Rachel’s Musings

We’ve all shaken our heads in awe at the gargantuan fortunes of the richest folks in the U.S. Bill Gates tops that list with $59 billion in net worth, give or take a few million, thanks to market fluctuation. He is the tip of the iceberg of (former) CEOs racking in the big bucks. United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies take an annual look at Executive Excess.

Some of their findings:

Back around 1980, big-time corporate CEOs in the United States took home just over 40 times the pay of average American workers. Today’s average American CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker’s pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general.

The highest earners in 2007? Private equity and hedge fund managers - the top 4 making more than $1.0 billion each, yes, that’s a B! Can someone explain to me how anybody can possibly deserve this much money? It’s disgusting!

I found this report while hunting down the income of oil company CEOs. UFE looked at those in 2006:

The top 15 U.S. Oil CEOs were paid an average of $32.7 million in 2005 while the average compensation for CEOs of large U.S. firms in all industries was $11.6 million.

This couldn’t possibly be the reason why our gas prices keep going up, now, could it? I am sure their record profits also play a factor. Of course, they blame it on our high demand for oil. I certainly agree that we are overconsuming but I am sure those CEOs don’t live in small, solar-powered houses…

Overall, all this points to the growing economic discrepancy in the United States and in the world. How long this is sustainable remains to be seen, however, that one of the top CEOs in 2006 was at Countrywide Financial should make us at least pause. All of this excess might come tumbling down like a house of cards…

Obama’s remarks about what is going on in working class America have created a wild-fire that the Clinton camp is trying to use to derail Obama’s campaign. I hope that someone is working on looking at the data that I would expect support his assessment. Michael Moore’s Roger and Me already showed the depressing Flint, Michigan that was left behind after General Motors closed plants there. Why do we think that people who had their jobs moved or downsized are not bitter? I’d be bitter! Well, angry, too.

There is some data that I want to look at in this context: the correlation between income and religion. The Pew Forum on Religion has published data of income by religious affiliation. Except for Jews and Hindus, religious affiliation decreases with income. Nationally, 50% of people who are affiliated with a religion make less than the median U.S. household income (or about $48,000 in 2006). But, apparently, it is not okay to talk about relationships like that. Instead of lambasting Obama, it is time to start a national dialog about how to ensure that we’re not loosing the middle class. Part of that discussion needs to include understanding why people are religious, think guns are important, and, most importantly, why they are antipathetic.

There’s now a blog devoted to Bitter Voters for Obama. Arianna Huffington has also weight in with the sad recommendation that McCain can go on vacation since Hillary is doing his work for him.

About a month ago, I was wondering out loud if there is something underneath many of the symptoms that we are witnessing. Something that ties them all together. A very interesting article by Charles Shaw on Alternet suggests that our overconsumption shows the patterns of addiction. Thus one of the symptoms I identified might be a key to unraveling all the symptoms.      Continue reading this post » » »

Excuse me, would someone please let me know what century we’re in because I feel like I’ve been transported back to the middle ages. The Democratic Representative Monique Davis (member of the Illinois State House) demanded that Rob Sherman “get out of that seat” during his testimony because he was spreading “extremely dangerous” ideas. Sherman was testifying against Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $1 million grant intended for Pilgrim Baptist Church.

I think Ms. Davis owes all of us atheists an apology. And the Democratic Party needs to remind Ms. Davis that the Constitution of the United States did not set up the US as a religious country. In fact, last I checked, we’re supposed to have a separation between church and state. I find it rather disturbing that a Democrat can say such nonsense. Let’s hope she won’t be able to get away with it…

More info on Richard Dawkin’s and PZ Myer’s blogs.

At the same time as Ms. Davis insults atheists, the Democratic Presidential candidates refuse to debate science. As the Science Debate reports, they are “declining our invitation to debate science in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton yesterday agreed to attend “The Compassion Forum,” a forum of “wide-ranging and probing discussions of policies related to moral issues.”" Apparently, neither candidate realizes that science issues are moral issues and that we have a moral obligation to support science, otherwise, the US will become less competitive and our prosperity is endangered. The Why Files are presenting some interesting science questions for the Presidential candidates with some disturbing implications for the future health of the U.S.

Update: According to Rob Sherman, Monique Davis has apologized.