Having My Say2 Comments

If companies shared their cash with employees

RJ Walters

What they haven’t been doing is giving extra cash to employees, despite s a year of solid – and often record – profits and huge cash hoards. A survey by Aon Hewitt on compensation trends for 2014 shows that companies plan to raise salaries by just 3% this year – the highest since 2008, when the average raise was 3.7%. Economist Ed Yardeni notes that employee compensation and capital spending as a percentage of GDP has been the lowest since the mid-1950s. But suppose each company with $1 billion in cash took 5% of that stash and give it to … Continue reading If companies shared their cash with employees

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The Total Sacrifice…

RJ Walters

The vast majority of donations come in from middle-class-to-poor people who give twenty-five to thirty dollars a month and often even less. The vast majority comes in from this class of citizen, and not just in number of people giving, but in number of dollars given. Sure, I have people on our list giving hundreds. Some churches dropped four figures on our project, but most of our donations stream in every month from faithful people like you and me whose “little acts done with great love will change the world.”… It’s the obscure old woman living on a fixed income … Continue reading The Total Sacrifice…

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Coca-Cola Social Media Guard Commercial…

RJ Walters

The company “unveiled” the new product in an online video this week. In the ad, which refers to the offline world as “the thing that happens when you run out of battery,” people buried in their phones have a eureka moment when an absurd red funnel is placed on their heads and they’re forced to witness sunsets and look into other human beings’ eyes.   SOURCE: Coca-Cola Social Media Guard Commercial | TIME.com. I will admit up front there that I am not a social media junkie. I seldom go on any media site except for Facebook and that no more … Continue reading Coca-Cola Social Media Guard Commercial…

Having My Say3 Comments

Dual Income Requirements…

RJ Walters

We know that the majority of households now require both spouses to work outside the home. That fact has contributed significantly to the number of seniors in nursing homes and other assisted care facilities. Simply put there is just no one at home to care for aging parents or grand-parents anymore. As a result more seniors are institutionalized than ever before. Of course this is just another example of the problem with the gross income inequality here in this country and even around the world to maybe a lesser degree. Just when our population above 65 starts to explode there … Continue reading Dual Income Requirements…

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How Did The Bible Get So Filled…

RJ Walters

What About The Bible… ? (Chapter 3) How did the Bible get so filled with things that have nothing to do with the messages of Jesus? That is one of many questions I have pondered over the last decade.  I want to study more about King Constantine and how the Bible was put together under his watchful eye. Here is the crux of what I know now. Constantine was a king during the age where the Roman empire’s power was dwindling. He was losing his grip over his kingdom. Some say that is why he grabbed on to the idea … Continue reading How Did The Bible Get So Filled…

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Religious Tolerance When Dealing With Extremeism…

RJ Walters

He went on: “The answer is to promote views that are open-minded and tolerant towards those who are different, and to fight the formal, informal and internet propagation of closed-minded intolerance. “In the 21st century, education is a security issue.” SOURCE:  The West needs a global strategy to deal with terrorism threat, says Tony Blair | World | News | Daily Express. Even though I did not usually agree with Tony Blair’s stand with Mr. Bush on the invasion of Iraq, I always respected his intellect on other issues. Much more so than Mr. Bush. The more I study the … Continue reading Religious Tolerance When Dealing With Extremeism…

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In Case You Wondered….

RJ Walters

A new study shows that the jet stream over Northern Europe and North America may be taking a longer, more meandering path as a result of a rapidly warming Arctic narrowing the differential between upper and middle latitudes, reports the BBC. Temperatures in the Arctic have been rising two to three times as rapidly as the rest of the globe, and as the difference in temperature between the Arctic and middle latitudes diminishes, the jet stream that separates them slows. That means that cold weather over North America tends to linger longer, according to the study presented at American Association … Continue reading In Case You Wondered….

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Feelings of Dissatisfaction…

RJ Walters

And there’s more. A few years ago researchers made an unexpected discovery that, around the age of forty, people begin to experience feelings of dissatisfaction and a diminished sense of well-being. They were surprised to find this in men and women, rich and poor and all over the world. But the bigger surprise was the rebound effect. At around the age of fifty, feelings of well-being begin to rise again—and keep on rising, well into the seventies. In the twenty-first century, fifty is the beginning of a new and aspirational time of life. SOURCE: Jane Pauley makes the case for … Continue reading Feelings of Dissatisfaction…

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The Re-Unification of Korea….

RJ Walters

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Their backs stooped, dozens of elderly North and South Koreans separated for six decades reunited Thursday, weeping and embracing in a rush of words and emotion. The reunions come during a rare period of detente between the rival Koreas and are all the more poignant because the participants will part again in a few days, likely forever. SOURCE: Tearful Korean reunions begin; first since 2010 – Yahoo News. It greatly saddens me to see a country that was torn apart by violence and has remained so for over sixty years.  If only the kid despot … Continue reading The Re-Unification of Korea….

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Why do Americans spend so much on pharmaceuticals?

RJ Walters

The United States spends almost $1,000 per person per year on pharmaceuticals. That’s around 40 percent more than the next highest spender, Canada, and more than twice as much as than countries like France and Germany spend. So why does the U.S. spend so much? Is it because Americans take more medicines or because they pay higher prices? Can Americans afford the drugs they need? And will the Affordable Care Act change anything? SOURCE:  Why do Americans spend so much on pharmaceuticals? | Updates | PBS NewsHour | PBS. This is a very interesting article so I encourage you to … Continue reading Why do Americans spend so much on pharmaceuticals?

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Not Taking Jesus Seriously….

RJ Walters

The church frustrates me. I was once asked by a wealthy church what they could do to help end homelessness. I looked around and saw the thousands of square feet that lie empty every night, the dozens of toilets, the showers in the family life center, the full industrial kitchen and wanted to say, “It is a two step plan. 1) Read the Gospels. 2) Take it seriously.” I wanted to say that. But I didn’t. Look, Jesus nowhere says to stamp out poverty. However, he does say, fairly often, to love your neighbor. And if you truly love your … Continue reading Not Taking Jesus Seriously….

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Federal workers’ pensions targeted in budget deal

RJ Walters

But with pensions for non-government workers on a path toward extinction, federal employees get little sympathy from most experts. “Their private sector counterparts would be jealous of the benefits they’re maintaining,” said John Ehrhardt, a principal at the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. While 38 percent of private industry workers received pensions in 1979, just 14 percent did so in 2011, the most recent figures from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which advocates for benefit programs. Besides retaining their pensions, most federal workers also can contribute to a 401(k)-like savings program, the Thrift Savings Plan. That combination is far better … Continue reading Federal workers’ pensions targeted in budget deal

About Quakers2 Comments

Empower vs. Inspire….

RJ Walters

I’ve been using the word ‘empower’ for years. It’s a great word – one that implies giving dignity to others; the whole ‘give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime’ type story comes up when I hear the word empower…. It had never crossed my mind before that what this word implies is that I have the power and you do not. Therefore, let me give you the power. This also goes against my theology of humanity: that no matter our circumstances we are all … Continue reading Empower vs. Inspire….

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I Read The Bible And Everything Became….

RJ Walters

What About The Bible… ? (Chapter 2) I know that from all the rhetoric about this topic you are expecting the next word in the title to be “Clear” but actually for me it is “Fuzzy”. I don’t know how many times in my life I have heard the phrase “just study the bible for the answer to your problems. When a child dies from a fall in the bathtub the Christian answer to our total devastation is to “read the Bible”. It is as if we can just randomly open a page and then the tragedy in our life … Continue reading I Read The Bible And Everything Became….

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More Heat Than Light…

RJ Walters

There are two ways to look at the great debate over light bulbs. One is that government regulations meant to save energy by filling the nation’s roughly 4 billion light sockets with vastly more efficient light bulbs are an outrageous offense to personal freedom. The other is summed up by a funny Internet spot last year for Cree’s super efficient light emitting diode (LED) bulbs: “The light bulbs in your house were invented by Thomas Edison in 1879. Now think about that with your 2013 brain. Do you still do your wash down at the creek while your eldest son … Continue reading More Heat Than Light…

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Critizing The Church…..

RJ Walters

Communities like RLC (Red Letter Christians) are so important because the Church, those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ have more responsibility to be constantly examining our actions and behavior than anyone. This isn’t about being “self-hating Christians” or “criticizing the Church” it is about growing up. In the end, the wisdom and understanding needed to change the world and do real good will not come from the past, but from working together in the present SOURCE: What If God is Pragmatic? | Yaholo Hoyt | Red Letter Christians. Continue reading Critizing The Church…..

Life On The Margins, Redux4 Comments

Being A Social Justice Advocate…

RJ Walters

I often wonder why I turned out to be such a social justice advocate. Was I born that way or was it due to some early childhood experiences? I am certain that growing up in a single parent household at the lower end of the economic ladder was a significant part of it. But I don’t think that was the driving factor. Like so many have said before, we might have been poor but I really didn’t know it until later. Many of my early heroes in the literary sphere wrote about ordinary people struggling with daily life. John Steinbeck … Continue reading Being A Social Justice Advocate…