Lawrence Mead is discussing it at this moment. He's already said poverty hasn't been attributable to racism since the 60s, and that we've "done all we can" about racism.

And he just ran that "jobs Americans are unable to do, unwilling to do" line.

LATER: It is good I recorded this. 

CLASS STRUGGLE
AND THE
ORIGIN OF RACIAL SLAVERY:
The Invention of the White Race by THEODORE WILLIAM ALLEN  Edited with an Introduction
by
Jeffrey B. Perry   Second Edition 2006
(First Edition 1975, Second Printing 1976) 

Theodore W. Allen's other writings include The Invention of the White Race, 2 vols. (Verso, 1994 and 1997), "Can White Radicals Be Radicalized?" (1969), "White Supremacy in U.S. History" (1973), and "White Blindspot" (1967), which was co-authored under the pseudonym J. H. Kagin with Noel Ignatin [Ignatiev]. Available on the internet at Cultural Logic are Theodore W. Allen, "Summary of the Argument of the Invention of the White Race" (Parts 1 and 2), at <http://eserver.org/clogic/1-2/allen.html> and <http://eserver.org/clogic/1-2/allen2.html>; Theodore W. Allen, "On Roediger's Wages of Whiteness," at <http://clogic.eserver.org/4-2/allen.html>; Jeffrey B. Perry, "In Memoriam: Theodore W. Allen (1919-2005)," at <http://clogic.eserver.org/2005/Perry.html>; and "An Interview with Theodore W. Allen" by Greg Meyerson and Jon Scott, at <http://eserver.org/clogic/1-2/allen interview.html>.

This article is an edited version of the pamphlet Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race published by the Hoboken Education Project (which was coordinated by Sean Ahern, Tami Gold, Becky Hom, Jeffrey B. Perry, and others) in 1975 and by HEP and The New England Free Press in 1976. It was also recently published by the Center for Study of Working Class Life, SUNY Stony Brook, Michael Zweig, Director, as Theodore W. Allen, Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race, Edited with an Introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry (Stony Brook, NY: Center for the Study of Working Class Life Edition, 2006). It is a slightly expanded form of a talk originally presented February 23, 1974, at the New Haven meeting of the Union of Radical Political Economists (URPE). With an abridgement of footnotes it appeared as "'They Would Have Destroyed Me': Slavery and the Origins of Racism," in Radical America, Volume 9, no. 3 (May-June, 1975), pp. 40-63. It is also based in part on the unpublished Theodore W. Allen, "Toward an Integral Theory of United States History (Ten Theses)," 1974.

     Printed copies of the 2006 pamphlet are available from Center for Study of Working Class Life (<http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/wcm.nsf>), Department of Economics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-4384.

Allen, Theodore W.
The class struggle and the origin of racial slavery.

SUMMARY: A treatment of racial slavery as a response to class struggle and of the consequences for the entire working class.
Includes bibliographical references.

1. U.S. History-colonial period.
2. Indentured servitude.
3. Bacon's Rebellion.
4. Position of Afro-Americans in 17th Century Virginia.
5. Origin of racial slavery and racism.
6. Early capitalist economy.
7. Slavery as capitalism-slaves as proletarians.
8. Joint struggles of European and African bond servants.
9. Invention of the "white" race.

"Wah, Mr. Progressive! Waaah! Rich people pay most of the taxes anyway!"

They get most of the benefit, too. I suspect if we all paid taxes in proportion to the benefit we receive, the wealthiest 1% would pay 99.7% of the taxes.

Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.

The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, while rates for people at the very top continued to decline.

You should drop by Darkstar's joint.  Read the first 9-10 entries, those dated January 6th and 7th.

Anything over $55 represented the premium, he said. The price of a barrel rose at one point to $78 earlier this year. Lately it has been in the mid-$60’s, because of a world market made tight partly by Iraq.

War and Cheap Oil: A Second Look
By MATTHEW L. WALD

For years, many conservationists argued that the government was subsidizing gasoline by spending billions of tax dollars to keep ships in the Persian Gulf and troops on the ground to assure the flow of oil.

But some oil experts say the picture may be more complicated now that war is raging in the Middle East: these days, they say, the military commitment doesn’t just hide the real price of oil, but also has become a factor in pushing the price up.

Tell every farmer you pay subsides for not growing stuff that they have to grow stuff now...and buy what they grow using the subsidy money. Then tell the Republicans that's how pay as you go works.

The lower tally has led to an underestimate of the grain that would be needed for ethanol, clouding the debate over the priorities of allocating corn for food and fuel, said Lester R. Brown, who has written more than a dozen books on environmental issues and is the president of the Earth Policy Institute. “This unprecedented diversion of corn to fuel production will affect food prices everywhere,” Mr. Brown said.

As a bonus you get rid of those farm subsides for folks who don't even know what a rake looks like.

Rise in Ethanol Raises Concerns About Corn as a Food
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

CHICAGO, Jan. 4 — Renewing concerns about whether there will be enough corn to support the demand for both fuel and food, a new study has found that ethanol plants could use as much as half of America’s corn crop next year.

PBS did a documentary in 1998 titled "America in the 40s." This is a small slice thereof.

PBS did a documentary in 1998 titled "America in the 40s." This is a small slice thereof.

But a dick nonetheless.

But wait. Ronald Blackwell, the AFL-CIO's chief economist, tells the New York Times that state minimum-wage differences entice companies to shift jobs to lower-wage states. So: States' rights are bad, after all, at least concerning -- let's use liberalism's highest encomium -- diversity of economic policies.

In The Right Minimum Wage he shows typical rich guy near-sightedness.

Democrats consider the minimum-wage increase a signature issue. So, consider what it says about them:

Most of the working poor earn more than the minimum wage, and most of the 0.6 percent (479,000 in 2005) of America's wage workers earning the minimum wage are not poor. Only one in five workers earning the federal minimum lives in families with earnings below the poverty line. Sixty percent work part time, and their average household income is well over $40,000. (The average and median household incomes are $63,344 and $46,326, respectively.)

It is not a good thing that selling dollars is now a thinkable thought for those central bankers.

I need to learn a little more about this. I don't think it's as bad as if selling, or just not buying, our debit became a thought they would take seriously. By the time anyone thought about it I'm pretty sure a whole cascade of problems would have to had happened.

But I'm not actually clear on what those problems would be, if there's a point where events cascade. Not like I can really impact that but you have to watch the patterns in your environment that can move you around...and believe it or not, this is one of them.

Dollar’s Skid Puts a Glow on the Euro
By JEREMY W. PETERS

The dollar slumped yesterday and the euro climbed to a three-week high against the currency.

A steady slide in the value of the dollar since late 2005, primarily against the euro and the British pound, has steepened over the last month amid indications that interest rates will rise in Europe, while the Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates this year.

At the same time, countries with large dollar holdings are showing a new willingness to dump the dollar in favor of the rising euro, though the current activity is seen as posing little long-term risk to the dollar.

Less Shoplifting in Health and Beauty Aisle

There's a lot more at play than just wanting or not wanting to be around white folks. But there's always been a lot of projection in Black Conservative-speak. 

Because neighborhoods are racially segregated, African Americans' homes do not grow in value as fast as whites' homes do. Shapiro calculates that housing segregation costs African Americans tens of thousands of dollars in home equity. Homebuyers look for amenities commonly found in predominantly white neighborhoods. They pay extra for parks, convenient shopping and attractive views. Parents pay huge premiums for what they perceive to be good schools. Few parents can judge schools objectively. Instead, they use easy-to-observe markers, including the race of the students. These preferences raise the costs that first-time homebuyers face when they attempt to buy houses in those mostly white neighborhoods. Economic theory implies that if whites continue to waste money on irrational prejudices like this, market forces will eventually undo the racial disparity in wealth. But the experience of the last 50 years suggests otherwise. Inequality has grown because each new generation has been willing to pay a higher premium for these amenities. The market doesn't punish discrimination; it rewards it.

Whites fail to see any injustice in these differences. Shapiro's interviews convinced him that whites hide their privilege from themselves and, accordingly, feel no guilt for the hidden costs they impose on African Americans. People who inherited tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars nonetheless told Shapiro that they were self-made and self-reliant. They proudly told him how the assets they inherited grew under their stewardship. White parents use wealth to send their children to private schools or to give their adult children down payments for homes. They do not see how such practices hand today's inequalities on to the next generation.

Shapiro argues convincingly that these private matters spill over into public investment, too. He interviewed one upper-middle-class woman who told him that she was unconcerned with troubles in the local public school because she never intended to send her children there. Shapiro points out that her indifference -- and that of others like her -- is just one more obstacle in the path of people trying to improve local public education.

The Hidden Cost of Being African American
Reviewed by Michael Hout
From The Washington Post's Book World

African Americans often seem cut off from the economic mainstream. They face higher risks of poverty, joblessness and incarceration than their fellow citizens do. Community organizing, civil rights legislation, landmark court decisions and rising education have advanced the cause of racial equality. Overt bigotry has been banished from public places, and polls show that whites harbor fewer prejudices than they used to. But these improvements have not been enough.

How can disadvantage persist so long after most laws, minds and practices have changed? Thomas M. Shapiro argues in this sober and authoritative book that we should look to disparities of wealth for the answer. Whites are wealthier than African Americans, and whites' wealth advantage is much bigger than their advantages in either income or education (the point of Shapiro's earlier study, Black Wealth/White Wealth, co-authored with Melvin Oliver). Whites start out ahead because they inherit more from their parents, and America's racially segregated housing markets boost whites' home equities, while depressing those of African-American families. Shapiro, a professor of sociology at Brandeis, takes readers through the implications of these inequities and concludes that African Americans will not gain significant ground in the wealth divide until inheritance and housing policies change.

Seems someone was fishing for support for Orlando at Brad DeLong's joint.

The excellent Jon Hilsenrath and Rafael Gerena-Morales have an article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116727318376761110-email.html about the Clinton-era "Moving to Opportunity" pilot program. And, coincidentally, a correspondent asks me this evening if it is indeed the case that high relative poverty among African-Americans today is principally due to residential segregation, and whether residential segregation is in turn principally due to African-Americans' preference to live near other African-Americans.

Ignore that WSJ link...here's one that works.

The health care crisis may turn out to be more of a problem of ideology than economics.

“As a consumer, I don’t mind paying more if I’m getting more, but that’s just not the case in the U.S.,” said Professor Anderson, who publishes an annual review comparing the American health care system with those of its peers.

The American system, based on multiple insurers, builds in more unnecessary costs. Duplicate processing of claims, large numbers of insurance products, complicated bill-paying systems and high marketing costs add up to huge administrative expenses.

Health Care Problem? Check the American Psyche
By ANNA BERNASEK

WHAT is the most pressing problem facing the economy? A good case can be made for the developing health care crisis. Soaring costs, growing ranks of uninsured and a steady erosion of corporate health benefits add up to a giant drag on the nation’s future prosperity.

While the outlook seems scary, it doesn’t have to be. There is a solution, proven effective for hundreds of millions of people: single-payer health insurance.

Part two the excerpt from The Eisenhower Foundation's forum on poverty, inequality and race. The title of the post speaks for itself.

The Eisenhower Foundation had an excellent forum on poverty, inequality and race recently. I caught it on C-SPAN and was basically pleased.

The Foundation has the video online , parsed into nice, presenter-sized packets. I saw one in particular I thought it would be good to share; I thought it would be good to watch while holding both What Black Men Think (with the goddamn autoplay music on the goddamn MySpace page) and Orlando Patterson's latest in mind. I'm using my video because I think it's of better quality. First the documentation, then the explanation.

They pulled a two year old op-ed from the bottom of their files full of arguments that have been considered, disputed and dismissed...and printed it today. Makes ol' Tyler look like he hasn't been paying any attention at all.

Universal 401(k) Accounts Would Bring the Poor Into the Ownership Society
By TYLER COWEN

Of the current proposals to address income inequality, the universal 401(k) is the most likely to bring general prosperity.

The core idea is simple. The federal government creates tax-free retirement accounts for lower-income Americans, supplementing private accounts where they already exist, and matching personal contributions to those accounts. The amount of the match would depend on the income of the family and how much they save.

You don't want to call it a tax cut, of course, but the less income you report the less you are taxed. 

New SEC Pay Rule To Benefit Executives
About-Face on How To Report Options
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2006; D01

 

The incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee suggested it was a Christmas present for corporate executives from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But SEC Chairman Christopher Cox yesterday defended the agency's recent action to modify stock option disclosures, saying it "will provide the maximum clarity and consistency for investors."

This morning we saw how we've exploited Africa for oil. Prof. Joseph E Stiglitz of Columbia University shows how the pharmaceutical industry has done the same thing.

In 1995 the Uruguay round trade negotiations concluded in the establishment of the World Trade Organization, which imposed US style intellectual property rights around the world. These rights were intended to reduce access to generic medicines and they succeeded. As generic medicines cost a fraction of their brand name counterparts, billions could no longer afford the drugs they needed. For example, a year's treatment with a generic cocktail of AIDS drugs might cost $130 (£65; 170) compared with $10 000 for the brand name version. Billions of people living on $2-3 a day cannot afford $10 000, though they might be able to scrape together enough for the generic drugs. And matters are getting worse. New drug regimens recommended by the World Health Organization and second line defences that need to be used as resistance to standard treatments develops can cost much more.

Drug Plan Companies Failed to Tell of Changes
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 — Some prescription drug plans did not inform Medicare beneficiaries of impending changes in their costs and benefits, as they were required to do, Bush administration officials and Congressional aides said Tuesday.

This could be a serious omission in a program where beneficiaries need accurate information to choose among dozens of competing private plans.

Administration officials have told Congress that they may give these beneficiaries a six-week extension of the open-enrollment period, which ends Sunday. Beneficiaries could use the extra time to compare the options that will be available to them in 2007.

The Curse of Oil
John Ghazvinian

“So what is it that’s taking you over there, anyway?” the operator asked while we were waiting for one of her screens to come up. “Business or pleasure?”

“Business, I suppose,” I said. “I’m doing some research.”

“Oh yeah? What about?”

“Well, about oil. Oil in Africa.”

“They got oil in Africa?”

“Oh, yes, there’s quite a lot of it, and we’re starting to get more and more of our oil from over there.” I was just getting warmed up. “In fact, Nigeria has been—”

“Good!” she said, with a burst of indignation. “We have to get it from somewhere.”

Pipeline explosion kills at least 200

LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- At least 200 people were killed outside Lagos, Nigeria, in a massive explosion and fire that ignited as crowds carried away buckets of refined fuel from a tapped fuel pipeline, the Nigerian Red Cross said.

Extreme heat has prevented rescue workers from recovering bodies, and they fear the death toll could rise significantly.

At least 60 others were injured with burns, Nigerian Red Cross Secretary General Abiodun Orebiyi said.

"The explosion happened in a densely populated area, and that is why we're having these high casualty figures," Orebiyi added. (Watch how the pipeline incinerated buildings around the site)

I saw this headline

Nanny Hunt Can Be a ‘Slap in the Face’ for Blacks

...and thought, "yeah."  And it's not just immigrants with wrong ideas. Black folks, in general, do not like to serve Black folks.

Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Assn., said he was delighted with the revenue from "War on Christmas" merchandise, which supplemented the ministry's $13-million annual budget. All 500,000 buttons and 125,000 magnets were sold out by early December. "It was very successful for us," Wildmon said.

'War on Christmas' has a new jingle: money
Christian groups raise funds as they sell items to counter a perceived assault on the holiday. By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer
4:16 AM PST, December 23, 2006

The "War on Christmas" has never been so profitable.

The Interior Department study, commissioned to analyze the costs of royalty incentives and their effectiveness at increasing energy supplies, was completed in fall 2005. But the study was not released until last month because senior officials said they considered it incomplete.

After repeated requests, the department provided a copy to The New York Times with a “note to readers” that said the report did not show the “actual effects” of incentives. Indeed, Interior officials contended that the cost of the incentives would turn out to be far less than the study concluded....

But industry analysts who compare oil policies around the world said the United States was much more generous to oil companies than most other countries, demanding a smaller share of revenues than others that let private companies drill on public lands and in public waters. In addition, they said, the United States has sweetened some of its incentives in recent years, while dozens of other countries demanded a bigger share of revenue.

Incentives on Oil Barely Help U.S., Study Suggests
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 — The United States offers some of the most lucrative incentives in the world to companies that drill for oil in publicly owned coastal waters, but a newly released study suggests that the government is getting very little for its money.

[W]hen managers distort market forces by rigging the legal environment, that is a different matter. An entire industry of consultants exists to advise companies on how to avoid recognizing a union; a second industry of consultants exists to legitimize super-sized executive pay. Until this changes, the growing material inequality in the nation will be compounded by the corrosive perception that the rules are unequal, too.

Just Capitalism
Not all attacks on business are crazy. Here is the sane version.
Friday, December 22, 2006; A32

THIS SERIES has described ways to address inequality: Increase tax progressivity; invest more in education; reform health care. But there's pressure to reach beyond that: to tackle inequality where it apparently originates, meaning the workplace. This pressure can be dangerous. Companies are not instruments of social policy; their first duty is to make money by serving customers, and they can provide for their workers only so long as they do that. Nevertheless, two sorts of corporate reform are warranted. It should be easier for labor unions to organize. And it should be harder for top executives to pay themselves outlandish sums.

Concern about taxes among Americans living abroad has surged since President Bush signed into law a bill that sharply raises tax rates for those with incomes of more than $82,400 a year. The legislation also increases taxes on employer-provided benefits like housing allowances.

Tax Leads Americans Abroad to Renounce U.S.
By DOREEN CARVAJAL

PARIS, Dec. 17 — She is a former marine, a native Californian and, now, an ex-American who prefers to remain discreet about abandoning her citizenship. After 10 years of warily considering options, she turned in her United States passport last month without ceremony, becoming an alien in the view of her homeland.

Pot is called biggest cash crop
The $35-billion market value of U.S.-grown cannabis tops that of such heartland staples as corn and hay, a marijuana activist says.
By Eric Bailey
Times Staff Writer
December 18, 2006

SACRAMENTO — For years, activists in the marijuana legalization movement have claimed that cannabis is America's biggest cash crop. Now they're citing government statistics to prove it.

A report released today by a marijuana public policy analyst contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion — far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops.

California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state's grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states, the report states.

The report estimates that marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past quarter century despite an exhaustive anti-drug effort by law enforcement.

Jon Gettman, the report's author, is a public policy consultant and leading proponent of the push to drop marijuana from the federal list of hard-core Schedule 1 drugs — which are deemed to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse — such as heroin and LSD.

He argues that the data support his push to begin treating cannabis like tobacco and alcohol by legalizing and reaping a tax windfall from it, while controlling production and distribution to better restrict use by teenagers.

"Despite years of effort by law enforcement, they're not getting rid of it," Gettman said. "Not only is the problem worse in terms of magnitude of cultivation, but production has spread all around the country. To say the genie is out of the bottle is a profound understatement."

Capitalists We Don't Trust
By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, December 18, 2006; A25

 

Modern societies worship innovation. When tech wizards get rich by founding Facebook or YouTube, people tend to celebrate. But this healthy admiration for success is subject to exceptions. When a different species of tech wizard gets rich by founding a hedge fund, the reaction is ambivalent -- even though hedge funds contribute to the success of the economy as surely as tech firms.

No they don't. They don't produce a damn thing. They contribute to the success of the economy as surely as the guys who buy up patents do. 

Golden State Fence's attorney, Richard Hirsch, admits his client broke the law. But he says the case proves that construction companies need a guest-worker program.

Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers
by Scott Horsley 

All Things Considered, December 14, 2006 · A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company's work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.

After an immigration check in 1999 found undocumented workers on its payroll, Golden State promised to clean house. But when followup checks were made in 2004 and 2005, some of those same illegal workers were still on the job. In fact, U-S Attorney Carol Lam says as many as a third of the company's 750 workers may have been in the country illegally.