What Organic and Natural Food Companies funded NO to Prop 37?

10 Jan 2012

I find it interesting that many of the companies that donated millions of dollars to fight the proposal to label GMO product in California were actually companies that advertise organic.  I even was buying a few of the products thinking that they were "with us".  Here is a list of those who donated against Prop 37.  It is time to fightback and boycott their foods.

These are called the Organic and Natural Traitor Brands

 PepsiCo (Donated $2.5M): Naked Juice, Tostito's Organic, Tropicana Organic • Kraft (Donated $2M): Boca Burgers and Back to Nature • Safeway (Member of Grocery Manufacturers Association, which donated $2M):"O" Organics • Coca-Cola (Donated $1.7M): Honest Tea, Odwalla • General Mills (Donated $1.2M): Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar • Con-Agra (Donated $1.2M): Orville Redenbacher's Organic, Hunt's Organic, Lightlife, Alexia • Kellogg's (Donated $791k): Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger  • Smuckers (Donated $555k): R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic • Unilever (Donated $467k): Ben & Jerry's • Dean Foods (Donated $254k): Horizon, Silk, White Wave

Shocking isn't it?

Speak out publicly in favor of the pending GMO Labeling Ballot Initiative (I-522) in Washington State in 2013, as well as the pending GMO labeling bills coming up in Vermont and other states.

2. Contribute as much or more money to the Yes on I-522 Campaign in Washington than their parent corporations spent to defeat Prop 37.

Sign the Petition here

Shell Oil and the Arctic and Petition

10 January 2013

Here's how unprepared Shell is to drill in the Arctic:

Even four months after it ceased drilling operations, Shell still managed to nearly cause a major oil spill, when its Kulluk drilling rig — filled with 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel and lubricant — ran aground 11 days ago, after the boats towing it lost control of the rig.

Following this incident, yesterday the Obama administration launched an urgent review of Shell's plans and preparedness to drill in the Arctic.¹

Incredibly, Shell was only moving the Kulluk south to Washington to dodge $6 million in Alaska state taxes. But its grounding should be the last straw after a year of Shell drilling debacles that proved what has always been obvious: drilling in the Arctic is a disaster waiting to happen.

This wasn't even the first time Shell lost control of its drilling vessels in the rough Arctic waters last year. Additionally, the company had multiple problems with sea ice, and its oil spill containment dome system failed its first test spectacularly when it "breached like a whale" and was "crushed like a beer can." Shell couldn't even meet the agreements it made with the Obama administration, pulling major bait and switches on its oil spill response plan, EPA air pollution rules, and repeatedly failing to meet Coast Guard requirements for its oil spill containment barge. ²

We've been told that Shell is the best and most prepared oil company to drill in the Arctic. As Shell has bumbled and stumbled along, it's become painfully clear that even the best in the business is hopelessly outmatched by the Arctic.

It would be stunningly irresponsible to allow Shell's thirst for oil to lead to an inevitable disaster in one of the most pristine places on earth. And with NOAA just announcing that 2012 was the hottest year on record,³ it would be stunningly irresponsible to continue drilling for climate-heating fossil fuels, in ever more dangerous and destructive ways.

Sign the Petition

This review is a second chance for the Obama administration to do what it should have done last year, and say "Shell No!" to Arctic drilling. Click the link below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6994814&id=53195-6119368-7ZT9RKx&t=4

External linked references:

Fox News

Los Angeles Times

Internal Related Links:

Vote: Worse Company of the Year Award 2012

VOTE: Worst Company of the Year Award!

 

Wow, we get the opportunity to really vote for the worse company of the year award!  It's a difficult choice to chose the worse of all evils.  Read the list then click at the bottom to cast your vote!

The companies listed are:

 Alstom:

The French energy and transport conglomerate Alstom is involved in corruption scandals all over the world. Alstom systematically bribes local politicians, sometimes in the seven figures, to secure contracts. The frequency of known cases is such that one wonders if this is a deliberate business strategy. Alstom has been fined repeatedly and some of its subsidiaries were excluded from World Bank projects.

Coal India

Coal India's coal mines destroy the habitats of many large mammals and rob tribal peoples of their livelihood and homelands, forcing them into a life of bitter poverty. The dismal record with 205 workers dead and 699 seriously wounded in 2010 alone, suggests that working conditions at Coal India are indeed disastrous. At least 239 coal mines belonging to Coal India operate without environmental permit.

G4S

The ranks of the British security service company G4S include more than 650'000 employees. These security forces are often badly trained and paid and many of its members have a criminal record. The company is involved in countless cases of violations of international law and human rights abuses. G4S is present in the occupied Palestinian territories—manning checkpoints and managing prison security for Israel and is thus complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement policy.

Goldman Sacks

Between 1998 and 2009 Goldman Sachs pocketed horrendous fees to hide half of Greece’s public debt by means of accounting tricks, which eventually ruined Greece and plunged the EU into a financial crisis of which only Goldman profits. The bank has already earned at least 600 million dollars and Greece owes it 400 million per year until 2037, for a total of more than 10 billion dollars at the expense of European taxpayers.

Lonmin

Lonmin, the world's third largest mining concern, urged the South African mining ministery to take „appropriate“ measures against striking mine workers at their mine — with the help of the police or the army. A short time later, 44 protesting mine worker were shot dead by the police nd 77 more were seriously wounded. One day after the massacre, Lonmin threatened all workers who continued to strike with dismissal.

Repower

The Swiss energy corporation Repower is building a hard-coal fired power plant in Calabria, Italy, despite the opposition of the local population. The planned site lies at the very heart of the dominion of the `Ndrangheta Mafia, Italy’s and probably Europe’s most influential organized crime alliance. Repower will have to do business with the Mafia, or might already be doing business.

Shell

Shell is the first super-major oil company that plans to exploit the fragile Arctic in a high risk hunt for fossil fuels. The oil exploration in the Arctic has biodiversity consequences. While Shell confidently tells us that it has «made numerous plans for dealing with oil in ice». The company also admits that the technical and environmental challenges of oil exploration in the Arctic «are immense.

Click to cast your VOTE!

Join Farmers vs. Monsanto

On January 10, family farmers will enter a courtroom in Washington DC to take part in the appeal of OSGATA vs Monsanto et al, a court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s GMO seed, which contaminates organic and non-GMO farmer’s crops and opens them up to abusive lawsuits by Monsanto.

Thank you to those of you who have RSVP'd to attend the Citizen's Assembly gathering to support these brave farmers and plaintiffs in Washington DC. If you are planning on attending, but have not RSVP'd, click here.

If you can't attend, but would like to show your support, please join us in standing with family farmers in their pursuit of justice against Monsanto!
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/747?t=10&akid=715.312785.3hMKKj
Since 1997, one year after the approval of Monsanto’s GMO Roundup Ready soybeans, the world’s leading chemical and biotech seed company admits to filing 150 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. During this time, Monsanto has investigated an average of more than 500 family farmers each year.
Due to these aggressive lawsuits and investigations, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.


it's time to end Monsanto's campaign of fear and intimidation against America's farmers! 
This is a crucial moment for America's family farmers and the future of our food supply. Will you let farmers know you support them on January 10th?
To add your name of support, click here to say: “I Stand With Farmers”.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/747?t=13&akid=715.312785.3hMKKj
We’ll deliver your comments to the farmers before they enter the court to stand up for their right to grow food without threat of intimidation and harassment.
In March 2011, Food Democracy Now! joined the lawsuit Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al v. Monsanto during the first round of plaintiffs, in what could be an historic lawsuit that protects family farmers and challenges the legitimacy of Monsanto’s patents on their genetically engineered (GMO) seeds and their right to sue farmers indiscriminately.
The  upcoming decision on the appeal of OSGATA vs Monsanto is a critical hurdle that the case must clear in order for it to move forward.
Monsanto filed a motion to dismiss the case, which was heard in Federal District Court in New York City on January 31^st, 2012. In February 2012, Federal Judge Naomi Buchwald ruled to dismiss the case, stating that the farmers lacked legal standing regarding the concerns over genetic contamination and resulting economic harm.
In March 2012, Plaintiffs appealed the District Court's decision to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which scheduled oral argument in the case to be heard on January 10, 2013.
Lawyers from the Public Patent Foundation, who are representing the farmers, have identified numerous reversible legal and factual errors committed by the judge, which they assert caused her to mistakenly dismiss the case.
Family farmers need your help today to send a message to the world: It’s time to put an end to Monsanto’s campaign of fear.
Click here to say "I Stand with Farmers" so we can deliver that message loud and clear to the farmers who travel to Washington DC to take part in the lawsuit and for farmers everywhere who struggle against Monsanto's unfair genetic contamination of their crops.

Most Minimum Wage Earners Can't Afford Necessities of Life

Does Minimum Wage Hurt Workers?

What We Can Do To Balance The Budget: Video

Danish View: 9/11 The Sensible Doubt

The concerns about the reality of 9/11 is world wide.  Here are the logics of the Danes.

Disclose.tv - 9/11: THE SENSIBLE DOUBT - Danish Documentary about 9/11

Arab Spring and Western Style Democracy

This is an excellent article regarding the Arab Spring, cultural diversity and Western style democracy.  It gathers insight into the Western false perceptions of the Middle East culture and the Arab Spring.  a must read

Middle East:  To Challenge the Patriarch

Repost from:  Ideas That Shape (ITS) Think Tank

Authored by Joseph Lerner, Edited by Col. Gordon Forbes (ret.)

© Copyright 2012 Ideas That Shape (ITS)

It is essential to be prepared for a possibility that the plans for implementing the Western-style democracy in Middle Eastern countries may be unsuccessful.  The Tunisian uprising ignited the Arab Spring, which had a domino effect that resulted in an uprising in Egypt and removal of Mubarak, the toppling of Gaddafi in Libya, an ongoing rebellion in Syria against the minority Alawite ruling class, led by Bashar al-Assad, and protests in Bahrain.  These events have been interpreted in the West as a desire for establishing Western-style democracy by the people of the Middle East.  However, those in favour of adopting Western-style democracy in the Middle East are in the minority and they were not instrumental in igniting the Arab Spring.

“This is not how the West, nor many Egyptians, thought the Arab Spring would turn out in Egypt. Their mistake was overestimating the significance of the democratic secularists, how representative the anti-Mubarak demonstrators were of Egypt as a whole, and the degree to which those demonstrators were committed to Western-style democracy rather than a democracy that represented Islamist values.” George Friedman, The Egyptian Election and the Arab Spring, Stratfor, May 29, 2012

In International Relations circles and amongst analysts the Arab Spring is perceived as a series of revolutions in the Middle East.  The term, Egyptian Revolution, was already used at the first gathering of the Egyptian people in Tahrir Square, who were demanding changes.  Comparing the Arab Spring to a revolution might be jumping to conclusions too soon.  Why?  The Arab Spring hardly consists of a series of revolutions in the Middle East.  The Arab Spring has been a series of decentralized and spontaneous uprisings and rebellions against oppression without having any clear, centralized leadership or well-structured political ideology.  Furthermore, one should realize that the circumstances that sparked the uprisings in most Arab countries were of an economic and social nature.   However, the uprising in Syria and Bahrain are of a political and sectarian nature.

During the Arab Spring, the reaction of many in the West, especially the mainstream media, was based on the misperception that the Arab Spring is a clear sign that the Middle Eastern people are eager to establish Western-style democracy.  For example, in October 2012 Doug Bandow in an article that was published by Forbes wrote: That blocking power is now at issue. While visiting Kuwait last week I increasingly heard people insist on creation of a government dependent on parliament, as in most Western nations. Some Kuwaitis even questioned the monarchy, whose ruling family goes back centuries in this region.

The cause of these uprisings was the oppression and frustration of the Arab population, especially the youths, who have no hope in planning for their future.  A majority of the youths in the Arab countries have no gainful employment and no means of supporting themselves, getting a higher education or developing skills that would lead to gainful employment.  Furthermore, the youths in these countries hardly have any proper social life.  All these frustrations and negative energies have been redirected towards uprisings, rebellions and in many cases the religious extremism in the Middle East.

“I don’t think the Arab Spring is necessarily a democratic manifestation, I think it is a populist manifestation,” Henry Kissinger, WSJ, May 21, 2011

The Middle East has a longstanding tradition of male leadership (patriarchy) that extends from the family to the structure of tribal elders and leadership of today’s nations.  For thousands of years the Middle Eastern nations have been ruled by kings and sheikhs.  Such form of leadership symbolically represents a king or sheikh as a father figure according to the traditions and cultures of the Middle East.  The king is the nation’s patriarch.  In the Middle Eastern traditions and cultures a nation is similar to that of a family.  The national unity of each Middle Eastern country, for thousands of years, has always been ensured under such a patriarchal model of governance.

Furthermore, similar cultural and traditional political structures could even be identified in Middle Eastern countries whose form of government is a Republic.  Today, in the Republic of Turkey, the Prime Minister plays a similar symbolic role to that of the great patriarch of the Turkish nation.  The same principle applies to the governing structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The Supreme Leader of Iran is a Shiite religious leader who is a king archetype.  The word, supreme, alludes to such a concept.  People of the Middle East have a longstanding traditional, cultural and spiritual affinity with such concepts, symbolism and leadership archetypes that represent kingship and patriarchy.

Whether Western values and standards are compatible with the Middle Eastern traditions or cultures or not, the people of the Middle East highly respect and treasure their way of life.  Therefore, the West must realize and acknowledge that the Middle Eastern uprisings and rebellions are hardly an indication that the people of the Middle East are interested in adopting the Western values, culture or Western-style democracy.  Essentially the people of the Middle East want economic opportunity and a better life rather than Western-style democracy that is socially alien to them.

However, this does not mean that those who started the Arab Spring are not interested in certain elements of  Western-style democracy, like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly.  The traditions and cultures of the people of the Middle East hardly pose a threat to the Western values and way of life.  To develop a deeper understanding of such realities and to be able to better assist the region in economic advancement, Human Rights, stability and rule of law, it is necessary to learn about the traditions, cultures and history of the Middle East.  Western countries need to be flexible and adapt to these realities in their foreign policies and trade interactions with the Middle East.

Furthermore, it is important to realize and acknowledge that the Middle East is a region with many nations that are rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, precious metals and minerals.  The West needs the natural resources of the Middle East to be industrious and sustain its economic growth.  The Middle Eastern countries need to export their natural resources to the West and rest of the world to grow their economy and develop their infrastructure.  There is an undeniable symbiotic economic relationship between the West and Middle Eastern countries.  Therefore, trade, investment and infrastructure building need to become the central focus of the development of relationships between the West and Middle Eastern countries, within the context of International Relations, International Development and International Trade.

People of the Middle East enjoy and appreciate having Western high-tech and other products such as cars, smart phones, gaming devices and many more.  Furthermore, they are the consumers of Western entertainment, including movies and TV programs.  East and West share common economic and cultural grounds.

One wonders that whether Western-style democracy was really a proper lens to view the Arab Spring?  If it was yes, then to what extent?
The next question then is:  Are there forms of government that are compatible with both the Western interest in openness and the patriarchal traditions and cultures of the Middle East?  One might find some answers to this question.  However, regardless of how rational and pragmatic the solutions would be, the political and sociocultural obstacles in working towards such a model of governance will be:
b) how to gradually assist the Middle Eastern nations to install the concept of probity in the hearts and minds of each one of their citizens from an early age and throughout their public education.a) how to ensure that Human Rights violations, especially Women’s Rights, are properly addressed within the cultural and traditional context of each Middle Eastern nation; and 

Joseph Lerner is an Analyst who regularly writes about the subjects of International Relations, International Trade and Geopolitics.  Joseph has over two decades of experiences in strategic planning, communication strategy, project management, corporate training, geopolitical analysis, qualitative and quantitative research.  He has served in executive capacity and as expert advisor on various Board of Directors.  His formal education has been in Cultural Studies and Liberal Arts focusing on the areas of literature, political science, philosophy, classical composition and linguistics.  Joseph has extensive experiences in culture of trade and negotiations amongst various indigenous cultures and traditions of the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.  In the past, he has served as Campaign Strategist during Canada’s 2011 Federal Election running a successful War Room. In 2007 during the Ontario’s Provincial Election,  Joseph held the position of Communication Analyst and Strategist.  He is multilingual and has extensive experiences working in environments that benefit from diversity.  Furthermore, Joseph has produced numerous radio programs and has interviewing many celebrities, academics, dignitaries and politicians.

America- The Police State and our Guns

Susan Brannon
19 December 2012

The Associated Press reports that the medical examiner Dr. Karber said that all of the victims were killed up close by multiple rifle shots, yet the shooter killed himself and was found with two handguns.  How did he kill the kids with rifle shots from handguns?  There are conflicting reports from the media.  The news is agenda driven and it is difficult to filter through the information to find out what is true.  At first, the reporting was all wrong, they named the wrong shooter  that the father and brother were killed and reported them as facts instead of waiting for the official statements.

While filtering the news, we must remain aware that the news is agenda driven and figure out what that agenda is.  When we can do that, then we can understand what the next political moves might be.  After the 9/11s so called attacks, the American public was bombarded with phrases such as war on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction while casually inserting sentences on Saddam Hussain and Iraq.  In time our army went into Iraq and continued to remain there in spite of the blatant lies on both the American public and the world.

While filtering the news, think about reality and do not take the "news" as the final truth. I can tell you with a sure mind that today the U.S. army has killed at least 20 children in Afghanistan,  Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia etc...and we do not hear anything about it.  We only hear about the killing of children in our own country.

The national rifle association said that they will help assist in reducing the gun violence.  Yet, if we cannot control drugs, alcohol (during the probation) we will not be able to control guns.  If the U.S. government decides to take the guns away then we will have the same result as we had during the probation where Al Capone made millions of dollars from boot legging and others making millions from drugs.  Most likely, someone will take over the black market on guns and make millions from the sale of the guns.

The problem here is that America is a police state and there is no doubt about it.  We have the most extensive spying on citizens in human history that goes beyond the imagination of George Orwell in his 1984 doomsday book.  America now has the power to arrest American citizens without due process, they can declare someone a terrorist anywhere in the world,  our government can detain an American for life without ever presenting evidence...Obama can take away the guns.

You can't have an armed population and a police state.

Walmart the Biggest Seller of Firearms in U.S.

Adam Lanza the terrorist who shook Sandy Hook Elementary School and one of the weapons was an AR-15 assault weapon.  Although it is not known where the weapons were purchased the AR-15 is a highly recognized weapon sold at 1,700 Walmart stores across the U.S.  This weapon was also the choice of assault used at the Beaverton Mall shooting.

"Five months earlier, it was used by James Holmes in an attack that wounded fifty-eight people and killed twelve in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater.  And several years before that, a man and his teenage accomplice used a Bushmaster AR-15 to terrorize the Washington, DC, area with a series of random shootings."  The Nation

Because of the debate over selling guns and how easy it is to get assault weapons Walmart decided to remove the item from their website, yet they have not pulled them from their stores.  Nothing has changed.  Walmart stocks their shelves in the open with a variety of bullets that are easy to steal and the guns are out in the open on the shelves.  The hourly sales clerks have not been trained with guns and firearms and the shelves remained unlocked during store hours.

"Overall Walmart sales figures are back on track after the 2011 slump, and executive vice president Ducan Mac Naughton told shareholders at a meeting in October 2012 that gun sales in particular are a staple of the chain's strategy to continue boosting its numbers.  He said that over the past twenty-six months, gun sales at Walmart stores open for a year or more were up an astonishing 76 percent, while ammunition sales were up 30 percent.  Walmart is now the biggest seller of firearms and ammunition in America."  The Nation

The FBI reported that they received 16.4 million background requests by the end of 2011 it rose to 16.8 this year.

Although many stores have changed how they stock and sell guns after Sandy Hook, Walmart has not changed a thing.  For Five Assault Rifles you can pick up with your groceries view images here on The Nation.

This is something to think about.

The Killing of America uncut documentary video 1982

Interesting facts look familiar today?

Disclose.tv - The Killing Of America (1982) Uncut

Detailed explanation of 9-11: Who is Behind the Scene

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Wedding Fashion Show Florence, Italy

This is off the direction of this blog, but as a past war photojournalist I have started to move on to Happier Moments! For example, photographing a wedding fashion show!

911 We will not Forget

I am not into conspiracy theories.  From day one when I saw the fall of the towers on the television from Jerusalem, my first thought was a controlled demolition.  Of course, I had/have no idea who did this, but the reality is reality.  And why should reality be denied?  Who would NOT want to know who/what/and why?  

In life when there are problems, are we not taught to find the truth to solve the problems so it will not happen again?  There are many videos that have been coming out over the time and this one is very clear, professional using experts on demolitions and the destruction of buildings.  They explain realities very well.

What alerted me to the fact that something was very wrong was the lack of transparency from our own government.  It was the faulty way that they investigated the collapse and the lack of experts that they decided to conduct the research.  Key insiders had a high level of conflict of interest.  President decided to limit the funding, and access to the research.  It was the fact that all airspace in the United States was closed except for the few who were allowed to leave the country.

Behind closed doors, no oath, no recorders were allowed, and everything was submitted to security personnel.  The issue was not discussed.  The air defense was disabled due to exercises of war games while drone planes were flying around the country.  

After this tragedy, the world has not been the same and has gotten worse.  Trillions of dollars has been spent on unjust wars based on lies...even the lies that were admitted, that there was not any mass weapons of destructions.

Remember the propaganda that was repeated on the news and around the world, war on terror, weapons of mass destructions, and repeated runs of the buildings falling down.  The news who were on the ground, reported from the field mentioning we do not see any evidence of planes, but some sort of explosion at the Pentagon building.  "Another explosion, a secondary explosion from the building"

All these reports were removed from the news and from our viewing.

I ask, when will the American people stand up and demand war crime investigations on President Bush and Dick Cheney?  Is the global leadership already in power, it is not a nation that is going..but a nation that is already there.

The Bad Outlook for the Working Class American Man

MODERN TIMES/ROY EXPORT S.A.S. SCAN COURTESY CINETECA DI BOLOGNA

From:  The National Journal
by: Jonathan Rauch

This is an excellent read, it covers the reality of the American economy today and the truth.  I just had to include it here.  

"The higher you stood on the income ladder, the better you did; the highest-paid 1 percent of earners soared above and away from everyone else, practically occupying an economy of their own. By contrast, the bottom 90 percent of earners—which is to say, almost everyone—saw barely any increase, and much of what they did see came in the boom years of the late 1990s."

If the American economy were an automobile, you would say the transmission is failing. The engine works, but not all wheels are getting power. To put the matter less metaphorically: The economy no longer reliably and consistently transmits productivity gains to workers. The result is that many millions of Americans, in particular less-skilled men, are leaving the workforce, a phenomenon the country has never seen before on the present scale.

Well. That was a mouthful. It certainly bites off more than Washington’s polarized politicians can handle at the moment. In the next few months, they need to worry about the so-called fiscal cliff, the round of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that, if not averted, might start a recession. Plus a politically vexing debt-limit bill, which will need to be passed early in 2013. Plus a recovery that, for many Americans, feels more like a recession. (The median family income fell as much during the first two years of the recovery as it did during the two years of the recession itself, according to the Pew Research Center.) Plus a debt crisis and downturn in Europe. Isn’t that enough?

Sadly, no. The U.S. economy has weakened, and much needs fixing—beyond the fiscal cliff—if it’s to regain its strength. A reelected President Obama and a still-divided Congress face a lengthy To Do list for the economy. We’ve chosen eight entries: innovation, jobs, rising health care costs, entitlement programs,  college-completion rates, infrastructure, housing, and retirement security. None of them will be easy to fix.

But first, let’s consider a nexus of troubling economic trends that seem to be driving and deepening many of the specific problems—and may prove to be the most intractable problem of all. If economic strength means anything, it is that the economy can make almost everyone better off, thereby strengthening the country’s social fabric as well as its balance sheet. Such an economy unites rather than divides us.

Today’s economy, by that standard, is struggling. Its ability to deliver rising living standards across the income spectrum is in decline, and perhaps also in question. “This is a fundamental problem,” says Robert J. Shapiro, the chairman of Sonecom, an economic consultancy in Washington. “This is America’s largest economic challenge. People can no longer depend on rising wages and salaries when the economy expands.”

As other articles in this issue suggest, a number of policy responses are on the agenda already, such as creating jobs, helping more students finish college, and reducing wage-denuding health care inflation. Others, such as reforming the federal disability program, have yet to attract much notice. In truth, however, the extent of Washington’s ability to repair the economy’s gearbox is an open question, because the problem is complex. It implicates not just one slipped gear but many: disruptions in long-established connections between productivity and earnings, between labor and capital, between top earners and everyone else, between men and work, between men and marriage. Together, they are bringing the economy to a place where a large and growing group of people—indeed, whole communities—are isolated from work, marriage, and higher education. That place might look like today’s America, only with a larger welfare state. But it might just as easily bring social unrest and class resentment of a magnitude the country hasn’t known before.

SLIPPING GEARS

Begin with Chart 1. It shows one of the most basic of all economic relationships, that between productivity and hourly compensation. Productivity measures the value of the output (brake pads, stock transactions) a worker produces in, say, a day; compensation is a measure of earnings that includes the value of benefits such as health insurance. The chart also shows compensation for all U.S. workers and specifically for workers in production and nonsupervisory jobs—blue-collar and clerical jobs, for example.

For decades, productivity and compensation rose in tandem. Their bond was the basis of the social compact between the economy and the public: If you work harder and better, you and your family will be better off. But in the past few decades, and especially during the past 10 years or so, the lines have diverged. This is slippage No. 1: Productivity is rising handsomely, but compensation of workers isn’t keeping up.

More...