Erosion Of the American Middle Class

Simon Black

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/americas-long-term-challenge-4-erosion-of-the-middle-class-23722 

We've all seen the headlines: the middle class in the United States (and much of Europe for that matter) has been in decline for years. ... Even when you adjust for the fact that people are earning more, housing became 33 percent more expensive in just six years - and that doesn't account for increases in property taxes, home owners association dues, insurance premiums, etc ... So even though people are technically earning more money, their money buys them less and less house. Medical care costs show the same trend ... Back in 1980, the average amount of debt per worker in the US was 1.96 times his/her monthly salary. Today the average American worker's debt is five times his/her monthly salary. Same theme - yes, people are earning more. But the amount of debt that they owe relative to their wages is more than 2.5 times greater.

Rewarding Failure Has Become an American Epidemic 

New York Post

https://nypost.com/2018/06/02/rewarding-failure-has-become-an-american-epidemic/

... Lowering standards has become a nationwide - and even global - phenomenon. When schools were unable to pass the basic proficiency tests of the No Child Left Behind law in 2002, educators simply made the tests easier over the years, allowing more kids to pass while keeping the schools' federal funding intact. And, as of last year, teachers in New York no longer have to take a literacy test that many found too difficult ... All this mollycoddling comes at an emotional and developmental cost ... We're not doing anyone any favors by opening the floodgates to the FDNY or even a cheerleading squad. Those given an easy way in end up having lower feelings of self-worth, because they know they didn't earn their spot and have to face those who did every day. It's humiliation - not charity.

Postcard From the End of America: Callowhill, Philadelphia 

Linh Dinh

http://www.unz.com/ldinh/postcard-from-the-end-of-america-callowhill-philadelphia/ 

... With Trump installed, liberal, progressive Americans see Nazis everywhere, by which they mean all those who oppose having an open border, or who might identify as, God forbid, a nationalist, but a nation, by definition, can't exist without borders or nationalists ... Nations that stress linguistic, cultural and/or ethnic unity will outlast those that don't. Further, nations that shun their own heritage are as good as dead. For years, I have also stressed that the United States is ruled by a rootless, criminal cabal, and for pointing out something so obvious, I have had countless slurs hurled at me ... As a toxic model, this criminal, decadent and deeply-confused nation can't collapse soon enough. Americans, too, need a fresh start, though they may have to cease calling themselves American. It won't matter much. It already doesn't.

Einstein's Travel Diaries Reveal 'Shocking' Xenophobia

A. Flood - The Guardian (Britain)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/12/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-shocking-xenophobia 

Private journals kept by [Albert Einstein] the scientist and humanitarian icon show prejudiced attitudes towards the people he met while travelling in Asia / Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries see the scientist musing on his travels, science, philosophy and art. In China, the man who famously once described racism as "a disease of white people" describes the "industrious, filthy, obtuse people" he observes ... After earlier writing of the "abundance of offspring" and the "fecundity" of the Chinese, he goes on to say: "It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary."

Einstein's Travel Diaries Reveal Racist Stereotypes

BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44472277 

Newly published private travel diaries have revealed Albert Einstein's racist and xenophobic views. Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries track his experiences in Asia and the Middle East. In them, he makes sweeping and negative generalisations, for example calling the Chinese "industrious, filthy, obtuse people". Einstein would later in life advocate for civil rights in the US, calling racism "a disease of white people". This is the first time the diaries have been published as a standalone volume in English. Published by Princeton University Press, The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein: The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922-1923, was edited by Ze'ev Rosenkranz ...