Buddhist Economics: How to Stop Prioritizing Goods Over People and Consumption Over Creative Activity

Taking the train to Seattle for some business (hers) and relaxation (mine), it occurred to me that one of the tests we could use for social health is how many young people per thousand are so disconnected from meaningful relationships and empowering work that they are reduced to seeking status and demanding recognition with a can of spray paint.

Buddhist Economics: How to Stop Prioritizing Goods Over People and Consumption Over Creative Activity
http://feedly.com/e/jXacZEu-

Find out who owns your "representative"

Until we make them wear logos like in NASCAR, this will do. . . . 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/07/1312330/-16-yo-kid-has-just-changed-the-game?detail=email

16 yo kid has just changed the game

A 16 y.o. kid has created a plug-in for browsers that, when you hover over the name of a member of congress mentioned on any webpage, popups to give you a list of donations made to that congressperson from lobbyists, corporations, etc.  Right now it has numbers for 2012 but he's working on getting it to 2014.   Yeah, it's a drop in the bucket compared to all of pac money and other shenanigans but if we could just get this kind of transparency started it could have a huge impact on our politics, and one that would be good for all.  Too cool.

Oh yeah.  The kid's motto?  "Some are red, some are blue, ALL are green"!  I love this kid!

Story:

http://www.vice.com/...

Get the plug-in:

http://allaregreen.us/

Doh: Colorado teen pregnancies plummet thanks to contraceptives

http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2014/07/colorado-teen-pregnancies-plummet.html

Colorado teen pregnancies plummet thanks to contraceptives

Daily Kos - Colorado's teen birth rate dropped 40 percent in five years—years during which a donor-funded initiative provided 30,000 free or low-cost contraceptive devices to low-income women:

The decline in births among girls 15 to 19 years old served by the program accounted for three-quarters of the overall decline in the Colorado teen birth rate, the state said in a news release.

That rate has fallen from 37 births per 1,000 girls in 2009 to 22 in 2013, officials said.

The teen abortion rate dropped 35 percent from 2009 to 2012 in those counties where the initiative is in place, Hickenlooper said.

Colorado is saving money thanks to the drop in teen pregnancy: Medicaid costs are lowered by $5.68 for every dollar spent on the contraception program. Because pregnancy, childbirth, and pediatric care are more expensive than IUDs.