(Ir)religiosity

Click to enlarge (Original here)

Original here.

This is interesting to me.

I was messing around with Google Trends ( I love these sorts of things.  Check out Facebook Lexicon and Twist sometime.) the other day and discovered some interesting trends/correlations when I aggregated a graph of the terms “religion” and “economy” within the United States.

Here is a record of the last 12 months.

And here is a record of the last 30 days.

Even more interesting, here is a record since January of 2004.

Finally, here is a global record since January of 2004.

Clearly, there is a trend here and perhaps even a correlation. Now, I know this isn’t the best of surveying people and gaining information.  I know it is skewed and probably inaccurate to an extent.  But it is interesting nonetheless.  I don’t know what to make of it.  What do you think?

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A United Nations report reveals that economic disparity in the United States is exploding, especially in major cities.

From Democracy Now!:

A new United Nations report has revealed major US cities, including New York, Washington, Atlanta and New Orleans, have levels of economic inequality that rival cities in Africa.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The United States has the highest inequality and poverty rates in the OECD after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000.

In the United States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of $93,000 — the highest level in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development avergages. The poorest 10 percent earn an average of $5,800 — about 20 percent lower than the OECD average.

Oh, and last year we spent $628 billion in defense and $315 billion in private military contracts.  Good to know that my tax dollars are being put to good use.

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Another guy who wanted to spread the wealth around:

Contemporary application of Wesley’s advice would suggest that the U.S. Congress should reduce taxes on the poor and middle class, add taxes to luxury items, eliminate taxes upon necessities, introduce laws that govern the use of natural resources, and take steps to reduce the $10 trillion national debt—a debt that has increased by 71.9 percent over the last eight years.

Interestingly, it seems that most Methodists today have completely reversed John Wesley’s “Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can,” statement into a much more destructive axiom: make all you can, invest all you can, consume all you can.

Commercials usually don’t grab my attention when I’m watching TV, but this ad by Discover Card stopped me the other night.

“We’re a nation of Consumers,” the voice matter-of-factly announces, “and there’s nothing wrong with that.”  “After all, there’s a lot of cool stuff out there.”  The commercial then goes on to assert that the “material world can be made brighter” if you would only use Discover, which will somehow keep you from spending too much — never mind the fact you’re still spending money you don’t have — while still allowing you to accumulate more things and thereby, according to the announcer, improving your “quality of life.” Read the rest of this entry »

The White House released their predictions for the next fiscal year yesterday.  The federal deficit will once again break the last record topping out at $482 billion.  Only eight years ago Bush inherited a $128 billion surplus.  The administration has posted a federal deficit every year since.  ”If they gave out Olympic medals for fiscal irresponsibility, President Bush would take the gold, silver and bronze; with his eight years in office, he will have had the five highest deficits ever recorded.”

This post may get me into trouble.

Gas prices just aren’t high enough.  They really aren’t.  That is, if we really want justice in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate paying upwards to $4.00/gallon just as much as the next guy and I complain probably twice as much — that just proves that most days I’m a walking talking paradox of contradictions.  That aside, I find it very interesting that some people (myself included) who are constantly ranting and raving about the need for justice in the world are the same people demanding that they pay almost half as much in gas prices as the rest of world — the same world that according to them, is in dire need of justice.

That just doesn’t really add up for me.

Frankly, it makes it a little hard for me take the people who get on their soap box about all the problems in the world while at the same time Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I posted a graph taken from an article in The Atlantic. At that time the article hadn’t been posted online. It’s up now and you can read it here. I think it helps explain and interpret the graph. Interesting. . .

~bh ><>

I found this graph in a recent article of The Atlantic. Unfortunately, the article hasn’t been put online yet, but I think the graph is very interesting in its own right. You can read the article in its entirety here. I think this provides some sobering commentary on several levels. What do you think?

Click here for the full size image. See the full article here.
~bh ><>