Good Thursday to all. Sun today after two and a half days of snow. We came up with about 10 inches so it wasn't too bad.

Thanks for the good wishes, Lois. I have heard of New Trier. The school is sometimes in the news here. Mom went to another high school in Chicago. By the time I was old enough to attend schools they had already moved out of the city. I have only felt two earthquakes and was far enough away that it was a mildly odd sensation. Thankfully!!

Rob Herbert has an opinion piece in the New York Times that is very interesting. I found it in a link on The Curious Capitalist blog. I am not surprised at the data. After all, it simply parallels the income and wealth data. Those at the top of the list (say the top 10%) command the lion's share of the income, own a massive share of the wealth, and suffer the least from un/underemployment. But what is more interesting is that those at the lowest levels get the least attention. When you see the angry Tea Baggers, who do you see? Those are people who still have nice houses, nice clothes, access to medical care, health insurance. Maybe the news media should look at the bottom of the heap a bit and explain why the Tea Baggers are so angry and so afraid. Also, maybe, we should ask how any jobs bills will affect those at the low end of the scale. I suspect that none of those programs will help the largest number of the unemployed. Especially not when the 'clean energy' programs have (according to a news report on ABC a couple of nights ago) have resulted in far more jobs in China than over here.

Robert Reich has another on-point analysis of the current economic situation. I can't argue with anything he has written. I would add something, though. I don't begrudge people who have worked hard and taken advantage of their lucky breaks to gain wealth and success. I think people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and others like them deserve their wealth. They took an idea, built a product, convinced others to buy that product and built their companies--companies they owned. However, Blankfein, Dimon, and the others running the major banking houses are managers not owners. They are managing companies built long ago by the generation of entrepreneurs who came before Gates and Jobs. Do mere managers really deserve those outsized salaries and bonuses--especially given what has happened under their watch?

John Michael Greer, at the Archdruid Report, always puts out an interesting blog and today's is no exception. He says a lot of things and weaves in a number of themes that have been in my mind for sometime. The U.S. well on its way to becoming a third world country? He makes a good case.