One year ago, I posted my first blog on WisdomWordsPPF.org! I thought I would provide a review of the topics and topic areas, to give new visitors a feel for what I have been covering and to help sporadic visitors to get caught up. (Note that there are overlaps in the following selections.) Posts on […]
Common good
The Incentive Argument: Lessons from Nordic Nations
There is a longstanding conservative argument in the United States that too much “welfare” leads to over-dependence on government largesse (at the expense of working Americans), a huge absence of incentive to work and be productive, and the advent of the so-called “welfare queen” (a pejorative term tinged with racist overtones). As noted in a […]
“Good” Anger and “Bad” Anger: Lessons from the Enneagram
Anger: an emotion that often drives people to walk into a school, movie theater, place of business or nightclub, pull a trigger and kill innocents. Anger: an emotion linked negatively in Bible verses with sin, unrighteousness, the devil, slander and malice. Anger: an emotion to be avoided, tamed, tamped down. What about our own anger, […]
It’s Well Past Time: The Imperative Need to Address Gun Violence
Orlando, June 12, 2016… As I was preparing this blog post, we experienced the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Once again, we mourn, try to make sense of the senseless, debate and, hopefully, come together in solidarity. But we must face facts: violence in the US, especially violence involving firearms, is a serious problem, […]
Workfare versus Welfare: The European Approach to Social Support Services – and Life
Let’s face it: our “war on poverty” and “war on drugs” haven’t worked very well. As Senator Bernie Sanders has pointed out time and again during the current presidential campaign, most new wealth in our country goes to the top one percent of Americans, there is vast income inequality (and has been for awhile), and […]
The Ethical Imperative for Making America Better: Learn from our Peer Nations
For physicians, the Hippocratic Oath forms the ethical basis of their practice. Our leaders in Congress take a solemn vow to defend the Constitution of the United States. Law enforcement officials make promises to “serve and protect.” Whether these promises are actually kept or not, the people making them are, in effect, undertaking an ethical imperative […]
Good Government versus Bad Government: Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water
We Americans have a long history of ambivalence toward government at all levels. We have recently witnessed the stand-off in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon between authorities and anti-government protesters. Republican presidential candidates cry out for abolition of government agencies – and have been doing so for decades (recall Ronald Reagan’s frequent rallying […]
The American Workplace 5: Wages, Savings and Debt
How is your dollar doing? A look at some statistics about wages, savings and debt in the US is instructive. If you are not doing terribly well financially, you are not alone – and there are ways out of our collective problems, if we are willing to look seriously at ideas from other nations and […]
The American Workplace 4: Work and Overwork
Work – overwork – the dignity of work. In this fourth installment of my series on the American workplace, I want to challenge the pervasive American notion that working excessively is a virtue and that not working practically around the clock means that one is a “slacker.” I also want to put the issue into […]
The American Workplace 1: At-will Employment Continued
Over the next few weeks, I will be addressing issues having to do with the American workplace. Because work is such a vital part of most Americans’ lives, and because Americans spend so much of their time in the workplace, it is an issue of social justice: how people are treated, and how workplace practices, […]