Preserving American Values

Our nation stands under attack … not from without but from within. American values, our politics, and our culture have been corrupted.

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Websites: www.westillholdthesetruths.weebly.com; www.preservingamericanvalues.com; www.thepracticalbuddhist.com. A graduate of Brown U. and U. of Chicago Law School, I’ve had a varied career as a legal aid lawyer, survey researcher, nonprofit executive, management consultant, composer, teacher, and author. I have authored 7 books on topics as varied as Buddhism, child rearing, and politics, the latter of which received a pre-publication endorsement from James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic. My Buddhist blog was selected as one of the top 50 Buddhist blogs on the web.

Category: The Economy

  • When Is a Socialist Not a Socialist?

    When Barack Obama was running for President, the Republican Right branded him a “Socialist.”  They have also branded Obamacare as “socialized medicine.”  These claims were so ridiculous that neither Obama nor anyone else ever took the time to set the American people straight on the meaning of these words and the lie they spoke as applied.  Thus for…

  • Understanding Why America Is No Longer, and Perhaps Can Never Be, As Great As It Was

    People either go on about how great America is, or they lament that America is not as great as it used to be.  In the first case, people typically ignore reality.  In the second case, they often ignore fundamental factors.  When people say that America is great, they are either referring to the strength of our military…

  • Poverty and Homelessness in the Land of Plenty

    I recently moved to Philadelphia and am living in what is called “center city.” It is, for the most part, a lovely area of quaint, historic row homes, lots of character, plus a few parks and of course commercial streets. But … Philadelphia is the 5th largest city in the U.S. with a population of…

  • Shell Oil Withdrawal Not a Victory

    After Shell recently announced that they were ceasing all exploratory work in the Arctic, I received a flood of emails declaring “victory” from the various organizations who had been trying to pressure the Obama administration to not let Shell drill.  This was as deceptive as Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” fiasco in the early days of the…

  • America’s Regressive Progressive Tax System

    Most people think that under our tax system the wealthy pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than those with less income, with those with the lowest income paying the lowest rate.   This is called a progressive tax system.   The reasoning behind a progressive system is twofold: one philosophical, one practical.  Philosophically, under our…

  • Our Archaic Transportation System

    The United States prides itself in being a technologically advanced country, a leader in the technology revolution, and yet our transportation system is archaic.  It is based primarily on a mode of transportation … the car and truck … that was developed a century ago and that technologically has not progressed much in the intervening…

  • How to End Wage Stagnation and Bring Back/Increase Jobs

    Two of the most important issues facing our country is how to improve the wages of workers (as opposed to management), who make up the bulk of our workforce and whose spending accounts for a large share of our economy, and significantly increase the number of living-wage jobs either by bringing them back to this…

  • Large Corporations Have Gutted Our Economy and Damaged Our Country

    Republicans are always touting large corporations as the engine of our economy and argue that we have to have business-friendly policies in order to allow them to grow and create jobs.  And while Democrats might take a more nuanced stance publicly, their actions in Congress certainly show that they, while not in lock step with Republicans…

  • Income Inequality Per Se Is Not the Problem

    In an ideal world, at least in my mind, you would not have the extremes of rich and poor.  But people have different intelligence levels, different talents, and different aptitudes which, even with all other things being equal, would translate themselves in the real world to significant disparities in earning opportunities.  Add to that that all other…

  • How to Prevent the Next Financial Collapse

    The newest scheme that the financial industry has devised to avoid transparency is something called a “deep pool.” Apparently these trading pools have popped up all over the place.  According to the New York Times, on some recent days as much as 40% of trades occurred in such pools, which are totally unregulated and secret.  This has given…