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Opinion
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- Written by: Randy Ridgel
He calculated $1.2 million (and that didn’t include the employer’s contribution). If I just retired on the interest at 4 percent I could have drawn $48,000 each year and left the $1.2 million to my children and grandchildren when I died.
But, instead, when I retired on Social Security I was paid $480 per month, as I recall.
Rick Perry is wrong; Social Security is no Ponzi scheme; it’s far worse. It’s outright robbery. The government took away most of my retirement and gave it to themselves and other people who didn’t earn it.
Randy Ridgel lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
Campaign finance was the only way to free legislators from being slaves to their campaign funds. Now, corporations and the very rich can emulate their peers in third world countries and buy influence.
Lobbyists did it to a certain extent, but now that there is no limit to donations, the money is too good not to indulge.
Once again, we are allowing ourselves to be distracted by rhetoric and labeling.
The Tea Party declared that the national debt is the No. 1 problem, and we allowed them to distract us from the actual number one problem, jobs.
People cannot pay taxes without jobs. There is no stimulus as good as one that gives money to the poor and middle class, as they spend it to live, and then to enjoy while concurrently reseeding the general economy.
Unemployed workers must still feed their families, and most will do almost anything to keep a roof overhead. What kind of environment do we want to raise our families in? One where compassion and inclusion rule, or the Law of the Jungle?
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Judith Steele Lanfranco
The Lake County Passion Play thanks all who worked so diligently preparing, cooking and hosting our fundraising event this past Saturday.
We also extend thanks to all who contributed and attended, and lastly to Bill and Jan Thompson for providing the venue.
Judith Steele Lanfranco is director of the Lake County Passion Play, held in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Deb Baumann
Not surprising, you say? Kind of like, uhm, common sense, perhaps?
Well, here in the United States of America, it is NOT illegal to sell food contaminated with salmonella, or even E. coli.
Armies of lobbyists have been working diligently for decades to dismantle the food safety laws put into effect back in the day when there was a strong consumer protection movement.
The FDA and USDA no longer have the laws, the budget or the mandate to protect America's citizens. It's all about deregulation and enabling greater profits for Corporate Food, now.
Meanwhile, America has fallen to almost 40th among the world's nations, for population longevity and health.
Our “standard American diet” is now so bad, that people having children today are likely to outlive those children.
That's right – young parents giving birth to babies today are, for the first time, likely to outlive their own children. That's how severe the decline of our nutrition has been in just twenty years, and that's how dramatically nutrition affects the very young.
If you were born 20-30 years ago, the nutrition you received in your first five years was that much better, making your life expectancy much longer than babies born today, in the USA.
Giant food processing companies selling to Americans do not need to manufacture food to the same high safety standard as, say, a company selling goods in Denmark. This is a triumph for Corporate Food. And a tragedy for the thousands of Americans who sicken and die from eating the contaminated results.
In the world of Corporate Food, thousands stricken by totally preventable food-borne illnesses are just numbers to crunch during profit calculations.
American CEOs are tough enough to handle the truth: If you want to see those profit dividends stay high, a certain percentage of your customer base is gonna die (collateral damage).
The reason a company recalls contaminated ground turkey is not because they have to, but because their number-wonks have determined that the potential costs of litigation and damages, and the negative publicity, might outweigh other factors, thereby justifying the cost of recall.
The cost of increasing manufacturing quality to the same high degree that consumers enjoy in Europe might negatively impact the seven-figure salaries and hundred-million-dollar bonuses that so many American CEOs have become accustomed to.
Most importantly, there is no need to squander money like that. Because, here in the USA, there's no law against selling food contaminated with toxic bacteria.
Remember this the next time your family sits down to supper and says grace: “Thank God we live in a country that puts corporate profits ahead of all other considerations. Amen!”
Deb Baumann lives in Upper Lake, Calif.