ECONOMICS - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
The Politics of American Greed |
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by Molly Ivins AlterNet Entered into the database on Friday, July 14th, 2006 @ 17:25:06 MST |
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I don't get it. What's the percentage in keeping the minimum wage at
$5.15 an hour? After nine years? This is such an unnecessary and nasty Republican
move. Congress has voted seven times to raise its own wages since last the minimum
wage budged. Of course, Congress always raises its own salary in the dark of
night, hoping no one will notice. But now it does the same with the minimum
wage, quietly killing it. Anyone who doesn't think this is a country where the rich are getting
richer and the poor are getting poorer needs to check the numbers -- this is
Bush country, where a rising tide lifts all yachts. According to the current issue of Mother Jones: One in four U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level income. Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any
one time has risen steadily. Now, 13 percent -- 37 million Americans -- are
officially poor. Bush's tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those making $1 million are saved $42,700. In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, compared those who point out such statistics as the one above to Adolph Hitler (surely he meant Stalin?). Bush has diverted $750 million to "healthy marriages" by shifting funds from social services, mostly childcare. Bush has proposed cutting housing programs for low-income people with disabilities by 50 percent. A series of related stats -- starting with the news that two out of three new jobs are in the suburbs -- shows how the poor are further disadvantaged in the job hunt by lack of public or private transportation. Meanwhile, for those who have been following the collapse of the pension system, please note a series in The Wall Street Journal by Ellen Schultz taking a hard look at executive pension obligations:
It seems to me that we've seen enough evidence over the years that the capitalist system is not going to be destroyed by an outside challenger like communism -- it will be destroyed by its own internal greed. Greed is the greatest danger as we develop an increasingly winner-take-all system. And voices like The Wall Street Journal's editorial page encourage this mentality by insisting that any form of regulation is bad. But for whom? It is so discouraging to watch this country become less and less fair -- "justice for all" seems like an embarrassingly archaic tag. Republicans have rigged the "lottery of life" in this country in ways we don't even know about yet. The new bankruptcy law is unfair, and the new college loan rules are worse. The system has been stacked so that large corporations have an inside track over small businesses in getting government contracts. We won't see the full consequences of this mean and careless legislation for years, but it is starting to affect us already. Molly Ivins writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre happenings. ___________________ Read from Looking Glass News A New Assault on Workers' Rights Why can’t workers own their jobs? The class war economy: Corporate America’s steals from workers and the poor Work 'Till You Die: Screwing Future Retirees...Again Eat, Sleep, Work, Consume, Die The Rich Die Differently From You and Me America's Middle Class: In the Tank! The class war economy: Corporate America’s steals from workers and the poor Welcome to middle-class lockdown; now shut up and buy something |