The Classic Liberal Blog

A peek inside the radical-left "progressive" agenda.

George Soros Launching Anti-Market Institute

Left-wing philanthropist George Soros plans to ramp up his war on markets worldwide by creating an “Institute for New Economic Thinking” (INET) next year, according to reports.

The purpose of INET, according to Newsweek’s Michael Hirsh, will be “to make research grants, convene symposiums, and establish a journal, all in an effort to take back the economics profession from the champions of free-market zealotry who have dominated it for decades, and to correct the failures of decades of market deregulation.”

Soros is reportedly gathering economists this week to plot his new drive for statism. One of those economists is Joseph Stiglitz, a member of the Socialist International. Stiglitz sits on SI’s Commission on Global Financial Issues, which was created “to address from a social democratic perspective the ongoing global financial crisis.”

Left-Wing Radicalism in the Church: CCHD and ACORN

It must have been a sad day at the offices of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) in Washington, D.C., last year when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that its temporary suspension of funding for the embattled radical group ACORN was being made permanent. Each November around Thanksgiving, every Roman Catholic parish takes up a collection for the non-profit campaign.

CCHD is the grant-making arm of USCCB, which acts on behalf of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, a group widely assumed to be conservative defenders of traditional morality. However, CCHD and ACORN share a left-wing ideology that puts a premium on aggressive community organizing.

It is an error to think of CCHD as an ordinary charity. In fact, it is an extreme left-wing political organization whose ties stretch back to the “father” of community organizing himself, Saul Alinsky, and to Barack Obama in his community-organizing days in Chicago.

And unbeknownst to most Catholics, almost no CCHD grants actually provide direct relief to the poor.

ACORN Senior Management Launches Scheme to Exploit Low Income Workers and American Taxpayers

In the wake of tremendous negative publicity, much of which was featured here at Big Government, and adverse House and Senate votes ACORN has begun laying off dozens of low-level workers and staff across the country.

However, under conditions of strict anonymity, ACORN organizers and staff have complained to the ACORN 8 (www.acorn8.com) that senior management has ordered them to continue to work for ACORN as “volunteers” but for them to apply for unemployment insurance.

In order to legally collect unemployment insurance compensation, the applicant must attest that they are ready, willing and able to work elsewhere to qualify for benefits. This is unemployment insurance fraud. And fraudulently applying for unemployment insurance compensation is a crime.

Consequently, we fear that ACORN senior management has launched yet another scheme to exploit the gullibility of some low income workers and bilk American taxpayers out of thousands of dollars of government benefits.

Fewer Babies Would Mean Fairer Planet

The worst thing that you or I can do for the planet is to have children. If they behave as the average person in the rich world does now, they will emit some 11 tonnes of CO² every year of their lives. In their turn, they are likely to have more carbon-emitting children who will make an even bigger mess. If Britain is to meet the government's target of an 80% reduction in our emissions by 2050, we need to start reversing our rising rate of population growth immediately.

And if that makes sense, why not start cutting population everywhere? Are condoms not the greenest technology of all?

In 2050, 95% of the extra population will be poor and the poorer you are, the less carbon you emit. By today's standards, a cull of Australians or Americans would be at least 60 times as productive as one of Bangladeshis.

Government Takeover of Charities Next

[B]eneath the radar, a combination of Obama Administration initiatives is extending government influence over philanthropy and charitable organizations ...

New tax rules may pull up to $7 billion away from private charity—at a time when six of ten United Ways already report steep drops in giving. And a new White House office (of Social Innovation) will make its own grants to non-profits—but only for select purposes.

Finally, a big authorized increase in the program called Americorps—from 75,000 participants to 250,000—will turn legions of prospective volunteers into government-supported labor, awarded, again, through a government grant process—not private philanthropy. It all could combine to change philanthropy as we know it ...