Income Inequality in America (Mother Jones Graph)

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

This has been posted a billion times, as for my measly $0.02...

- The reason for the wealth gap in the US is the difference between those who own and those who labor. As our economy has developed, the value of labor has increased. As layers of labor are multiplied and value succesively added, the eventual wealth of the final owner increases exponentially. The reason the gap continues to increase is that labor is becoming more and more valuable while the proportion of those that labor and own remains mostly unchanged.

- The "problem" is that this paradigm of laboring and owning is dated. Everyone who labors can (should?) be entitled to some ownership of the value they create.

- One way to accomplish this is meritocractic pay scales/bonuses/incentives for all members of corporate organizations, not only upper management. People who aren't getting these have the responsibility of organizing/unionizing to negotiate for them. There should be more strikes in the US. This is one of the few areas in which I feel the French are doing it right.

- The other, more powerful way is by marketing one's individual skills through the internet in whatever way possible. Everyone, everyone, everyone that has any kind of skill that can be sold online has NO excuse not to have a personal business website. NONE. This is the next really great unlocked potential and equalizer presented by the internet. Most people now use it. Most people are actually on it in a small way through social networking. But still a small minority of people market their skills through it. It takes a week's work and a couple hundred bucks. There's really no excuse.

- At the end of the day it's America and nobody owes you shit. But the tools are there with not a lot of intellect and not a lot of work to get what you're worth. If you want to work for it.

Being Well-Informed is Overrated

One of my favorite quotes in the Matrix Trilogy is the following from the Merovingian:

"You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect."

I've all but stopped paying attention to political news in the past year, and feel much better off for it. This is partly because all for-profit media is by definition biased and therefore uninformative -- Keith Olberman and Glenn Beck are the same person, they just happen to play for two different teams -- and because I feel like America has already defined itself. There haven't been any major changes in the country since I've been an American nor do I expect there to be. We generally agree on where we fall between socialism and free capitalism, evidenced by the fact that we've had a divided government for around 75% of my life. In other words, the status quo hasn't really moved.

You can get ahead quicker here if you work hard than in other countries. Whether you work hard is a choice. At the same time some people fall off the table. The fact that among these some are needy is a shame, as is the fact that some are lazy. But I believe, for better or worse, this is how we have defined ourselves.

I vote, and occasionally give small amounts of money to campaigns I like. These are the only two things I do in terms of politics that have any real consequence, and "causality." And when I do them, I inform myself so as to make decisions I feel are good.

Everything aside from that, reading or watching daily political news, taking time out of my work day to blog about my political apathy, or pretending to be incensed about some particular topical political issue just to exorcise general frustration is not real action. So why not spend the time on things that do have real consequence in society: doing good work, trying to be a good friend, volunteering, starting businesses, being healthy?

And let the information you consume be about these things? Or be about being fun? Like videos of dogs doing parkour or awesome Europe-themed dance videos?

Cat Abortions and Buddhism

Over the weekend I sent a pregnant cat of mine to be aborted. It was an easy decision.

I have three cats now, Yuki, Louis, and Sparky, all of which came to me somewhat unexpectedly over the course of the past six months. Yuki was starving in the rain; Louis was the kitten of a street cat my neighbors had adopted, and Sparky (“Spartacus” for long, a beautiful name for a female cat, I know…) was also loose on the street. Louis was house kept, but Yuki and Sparky were legitimately suffering on the street, Yuki, close to dying.

By taking the cats in, I felt I was doing a small thing to end suffering. South Philadelphia isn’t a friendly place for street cats – lots of cars, lots of concrete, lots of mean people, the possibility of becoming dog fight bait.

So, what would have happened had I not had Sparky aborted? I suppose no one really knows. But, I know that keeping any more than three cats in the house, in addition to officially stamping me as a cat lady, wouldn’t be kind to the new kittens. There isn’t enough space. It might not be cruel in the form of animal hoarding, but they would suffer – they wouldn’t be happy and free. I could have given the kittens to a shelter or to an adopter, but then who knows what would have happened to them. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t suffer.

So instead I made a simple appointment with the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society to have Sparky aborted and spayed. She is still a tiny cat, and in retrospect, she must have been pregnant when I brought her in, as Louis is already neutered. When I made the appointment, they were very careful to avoid the word “abort,” instead preferring to use only “spay.”

So now Sparky seems happy. I would certainly imagine the aborted kittens suffered briefly, but I hope their further unnecessary suffering was avoided through their death. And just because it was an easy decision, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t very sad.