



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words - February, 2014

Here are some graphic images from around the net -- plus my own 2 cents worth of comments. Click on any image to see the full sized version.

No More Taxes vs. You Get What You Pay For

We're a selfish lot. As a nation, we don't really care about each other or our collective children very much...other than the lip service we pay during elections. The "common wisdom" is that we're over-taxed. Unfortunately that's just a lie. We're among the least taxed people in the industrialized world...and we have the lack of social safety nets to show it. Poor medical care and our incredibly high child poverty rate lead to a crisis in learning for our most vulnerable children...and we, as a nation, are unwilling to pay more. The "community" of America doesn't exist. The attitude has become "what's mine is mine and you can't have it."

As taxes on the wealthy and corporations continue to drop we keep waiting for the "job creators" to let the wealth trickle down to the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. In the meantime our "leaders," bought and paid for by the low-tax-paying corporate donors, are redistributing the wealth to themselves and their supporters.

We are diverting a big chunk of what tax money we do have to privately operated schools. People expect high quality public services -- snow removal, street repair, fire and police protection, military protection -- but are unwilling to pay for it. Yet, we continue to vote against our own interests year after year...

Subsidizing the Richest People in America

Still shopping at Wal-Mart because you think it saves you money? While the Walton's are avoiding taxes through loopholes allowed to the wealthy, their customers are paying the taxes that help support the store's workers who make so little they're entitled to public assistance. In other words, America's taxpayers are subsidizing the payroll of Wal-Mart.

What are the Walton's doing with their billions? They're giving it to school privatizers who in turn, work to divert tax money from public schools to privately owned schools. Money lost to public schools means less materials, fewer teachers and larger class sizes, and less support.

Still think you're saving money?

The Walmart 1%: Education
Just Four Members of the Walton Family Have a Higher Net Worth Than All Walmart's Workers Combined
But as many Walmart workers go on strike today, asking for wages high enough to lift them out of poverty, it's worth pausing to consider just what they are asking for: Among other things, they essentially want those four Walton family members—who, together, still own a big chunk of the company—to be satisified with a tad less in shareholder returns.

Money Isn't Going Where it's Needed

We're giving away our tax dollars to welfare for workers in low wage jobs at places like Wal-Mart and McDonalds. We're giving away our tax dollars to privately run schools which leave the most expensive to educate children in the cash-strapped public schools. A larger and larger chunk of the money that is going to public schools is being spent on test prep, testing materials, and technology for testing.

Subsidizing the Rich in Education

U.S. Rare in Spending More Money on the Education of Rich Children


When can we stop wasting time and money on the overuse and misuse of tests? Here's an idea..."Let's have private school students take the same standardized tests that public school students now take each year."

Study: High Standardized Test Scores Don't Translate to Better Cognition
Even when students improve their scores on standardized tests, they don't always improve their cognitive abilities...



Stop the Testing Insanity!


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