Welcome to Rodney Roberts tertiary website!

Originally, this web site was set up as a work site while revamping my e-Portfolio.  Now it is being used to offer economic and social commentary, specifically the growing disparity between the super-rich and everyone else.  As I find links of interest, they will be presented and sometimes commented on.  The material, I hope, will be thought provoking and not from the lunatic fringe.

Prisoner's Dilemma deals with payoff matrices between economic participants.  The payoff matrix can be one of several states: cooperative (somewhat analogous to Pareto optimality, win-win); defection (think "market forces", win-lose, zero-sum game); punishment.

"Obama Is Making America A Socialist Nation"

"Jobs That Americans Will Not Do"

"Obsolete"

Links & Commentary

I offer up these links (some of these go back to 2009 and may seem somewhat outdated) to provoke thought - many of their points are valid, though I do not agree with everything they say.   Labor does not want government handouts - Labor wants a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and for those jobs providing a fair day's pay to be available, not shipped off to China or India.
I must confess to being a conservative, but the Republican Party of Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower no longer exists.

Reagan insider: 'GOP destroyed U.S. economy' David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, "Four Deformations of the Apocalypse."

And speaking of destroying the economy . . .
Maybe it is already too late - Larry Summers: The American Economy is Sick
"the US is now halfway to a lost economic decade"

Four time bombs that will blow up Wall Street Commentary: Too late to jail bank CEOs; only revolution will succeed.
This is from a mainstream Wall St journalist - the Rich do not care they have bankrupted America (they have their gated communities, private schools, and so forth).
Treason anyone?

Danger! Falling middle-class incomes
Incomes for 90% of Americans barely budging since the '80s, and fallen over the last few years. Here are some who have seen their earnings drop.

From America's Economic Malady: A Bad Case of 'Baumol's Disease' comes the graph shown below:

The green bars shows average income increase percent for the years 1947 - 1979.  For example, the Middle Class (Middle fifth on graph) saw their income increase 9.25% every year on average during 1947 - 1979 (the post war years). All  income groups had an income average increase between 7.17% and 9.83%, not too huge a difference.

The red bars shows average income increase percent for the years 1979 - 2004 (the shift from manufacturing to a finance based economy; offshoring; trickle down economics; jobless recovery; the new normal).  Notice that the middle class only received a 0.84% average annual income gain - not even 1/10 of what they had received during the post war years!  Notice that only the Rich Elite (Top 1 Percent, the uppermost part of the richest 20% or Top fifth) had any significant gains - and many of them are saying that minimum wage laws should be eliminated, that unions have unrealistic wage demands, that the taxes they pay should be reduced.

Those most affected by minimum wage laws are in the Lowest fifth, which had the smallest increase.

While the above bar graph shows percent, the line graph at How the middle class became the underclass shows in dollars from the early 1900s to 2008 - comparing median income vs. the upper 5% income.

American Labor does not have a problem with the Rich Elite earning this much - as long as they do not take it from our paychecks by offshoring jobs.

Obviously, a case of wealth redistribution - to the Rich Elite - as hinted at in Taxes: Upper Class Cuts Leave Middle Class Bleeding.
". . . many of the country's richest citizens are paying a smaller tax rate than its poorest . . ."

Poverty in the U.S. spikes
Looking at the graph at the above link, appears that poverty was at its lowest level somewhere around 2000, and then just took off.  Yep, that trickle down economics just works wonders - for the upper class.  For the rest of us, trickle down economics means that the upper class urinates down our backs while they tell us it is raining and it is golden.

U.S. jobs continue to flow overseas
See also the link below - after all, labor must make sacrifices so CEOs can receive a larger bonus this year.  While in Grad School a few years ago, during an advanced management class, I remember an Adjunct Instructor (a Citibank senior manager!) said that labor must adjust so that American companies remain competitive.  That reminded me of an infamous quote - late 18th century France, Marie Antoinette - "Let Them Eat Cake"¹ - how the French Commoners were supposed to 'adjust' due to the economic bungling and excesses of French Royalty.  Are CEOs and Wall Street the new 18th Century French Royalty?

CEOs - The More You Cut, The More You Get Paid
The more people that are laid off by a company, the greater the CEO's pay.  These laid off employees then collect unemployment; if it is during a period such as the Great Recession (see 'Job Killing' CEOs: The Worst of the Worst), they may become a burden on the taxpayer by becoming eligible for extended benefits.  Or they may become underemployed, and qualify for such things as food stamps, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and other forms of aid, again becoming a taxpayer burden. But many states have found a partial solution to that dilemma - just reduce the number of weeks unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks.  This has the added benefit of reducing the official number of people unemployed, making it appear that unemployment is decreasing.
And For Jobless, Florida Set To Become Stingiest State In America - reducing benefits from 26 to 23 weeks maximum, less depending on unemployment rate (12 weeks minimum); primary purpose is to cut unemployment taxes on businesses.  So reduce unemployment benefits, ship the jobs overseas, fire the workers, and ruin Main St. economy so no one can get a job. Is there something wrong with this scenario?

Perhaps we should replace Labor Day with Corporate Day.

Bottom Line - there is a significant chance that the American Taxpayer indirectly subsidizes the CEO's pay raise.

And how some of 'those people' are spending all that money - Wall Street Excess Is Back: Hiring A Dwarf For A Bachelor Party, $40,000 Cell Phones.

Some small business owners (Small Business Owners Demand Repeal Of Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich) want more aid for the middle class, not an extension of the Bush tax cuts.

Americans Vastly Underestimate Wealth Inequality, Support 'More Equal Distribution Of Wealth': Study
There are some differences in the statistics about how much of the wealth the upper 20% control - some say it is 80%, others say 84%, and a few say 93%.  This may be due to the wealth concentration is accelerating.

10 Scary New Realities Of Today's Job Market: Vault.com (PHOTOS)
I have heard of two emerging trends among employers (the first point has not been verified, but the second point has been verified):
1. If someone with an Associate's Degree should barely be able to do the job, then an applicant with a Bachelor's Degree is 'over-qualified'.
2. Only the currently employed will be considered for a position. (NUNA - No Unemployed Need Apply)

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse
Going off the gold standard (free market set currency exchange rates); extraordinary growth of public debt; vast, unproductive expansion of financial sector; steadily sent jobs and production offshore.

Corporate tax reform: Talk grows louder
When Corporate droids lament the 35% top corporate tax rate, just consider these extreme tax breaks.

Capitol Hill's Top 75 Corporate Sponsors
Hmm, The Best Government Money Can Buy?  Recently, the U.S. Senate had an opportunity to close an offshoring tax loophole - they blew it.  Gee, I wonder why?
And in Democrats Increasingly Scared Of Angering Deep Pockets, Survey Says
we will soon have (if not already) Government of the Corporation, for the Corporation, and by the Corporation.
Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can identify their corporate sponsors.

And speaking of corporate lobbying, how about the COICA act that was passed by a Congressional Judiciary Committee?  See What Has Riled 96 Prominent Internet Engineers and 49 Law Professors?. This is a law that would shut down a web site with a court ordered injunction, without any due process, for actual or alleged copyright violations.   The Recording Industry Association of America (remember the RIAA suing 12 year old little girls?), the Motion Picture Association of America, and others are very happy with this act.  Yes, Internet enabled copyright infringement is an issue that must be dealt with, but not this way.
Perhaps it should be called the CLOACA act.

The STEM Crisis Is a Myth
Forget the dire predictions of a looming shortfall of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians (STEM) - it's a big lie propagated by Political Action Committees funded by major corporations.  Their goal is to increase H-1B visa (temporary foreign workers) limits in order to drive down wages in the STEM fields.  This is why recent Computer Science graduates as well as older Engineers are working at Amazon warehouses, Wal-Mart, etc.

Berkeley Daily Planet Public Comment presents a valid analysis in Corporate Immigration Agenda.   Business executives and public officials seem proud of their presumably idealistic perspective, which is really just lip service.  Their true goal is a workforce who they can pay the lowest wages they are able to get away with.

Corporate tax breaks do NOT lead to increased employment, employee training, plant updates, Research and Development.  It only leads to increased cash hoarding and outrageous CEO salaries.
Why Tax Breaks Won't Stop High-Tech, H-1B Human Trafficking

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