This blog is dedicated to progressive and liberal thought. It also discusses new technology, how technology affects privacy and developments in Russia, China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Rightardia fully supports the rights of workers to organize, the feminist movement, and all Americans regardless or ethnicity, sex or gender.It uses humor, satire and parody to expose conservative thought for what it truly is: BS! Rightardia contributes to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and MoveOn.Org.
ScienceDaily (July 21, 2011) — Most of our society's wealth is invested in businesses or other ventures that may or may not pan out. Thus, chance plays a role in where the wealth of a society will end up.
The study, "Entrepreneurs, chance, and the deterministic concentration of wealth," is published in the July issue of the journal PLoS ONE.
The model predicts that the rate at which wealth concentrates depends on the variation among individual return rates. For example, when variation is high, it would take only 100 years for the top 1 percent to increase their share of total wealth from 40 percent -- a recent level in the United States -- to 90 per cent,
"The implication is that nations with diverse economies should tend to outcompete on the world stage those with large concentrations of wealth, such as monarchies, or established democracies that have allowed their wealth to concentrate," said author Clarence Lehman, associate dean for research in the College of Biological Sciences.
Fargione added:.
To retain the benefits of a diverse capitalist economy, we need economic policies that counter what seems to be the innate tendency for economies to concentrate wealth and become less diverse.
Author Joseph Fargione, is an an adjunct professor of ecology, evolution and behavior in the university's College of Biological Sciences.
The simulations showed that a tax (or other mandatory donation to the public good) on the largest inherited fortunes would short-circuit the over-concentration of wealth. But the researchers don't advocate a particular policy, but note a policy is needed that protects long-term economic stability.
This study suggests that getting wealthy is more about luck more than skill. It also suggest that democracies that allow their wealth to be overly concentrated are less competitive on the world stage.
sources:
Joseph E. Fargione, Clarence Lehman, Stephen Polasky.Entrepreneurs, Chance, and the Deterministic Concentration of Wealth. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (7): e20728 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020728\
"A new study out of Yale University confirms what argumentative liberals have long-known: Offering reality-based rebuttals to conservative lies only makes conservatives cling to those lies even harder."
In essence, a fact-based rebuttal makes conservatives even more rigid in their thinking.
Rightardia agrees. it is a waste of time to argue with most conservatives. Many conservatives have strong emotional components to their thinking. When confronted with a refutation to their ideas, it makes them believe the misinformation even moreso.
Yale Political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler conducted the study.
Nyhan and Reifler did not see the same "backfire effect" when liberals were given misinformation and a refutation about the Bush administration's stance on stem cell research.
Liberals are more likely to have brains that have a larger anterior cingulate cortex while conservatives have larger amygdalas. The amygdala is associated with the limbic system and emotion. The primary role of the amygdala is the processing and memory of emotional reactions.
The limbic system is one of the more primitive parts of the brain. It has a central role in memory, learning, emotion, neuroendocrine function, and autonomic activities
Prior research has suggested that conservatives are more sensitive to threat or anxiety in the face of uncertainty, while liberals tend to be more open to new experiences.
Rightardia agress with this assessment. The president must be resolute or he will lose the next election because Progressives will stay home. Politics is a contact sport and Obama must be prepared to let the government go into default if he wants to win.
No guts, no glory! It's crunch time and we hope its's the GOP that gets caught in the squeeze play.
If the GOP won't compromise, take the government down!
Many evangelicals and fundamentalists think they have put their fates in God's hands and feel they are following the plan God has for them.
Wirehead, out technical editor, worked with a pleasant fundamentalist women who started showing up to work late and got fired.
She took a stoic view of her predicament and said that her present job was not part of God's plan for her.
Rick Perry thinks he knows God's plan for him.
Rick Perry stated:
But I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do. This is what America needs.”
When a conservative
politician starts talking about The Call, you know he or she is serious about running for office.
Perry is hardly the first to receive a presidential summons from the heavens. George W. Bush said God had made clear that He wanted GW Bush to become commander in chief.
Rightardia suspects Bush may have been talking to Satan based on the mess he created in the Middle East and the torture under the guise of enhanced interrogation techniques.
Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain
have also said they are running at God’s behest. In contrast, Mike Huckabee explained that his decision not to run for president was based on God’s guidance.
What is all of the God talk about? Essentially, Republicans are trying to fire up evangelicals and fundamentalists who helped propel GW Bush into the presidency.
If you've been tuning out the fight in Washington over the "debt ceiling," it's time to tune in. Right now.
The New York Times reports that President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are close
to reaching a secret agreement that includes deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social
Security, but have no immediate plan to make millionaires and corporations pay their fair share.
This is an absolutely critical moment for MoveOn members to make an impact.
Democratic Leaders in Congress—including Minority Leader Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid—have consistently said
that a lopsided deal like this is a non-starter.
But if a backroom deal is reached, they'll be under extraordinary
pressure to go along. They need to hear loud and clear from their donors, volunteers, and voters that such a deal would be
completely unacceptable.
Things are moving very quickly right now, so we're joining other key progressive groups
for today's Emergency Call-In Day to Demand They Stand Strong.
Democrats in Congress need to hear that if they stand
firm against any debt ceiling deal that goes after the elderly and poor, we'll have their backs.
Will you call your US senator and ask this person to make clear that he/she will not vote for a deal that cuts Social Security,
Medicare, or Medicaid benefits or a deal that doesn't make corporations and the rich pay their fair share?
Here we go again. Beck claims the US is not a democracy. The ancient Greeks defined the two forms of government that almost all countries use today
The Athenians had a democracy and the Spartans: an oligarchy.
An oligarchy can be ruled by a king or a dictator; In Sparta, it actually had two kings.
Republicans like to suggest that the US is a republic, but that is really apples and oranges.
According to Wikipedia, A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, retain supreme control over the government.
Likewise, in a republic offices of state are not granted through heritage.
The common modern definition of a republic is a government having a head of state who is not a monarch.
Steve Kangas has written:
The U.S. is a democracy -- just not a direct one. Every branch of our government -- executive, legislative, judicial, monetary -- ultimately derives its power from majority rule or approval. By making our democracy indirect instead of direct, the Founders prevented unrestrained mob rule, allowing a more reasonable pace of majority rule, and greater room for compromise.
Kangas also notes that this is a quibble over definitions, because a constitutional republic is a type of democracy.
The Major listened to the audio and thought at least one of the two speakers was drunk because he noticed slurred speech.
Perhaps more important questions are why do Republicans think the US is not a Democracy? Does the GOP think America is a plutocracy or meritocracy?
What form of government does the GOP really want: a plutocracy run by corporations?
Corporatism is just another word, of course, for fascism.
This seems to be what the GOP would prefer for America: a fascist oligarchy run by corporate bosses that emphasizes the primacy of business over the needs of its citizens.
This is exactly what Gov. Rick Scott is trying to push in Florida.
