Economically Crippled

During the past few years we have been hearing about the increasing wealth gap. We have watched the Occupy Wall Street movement morph into the Occupy Movement and slowly fade away with the assistance of local government aggression. Meanwhile the economic status of most Americans has continued to dwindle and more specifically the effects of this economic drought has devastated the African-American Community. A recent report titled New Report: Blacks are “Beyond Broke”shows exactly how dire the economic stimulation has become for African-Americans in this country. According to the article the liquid assets of African-Americans in America is a measly $25! How can an economy survive when a large portion of its population cannot afford to exist within its boarders? This is a resounding example of the systemic economic blockade that has been forged in our country. What will it take for this segment of the population to wake up and realize the horrendous condition in which they exist? These are the questions that we continue to ask, while still trying to bring to light the sad realty of a nation that has yet to acknowledge its own responsibility for the creation of the very system it denies to exist.  Please be sure to click the above link to see the full article.

A look at Unemployment Worldwide

We often think of unemployment in a local sense, meaning the unemployment rate in Detroit or Los Angeles.  Even when we are presented with a national number we often times try to immediately find where our local area fits into that statistical space.  The truth of the matter about unemployment is that this is a global issue that is affecting people around the globe.  More importantly this issue is taking a specific aim at our youth.  This means those individuals who are under the age of 25 yrs. old have the highest unemployment rate worldwide.  A new report in today’s issue of Huffington Post called “Unemployment Plagues Young People Around The World” sheds light on this epidemic and gives statistical and graphical information relating to this issue.  The greater problem here is that if this pattern continues there will be an entire generation of people who will be deprived of any work experience that could help them develop into productive citizens of society.  This type of behavior would lend to the further proliferation of over crowed social assistance programs and a global increase of individuals who have no other alternative than life in the streets as a survival tactic.

In order to curb this behavior there has to be a sense of urgency among the most improved industrial nations.  The G20 summit is held on a yearly basis and many of the nations mentioned in the above report are participants in the summit.  This then begs to question how can the most financially dominate nations also have some of the highest unemployment rates?  Why are these economies so top-heavy in the first place?  Primarily we need to look at those nations who pride themselves on the classic “Trickle Down” method of economics and see where they place.  Clearly this is a method that only serves particular groups, but in the end is creating a global epidemic that could potentially wreak havoc on our larger global community.

The Sequester and People of Color

The Sequester at this point is not news.  We all have been inundated with the deadline and how many Americans will loose there jobs if Congress does not act and stop this travesty.  What has not been discussed is which Americans the Sequester will affect the most.  The recent article Top 10 Reasons Why People of Color Should Care About Sequestration gives a clear picture of who will be affected the most.  With many things in our country those who can least afford economic setbacks are usually the first to be affected by them.  Please click the above link for an in-depth look at how the Sequester will affect people of color.

What’s Happening In NYC?

 According to a recent CNN Radio news report NYC budget cuts cause homeless crisis the number of new homeless families is skyrocketing.  The report states that because of budget cuts families that once received rent subsidies are now finding themselves homeless.  The major question at hand is does saving city budgets by increasing the number of homeless in one of the world’s most famous city’s make sense?  One thing we must keep in mind is that if these types of cuts are taking place in NYC, they must also be taking places in smaller corners of the U.S.  We must find better solutions to budgetary concerns before we place families on the street.

Can Someone Say Boycott?

This years Presidential election in many ways will be one for the history books.  For the second time in as many Presidential elections, Americans turned out in record numbers to choose the leader of our nation and at the same time made history by re-electing the first president African-American President in post-constitutional America, but there is another historic events lurking just beneath the surface of things.  Prior to what turned out to be one of the most contested elections in modern history several American businesses vowed to layoff workers and raise prices if President Obama was re-elected and the day of reckoning has come.  Many of those “American” businesses have followed through with their threats and laid-off workers while others are threatening to raise prices on their products.  One such business owner, John Schnatter of Papa John’s has threatened to slash workers hours and increase prices due to the “Affordable Care Act”.  There are several company’s threatening the same action.  The issue at hand is whether we as American citizens should support companies that threaten the lively hood of fellow Americans based on the results of our political process.  This seems to be some sort of political-backlash because the process did not work in their favor.  At no other time in the history of our nation have such things happened.  How far are the Corporate American Honchos willing to go to assert the fact they want a republican controlled government?  At some point we must stand against the corporate machine and hit them where it hurts; their pockets!  For a list of companies that have made these threats follow the link: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/how-many-businesses-have-announced-closings-or-lay-offs-since-obama-won-a-second-term/

More Disturbing News About Poverty

In an already economically sour environment we are again receiving some dismal information on the drastically increasing wealth gap in our nation.  The following article paints a picture that many of us foresaw six years ago, during the beginning of our nations economic collapse.  Please take the time to read the following article as the author gives us insight on some of the hardest hit communities.  Please click the following: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/rural-poverty-minorities_n_1829911.html

Betrayal of The American Autoworker

For many decades Ford Motor Company has been known as a Detroit powerhouse.  Historically Ford has supplied thousands of Southeastern Michiganders with gainful employment, however it seems that the once cohesive bond is beginning to strain.  Ford recently announced that it plans to build yet again another manufacturing plant in China.  The plant will reportedly cost some $760 million to build, this just two weeks after the automotive giant announced it will spend $600 million to expand one of their existing plants in China.  This equates to over a billion dollars spent abroad on construction and manufacturing supply jobs.  To date Ford currently has three factories operating in China employing some 15,364 Chinese citizens not counting the new facility they plan to build.  In 2006, Ford closed over 10 manufacturing plants in North America of which, 2 were Michigan plants.  It seems that Ford has forgotten the very people who helped build their company to the world-class manufacturing company that it is today.

Ford contest they are expanding their manufacturing in hopes to capture a greater market share of the China’s automotive market.  Ford currently holds a 2 percent market share in China with a goal of an additional 5 percent per year for the next decade.  This lofty goal seems to be somewhat statistically unreachable based on the fact that the Chinese auto market itself has been on a steady decline.  So what is Ford Motor Company really trying to do there?  Is this merely a way for this U.S. Corporation to obtain labor and materials at a cheaper rate?  One thing that is clear is that one of the oldest and largest automotive companies in the world has seemingly abandoned the very community that aided them on their rise to prominence.  This type of corporate community infidelity can no longer be tolerated by American communities whose very founding centered around the beginnings of these now corporate giants.  American communities such as Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh have fallen prey to such infidelity.  These communities continue to struggle with economic recovery in the wake of major manufacturing jobs leaving many in those communities unemployed for years.  The careless attitude of putting profit before employees has to stop.  We as a nation cannot continue to allow corporations to open the global employment floodgates and not hold them accountable.  There has to be some sort of checks and balances that can be instituted to assure that our country’s economic backbone remains intact.

The Unemployed Under Attack Again

Just when we thought our country’s economic status was taking a turn for the better with an unemployment rate below 9% we find that for many these statistics have no impact.  A recent article Unemployment Changes gives us a glimpse at what some of our fellow Americans are about to face.  The article says there are currently five states that are scheduled to cancel unemployment benefits to those that are considered long-term unemployed, meaning these individuals have been unemployed for more than 13 weeks.  The major issue is that the majority of the five states that are cutting the benefits have some of the highest unemployment rates in the country like Kentucky whose 2012 unemployment rate currently hovers at 10.1%.  At some point the our government should stop kicking us when we are down.  If a citizen was previously employed and laid off by a company some sort of training program should be in place to assist these individuals so that they may be retrained or educated for an industry that is currently sustainable.  For more information on the article please click the above link.

Educational Neglect in Chester, PA

The city of Chester, PA like many other city’s in the United States is facing grave financial issues.  Chester’s issues are so extreme that the school district only has $100,000 in its bank account!  This of course will not be enough to cover overhead expenses and employee salaries, so the state of Pennsylvania has stepped in and granted the district $3.2 million in advanced funds.  Even with the advance the district is still set to run out of money by mid-February.  The question at hand is if the state knows that this is not enough money to sustain this school district for the rest of the school year, why are they initiating a financial game that the city cannot win.  This seems to be a nonsense move by the state.  Chester, PA being a predominately African-American city, which once appeared as the murder capital of the America seems to be getting a raw deal from its political “big brothers” in the state’s capital of Harrisburg.

It is no secret that America’s Republican run states have placed a heavy burden on their urban and rural cities by cutting major amounts of funding from education and attacking unionized labor.  The sad thing about all of this is the lack of empathy these Republican ran states have for the children of their own constituents.  How can a government allow a school district to falter in the middle of a school year?  Who will be held accountable for the education of these students?  Along with these questions you have to ask whether or not anything like this would be allowed to take place in Lower Merion, one of the states most wealthy school districts?  I think we all know the answer and could probably speak it with resounding unison.  The only reason this is happening in Chester is that the majority of  the students are low-income.  For in this country cash is king and those who don’t have it get passed by.  If you feel this opinion is incorrect or if you agree leave us some feedback.  For a more in-depth look click on the following link            Chester Upland to get $3.2M from Pa.        

Hope Talk Radio PovertyEpidemc Black Males MIssing 12/18 by HIP2010 | Blog Talk Radio

Hope Talk Radio PovertyEpidemc Black Males MIssing 12/18 by HIP2010 | Blog Talk Radio.