U.S. still ranked best for innovation by world execs

The following is an article from the SmartPlanet web site. I think it is worth highlighting this fact in the midst of the conservative bashing of U.S. government policy. It's an interesting read in any event.
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If you want to innovate, the best place to do it is the United States, senior business executives say.
According to a new “Global Innovation Barometer” report from GE, which polled 1,000 senior execs from 12 countries, the U.S. is the clear “innovation champion” in the world, followed by Germany, Japan and China.  The top 10, along with the percentage of agreement, below:

The Middle Class is disappearing

This post is a collection of various commnents and references that will be continually updated.
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Robert Reich talks about "income concentration" in his latest book, "Aftershock". It is being caused by the usual ego and greed, but enabled by new technology, and supported by governmental policies that are unduly influenced by the small but very rich upper class. I believe that we may need a new economic model that takes into account the idea that technology is increasingly reducing the need for human labor to produce goods and services. Some people might interpret this to mean typical communist like redistribution of wealth. I assure you, I am not advocating communism or socialism.

A friendly political debate. FOX News, Guns, Sarah Palin, and other stuff.

I copied and pasted a series of conversations that were initially posted on a friend of mine's Facebook page. The purpose is to continue the conversation here on The Moderates Perspective. I think a blog like this is a more appropriate "venue" than Facebook for hosting conversations of this kind.
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Jack: 

View the following video about how FOX news distorts information.

FOX News Whistle blowers. UNBELIEVABLE                                                              
                                                                     

Fox News MUST BE SEEN FOR WHAT IT IS! NOW!! Wake up for god's sake America! Watch "Outfoxed"    

Health Care reform, issues and ideas.

This is a complex issue. Even to at least partially understand the issues involved with the health care debate, pro and con, requires a lot of research.  That is the reality. 

My purpose in creating this post is for it to be a place that brings together as many good sources of information on the topic as I can find. This post will continually be updated as I find additional sources.

The place for moderates in politics.

(This is a post that may be modified from time to time, in my attempt to articulate the importance of the moderate position in politics.)

There is a scientific principle - which I can not remember the name of at the moment, that uses the following example:

If you get everyone in a town to guess the weight of a cow, and you include every one's guesses and average them out, the average comes in at almost exactly the actual weight of the cow. (That principle has been proven to be true).  There is more to the example, but  right now, that is all I can remember about it.

Top 2% of income earners become much more wealthy while the middle class disappears.

There have been some recent articles that make reference to "the top 2% of income  earners"  or other similar type description. The reason for that is simple: the top 2% are way more wealthy than the rest of us, and it turns out, more wealthy by a considerable margin even compared to the other, lower 8% within the relatively tony top 10% of all income earners.