This video is called Economic Collapse: More Poor People in America.
Another video from the USA which used to be on the Internet used to say about itself:
On Books of Our Time, a one-hour TV program produced by the Massachusetts School of Law, Atlantic Monthly senior editor and distinguished author Jack Beatty was interviewed by Dean Lawrence R. Velvel of MSL about his new book, The Age of Betrayal.
Beatty passionately discussed the Gilded Age, a time when money talked and little else mattered, and the events that led to social, economic, and political suppression of the working class and sometimes to actual starvation of workers.
Beatty likened important political and economic problems besetting ordinary citizens in today’s America to the time when the labor force, oppressed by corporate tycoons and the politicians, was victimized by public policy dictated by the wealthy. Beatty says that, in the Pennsylvania Railroad Strike in which over 100 citizens were murdered by the National Guard after the railroad cut wages to one dollar a day, the blood of the labor force was shed to secure riches for corporations and big businessmen while workers starved.
Corporations and big businessmen got their way by vast bribery of state and federal legislators, governors and even Presidents, all of whom were showered with stocks, bonds, and cash to buy their votes and support. Democracy was for sale to the highest bidder. The courts were accessories to all this, ruling that corporations could not be regulated, and the horrible working conditions they created could not be stopped, because they were protected by the 14th Amendment, which had been passed to protect blacks, not corporations, while also ruling perversely that the amendment gave blacks themselves almost no protection.
These judicial rulings made a mockery of the outcome of the Civil War, and cemented the terrible rule of Jim Crow in the South from 1866 to the mid 1960s. The Courts, says Beatty, inverted the 14th Amendment, using it to protect the corporations, as it still does today, while gutting it in regard to African Americans, who remained fourth class citizens for another (100) years. Beatty reminds readers and viewers that the Gilded Age gave rise to the problems of modern America, where the rich get richer, the poor poorer, laws and rules are now bought with campaign contributions, and the courts increasingly strike down regulation of corporations and the wealthy.
From AFP news agency:
Poor suffer disproportionately from road crashes: study
June 15th, 2009
The poor are disproportionately victims of road crashes, with the number of deaths set to nearly double in two decades, according to the first global assessment of road safety released on Monday.
The World Health Organization study found that almost half of the estimated 1.27 million people who die each year in road accidents are pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists, and said not enough was being done to ensure their safety.
“More than 90 percent of the world’s road deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries, while these countries only have 48 percent of the world’s vehicles,” said Dr. Etienne Krug, director of WHO’s Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability.
Persons from poor economic settings are disproportionately affected by the 20-50 million road traffic injuries per year, even in high-income countries, the study found.
Impoverished countries are less likely to require all passengers in a car to use seat belts, 38 percent compared with 57 percent for all countries, the study noted.
The Eastern Mediterranean and African regions had the highest death rates, while the lowest rates were among high-income countries, such as the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Although road traffic death rates have stabilised or declined in many high-income countries in recent decades, the study found in most regions road deaths are increasing.
If present trends continue, road deaths could nearly double to 2.4 million per year by 2030, it estimated.
With road injuries a top-three killer of people aged five to 44 years, costing an estimated 518 billion dollars in losses annually and knocking up to three percent off economic output, the WHO study said all countries needed to redouble their road safety efforts.
“Even the top performers globally are often stagnating and still have considerable room for improvement in achieving a truly safe road transport system,” said Krug.
Moreover, the study found many basic safety measures had yet to be widely implemented.
For instance only 40 percent of countries have helmet laws that cover both the motorcycle drivers and passengers, and less than half use the recommended blood alcohol concentration limit of 0.05 grams per decilitre to reduce drink driving.
POOR people are more likely than the rich to suffer from respiratory diseases caused by traffic fumes: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 