A few days ago, I received a flyer in my letter box.

This flyer was different from other flyers promoting housing agencies, or insurances or sales.

This flyer is about a Thai monk who was able to help us predict the future, and to know where our wealth lies.

Actually it was not printed by the monk, since I did not live in Thailand.

This advertisement was printed by a grateful person who had the assistance of this Thai monk to solve his problems.

He got rich, and had donated a large sum of money for temple building.

The sentence that “wealth is everywhere” attracts my attention.

The words that come after that hurt a lot.  It says “wealth is everywhere, but do you have it?”

I know that wealth is everywhere, since there are many rich people in the world.

The sun still shines, and the rain still falls.  Growth occurs in the natural world, and we live in a planet of abundance.

However, we do not find that wealth is everywhere, since we are still struggling to make a living.

I keep the flyer for the sake of this sentence, Wealth is Everywhere.

Expertscolumn

Triond

Lebsock, Suzanne. A Murder in Virginia. New York: Norton, 2003.

In A Murder in Virginia, Suzanne Lebsock argues the validity of southern justice by closely analyzing a court case during the 1890s. The issues that arise during the time period are that of race, class, and culture issues.

Lebsock’s novel tells the story in narrative form making a difficult historical trial, into an informative, academic, and easy to read novel. From cover to cover, this murder mystery builds suspense and keeps readers captivated and anxious to know the outcome of the trial. The murder of Lucy Pollard sets the plot into action, since she was the wife of a prominent business man, Edward Pollard. After finding his wife’s body and realizing that a robbery had also taken place the search was on to locate the murder and the thief. Eight hundred dollars had been taken from the Pollard’s making numerous people suspects because they would have a motive. Many people borrowed money from the Pollard’s and Edward become a despised man due to the amount of money he gained through interest, this also allowing numerous local people suspects.  The location is in Lunenburg County, Virginia; but an outsider from North Carolina, Solomon Marable, becomes the immediate suspect within the closely knit community. This suspicious character quickly passes the blame onto three other “African American” residents of Lunenburg County. However, to make matters more difficult, Marable is also an African American. For the residents of Lunenburg County, a mostly white community, they were quick to arrest the four suspects, with more arrests to follow as evidence is an issue.  

Lebsock’s motivation for writing a historical work such as this was to illustrate the justice system of the south. The south being known for slavery and their treatment of African Americans was always quick to automatically assume, that when a crime was committed it was an African American to blame. Lebsock pulls from newspapers, court transcriptions, and other works to accurately narrate a case from 1890s that contained racial injustice. Through this injustice readers obtain the knowledge of how cultural history was much different during this time, in comparison to today. From the extensive bibliography that Lebsock is able to compile during her research on this particular case in history, obvious that much of the information is unknown, nor is it available. Leaving no stone unturned she consults deeds, censuses, and even marriage registers to find information. Historical research can often lead to dead ends, and leave the readers and researchers with unanswered questions. The case of Lucy Pollard is one of those that many implications lead to different suspects. The conclusion of the court case, with race involved but a lack of evidence, makes readers today question who actually committed the crime. Not only does Lebsock deal with the issues of race, but also class since the Pollards were a wealthy white couple.

The narrative compiled in the form of a suspenseful, murder mystery novel draws from a Marxist historian point of view as well social history. The two methods most apparent from cover to cover, allows readers to read the novel as if it were a work of fiction; but by carefully paying attention to the details this book is truly “southern justice on trial.” An enjoyable story, that maintains the academic standards of a historical work, while may be hard to find, has been achieved with Lebsock’s, A Murder in Virginia. Anyone that enjoys, murder mystery novels, and CSI television shows will thoroughly enjoy the novel.  

Those that cling to doubt and suspicion must wake up and realize that a better relationship among nations would help each others economy in which there should be no strings attached. The antiquated system of governments that look inward is fading away. Capitalism does not have to isolate the poor and middle class. There are deficiencies in governments that can be rectified. Globalization can be compared to a long chain, consisting of numerous links, the links being the people in general that constitute each nation. Analogically, the links help maintain the chain. People of every class that are linked to form the chain of globalization should consider themselves indispensable, since globalization must depend on the firmness and strength of the links from which it is formed.

It is time to remove restrictions in trade, and open up avenues of goodwill and trust. Hopefully, when these are realized, peace and understanding would be internationally attained.

It behooves those that remain suspicious about globalization to merge with those that are in favor of getting it off the ground and into the highway of confidence and trust where there would be an acceleration of trade without interruption.

According to some media reports the design of the imposition of this tax will be called Buffett’s Rule, citing the name of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Buffett has previously been quoted as saying by the number of holes of law, then the group of wealthy Americans pay taxes is relatively less.

This occurs due to tax income from investments are lower than taxes on wages. The design of this new tax rules will affect tax payments of Americans who earn over U.S. $ 1 million per year.

It is estimated this proposal will have stiff opposition in Congress, where Republicans long ago said that rejects all forms of tax increases. The U.S. economy is moving very slowly while the unemployment rate remains high, ie above 9%.

Facing the second presidential election next year, President Obama has faced a fierce battle in Congress related to efforts to reduce the deficit to swell as the economy nearly stalled.

Analysis had claim that the this law is specifically aimed at the wealthy is for the purpose of generating more captial within the government and lower the debt rate. However, other hold different opinion. Other think that is is possible for the Americans government to pass this law but the effect is inifnitsimal. The tax payment would only raise small amount of captial around the country. Rich on the other hand has already store most of its wealth in tax free countries like small island nations on the Pacific platform. 

Here is a video about the rising of poverty in the States.

    Wealthy neighborhoods have better funded schools through a larger tax base.  Wealthy families receive the benefits of inheritance, having money in the family to pay for better schooling and to start family businesses, they get better interest rates and can pay for more of their purchases up front without borrowing money, and the list could go on and on.

    All of this creates a state of being where gifted and intelligent children of poor families are at a disadvantage to those of wealthy families.  There is some class movement in American society but not nearly as much as their should be.  This is because of artificial remnants of feudalism and imperialism which provide stumbling blocks against poorer families and provide methods for wealthy families to stay at the top for an artificially long period of time once they reach that position.

Image by faul via Flickr

Even with the best of intentions some programs backfire. Head Start is one of them. It was thought 45 years ago that giving a lift to the poorest 3 and 4 year children would give them a head start at a better education. As it turns out, not so. More than $7 billion dollars has been spent on something like 1 million children each year, and with no good results. A Head Start Impact study found that there was little evidence of any more progress in these children than those who were not part of the program. They didn’t release the data until recently, hoping they could come up with something more positive, they couldn’t.

Image via Wikipedia

Even Social Security for retired workers is in jeopardy. Funds that have been paid in by workers through a lifetime of work have been cleaned out by the government for any of the latest programs devised by Congress. Citizens will be in dire straights without Social Security to see them through retirement. Retirement age has been raised from age 65 to 67 and will gradually be raised to age 70. 83% of high income earners at present pay less than those who earn smaller salaries. Which is a shame in itself. Another case of the rich living off the poor. Many workers are left wondering if Social Security retirement will be available to them.

Publish your articles and earn income.

Tulan’s articles:

http://socyberty.com/issues/opium-for-the-people/

http://socyberty.com/government/u-s-a-government-offices-on-the-internet/

http://socyberty.com/history/who-was-jim-crow/

http://socyberty.com/issues/funeral-protest-from-westboro-church/

http://socyberty.com/society/schools-and-teen-pregnacy/

         Andrew Carnegie is a defender of the duty that is held by all men of wealth; that wealthy are obligated to help even the poorest in their own area. Even the poor strongly agree that surplus of money should be accumulated and directed towards the greater good, to be spent on public purposes which help. Although he is for helping the poor he still argues that a higher class should be maintained. He e argues that he has found “the true antidote for the temporary unequal distribution of wealth”. His ideology may be pronounced Communist but as the article says”… differing, indeed from that of the Communist…” He believes that the justification of the accumulation of wealth should not be taken lightly and should be invested in public matters which will strengthen brethren amongst the country and bringing the to the poor wisdom, experience and opportunities to flourish.

         Within his ideology he proposes what the wealthy should invest their riches in. He has strong beliefs that institutions should arise where art and literature may flourish, great fortunes should not squandered on unnecessary objects and in wills for their children. He believes that upon death, all wealth should be given to public purposes, to strengthen the brethren bonds between rich and poor

It isn’t enough that you know all these things and it isn’t enough that you love what you do.

Society in general gauges you with your purchasing power and financial capability.

It’s stupid and relatively materialistic. Since when did money matter more than values?

People work to live. To get what they want by saving up money, always in hope of a better future. Whether it’s for a certain thing you want or for financial security in the future. Regardless of whether they like what they’re doing, they push through with it because they have to not because they want to.

Companies everywhere are laying off people and declaring bankruptcy. They’re more concerned with how much money they can keep rather than the power they have to help people.

Make no mistake, you can always do something you love. As the saying goes, get a job you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life. It’s just that more often than not, whatever people love to do doesn’t produce enough money to make it through.

The financial strain and the continuous fluctuation of the economy keeps us wondering what we should do next. Always keeping us on our toes, always trying to get ready for any “crunches” that come our way.

We can all be happier if we were earning enough while doing something we love. This doesn’t just promote balance and equality, it makes sure that we are all cooperating and we’re all helping each other hand in hand.

What will happen when all of the top companies declare bankruptcy?

Sometimes I think about what if the richest people on earth (although they have earned it) would just share and spread their wealth evenly amongst people who are in need. No offense, but people like the Ayala’s or the Sy’s, I mean where else could they spend their money on? What else do they need that much money for?

It’s always about the profit, never about the worldly repercussions.

Some people should just stop thinking business and start thinking world progress – and this starts with the people.

We are all human, just because you’re wealthier doesn’t mean you’re better.

I’m not aiming or vying for communism, I’m just tired of seeing wealthy people buying SUV’s while they see starving people on the streets.

Number one, ironically, are the politicians. Who are suppossedly meant to serve the people – instead they’re serving themselves with lavish meals and whatnot.

Granted that some people worked hard to attain this stature and get what they want, wouldn’t it be more fulfilling to send a homeless person to a shelter rather than going to that trip to Boracay?

It’s raining right now. The streets are flooded and full of potholes, the street children are getting drenched and getting cold, and the politicians are too busy smoking their tobacco at their air conditioned mansions.