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As a mom of a disabled child, I would have welcomed this ability to take time off with my child. At around 16 months he became seriously ill. After a long bout of illnesses, he was eventually hospitalized. When we took him home from the hospital, I noticed there was something different about him, something not right.

Because I had already missed so much work from this string of events I decided to take the rest of the year off to get a handle on his illness, his lack of development.  I thought the fact that he was in daycare so much (50 hrs wk) and exposed to so many viruses, etc, were causing him to lag developmentally. If I could just work with him at home, I could get him back on track.

The something not right with my son did not go away, it was diagnosed as autism. Which was unfortunate as now I had no job and no insurance. I'm in a pickle barrel now.

Something is very wong with a society that watches tragedy happen again and again to families and does nothing to help. How many families of the sick can we ignore? There is seriously no to little help here in the world of disability and illness.  Do not think for a second that it can't happen to you.

I see this bill as a basic step forward to becoming an enlightened and caring society. A society that even cares for healthy single people who believe they don't, and won't ever, need anyone. Sometimes your bootstraps snap.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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Limiting CEO pay would be a start. They could be limited to seven times what their lowest paid full time employee makes. The more the employee makes, the more they make. In 1982 the average CEO made 42 times the average employee, In 2007 CEO's made 344 times what a average wage. Check out our lovely wage disparity: earnermade.http://www.faireconomy.org/files/executive_excess_2008.pdf

No matter how we go about it, the excessively rich are not going to willingly give up anything. The past shows that only physically removing them from their thrones brings about any change.

Does anyone realize that we are currently serfs, controlled by student loans, house mortgages, medical costs, energy, and credit debt? Our cost of living or procuring education and housing is more than our pay alotted to us by our lords and ladies can support. And don't think they don't know it.

There is a reason why your chances of reaching the top 5% is almost nonexistant, the game is rigged (i.e. bankruptcy laws, insurance cherry picking, corporate tax loop-holes). The American dream is dead.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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How about- How do we grow stable local economies? It is obvious that globalizing the economy leads to instability and may not be a good idea for the future. How do things like local businesses, credit unions, locally grown foods, goods industries, and renewable energy fit into our future? How can we improve our mass transit (and not just in Portland) and look at the way communities are designed for the future of less petroleum?

How can we encourage community building: knowing our neighbors, who knows how to do what, community gardens, etc.? Are local currencies or a large scale barter system possible?

It seems that they way we have structured not just our economy, but the very stucture of living, is built on the availability of fossil fuels. Are we listening to or seeing the warning signs that we will be forced to change our life styles, wether we are willing to do so or not?

It worries me to see so many focused on quick fixes and band aides to major disasters without addressing our holistic instability. Why is no one discussing it? Are we too afraid to look at our reality? Change should not be so scary.

You can only stick your head in the sand for so long, I think its time to take a hard look at what reality looks like.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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I too have a ton of green tomatoes. This happened last year, also. Part of the problem is that my garden has been under a foot of water until May. I have my starts ready to go, but they just don't mature as fast if they have that extra month in a pot. I also think there's something going on with the quality of light, its very yellow and transmuted. The light seems surrealistic this year, sometimes I fell like I'm in a waking dream. I don't hardly have to water, either, like there is less evaporation. Am I crazy?
Whatever is going on, how do I get these tomatoes to ripen, as its going to start raining very soon? I've cut off extra foliage, wiggled the bases a bit, and covered them. But they just sit there being green. I've also put sliced apples underneath the plant, again, nothing.

Growing and preserving food locally is very important for our food security. These are skills that will definitely become in demand in the future. Skills I would also like to learn are how to make wine and vinegar, how to make plant extracts, and how to weave and basket making.

I've also started a kind of barter system with people I know for canned foods and organically grown stuff. My local farmers market has never heard of organic, otherwise I would support them.
So I can a lot, this year blackberry jam, grape juice and jelly, apple sauce and hopefully tomatoes. I also made my own raisins, very yummy. I also dry herbs for cooking. Next yaear I hope to do raspberries, strawberry and blueberry jam and green beans. I'm also looking for way to do figs?

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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Why is what is happening so difficult to grasp? Perhaps because when you create a system where you make money off of money off of money into infinity instead of the physical good or service, you create virtual money. Its not real or able to be measured in any real way. What is a share of MS worth? A chicken? Three hours of ditch digging? It has become so convoluted as to be its own creature with no boundaries or rules of conduct. And now the creature is hungry. What is hilarious is how we are compelled to feed it more and more for the sake of its existence, our sweet greedy baby. Maybe it is the nurturer in us. And we are encouraging it to propagate with the push towards a global currency. Hmmm. Too much global everything may not be how to create a strong infrastructure. A local currency in local banks based on local goods and transactions is more stable and keeps profits for the little guy and his community.
And yes (Alexis M) it would be so sad to see the fat cats have to eat rice and beans and forego their manicures! A little dirt under the nails is good for the soul.
There is a real limit to virtual profit and growth, no matter what any economist says. Have we reached that point, or even overshot it a bit? Would it be so unlikely that our economic limits are constrained by the limits of our resources? Time to localize, seriously.

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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Peak oil and how it affects our food source.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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The question of recession proofing is actually answered by addressing the larger problem of our energy crisis. This is what is causing our economic woes. We have peaked in our energy production (mostly oil) and reached an unsustainable population which wants an equally unsustainable quality of living. We have lived like kings with our resources a keypad away and now have to figure out what it means to move towards a more modest and earth friendly life style. (Read Rob Hopkins "The Transition Handbook" and join me for the exciting step 1!)To save/buffer Oregon and the rest of the human collection, we must turn inwards. How do we make each community resilient in times of dramatic change? Yes biking is the answer, so is gardening, weather proofing our buildings, decreasing our reliance on imports, etc. In short, we need to develop our own locally driven economic permaculture. I am so happy to see Think Out Loud addressing this issue as time is so short.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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