Dollars & Sense articles from March 2005

Dollars & Sense archives from March 2005

Lean and mean budget.(from the editors)
March 1, 2005... Nothing captures an administration's priorities quite as clearly as its budget. However they're spun, numbers don't lie. Bush described his 2006 budget as "lean"--but "mean" would be more apt. To subsidize the half-trillion dollar war...

I'll give you a foot rub if you give me public land.(the short run)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Officials from the Bush administration--including Interior Secretary Gale Norton, White House Council on Environment Quality chair Jim Connaughton, and Environmental Protection Agency official Jeff Holmstead--gathered January 5 at a 39-acre...

Virtual sweatshops.(the short run)(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), virtual worlds in which participants play fantasy characters such as monster-slayers and quest-makers, have become a phenomenon. The runaway success of titles like Ultima Online and...

It's finally payday.(the short run)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Albertsons, Ralphs Grocery, and Safeway's Vons Supermarkets will be cutting a large--and overdue--paycheck. The three grocery chains had used staffing agencies to hire more than 2,000 janitors, then failed to give these supposedly "temporary"...

Wal-Mart pulls the plug on another union.(the short run)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The only unionized Wal-Mart store in the western hemisphere will be closing its doors this spring. The mega-retailer had been in negotiations with union officials since last fall, when over 200 workers at its Jonquiere, Quebec, site joined the...

The family life.(the short run)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... When you join Amway, you might find yourself a member of the Amway "family" in more ways than one. Amway is a privately controlled "multi-level marketing" company founded in 1959 that sells products from cosmetics to water filters and...

China: wealthier and dirtier.(the short run)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... By most standard measures of growth, the People's Republic of China is a paradigm of successful development. The country's economy grew by an overwhelming 9.5% in 2004, compared to the global average of 3.7%. But thanks to urban congestion and...

Shutterbug free zone.(the short run)(Millennium Park )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Four years behind schedule and $325 million over budget, Chicago's Millennium Park is finally set to open this July. The park will feature elaborate gardens, a band shell designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, a skating rink, and an...

The day they outsourced fun.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2005... THE DAY THEY OUTSOURCED FUN [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ampersand by B. Deutsch amptoons.com

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... To the Editor: Doug Orr's great article is a breath of fresh air and makes wonderful sense. My concern is that the Bush administration seems to have the most aggressive propaganda machine ever, backed by super-rich contributors who...

Earn-a-Bike in Africa: a grassroots international solidarity program brings bicycles, repair classes, and resources to Ghana.(active culture)
March 1, 2005... The roughly 489,000 bicycle commuters in the United States know that their transportation is healthy, eco-friendly, reliable, and relatively inexpensive. Boston-based Bikes Not Bombs (BNB) helps people in developing countries--where incomes are...

Payola pundits just the tip of the iceberg.(comment)
March 1, 2005... Each year Gallup publishes rankings on how the public rates "the honesty and ethical standards" of various professions. In 2004, journalists didn't do too well, barely edging out lawyers and members of Congress and falling well below nurses and...

Revisiting the "dependency ratio".(follow-up)(calicualting social security)
March 1, 2005... In "Social Security Isn't Broken" (November/December 2004), I pointed out that in assessing any demographic threat to society's ability to provide for retirement income security, it's the ratio of workers to all dependents that's critical, not...

Free, free at last: economic freedom for corporations has little to do with either political freedom or economic growth.(UP AGAINST THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
March 1, 2005... I must be confused. I somehow thought that an Economic Freedom Index would showcase countries that are reducing the democratic deficits of the global economy by giving people more control over their economic lives and the institutions that...

Rich and poor in the global economy: interview with Bob Sutcliffe.(Interview)
March 1, 2005... Whether economic inequality is rising or falling globally is a matter of intense debate, a key question in the larger dispute over how three decades of intensified economic globalization have affected the world's poor. Bob Sutcliffe is an...

The land trust solution: land trusts ease control of U.S. farmland away from developers.
March 1, 2005... It was back in the early 1970s that Steven and Gloria Decater of Covelo, Calif., first started farming an unused plot of land belonging to a neighbor. Over many years, they turned the fallow plot into fertile farmland that yielded a bounty of...

Burlington busts the affordable housing debate: the Burlington Community Land Trust's radical 20-year experiment in affordable housing.(Company Profile)
March 1, 2005... "Housing used to be an opportunity ladder in our country. You started out in a rental and began to save. Then you bought a small home, and eventually you moved up. Today, housing prices are so high that if you're renting an apartment, you can't...

Environmentalism in a postcapitalist economy: Chris Spannos interviews Robin Hahnel.(Interview)
March 1, 2005... Developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert, and spelled out over the past decade and a half in a series of articles and books, "participatory economics," or parecon for short, is a detailed, specific model for a postcapitalist political...

Economic Justice and Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation.(BOOK EXCERPT)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Economic Justice and Democracy From Competition to Cooperation BY ROBIN HAHNEL In his forthcoming book, Economic Justice And Democracy: From Competition To Cooperation, political economist Robin Hahnel continues the project that...

Media war: the film Weapons of Mass Deception lays bare the networks' war profiteering.
March 1, 2005... Nearly four decades ago, television brought the horrors of the bloody Vietnam quagmire into the living rooms of millions of Americans every night, helping turn public opinion against U.S. involvement. The Pentagon learned its lesson then, and...

Bush's budget seeks deep cutbacks.(economy in numbers)
March 1, 2005... President Bush's newly released 2006 budget calls for $214 billion in cuts in "domestic discretionary programs," basic government programs ranging from education and environmental protection to housing and veterans' benefits. Out of the...