne.html

Remembering our “golden” past of the 1950s

It’s interesting that even liberals who see everything in the 21^st century as dark, racist and the fault of the GOP, can think of the 50s-60s in Mt Morris, Illinois (or Oregon, or Polo, or Columbus, Ohio) as a time of a golden era. I read a lot of blogs, and that misty, foggy view is common among 70-80 year olds. My husband whose high school was larger in acres and people than Mt. Morris, thinks the same thing. Of course, it’s not true; go through your high school annuals and you’ll see people who were white, but were marginalized because they were fat, or ugly, or low intelligence or unathletic or who never got the help they needed or who dropped out of school after 7^th or 8^th grade at age 16 or 17.

(I think this is 1954, confirmation class Trinity Lutheran for 1957 graduates) 

The U.S. in 2020 is so much less racist, less unfair, with more opportunity and ladders to success for the poor than we enlightened folk of the 50s could have ever imagined. We had devoted, but poorly paid teachers, and today the average hourly wage for a public school teacher is over $67/hour—far more than accountants, architects, librarians, farmers, and muffler repairmen. And statistically, there are far fewer poor and marginalized all over the world. Unfortunately, there’s something about being human – enough is never enough. We’re greedy and ungrateful to God for all he supplies. Slavery is also a bigger trade in the 21^st century than it was in the 18^th yet, U.S. and Europe are expected to take the blame for what happened 300 years ago. Life will never be fair. Some things at the micro-level are better, but the macro tells a more ominous story. And people still use the specter of slavery to grab power as well as to build your smart phone.

The U.S. federal social statistics are difficult to read because they always move the goal, but in 1959, families in poverty in the U.S. were 20.8%, and families headed by women were 49.4% (that was a much smaller numerical figure then). In 2018, the last year for compiled stats, poverty for families was 9.7% and for families head by women 26.8%. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-people.html The federal government aid has done a lot to dismantle the economic model of the family, but a lot of economic aid is poured into that mistake, and the female headed households are not the victims they used to be, despite the gap. And as I’ve noted before, I still remember the first time I saw a black man in a TV series (Bill Cosby, I Spy) and the first time I saw a black man as a retail clerk in a major chain (Penney’s, Champaign, IL, early 1960s).

So let’s keep some perspective. And watch for the power grabs of today, much of it happening very quickly in the fog of the pandemic.

Loneliness is the worst poverty

The guest pastor this morning quoted Mother Teresa on loneliness being the worst kind of poverty, but when I checked I think he must have paraphrased because I couldn't find the exact one. But I may have found one even better.

"During a speech in 1994 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., she said, “I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home where they kept all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them into an institution and forgotten them – maybe. I saw that in that home these old people had everything – good food, comfortable place, television, everything, but everyone was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on the face. I turned to Sister and I asked: “Why do these people who have every comfort here, why are they all looking toward the door? Why are they not smiling?” I am so used to seeing the smiles on our people, even the dying ones’ smile. And Sister said: ‘This is the way it is nearly every day. They are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten.’ And see, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty… When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society – that spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome.” "

Intentions don't bring results

"Conservatives have been saying for years that our inner cities are laboratories where the far-left experiments with policies based on feelings rather than facts. These big-government experiments have ended in failure, harming the very people the far left says it wants to help." Kay Coles James

And I might add, the leftists have been so successful at getting government funding and donations for their "think tanks" and 501-c3 and c4s, they are working their same magic in our upper income suburbs, vacation spots, and churches. Except they don't use the ploy of wanting to help us--but we must help others (as they pass the hat). They fund the marches, the protests and the blocking by Big Tech. Conservatives are doing what they've always done--they go to work, mind their own business, sing in the choir--and then shazam--their town, church and clubs have been taken over by the virtue signalers who say black lives matter and we believe in science (code for climate change).

Poverty, then and now

"The problem of the poor is not the availability of jobs, for the economy has generated so many new jobs during the past decade that anyone who can't find a job just doesn't want to work. And the problem isn't taxes because most poor folks don't pay taxes, and many actually receive checks from the government in the form of the earned income-tax credit. No, to close the income distribution gap, the next president will have to have the courage to say that the path to upward mobility for the nation's least-well-off begins at the marriage altar." Joseph Perkins, Jan 26, 2000, black columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune (now retired)

And 19 years after this column and 55 years after the trillions spent on the War on Poverty, politicians don't want to believe it because they need the issue for votes, money and power.

There are 92 major government programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care and social services to poor and low-income people at a cost of $1.1 trillion per year [2017 figures]. But only 4 of those programs have work requirements, and even those have gaping holes. Yet to listen to Democrats running for the highest office in the land and Socialists in government, honest work has no dignity (i.e. doesn't buy votes). Only give a-ways matter. Let me give you free stuff and keep you poor. Vote for me.

https://www.heritage.org/welfare/commentary/encouraging-work-lifts-people-out-poverty-the-green-new-deal-wont-do

Why does the left lie about poverty? Because they can. It's like lies that police shoot blacks and women earn less than men. We don't have a responsible media to call them out, to research it or correct the lies.

This report on the results of welfare reform is from 2016--before Trump was elected. But they were screaming lies then too, just like now. They were probably preparing for a Big Clinton Win and raising taxes for another battle in the 50+ year War on Poverty, our most expensive war in history. Politicians, non-profits, churches, authors and academics all "need" the appearance of poverty so they can make more. The wealthier got richer due to increased regulations and over sight by their friends in government, the poor got more transfers and paid no taxes, and the middle class got screwed.

https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/did-welfare-reform-increase-extreme-poverty-the-united-states

Since 50% of Americans don't pay federal taxes (they are too "poor" unless you add supplemental sources transferred from others, then they are too well-off to be poor), you can see why Democrats have to shout out "free stuff" and "raise taxes" to the middle class in order to get votes. Thus, they plan to impoverish about 3/4 of the nation so politicians can be the only ones with wealth.

How the Census over counts poverty

Are you surprised if our borders are flooded with illegals who ignore our laws? They know the Democrats will protect them, pay for college, let them vote, not require citizenship, and even supply pro-bono lawyers for crimes, and it must look like the streets are paved with gold for the poor.

In the United States, in 2015, there were 43.1 million people the Census said were living in poverty (a very misleading figure).

Poor households routinely report spending $2.40 for every $1 of income the Census says they have. (Some figures are from 2009 even though article is 2016) https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/09/13/15-facts-about-poverty-in-us-government-buries/

"The average poor American lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair and has more living space than the average nonpoor person in France, Germany, or England.

Eighty-five percent of poor households have air conditioning.

Nearly three-fourths of poor households have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.

Nearly two-thirds of poor households have cable or satellite TV.

Half have a personal computer; 43 percent have internet access.

Two-thirds have at least one DVD player.

More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.

One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV." . . .

"In 2014, government spent over $1 trillion on means-tested welfare for poor and low income people. (This figure does not include Social Security or Medicare.) Welfare spending on cash, food, and housing was $342 billion.

The cash, food, and housing spending alone was 150 percent of the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the U.S. But the Census ignored more than four-fifths of these benefits for purposes of measuring poverty. Effectively, the Census counts poverty in the U.S. by ignoring almost the entire welfare state."

Poor are getting rich

"The poor in the world are getting rich at a rate that is absolutely unparalleled in all of human history. I think a large part of that is happening in Africa. By the way, here’s another lovely piece of news, the child mortality rate in Africa is now the same as it was in Europe in 1952. That’s an absolute miracle. It’s insane that that’s not front-page news, right? That within a lifetime. And the fastest-growing economies in the world are also there." Jordan Peterson, Heritage Foundation,

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/04/08/jordan-peterson-explains-what-draws-people-to-socialism/

Who killed the Golden State?

Ten million Californians have fled in the last generation. When my family lived there in 1944-45, the Oakies and Arkies were flooding the place--it was the land of opportunity and new beginnings. Now their grandchildren are leaving.

If you believe charging higher taxes is the answer to poverty, educational system failure, violence, bankrupt pension funds, then California should be a lesson for you. Who killed the golden goose and golden state?

The hallmark of all liberal thought--self righteousness.

". . .one of the landmarks of the new California mentality is denial and self-righteousness that assume it is illiberal to notice that a quarter of the nation’s homeless population sleeps on California streets, or that violent crime is 20 percent higher in California than the national median, or that San Francisco ranks No. 1 in per capita property crime rates of all the nation’s largest cities."

Coastal California is a lot like feudal Europe--only richer.

"So there is a separate state of Coastal California, a manor of prosperity. And it is probably the richest urban area in the world, or rather in the history of civilization — drawing on its geostrategic location, long coastline, weather, climate, blue-chip universities, and high-tech industries. Residents have the disposable income and leisure to live the life of aristocrats — and do so if gauged by their lifestyle choices, travel, hired servants, and appurtenances."

Victor Davis Hanson assesses the sad state. https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/california-coastal-elites-poor-immigrants-fleeing-middle-class/

10 steps to ending poverty–Jay Richards

Guess what—it isn’t socialism!

This is a Christian solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XyJd4w5f1g

He’s a little long winded, but when he gets to the point, this is it.

1. Rule of law.  Like the 10 commandments.

2. Limited government.  Methods in place to limit jurisdiction of the state.

3.  Formal property.  In Haiti, if you wanted to lease land from the gov’t it would take 19 years and 100’s of forms.

4. Economic freedom. Hong Kong is #1.

5. Strong mediating institutions.

6.  Purpose driven universe.

7.  Right cultural mores. Respect for rights of others.

8.  Understand wealth and poverty.  Set up win/win situations.

9.  Focus on your comparative advantage.

10. Work hard.  This works in the U.S., but not in all countries if you don’t have access to property or freedom.

California's poverty rate--highest in the nation

"It’s not as if California policymakers have neglected to wage war on poverty. Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now. Myriad state and municipal benefit programs overlap with one another; in some cases, individuals with incomes 200 percent above the poverty line receive benefits, according to the California Policy Center. California state and local governments spent nearly $958 billion from 1992 through 2015 on public welfare programs, including cash-assistance payments, vendor payments, and “other public welfare,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unfortunately, California, with 12 percent of the American population, is home today to roughly one in three of the nation’s welfare recipients. The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse."

City Journal

California has the highest poverty rate in the country!

I heard this on the radio today and couldn't believe it, but here it is in the Orange County Register.
https://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/25/california-leads-the-nation-in-poverty/

How can it be that a state which is (I've heard) the 5th largest economy in the world, that has the film and TV industry locked down, that has the tech businesses controlling our lives, that is a lovely tourist attraction both artificial and natural, that has a fabulous climate, gracious purple mountain majesty as well as the amber waves of grain, or at least broccoli and garlic fields, that has all the diversity of race and creed that we are always told is desirable. How? Why?

While the rest of the country is blossoming under President Trump, California is dead last in business expansion. Socialism on the cusp. Environmentalism and climate change hype run amuck. Regulations stifling business out the wazoo. And governor Moonbeam.

Victor Davis Hanson explains how this has happened incrementally.  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/20/mismanagement-in-california-means-heavy-price-for-/

What is storytelling?

Lately I’ve been hearing/reading the expression “telling the story” or “story telling to fight injustice,” “the narrative,” . . . as in  “young people can bring about social justice by simply telling the stories of who they are and what they have experienced.”  https://pj.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2016/06/06/making-change-by-changing-the-story/

Really?  That’s all it takes? When I watched Christiane Amanpour interview the British woman last night, the Brit used the expression about “telling our story” several times.  I have no idea what that means other than entertainment value like the “moth porch stories” we’ve begun at Lakeside, or listening to learn more about family.

“The goal [of a non-profit for young people] is to creating programming that allows for young people to tell the story of “what it is to grow up economically poor, Black and brown in this country, to be educated in poor schools, to be in communities that are inundated with drugs and violence, but to overcome that.” That ability to take back the narrative of who they are develops a strong sense of empowerment within young people that allows them to “form a moral and ethical code – who they are as young people – helps them become leaders and social change makers” in a cycle that continues to fight poverty decade after decade. These youth then end up seeking out roles in their communities and abroad, continuing the narrative that young people can bring about social justice by simply telling the stories of who they are and what they have experienced."

Twenty five years ago I had prepared a family story and cook book for a Corbett reunion, and was chatting with my Aunt Lois who died two weeks ago at 92.  Different members had brought along old photographs to share, and there was one of her in the late 1930s, heighth of the Great Depression. She looked fabulous.   I made a comment about the family being poor, and she laughed (she had the greatest laugh in the whole family) and said—“We had no idea we were poor.  In the Depression everyone was poor.”

So I’m wondering how encouraging children to look at their homes, schools and neighborhoods as being victims of a cruel society helps them achieve, get good jobs, find the right life partner, and raise a family.

Shifting language--income inequality isn't poverty

Democrats spend a lot of time twisting language to their own use, and now "income inequality," or "income gap," or "income disparity," has come to mean "poverty." The hype is unreal. Of course cutting corporate taxes is good for anyone, it's hard to work for an appliance or computer company that has relocated in Thailand.

And of course, the people who pay the most will get most of the breaks--the top 10% pay 2/3 of the taxes. If you cut taxes, it won't be the bottom 10%--they aren't paying any. Most of the people at the bottom in any one era, move out and up, but they can't do it without jobs.

I don't care if Serena Williams is worth $150 million and her husband Alexis Ohanian is only worth $9 million. Who is hurt by this gap/disparity and inequality? Did she take money from him in order to be worth that much and he so little (comparatively speaking)?