Activism and History writing assignment - NR

[Checks Bank Account] More Fake News! Smh.

 

     At one point in our lives, we all have been there at one point: being broke sucks. But, like all things in life, if you cannot laugh at your situation from time to time, then it is just going to make everything much worse. We live in a world in which understand why we would be worried about a "disappearing middle class", but I don't understand why we are trying to stop a widening wealth gap. “Humor is a good way to make people pay attention, who might otherwise tune you out. Absurdity can be an effective means for changing the parameters of a debate.” The Interventionalist.

     Wealth, when measured in money, goes from zero dollars to infiniti dollars. The poorest you can get is to have no money ($0), but there is no limit to how rich you can get. As time goes on and as new products are invented, it makes sense that we would have people that are richer than ever before. In fact, I think we would want to have richer people now than 2000 years ago because it would show technological progression. There will almost always be someone with $0, so if we have richer and richer top earners, it means that the wealth gap will continually get bigger.

     It's really only a problem when the poor and middle class are not seeing a rise in wages that is at least equal to inflation. And it's especially problematic when the two are connected: the reason the wealth gap is widening is because the rich are getting richer by exploiting those beneath them. Benefits are being slashed, workers are being kept at part-time employment so they don't qualify for those benefits, retirement funds and 401k plans are being raided, etc. The real source of the problem, I think, is the corporate mentality that your business is only considered profitable if you exceed the profits you earned last year. That model is unsustainable. Eventually, you're going to be as streamlined and efficient as possible, and you won't be able to save any money by trimming away extra fat. Eventually, you're not going to be able to find cheaper parts and labor for your manufacturing. Eventually, your market is going to be saturated and you're not going to be able to find more customers. So, what's a poor CEO to do when that happens, but he still needs to meet quarterly projections? Start taking money from his employees, of course.

    

     Gaku Tsutaja – Project to dismantle the Enola Gay In the video, the performing humanoid parakeets look like the parakeets in the drawings, with faces covered by cloth and beaks made out of paper. Without sight, Gaku tried to imagine being at a point-blank distance from the explosion. Gaku enacts the characters in their imagination, which is inspired by documentary photos, movies, and books. The Post-National Museum of Parakeet History is an attempt to express what some people try to remember with documents, as well as what history wants us to forget.  

     Very recently, we celebrated Veterans Day, Veterans Day is always an occasion among progressives to talk up the GI Bill. And, indeed, that 1944 legislation was truly remarkable, helping millions of returning veterans go to college and buy homes in the great postwar suburban land rush. Unfortunately, we often forget the darker side of this story -- which is how African-American veterans were denied many of the benefits of the GI Bill. Why is this part of the story important to remember? Because it helps explain the ongoing challenges of African-Americans to build wealth and achieve intergenerational mobility.

     Economic success in America is often seen as a reflection of what kind of family a person was born into, how hard they work, and what kinds of opportunities exist in the economy. Of course, though, the story goes much deeper than that. How well a person's parents were positioned financially tends to reflect the well-being of the family they grew up in and, in turn, how their parents and grandparents did.

     Roger Shimomura American Guardian - Today’s world again abounds in anxiety-producing occurrences and harsh realities. News reports bear witness to heart-rending instances of international displacement, discrimination, intolerance, and violent acts of hatred. It is often remarked that man’s history is repetitious. “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.”

     Research shows there are all sorts of positive outcomes associated with households owning assets. “In our present economic system, where making culture and making money are deeply intertwined, each of us participates in the capitalist system, no matter how much we might wish to think otherwise.” Seeing Power And for that reason, the huge racial wealth gap in America should be deeply alarming -- especially given how that gap has actually grown in the past five years due to an epidemic of foreclosures in communities of color, many of which were systematically targeted by predatory lenders, including respected banks like Wells Fargo. 

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     Debra Priestly strange fruit 32 – The power of association and the storytelling tradition can be invaluable tools. “I am interested in common rituals, such as the preparation and consumption of food, and the way in which everyday objects used in these rituals can inspire a dialog.”  

     Food or media? Food and media can both be consumed- but one is talked more than the other. For example, what President Trump is doing, or not doing. The Kardashians, or Nike’s latest ad. All are types of media we consume- daily. How is this important? Why is it that the media does not cover the importance of financial literacy, or economic wealth gap? I believe the issue is that the distribution of wealth is pouring into the mega-rich at a much faster rate than it is for any other income class. Do you as a middle-class American make more money and live a better life than the middle Americans of 50 years ago? Probably. 

     Could you be living a much more fulfilling and financially sound life if wages increased like they were supposed to and large corporations/billionaires took more share of the tax and income burden? Absolutely. We're living in a post-scarcity society, and a lot of the jobs that were available and paid a living wage back in the 50's and 60's no longer exist. “To read a work one must also read the underlying infrastructure to make legible its aesthetic and political composition. This ability to read a phenomenon based on the infrastructures of resonance around it is what I refer to as seeing power” Seeing Power At that point, we're going to need to make a choice. Do we allow millions of Americans to starve and live their life in poverty, while the rich reap all of the rewards of our capitalist system? Or are we going to focus efforts on redistributing the wealth from the top 1% back down to the rest of America, so people can live modest lives without being left out on the streets?

     “Can there be revolutionary art without a revolution? No.” The Interventionalist.

The fact that women are at a historical socioeconomic disadvantage should come as no surprise. They get paid less and live longer, which means women need to survive longer on less money. On top of that, we have fewer savings than men do, naturally. These issues are exacerbated for single mothers and for the many women who end up being the sole breadwinner for their families — often these two are one and the same — who manage their finances alone. Being financially literate was something that you figured out as you grew up. Turns out, personal finance is something you actually have to learn. I want to know what’s going on around me, and my personal finances are no different. And I’m willing to start a revolution to the awareness of financial literacy. If I (or you) can understand how to manage money, I (we) can build a strong foundation for my (our) personal and professional goals. And I'm willing to start a revolution.

N. Raagas