This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.

Some of the information might be a surprise to many people. The most amazing numbers on income inequality come last, showing the change in the ratio of the average CEO's paycheck to that of the average factory worker over the past 40 years.

As the work I do circulates around the nation and the world, I frequently encounter resistance to the use of the word "collapse" to describe the unprecedented changes that humans and the earth community is now experiencing. Many people insist that we should focus only on "Transition" and the "Great Turning" because these words make more bearable and palatable the challenges of present and future time. The word collapse, they argue, should be ditched.

"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true." [paraphrased Buddhist saying]

Evidently, the only way to find the path is to set fire to my own life.

~Rabindranath Tagore~

...And Why Future Prosperity Means Socializing With Your Neighbors

Reprinted from ALTERNET at http://www.alternet.org/vision/146623/the_surprising_reason_why_american...

Excerpted from the book EAARTH: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben. Reprinted by arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2010 by Bill McKibben.

Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production - Part 1 - Summary (report excerpt)

The credit crisis exemplifies society's difficulties in the timely management of risks outside our experience or immediate concerns, even when such risks are well signposted. We have passed or are close to passing the peak of global oil production. Our civilisation is structurally unstable to an energy withdrawal. There is a high probability that our integrated and globalised civilisation is on the cusp of a fast and near-term collapse.

Reprinted from COMMON DREAMS

ORIGINAL BLOGPOST: http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/03/where-have-we-been-where-are-we-going.h...

Driving down the broad avenues of Cleveland, Ohio, was like flipping through the pages of a picture book about the rise and fall of our industrial empire. Where demolitions had not removed things -- a lot was gone -- stood the residue of a society so different from ours that you felt momentarily transported to another planet where a different race of beings had gone about their business.

Reprinted from BUSINESS INSIDER

A defiant, though occasionally jocular, Gov. David Paterson tried Monday to set aside the swirl of rumors surrounding his immediate future and get back to the business of addressing the gaping state budget problem.

[Note: This presentation was developed for the Colorado Agriculture "Big and Small" Conference in Brighton, on Feb. 26, 2010]

Reprinted from TRANSITION TIMES

Before I get into the presentation, a few words about where I’m coming from. As it happens, I grew up in a little farming community in northeastern Colorado—Yuma—where my family owned the local drug store (complete with soda fountain).