Monday, November 22, 2004

Moral Values

This is a topic that I've wanted to discuss ever since the presidential elections got over. This election redefined the meaning of moral values. The highest percentage of voters (22%) voted based on the so-called moral values and 80% of those folks voted for our president George W Bush. This term includes all fundamental questions related to marriage, religion and faith or as media puts it "God, Guns and Gays”. What ever happened to the moral values of yesteryears -Equal Rights, Compassion and Social Justice? In a lot of ways, these folks voted to say that they wanted to have their next door neighbor having an abortion or being gay as part of the moral value discussion but didn’t want 35.8 million people living under poverty level (an increase of close to 4 million from last year) as part of it! Now some people might ask if poverty should come under moral values discussion.

I believe that it’s a moral disgrace that low-wage workers who work full time are not paid enough to lift their families out of poverty. The minimum wage is 35% less than what it was in 1968 taking inflation into consideration. In relative terms, minimum wage workers in 1968 earned $7.72 an hour when compared to today’s minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and there are states like Kansas ($2.65) and Ohio ($4.25) where the state minimum wage is less the federal wage. While worker productivity has risen over the past 30 years, minimum wages seems to have gone down. Between 1968 and 2000, productivity grew 74.2 percent, yet wages for minimum-wage workers fell by 35 percent. There are close to 45 millions people who lack health insurance. The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of all children were in poverty. I think the issues around moral values should be centered around showing compassion and empowerment and not about the ones defined by the democrats and republicans in 2004 election.

FDR said that the success of moral values can be measured by whether we provide enough for the "have nots" and not by adding to the pockets of the folks who have enough. I do know that the system cannot solve all the problems and there are folks who take advantage of the system! But that shouldn’t stop us from fixing the loop holes so that the real people - the people who need help do not suffer. Lets get back to the real moral values discuss on how to economically and socially empower the under privileged people.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Let the blogging begin!!!

I am glad to be a member of the ever growing blog world . I have a lot to say and no one dares to stop me from saying it. Let the blogging begin!!!

I would like to thank the Deaniacs for getting me interested in blogging! Way to go dudes and dudettes! Now shut up and roll me a doobie you Berkeley/Santa Cruz liberal hippies!