Preserving The American Political Philosophy

TWEET THIS ARTiCLE USING THIS SHORT LINK  http://goo.gl/u2fKk0 My father often told me that in the 1950's , the distribution of wealth in the United States took the form of a bell curve with the greatest amount of wealth distributed amoungst the greatest number of people. I grew up with the bell curve image embedded into my mind . It is the image of an algorithm, a form of economic visualization which seems to have all but disappeared from the methods of reporting income distribution- replaced by graphs showing two lines- one for the top and the other for the bottom. The median household income displays statistics in two separate parts- Those making above the median and those making below the median and does not address the distribution of wealth within the two halves.The mean gives us the averaged income of a specific group- but none of that tells us how the wealth is distributed- is there a gradual curve of distribution? a series of steps? or a huge gulf betwe...

I have been busy lately with our ceramics business and with some new ideas for expanding the mission of this blog, however a very important change in our legislature's tax policies is now under consideration making this a moment when it is exceptionally important to  keep the conversation going ! I have not located the actual proposals yet, mysteriously, all the links in this Portland PressHerald article are non-functioning but here is the story from the Herald by Steve Mistler, of all people! Maine tax panel will release suggestions for savings Monday  The Legislature has attempted similar reviews in the past with little success. However, this time some believed that the self-inflicted budget gap would provide an incentive for lawmakers to push through recommendations that have been traditionally politically unpopular. Additionally, the budget provision is written in a way that would take the $40 million out of the state fund that provides municipal aid if th...

This is rhetoric from the  2006 Opega Report on Maine;s Economic Development Program s as  first introduced to this blog in my previous post : Maine citizens make substantial investment s in economic development programs each year. These programs, taken together, constitute an investment portfolio that ideally should be designed and managed to assure that the State is getting the best return on its investment. There are, however, significant technical and political challenges in adopting a portfolio approach. The words " Maine Citizens "  refers to the people of Maine. Through a rhetorical sleight of hand, the authors of the OPEGA report switch the meaning of " Maine Citizens " with  that of " the State " , The latter term refers to the government sector, which in theory, if not in practice, serves the citizens of the state. The two terms are not interchangeable, with a possible exception within the context of  the political ideology of Karl Marx wh...

  This is a very Informative article about what I call Maine State Inc published by Pine Tree Watchdog in February of 2012: Tax break deals studied … and studied, but questions remain unresolved Quote: What does that cost? How about $602,181,397 from 2003 to 2005 . On an annual basis, that’s about the size of the hole in the state budget that Gov. Paul LePage and the legislature have spent the last few months trying to fill. And those numbers, which come from a 2006 study by the stateOffice of Program Evaluation & Government Accountability (OPEGA) , don’t include the administrative costs. That adds another $22 million , according to OPEGA. While this article openly states that the programs allows fraud to go undetected and admits that its losers are the taxpayers, its also reports the justifications that are used to perpetuate these programs without presenting an alternative view.   For instance there is this: Another skeptic has been Peter...