ravages of the Great Depression hit Germany and the United States alike. Through
the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very different courses to bring
their nations back to power and prosperity.
Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and reward
the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle dissent, strip
people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of prosperity through
continual and ever-expanding war. America passed minimum wage laws to raise the
middle class, enforced anti-trust laws to diminish the power of corporations,
increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals, created Social
Security, and became the employer of last resort through programs to build
national infrastructure, promote the arts, and replant forests.
To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours." -- Thom
Hartmann
Last year America spent 57 percent more than it earned on world markets. That is,
our imports were 57 percent larger than our exports.
How did we manage to live so far beyond our means? By running up debts to
Japan, China and Middle Eastern oil producers. We’re as addicted to imported
money as we are to imported oil.
Bush wants us to choose and to proclaim that we prefer war over peace, debt over
solvency, enriching the wealthy over helping the poor, and enriching ourselves while
impoverishing our children. When you lay aside all the unctuous homilies and put
your money where your mouth is, that is what Bush’s budget actually says.
The U.S. trade deficit soared to a record in 2005 for the fourth year in a row,
according to a government report released yesterday that provided a reminder of
the dangers hovering over a generally robust economy.
The Broken Promise
It was part of the American Dream, a pledge made by corporations to their
workers: for your decades of toil, you will be assured of retirement benefits like a
pension and health care. Now more and more companies are walking away from
that promise, leaving millions of Americans at risk of an impoverished retirement.
How can this be legal? A TIME investigation looks at how Congress let it happen
and the widespread social insecurity it's causing.
In 1977, the richest 1 percent of Americans had as much to spend after taxes as
the bottom 49 million. Just 22 years later, in 1999, the richest 1percent—about 2.7
million people—had as much as the bottom 100 million Americans. Few figures
derived from the official government data on incomes present more starkly the
growing chasm between the rising incomes at the top and the falling incomes at the
bottom.
Income inequality is now near all-time highs, with over 50 percent of 2004 income
going to the top fifth of households, and the biggest gains going to the top 5
percent and 1 percent of households. The average CEO now takes home a
paycheck 431 times that of their average worker.
"[R]egardless of their cause, rapidly growing inequalities are a powerful force for
instability everywhere, from wealthy America to rapidly growing China to reform-
challenged Europe. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” conservatives like to say. Fine, but
what happens to people, like the poor of hurricane-struck New Orleans, who don’t
own boats? "
Dec 04, 2005
Despite enormous wealth and various federal and social welfare schemes at work,
the United States is failing to help millions of its people trying to get out of poverty,
according to an independent United Nations rights expert.
