The Miserly Society

[Joanne98]

Right here in North Carolina, the State where I stand, poverty has left its mark. Some people say that if these Americans are poor, it is their own fault. I have even heard others say that God ordains poverty for the poor. Well, I don't believe them, and I don't believe God believes them either.
-Lyndon B. Johnson, May 7, 1964

There have been times when for many, maybe most of us, personal wealth was not merely a personal end but a means to build a better country. This is not one of those times. Magnificent things such as eradicating poverty, expanding infrastructure or even exploring outer space are nowhere on the national agenda. We have become so averse to shared sacrifice, we can't even work for full employment. Instead, we have devolved to a point where the accumulation of personal wealth has become an end in and of itself. In fact, too often it is the only sought-after end. We are becoming a nation of misers. And this ignoble retrenchment is being aided and abetted by the Religious Right.

I remember President Lyndon Johnson wanting to use government for the greater good. "Do something we can be proud of," he said, "help the weak and the meek and lift them up and help them dream; give them an education where they can make their own way instead of having to live off the bounty of our generosity." Johnson wanted government to transform victims of poverty into self-sufficient citizens.
Back then we were a more prosperous nation where wealth was more equitably - and more meritoriously - distributed. The Great Society continued the legacy of the New Deal through which we sought to achieve full employment by implementing economic policies that encouraged a continuous aggregate demand for its products. This was part of a greater era when both Democratic and Republican administrations knew that the judicious use of debt and taxation were powerful tools in keeping both unemployment and deflation at bay.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/11/3/72918/7103/Front_Page/The_Miserly_Society_
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/11/3/72918/7103