Blogcritics Author: Joel S. Hirschhorn

Consumer Power Wasted

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Tue, 6 Jan 2009 02:16:38 EST

Economic Recovery Will Come Faster From Us Than From the Government
When I was young talk about millions of dollars impressed me. When I was older talk about billions of dollars dismayed me. Now, regular talk about trillions of dollars, especially government spending, nauseates me. People never seem to learn that they control the fate of the American economy.It is far too easy to blame in bad times or thank in...

Illinois Citizens Deserve Corrupt Government

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:25:29 EST

Public corruption has thrived in Illinois
The current Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, recently charged with crimes by the federal prosecutor, just follows in the footsteps of previous convicted Illinois governors and a huge number of other Illinois officials convicted of crimes. What is remarkable is that in the 2008 election Illinois voters had the opportunity to recognize that they...

Book Review: Unjust Deserts - How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back by Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:07:39 EST

In today�s world of economic crashes and calamity it comes to this: Should there be higher taxes on the richest people in society?
Like a law of physics, corrupt politics, unshared national wealth, and uncontrolled greed combine to produce economic inequality and delusional prosperity. Now comes a book that should have been titled Stolen Wealth. This would have been more consistent with Unjust Deserts' long subtitle: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why...

A New Political Party Is Needed

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:09:01 EST

Current third parties are a failure.
Third-party presidential candidates had a miserable showing this year, totaling just over one percent of the grand total with 1.5 million votes nationwide, compared to almost 123 million votes for Barack Obama and John McCain. It couldn't be clearer that Americans are not willing to voice their political discontent by voting for third-party...

The Anti-Incumbency Movement is Dead

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 19:01:05 EST

Voting out congressional incumbents is a useless strategy.
Voting out congressional incumbents failed this year, making the anti-incumbency movement a clear failure. For some years, many groups and their websites have been advocating voting out congressional incumbents as an effective means to reform government and make it work better. Two of the better ones are Vote Out Incumbents Democracy, and Tenure...

Shame! Shame! Come Back, Shame

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 02:30:29 EDT

First blame, then shame.
Shame on them (the politicians) and shame on us (the public). We live in the United States of Shame. Why? Because everywhere we see nothing but disgrace, dishonor and infamy, yet a complete absence of shame. In a nation where religion supposedly plays such a big role, people seem to have used it to suppress shame and avoid blame.Republicans...

Book Review: No Innocent Bystander - Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial by Mickey Z.

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Thu, 2 Oct 2008 17:33:10 EDT

Time to stop the excuses.
It is never easy to communicate wisdom. Even more difficult to do so in an engaging way that makes it very, very easy to read and understand. Mickey Z. has accomplished this difficult task in his new book No Innocent Bystanders. This book is designed to reach deep into a person’s consciousness, pierce normal psychological defenses, and...

Deception and Delusion: Dummies for Democracy

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Tue, 9 Sep 2008 11:59:34 EDT

The only real difference between Obama and McCain is exactly how they will screw the public and benefit the rich and powerful.
I confess. I believe there is a ruling class that sustains the two-party plutocracy running the nation for the benefit of the rich and corporate class. Their broad strategy is deception and delusion. Tactically, they use government, the mainstream media, the financial services sector, funding of politicians and the two major parties, and many...

Bye Bye Barry

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:48:32 EDT

Imagine Election Day 2008 has ended.
The final results are in on this historic November day. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he raised, Barack Obama has lost the 2008 presidential election. American voters have boldly spoken truth to arrogance. Turned out that all those pre-election opinion polls that showed Obama’s inability to get over 50 percent support were...

Working Poor Unready to Revolt

Joel S. Hirschhorn — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 18:21:41 EDT

The working class is no match for the ruling class.
Once upon a time when governments no longer served most of their citizens it was the most economically disadvantaged that could be counted on to rebel against tyranny and injustice. Times have changed, for the worse.Here we are with a two-party plutocracy that preferentially serves corporate and wealthy interests and lets the middle class suffer...