We Are The Dollars and Cents

August 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

NOW THAT WORLD FINANCIAL MARKETS ARE PLUNGING yet again and people everywhere face rising income inequality, I thought I’d post this song by Radiohead called “Dollars and Cents,” from their 2001 album, Amnesiac. As with most songs, meaning is open to interpretation, but with lyrics like We are the dollars and cents/and the mark and yen/We’re going to crack your little souls…, the group predicted the economic and social conflicts we find ourselves mired in today:

Oh Why don’t you quiet down?
(Maybe I want peace and honesty)
Why don’t you quiet down?
(Maybe I want to live in the children’s land
And you know maybe, maybe I)
Why don’t you quiet down?
(Maybe I’ll wander the promised land
I want peace and honesty)
Why don’t you quiet down?
(I want to live in the promised land
And maybe wander the children’s land)
Quiet down! (Yeah, and there, there we can free)”

Give the song a listen to below. Lyrics and more info from Green Plastic Radiohead.

Filed under Economy Tagged with , ,

The Dangers of Inequality in the U.S.

February 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

© University of California-Berkeley

ONE OF THE REASONS FOR THE UNREST IN THE MIDDLE EAST is high unemployment and its cousin, income inequality—the very things that are prevalant in the United States today.

Americans suffer from some of the same economic ills that drove hundreds of thousands into the streets to demand change this year. But Americans don’t like to confront inequality in their daily lives, even though it affects each of their lives (unless you’re in that magic top one-hundredth of one percent).

We all feel it. We know what’s going on. Will it finally drive us into the streets, as it has in Wisconsin?

Here are some facts about inequality in the U.S. today:

    Difference in the hourly earnings of high-paid and low-paid employees: 364% (Source).

    CEOs during the 1960s earned on average $42 for every $1 earned by wage workers. Today, that ratio is $344:1. (Source).

    “It’s the Inequality, Stupid” explains everything that’s wrong with America in eight charts: for example, Wall Street profits up 702 percent, while unemployment is up 102 percent. (Source).

    Learn more: 20 facts about inequality from the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality.

Filed under Politics, Poverty Tagged with , , , ,

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