A friend forwarded me an article written by Joseph E. Stiglitz for Vanity Fair (link below). I read it and realized that the author is one of the “good guys” in Economics, and agrees with me that the Obama financial-industry rescue plan SUCKED. “Stiglitz said that whoever designed the Obama administration’s bank rescue plan is ‘either in the pocket of the banks or they’re incompetent,’ as reported by Bloomberg News 4/17/2009. (1)
Hmmm….. what have we learned from THAT mistake; that perhaps on both accounts he is correct??
Stiglitz also reminded the economics-oriented fashionistas of what the Citizens United case in the Supreme Court means for us. And as I warned my hung-over friends last week while lying in a hotel room in DC, what this means is that we are no longer entitled to know what hand is feeding whose mouth. This is important as we will come to see with the next election, when it will be a no-holds-barred spend-a-thon (and I can’t wait to see how they throw Jesus into the mix this time bc the gay bashing thing is old news, and we all know that Bristol can be a morality scapegoat for only so long). Campaigns will be glorified beauty pageants, and we all know which lipstick wielding, wolf-shooting runner excels at that. No, not Donald Trump. He just happens to do well on TV. Finance? Not so much.
“The Supreme Court, in its recent Citizens United case, has enshrined the right of corporations to buy government, by removing limitations on campaign spending. The personal and the political are today in perfect alignment. Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. By and large, the key executive-branch policymakers on trade and economic policy also come from the top 1 percent….With the top 1 percent in charge, and paying no price, the notion of balance and restraint goes out the window. There is no limit to the adventures we can undertake; corporations and contractors stand only to gain.” (2)
Remember the catchphrase “revolving door” that we heard so much about during the last election? Remember the charts I shared with you a couple weeks back? Think about them: Use markers and construction paper, bake a pie, roll a j, use a lifeline; do what you need to do to make sense of the situation. Because its real, and we can’t afford to deny the economic reality that is slapping us like a trifecta across face, ass, and wallet.
“America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them. It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East: rising food prices and growing and persistent youth unemployment simply served as kindling.” (2)
If you’re not in the elite 1%, where are you? Do you fall under any of the following:
- Youth unemployment in the US at 20%
- 1 out of 6 Americans desiring a full-time job and not being able to find one
- 1 out of 7 Americans on food stamps (nothing wrong with that, by the way)
“But one big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent want it that way. The most obvious example involves tax policy. Lowering tax rates on capital gains, which is how the rich receive a large portion of their income, has given the wealthiest Americans close to a free ride…The government lent money to financial institutions at close to 0 percent interest and provided generous bailouts on favorable terms when all else failed. Regulators turned a blind eye to a lack of transparency and to conflicts of interest.” (2)
Ok - a government shut down was averted. And? What teaches a child better: multiple warnings or an actual, timed, Time Out? Threats of a spanking, or an actual spanking? Warned of cell-phone right denial or suspending the line? Short-term aversion or actual consequences, allowing learning and growth? We saw that when the financial industry misbehaved, they got their wrist slapped and were sent back into the sandbox to play with our futures, “business as usual.” Where are the consequences, if not on our bruised and beaten backs?
The Progress Report wrote on 4.11.11: After dipping during the recession, CEO salaries at major corporations are growing again at record rates. The median CEO pay in 2010 rose to $9.6 million, a 12 percent increase over 2009, as American businesses turned profits at the fastest rates in 60 years. The nation’s unemployment rate, meanwhile, is at 8.8 percent.
Last week they reported that IF we had indeed experienced a government shut-down: …the most troubling outcome of a shutdown is that troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be paid. While the Pentagon could pay one week’s worth of work, “all uniformed military personnel would continue to work but would stop receiving paychecks” after that.
Not getting paid certainly does have a way of lighting a fire under one’s ass.
Of course, it would have also hurt lots of everyday Americans, like you for example waiting for your refund check, or people getting unemployment checks, gov workers, and those dependent on SS. I’d like to pick and choose, but alas, I’m just a brown girl with a spider bite on her eyelid.
Which leads me to my point: Check out the government funding negotiations. Really look at what the cuts are going to do and do yourself and your community a favor by doing the following; CHALLENGE yourself to consider the LONG TERM impact. Put yourself in the shoes of a small child going to a public school with outdated books, peeling paint, no music & arts program and a very limited library. Because that’s exactly what public elementary schools look like nowadays. I’m referring to the $13 billion proposed cut from programs at the Department of Labor, Education and Health.
Cutting help to the Department of Labor? So that means that many of my friends in their prime (30’s) who are highly qualified yet remain a part of the well-heeled 8% unemployed will continue to be unemployed AND ALSO (most likely) not be able to retire due to lack of SS in the future? How the f*ck is that supposed to work???
Or this: Beautiful, nine-month old Hugo in Washington, D.C., is a Medicaid baby. House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R-Va) claims that a $750 billion dollar cut is justified because “Medicaid is a safety net for people in this country who frankly don’t need one.” (3)
That’s right baby Hugo; find your own vaccine or get a job with private health insurance.
As a matter of fact, why not just go to the vet? In 2007, I read the article “Children Deserve Veterinary Care Too” by Barbara Ehrenrich, another “good guy” from an editorial perspective. (4) She wrote an article about a “premium” pet policy for $33 which could have prevented the death of 12yr old Diamante Driver of Maryland who died of an abscessed tooth. His mother could not afford the $80 dentist bill and they were uninsured. (5)
Diamante Driver “fell through the cracks” of our (malfunctioning) “system.” I find it sickeningly ironic that he was treated at Children’s Hospital in our nation’s capital and yet his mother couldn’t find an oral surgeon who would accept Medicaid. Moreover, all doctors are (supposedly) sworn into their professions with the Hippocratic Oath (6). The Hippocratic Oath states firstly that to learn the art of healing/law of medicine should be offered “without fee or contract” (HA), and that doctors will do no injustice to their patients, to the best of their abilities. It goes further to say that upon entering the home to the benefit of the sick, one would avoid any “voluntary act of impropriety or corruption.” One would assume that denying a child a right to life due to lack of funds would fall under this umbrella.
Who is to blame? The doctors? Pharma? Legislation? Let’s not point anywhere but into our own hearts. Ask yourself this: Did Diamante and others “need” Medicaid or as Cantor said, was it “frankly” unnecessary? The kid died either way. Be honest.
German Lutheran Pastor (and martyr) Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” Ghandi said: “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” To top it all off, former US President H.H. Humphrey said: “…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. “
Morally, can you sit around and let your childrens’ future be bid upon by the 1% of Congress who don’t allow their own children to enlist? Actions speak louder than words and this is what their actions are saying: My kids are too precious, yours don’t need saftey nets.
Stieglitz concludes his article along the same lines as the quotes above, with a slightly pessimistic bent.
“Alexis de Tocqueville once described what he saw as a chief part of the peculiar genius of American society—something he called ‘self-interest properly understood.’ The last two words were the key. Everyone possesses self-interest in a narrow sense: I want what’s good for me right now! Self-interest ‘properly understood’ is different. It means appreciating that paying attention to everyone else’s self-interest—in other words, the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being. Tocqueville was not suggesting that there was anything noble or idealistic about this outlook—in fact, he was suggesting the opposite. It was a mark of American pragmatism. Those canny Americans understood a basic fact: looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul—it’s good for business.
The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.” (2)
I refuse to believe it’s too late. Keep thinking, sharing and discussing. THATS what you can do… and its valid. Now, take this and think about me in Mexico, a “developing” country and this experience:
I got bit in the eyelid by a spider on Sunday. After my eye being swollen shut for two days, I finally gave up hoping and heeded my neighbor’s advice. She said, “Go across the street to the pharmacy. They have free doctors on call.”
YEAH RIGHT. Who is she kidding- free doctors?? … I was mystified and absolutely thought it was a sham. How could I NOT get screwed by a medical system that I’ve never even paid taxes for, or purchased a policy plan, or until lately, existed in the National Birth Registry of Mexico. I grabbed all the cash I had plus my debit card and crossed the street.
I asked to see the doctor and the lady at the pharmacy’s register said that the doctor was indeed in, and available to see me right away. Again…. WHAT? NO LINES? No way….
Yes Guey: I walked right into his office, sat down, chatted and five minutes later walked out with a prescription. Actually, before I left I stood in front of his desk, dumbfounded. Was I supposed to tip him? Kiss him? Sign something? Prove citizenship? Demonstrate lack of insurance? Proof of income? Waiver of something? How was this even possible??? I didn’t even know the guy and I didn’t have to kowtow to my lack of insurance/power. I didn’t even have to bribe him!
This is the Mexico no one hears about. I spent approx $15USD and 20 minutes of my time to see a free doctor and get brand-name pharma (pills and a topical lotion). Twelve hours later, the swelling went down and I’m able to see out of my right eye again.
I have no idea what I would have done in the US. I’m uninsured. Maybe since I have two eyes, losing one to an infection due to an allergic reaction to a bug bite would be acceptable, as perhaps two eyes are “frankly unnecessary.”
Who’s backwards now? Thank God for free public health care; Its comforting to know that Mexico does not want its lowliest to die. Thank you, Mexico.
1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stiglitz - cite_note-10
2- http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105?currentPage=2
3- http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/10/cantor-sees-current-medicare-and-medicaid-programs-as-a-safety-net-for-people-who-frankly-dont-need-one/
4- http://www.alternet.org/story/59483/children_deserve_veterinary_care_too/
5- http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/163856/child_dies_for_lack_of_dental_care.html?cat=5
6- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html
