The headlines that ran side by side on the front page of Saturday's New York Times summed up, inadvertently, the terrible fix that we've allowed our country to fall into.The lead headline, in the upper right-hand corner, said: "U.S. Deficit Rises to $1.4 Trillion; Biggest Since '45." The headline next to it said: "Bailout Helps Revive Banks, And Bonuses." We've spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor, put an economic stranglehold on the middle class and all but bankrupted the federal government -- while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they've wanted. And we still don't seem to have learned the proper lessons. We've allowed so many people to fall into the terrible abyss of unemployment that no one -- not the Obama administration, not the labor unions and most certainly no one in the Republican Party -- has a clue about how to put them back to work. Meanwhile, Wall Street is living it up. I'm amazed at how passive the population has remained in the face of this sustained outrage.
The headline next to it said: "Bailout Helps Revive Banks, And Bonuses."
We've spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor, put an economic stranglehold on the middle class and all but bankrupted the federal government -- while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they've wanted.
And we still don't seem to have learned the proper lessons. We've allowed so many people to fall into the terrible abyss of unemployment that no one -- not the Obama administration, not the labor unions and most certainly no one in the Republican Party -- has a clue about how to put them back to work.
Meanwhile, Wall Street is living it up. I'm amazed at how passive the population has remained in the face of this sustained outrage.
Op-Ed Columnist - Safety Nets for the Rich - NYTimes.com
Enough! Goldman Sachs is thriving while the combined rates of unemployment and underemployment are creeping toward a mind-boggling 20 percent. Two-thirds of all the income gains from the years 2002 to 2007 -- two-thirds! -- went to the top 1 percent of Americans.We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid -- which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so -- while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day.That money is never going to trickle down. It's a fairy tale. We're crazy to continue believing it.
Enough! Goldman Sachs is thriving while the combined rates of unemployment and underemployment are creeping toward a mind-boggling 20 percent. Two-thirds of all the income gains from the years 2002 to 2007 -- two-thirds! -- went to the top 1 percent of Americans.
We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid -- which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so -- while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day.
That money is never going to trickle down. It's a fairy tale. We're crazy to continue believing it.
We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid -- which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so -- while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day. That money is never going to trickle down. It's a fairy tale. We're crazy to continue believing it.
But while legislators are largely drawn, if not from that 1%, then from very close to it, they will continue to believe that "American Dream" crap and thus not do the root and branch thing necessary to help th 95% who are getting stuffed.
After all, the system works. Or, at least, it did for them so why does it need changing ? Heck, you can't even get all democrats to sign up for something basic like healthcare, so how on earth you're gonna get them to do something much much more radical I cannot imagine. keep to the Fen Causeway
One tenet that separates the United States from other countries is our belief in upward mobility. A study of attitudes in 27 countries found that Americans, more than people elsewhere, tend to believe that intelligence, skill, and effort will be rewarded with success. [...] But as Brookings Institution scholars Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill demonstrate in a compelling new book, America's record doesn't entirely justify this optimism. [...]Though we venerate the American Dream, studies show that children born to low-income parents in the United States are more likely to remain trapped near the bottom than their counterparts in Europe, the authors report.
One tenet that separates the United States from other countries is our belief in upward mobility. A study of attitudes in 27 countries found that Americans, more than people elsewhere, tend to believe that intelligence, skill, and effort will be rewarded with success.
[...]
But as Brookings Institution scholars Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill demonstrate in a compelling new book, America's record doesn't entirely justify this optimism.
Though we venerate the American Dream, studies show that children born to low-income parents in the United States are more likely to remain trapped near the bottom than their counterparts in Europe, the authors report.
