Category: Environment Page 1 of 2

Ignorance Over the Common Good? Blind Governance is Dangerous!

On November 16, 2018

In Climate Change, Coal, Common Good, Corporate Power, Corporate Reform, Environment, EPA

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: washingtonpost.com

Something’s not right. My grandson is not playing soccer and POTUS nominates a coal lobbyist to lead the EPA?

We all feel it. Right in the pit of our stomach, here in Northern California, while we are being hurt by the effects climate change. While not completely to blame, the Butte County fire storm was compounded by global greenhouse gas effects and as a possible cause a spark from an electricity wire.

Something is not right. As we experience in the Bay Area our eighth day of unhealthy air from the Camp Fire in the Sierra foothills. Those with lung diseases are shut away in their homes, people are not going out. Businesses that depend on foot traffic are seeing losses of 10 – 20 %. Football games like the Big Game, between Stanford and California are being rescheduled to December 1^st – the first time that game has been rescheduled since the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Local universities and colleges are closed for classes: Stanford, University of California, Santa Clara University, De Anza College and many secondary school districts.

Yet, our President nominates a coal lobbyist to head up EPA? The mission is in the name Environment Protection Agency, Not Environmental Destruction Agency. Coal is a fossil fuel contributing to massive amounts of gas emissions warming our earth. Heating the planet every day. Here is the path we are on toward 1.5 degrees C and eventual extinction of the human race:

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 11/15/18

My grandson’s soccer game was cancelled last Saturday and will be cancelled again tomorrow due to unhealthy smoke in the air. Is this the new normal? We don’t have to support this heresy destroying our environment, our families and our lives anymore!

Why in the world is a coal lobbyist heading up EPA? Something is very wrong with this picture. Maybe the House Progressive Caucus has it right to camp out at Nancy Pelosi’s office the other day demanding climate change legislation.

We have accepted the status quo too long on climate change. Industry priorities must come second to clean air, water and the planet period.

The sheer ignorance, lack of wisdom and understanding of science is killing our people, making life a struggle for thousands, shortening life expectancies and reducing the sales of legitimate businesses – all so coal companies that should be shifting their business from fossil fuels to renewables have not made the transition. We should not be paying for coal company executive mistakes.

We need to be asking at what cost do we keep coal? It is clear the cost is too great. We need to quit accepting the platitude ‘it saves jobs’ and replace it with we want ‘live saving jobs’ for all. We can’t accept this environmental spiral downward for the ourselves and our planet. We must return to the Paris Climate Change agreement, renew investments in renewables, focus on clean jobs training and development. Get on with it now, future generations and our planet are depending on us to make sound decisions and not accept blind governance one day longer.

‘Facts’ Can’t Be Ignored in XL Pipeline Decision

By Patrick Hill

On November 8, 2018

In Environment, Oil, Pollution, Public Interest, Social Responsibility, Solution

Photo: commondreams.org

In a win for all those interested in using facts, science and in depth analysis to make policy decision, a federal court held in a 54 page decisions that the Trump administration had disregarded the facts prepared in a 14 volume report by the Obama administration in 2014. In January of 2017, President Trump executed a memorandum to approve the XL pipeline project and move it along. The State Department which has jurisdiction in the pipeline project because it crosses the US – Canadian border surprisingly used the 2014 findings to justify its conclusion that the pipeline environmental damages were ‘inconsequential’. The court held that the Trump Administration had provided no supporting evidence for their argument.

Judge Brian Morris, sitting on the Montana federal court found the government must complete a through, fact based environmental review before approving the project. There is long standing environmental and procedure law dating back to the 1970s which federal judges have found the GOP administration trying to short-circuit to make a policy shift toward fossil fuel development. Judge Morris provided additional related findings:

The State Department is issuing the approval failed to analyze the climate change impact of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Department acted without complete information on the impact of the project on Indian territory and culture.
The Department failed to use a ‘fact based’ set of reasons for the reversal of previous law and policy of the previous administration.
The Department needed a ‘reasoned explanation’ for its finding that their were no climate change impacts from the project.

The environmental review is likely to take at least a year, the Administration is likely to appeal the ruling.

Let’s step back here a moment, the project taps thick oil from Canada oil field and pipes the oil to refineries in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. Why do we need this project? We are trying to reduce green-house gas emissions. We know that the latest UN report on climate change estimates that within 12 years the planet will be 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter if present climate regulations and changes are implemented. Yet, even at that level the impact would be monumental causing more damage to the planet with hotter oceans, intense rainstorms, drought, wildfires, and rising seas engulfing valuable shore line and displacing millions of people. We are already experiencing, more category 5 hurricanes than ever, wildfires that create their own windstorms racing through cities nearby in seconds, coastal areas flooding on a continuous basis and the list goes on.

Sources NRDC, The International Energy Agency -2013

Experts predict significant degree increasing impacts based on Keystone plans as outlined. If Keystone was implemented at the 4.6 million per barrel level by 2030 there would be a 6 degree global impact. This level of global warming can’t be justified compared to the UN findings.

We applaud legal efforts of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Indigenous Environmental Network and others who focused their efforts on protecting our planet and our lives. Maybe Jefferson and Madison’s faith in the people of this country ‘in a reasoned’ manner based on truth and facts making decisions will win out over corporate inertia and politicians that are bought off by corporate campaign contributions.

Rethinking How We Get From Home to the Grocery Store

By Patrick Hill

On October 18, 2018

In Climate Change, Environment, Health, Housing, Renewable Energy, Solution

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: texastribune.org

In a recent seminar by Climate One, an environmental conversation group, sponsored in San Francisco, one participant pointed out “the greenhouse gas reduction potential is huge. Greenhouse gases from transportation are about 28% of all greenhouse gases in this country. “ Certainly changing how we get from home to the grocery store and everywhere will have a significant impact on climate change and greenhouse gas diffusion into the atmosphere.

While a few of us walk to the market bringing home our groceries in a cart with a basket, 99 % of all grocery trips are made by one person in a two-ton car, spewing out carbon gases. Of course, most Americans still live in suburbs, sprawled out with single family homes connected by streets and freeways to shopping centers where the grocery store is located. We buy a house in the suburb, buy a car to get around and that’s about all the thought we put into it.

We need to start thinking beyond the present urban map and transportation model centered on the single passenger car. How about electric scooters? They are shareable, we setup a logon on our smartphone, pick up a scooter left by a previous user and head on our way. Just leave the scooter there on the sidewalk when we arrive for the next person to use it. In a minute or two, they are riding and are off on their trip. Bikes are being shared in cities all over the U.S. with some bikes motorized to handle longer trips.

A short trip in a car on average costs about $8 one way, while an electric assisted bike costs just $2 per trip. There are cargo bikes available as well that can handle larger loads. Of course, weather is an issue as these sharable scooter and bike solutions are growing popular in the Southwest and West. Public transit, a bus or subway maybe the answer for rainy or snowy days.

Uber and Lyft are rethinking their business models to include electric scooters, and bikes. A customer logs on to their app for all personal transportation needs is their vision. They already offer shareable rides at a discount. Instead of buying a car, people are living closer to work and shopping in densely populated cities where owning a car is actually a costly liability.

New sharable transportation models combined with driverless cars would not only change transportation but our city maps as well. Urban planners are already building denser housing near transportation hubs, providing bike lanes off away from parked cars and more bike pathways used exclusively by bikers. The economic consequences are significant, the new car and used car markets would begin to shrink, financing and insurance businesses for auto loans would decline. New businesses using sharable transportation system would spring up for delivery, assisted transportation for doctor appoints or dropping off kids a practice.

Most importantly, using sharable transportation vehicles, bikes and scooters would make a significant impact to reduce carbon gases across the planet. We may be able to finally, get ahead of the climate change curve and return our planet to more livable temperatures

Thinking creatively to solve our major problems like Climate One does in conversation mode with all points of view represented is refreshing. The dialog during this seminar was focused on ‘can do’ and ‘make it happen’ while being sensitive to safety issues, city regulators and other businesses. If we could have more of this civil solution oriented tone in our national dialog we could solve the big problems in front of us, as we always have the past two hundred and forty years.

Zinc Air Battery Is Renewables “Game Changer”

By Patrick Hill

On September 27, 2018

In Climate Change, Environment, Renewable Energy, Solution

Photo: public.wmo.int

One of the major problems with solar and wind energy is how to store the energy they create for use when it is actually needed. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a California billionaire, announced a new zinc air battery which is cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, less likely to catch fire and store more electricity for its size. Forecasts for renewable energy demand are soaring.

Source: EIA – 2017

Renewable energy will continue to grow from the present rate of about 7 % to about 14 % of total energy sources by 2050. Thus, technologies like the zinc air battery could make a significant impact on how quickly development and availability of electricity from renewables can be realized. The zinc air batteries have been deployed at villages in Africa and Asia and cell towers in the U.S. without backup from the electric grid.

“It could change and create completely new economies using purely the power of the sun, wind and air,” Dr. Soon-Shiong told the New York Times last week. Dr. Soon-Shiong’s company, NantEnergy has deployed micro grids in Africa and Asia in arrays of zinc air batteries and solar arrays to 110 villages not connected to an electrical grid system. The technology can bring down the cost of electricity below $100 per kilowatt hour. At this level the zinc air batteries become cost effective to deploy in a fully electric grid that is carbon free. Nant Energy plans to expand the product line into telecommunications, and home storage use in California and New York soon.

We are excited to see this technology come on board, just as California sets a goal for a carbon free energy system by 2045. The key now is to get our politics aligned with what we need to do to mitigate the climate change crisis. We need to give complete and full support to the Paris Climate accord, take leadership with other countries in developing renewable energy sources and wind down our use of fossil fuels.

California Urges World Leaders to Move Fast On Climate Solutions

By Patrick Hill

On September 13, 2018

In Climate Change, Environment, Scientists, Social Responsibility, Solution

Image: globalclimateactionsummit.org

Yesterday, California Gov. Jerry Brown, convened the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. The Summit brought together climate change leaders from around the world in private, government and non – government sectors to focus on action-oriented programs to mitigate the effects of global warming. Just before the meeting started Governor Brown signed into law a goal for the state to be using 100 % electric and renewable energy by 2045.

The conference sponsors focused on urgency in their introduction to the conference:

“The Global Climate Action Summit, happening midway between Paris 2015 and 2020, is timed to provide the confidence to governments to ‘step up’ and trigger this next level of ambition sooner rather than later.

The momentum we generate this year must lead to bending the curve of emissions down by 2020—science advises us that this gives the world the best opportunity to prevent the worst effects of climate change. 2018 therefore must be the beginning of a new phase of action and ambition on climate change.

The Summit will underscore the urgency of the threat of climate change by mobilizing the voices and experience of real people, in real communities already facing real and stark threats. It will challenge and channel the energy and idealism of people everywhere to step up and overcome it.”

The carbonization of our planet is the preeminent challenge of our times, possibly threatening our very existence long term. World-wide temperature records are being set from Tokyo to Washington as the following heat map for 2018 indicates:

Source: The Washington Post – 7/5/18

About 25 % of the heat is being soaked up by the ocean causing algae blooms which can contaminate water and cause wildlife to die. Scientists in the Pacific Northwest have discovered how certain ocean plants can dilute and mitigate water acidity. There are a variety of solutions being developed by governments and private businesses, yet what we need is a coordinated effort focused on those solutions that are most effective, affordable and can be quickly implemented.

We applaud California leaders for taking the initiative on this critical issue of our times to urge world governments to implement solutions to climate change before the problem goes beyond our ability to cope with the effects.

EPA Relaxes Coal Burning Regulations Endangering People and Economies

By Patrick Hill

On August 21, 2018

In Climate Change, Common Good, Corporate Nation State, Corporate Power, Environment, Families, Health, Public Interest, Renewable Energy

Image: agriland.ie

The day after that EPA announces relaxation of coal burning regulations scientists announced the first time in all recorded history the ‘last ice sea’ north of Greenland has thawed twice! This assumption that ‘last ice sea’ would not thaw due to climate warming is no longer proving to be true. One scientist described the iconic ice thawing discovery as ‘scary’.

Sources: The Polar Science Center, The Guardian – 8/21/18

At the same time, global warming is causing the seas to rise by 8 inches since 1900 of which 3 inches was since 1993. Scientists predict the sea level will rise another 3 to 7 inches by 2030. Today, rising sea levels are sending property values in low tidal areas spiraling down. University of Colorado and Penn State University researchers found that homes within just one foot of being flooded from a sea level rise were selling at a 14.7 % discount compared to homes on higher ground. Analysts have totaled property price losses since 2005 for Charleston at $265 million and Miami- Dade County at $465 million. Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg when considering all the coastal properties in the U.S. – losses are in the billions of dollars.

California has experienced the highest number and most acreage of wildfires in its history. Japan sweltered under hot July summer temperatures making new records. During the summer large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes the heat is to blame for at least 54 deaths in southern Quebec, near Montreal, which sweated under record high temperatures. The worldwide list of new high temperatures goes on and on. The chart below shows extremely hot temperatures worldwide in a model at 2 meters above ground.

Sources: University of Maine, The Washington Post – 7/5/18

The relaxation of Obama administration clean air restrictions would possibly kill from 470 to 1,400 people per year the EPA admits. The policy shift would move enforcement responsibility to the states, and allow them to relax regulations on coal burning plants even when installing new equipment. Utilities would be allowed to use old standards when installing new equipment without having to meet higher air quality regulations. The Obama era policies were never enforced because the Supreme Court found in favor of the states who sued to overturn the tighter regulations.

Next Steps:

Enough is enough, the federal government is here to protect American lives not kill more people as a result of policy. The government’s position makes no sense, it’s time we as citizens take a stand.

As we have said in a previous post:

“we may need to look to how to make duty more of a core value in our culture and in particular business culture. As we have observed our country is essentially run by Corporate Nation States, they must change their attitude, behavior and operating practices focused on their duty to all the people not just their executives and customers. Everything a corporation does in some way impacts the Common Good. We are the people these corporations serve, and we should expect nothing less than socially responsible behavior from the executives running these huge Corporate Nation States.”

We would like the executives of these coal companies to think about the people that will get ill or die because they wanted to make more money and be ‘efficient and affordable’. What if their daughter died? How would they feel. It seems that we are back to the point we made in last week’s Common Good post we ‘use people, and love things (money)’. This policy is dead wrong, and should never be implemented. Instead, these corporations should be coming to us with proposals on how to save people’s lives and speed up the process of reducing climate warming. Maybe, these executives need to look themselves in the mirror and ask ‘who am I serving?’. Time is running out, people are being killed in the heat, economies are being destroyed. All these forces will cause civil conflict unless we act now to reverse the course of climate warming, before it is too late.

EDF Announces Satellite To Monitor Climate Change

By Patrick Hill

On August 2, 2018

In Climate Change, Environment, EPA, Oil, Pollution, Renewable Energy

Image: EDF

One of the major problems facing environmental government and non-government groups is monitoring emissions from locations all over the planet. Many locations maybe quite remote while others are easily identifiable using land based monitoring systems. So, having a satellite to monitor emissions world wide is a way to accurately monitor emissions.

Methane emissions are a major component of climate change gases.Here are EPA projections for all climate change gases:

Chart: EPA – 2016

Environment Defense Fund President, Fred Krugg recently announced in a TedTalk, in Vancover, British Columbia that EDF was developing a fourth wave environmental monitoring system. The first wave was the conservation movement led by President Teddy Roosevelt, second came the anti-pollution laws of the 1960s and 1970s. Third, was the use of market based solutions and corporate partnerships in the 1990s.

The MethaneSAT is a Fourth Wave environmental monitoring system, using satellite technology to identify methane sources planet wide. Readings would be sent to government and non-government groups to identify sources, work out solutions and weigh alternative measures. Methane is a potent gas responsible for 25 % of all global warming. Targeting methane gas emissions is the fastest, cheapest way to attack global warming while other programs continue to focus on carbon dioxide emissions as well, according to EDF.

The launch target for MethaneSAT is 2021, with a focus on specific monitoring areas including 80 % of all oil and gas fields across the planet. Feedlots, agriculture and other methane sources will be monitored as well. EDF has set a high goal of 45 % reduction in oil and gas methane emissions by 2025. Achievement of this goal would deliver the same 20 year climate benefit as closing one third of all coal fired power plants worldwide.

We are pleased to see EDF take a proactive approach to monitoring methane worldwide, we hope that the U.S. and other countries will work hard to support this effort. The U.S. should not be waiting for an NGO to take the lead, the EPA needs to take the lead and focus on how to gather accurate data to effectively manage climate change initiatives as well as water.

Scientists Discover Plants Can Reduce Ocean Acidity

By Patrick Hill

On July 19, 2018

In Environment, Pollution, Public Interest, Scientists, Solution

Image: see.systemsbiology.net

Global ocean acidity has increased by 30 % over the past 200 years and is expected to increase by 150 % by 2099 to the highest level in over 20 million years. About 25 % of the carbon dioxide in the air is absorbed into the ocean. For carbon organisms like algae they will grow increasingly prevalent yet for calcifying organisms like oysters, lobsters, clams, sea urchins, corals and others they will lose the ability to grow and reproduce.

Source: WXshift

Three and one half billion people rely on the ocean for food. It is of huge consequence to have the oceans of the world become so acidic that the sea cannot sustain ocean life nourishing billions of people.

So, what is being done to reduce ocean acidification? Certainly, efforts at reducing global warming are having an impact in the ocean specifically. There are some intelligent solutions being developed that would immediately improve shell organism survival. The Pacific Northwest has a $200 million shellfish industry for export and shipping to West Coast cities. Baywater Shellfish, west of Seattle, is having trouble growing geoducks, oysters and clams for market due to increased acidification of the water causing the shellfish to lose nutrients they need to grow and survive. However, Oregon State University researchers working on an solution have discovered that eelgrass growing near the shell fish farms can lower the acidity in the water through photosynthesis absorbing the carbon, and pulling it from the water. This process allows vital nutrients to become available to the shellfish. Eelgrasses can be planted in oyster farms or near shellfish hatcheries to provide the necessary lower acidity levels to nourish the shellfish.

The ocean covers 70% of our planet and provides food for 3.5 billion people making it crucial to human existence. We have a stewardship responsibility to reverse the damage we are causing by human activity to preserve the oceans for future generations. Cleanup of the ocean is a top priority for all of us and businesses too, as business success in the future assumes access to safe, clean, reliable water supplies and ocean environment.

EPA Abdicates Common Good Responsibility to Ensure Clean Water

By Patrick Hill

On June 27, 2018

In Climate Change, Common Good, Environment, EPA, Health, Pollution

Photo: commonfloor.com

The Wall Street Journal yesterday disclosed that Scott Pruitt, EPA Director, is working to limit the veto power of the agency over large projects impacting water quality. The agency has used the veto power sparingly – only 13 times since it was given the authority in the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Pruit believes the veto authority has gone too far impeding economic development, “I am concerned that the mere potential of EPA’s use of its… authority before or after the permitting process could influence investment decisions and chill economic growth by short-circuiting the permitting process,”, in a 4 page memo to regional staff.

Why is this clean water common good responsibility so hard to execute? If a person dumped all his waste water and sewage in the street in front of his neighbors’ house, the neighbor would be upset and rightfully so. So, why do we treat mines, real estate developments, or port development any differently? Is it because they are trying to make a profit while desecrating the land so it is ok?

Chromium-6 a known carcinogen made famous in the movie ‘Erin Brockovich’ has been found in the drinking water of millions of Americans. The non-profit Environmental Working Group has been monitoring the status of chromium-6 found in 2017 the substance in the drinking water of over 200 million people. So, there are dangerous substances that still need to be monitoring in our drinking water.

The EPA has not taken in its public stewardship responsibility to the level of other countries, there are thousands of chemicals that can cause pollution and possible health hazards – none have been added to the pollutants list since 2000. The list is small only 90 are covered in the Clean Water Act out of about ten thousand. In the European Union they closely track over 2,500 different chemicals.

While the EPA is not as diligent as it needs to be, President Trump a year ago weakened the Clean Water Act requirement that mining companies ensure that water dumped into streams be cleaned to safe water standards. The policy shift impacts the drinking water of over 117 million people.

Source: Scientific American, – 3/10/17

The GOP Administration continues to undermine protections in place for 40 years to ensure clean water is available to all citizens. The lead levels found in Flint, Michigan water show that in some areas around the country the job is not getting done. Weakening the Clean Water Act in regard to mining dross and limiting the use of EPA veto on projects are just two examples of an indifferent and dangerous attitude by the agency.

Next steps:

In a Gallup poll 57 % of the people said they favor ensuring environmental quality over economic growth when a decision needs to be made.

Source: Gallup – 4/2/18

When are we going to get a government that represents the will of the people on issues of our very survival like the environment? The EPA Director worked as attorney general in Oklahoma relaxing environmental laws and now he is plowing ahead not protecting the public and not steadfastly defending the common good. Congress needs to act to update the Clean Water Act from updates in the 1980s, give the EPA a clear message that protecting the public is the first priority over economic costs.

The Rich View Our Government as A Trusted Rule Keeper, The Common Man Not So Much

By Patrick Hill

On June 15, 2018

In Common Good, Corporate Nation State, Environment, Executive Compensation, Labor, Stock Buybacks, Student Debt, Worker Wages

Image: Your Little Planet

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison saw the need to frame a government such that ‘forced compromises’ would push political leaders to focus on the Common Good. The institutions that maintain our common good include the federal government three estates: The Supreme Court, Congress and The Executive. In addition, the Fourth Estate, a Free Press is crucial for our citizens to have access to fair and impartial reporting about the activity of government officials and their policies. We have spotlighted the key role Education, as the Fifth estate, plays in educating our people to make critical decisions and understand comprehensively the information they receive from a Free Press.

Trust in our federal government has been falling since the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

Source: Pew Research Center – 12/14/17

We noted in our first post on the Common Good that there were two factors contributing to the decline in trust:

“We see two major factors for the lack of trust. One, is that economic inequality has been increasing over the last 60 years to the point where it is at the worst it has ever been since 1929. Americans expect their government to be the rule keeper of a fair shot at economic opportunity not a bastion for the rich and powerful. As wealthy donors have taken over control of both major parties, the influence of the average citizen has been reduced to nearly nothing except at the ballot box – but not in legislative policy.”

The second major factor is the change in information access and news viewing habits of our society.

“In the 1950s and 1960s families gathered around the television set to watch Walter Cronkite or Huntley and Brinkley bring them the news for the day. These news anchors had teams of trained journalists in how to gather news, provide airing of opposing views and investigation to reveal the facts of the story. As cable news programs became popular people drifted away from central network journalist supported news programs toward popular ‘viewpoint news’ programs like Fox News or CNN. Then, from 1995 until today, the Internet was a catalyst for the growth of blogging, and ‘friend news’ on Facebook which had virtually no formally trained journalists and limited understanding of the difference between facts and opinions. Opinions spread virally through the Internet often with no foundation in formal fact gathering or fact finding investigation techniques. Today, we even have presidential spokespersons talking about ‘alternative facts’ to justify their policies or opinions.”

Trust gaps by income level are increasing around the world with many developed countries showing double digit gaps between the top income quartile and the bottom income quartile and the U.S. with the largest gap:

In the U.S. incomes for the lower 80 % have been largely stagnant for the past three decades since the Reagan years, higher education costs rising to levels never seen before with student loan debt at $1.5 trillion dollars. In short, lower and middle income parents expect their children to have fewer opportunities and to make less money over their lifetime. This growing sense of hopelessness is in part triggering the populist movements we see world-wide. The top quartile trust government institutions the most because they are getting the benefits, tax cuts, relaxed environmental policies to allow their businesses to make as much money as they can, and continued stock buy backs to make even more money instead of increasing worker wages. Workers see their votes not making a difference as Congress is at the beck and call of Corporate Nation States who make multi-million dollar campaign contributions and the Executive Branch now run by billionaires.

Little wonder the Common Good is not embraced by all people, for the rich they are on top of the economic pyramid. The rich get the laws they want and aren’t interested in sharing their wealth or time to build the Common Good.

Here is what will likely happen, in the end the rich will need to see that it is in their interest to build the Common Good, by contributing to our institutions of government and common people or they will lose what they already have and probably a lot more.