A Ruinous Meltdown (Bob Hebert)

[girl gone mad]

A Ruinous Meltdown
Bob Hebert
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/opinion/20herbert.html?ref=opinion">nytimes.com

A story that is not getting nearly enough attention is the ruinous fiscal meltdown occurring in state after state, all across the country.

Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations — the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor — are getting badly hurt.

Arizona, struggling with a projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall, took the drastic step of scrapping its Children’s Health Insurance Program. That left nearly 47,000 low-income children with no coverage at all. Gov. Jan Brewer is also calling for an increase in the sales tax. She said, “Arizona is navigating its way through the largest state budget deficit in its long history.”

In New Jersey, the newly elected governor, Chris Christie, has proposed a series of budget cuts that, among other things, would result in public schools receiving $820 million less in state aid than they had received in the prior school year. Some well-off districts would have their direct school aid cut off altogether. Poorer districts that rely almost entirely on state aid would absorb the biggest losses in terms of dollars. They’re bracing for a terrible hit.

For all the happy talk about “no child left behind,” the truth is that in Arizona and New Jersey and dozens of other states trying to cope with the fiscal disaster brought on by the Great Recession, millions of children are being left far behind, and many millions of adults as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/opinion/20herbert.html?ref=opinion">more...

[ixion]

1. Great Recession = Wishful Thinking

in my opinion.

[roamer65]

6. So far it is very similar to the 1893-1896 depression.

It is definitely not a recession, it is a depression. There were no where near the fiscal problems in the 1980-82 double dip recession. 1980-82 was a classic severe recession and this is far worse.

[fasttense]

2. Guaranteed investments in human misery - Isn't that what the RepubliCONS have done

for the last 30 years.

Let's all thank our corporate overlords for their "investments".

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. This is a tried and true pattern.

I just saw the documentary of the Shock Doctrine.

Every time the USA collapsed a country..Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Iraq for example,
that is how it was destabilized, to make room for a "new" replacement economy.

The schools were closed down, Unions destroyed. Health facilities closed.
Public services either shut down or sold to private companies
( gas, water, electricity, phones, transportation).
Pay scales were lowered, thousands were put out of work.
The middle class was destroyed.
Colleges were closed or made unaffordable to many.
Taxes were raised on the poor.
The money was devalued in one of several ways: inflation, outright theft, devaluation.
The country's wealth was siphoned off by a corrupt and increasingly rich few.

Corrupt politicians and leaders were installed, honest leaders were removed and/or killed,
opponents were arrested and/or assassinated, and the military/police was used to prevent opposition movements.
And people were arrested and disappeared. ( That IS happening here, now..so far "only Muslims/terrorists"....yeah, right)

EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Look around. What are the similarities here? Where is America in this pattern?
What "shocks" are we being subjected to? ( Hint..start with 911)

[Sanity Seeker]

5. Vampires are alive and well

Hi Dixiegirl,

911? Should an external act of terror provide justification for acts of internal terrorism? Patriot Act, Habeas Corpus, Blackwater...shouldn't we all be outraged that our rights are stripped from us? Our privacy eradicated. Due process killed. Tax dollars deviously funneled into a private military? Social justice isn't seen as an economic investment in our country - it doesn't make billions of dollars of profit for corporations. The US claims to be the democratic savior of nations like Iraq. What an incidious lie. The threat in Iraq wasn't terror; rather, it is really about resources and strategic military protection of corporate interests. So, the way I see it is our tax dollars are sucked directly from our citizens juglars to support an arm of the corporations, e.g., the US military. War is extremely profitable for corporations like Halliburton, Exxon, Blackwater, Lockhead, Boeing, ATK . . . Like any business, you must have demand for products and services or there is no business. Therefore, isn't a logical deduction is that these business promote economic and political policies that ensure market demand for their products? Anybody remember Iran Contra? How about Chile?
The Congo? Colonialism is alive and well. Colonialist use military power to subject peoples of other nations to economic, social, and political slavery all while robbing native country's resources - for what? Who really benefited? The monarchs? The industrialists? It is a very old story in a different costume? Are American so dense that we believe that modern industrialists care whether we're Americans or Iraqi, Vietnamese or Mexican? Their loyalty is to profit alone. Offshoring American jobs is simply a means of tapping inexpensive labor to increase profit for the corporation, a contemporary act of colonialism with a different twist. What is the likelihood that America will see job generation, particularly jobs that pay a liveable wage, when corporation's profit agendas would be compromised to do so?

Why do we buy the lies? We are not a "free market" economy. We are an economy of collusion, conspiracy, complicity, avarice, hubris, and ethical bankruptcy. When the Supreme Court, the Executive and Legislative branches of our government choose the interests of corporations, many who flagrantly lie, cheat, and steal from their shareholders and the taxpayers, we are not even close to a just or viable economic society. We rationalize regulation as an impediment to free market economics. Why are we surprised by the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations unlimited lobbying access to the balance of government safeguard against undue influence in the favor of the corporations? Corporate welfare accounts for billions of dollars of our national spending. We fund Blackwater, a war corporation virtually unregulated. We give trillion dollar contracts to the likes of Halliburton at home and abroad - their graft is well known and yet what does our government do to protect the financial interests of its citizen's tax dollars? A sixth of our GDP is tied to healthcare corporations...hmmmm...42% of our population is without healthcare. This year, we face a 30% increase in premiums for policy holders. $1200.00 per month premiums, all for the benefit of having pre-existing conditions excluded? How is it that premium payers pay for a service only to be denied of those very services? Hospitals charge $121.00 for 1 oz of liquid Tylenol x 6 doses a day. Actual cost for 1 oz of Tylenol is around 2.5 cents. Rationale - hospitals need to charge $121. to cover capital and operating costs. This equates to $120.97 cost to provide a dose of Tylenol. Bull! Sounds like robbery by a different name. Then, the American public is suppose to smile when we hear of health insurance companies who pay their CEOs 33 million a year, a billion dollar stock portfolio, and a billion dollar golden parachute. We wonder why we can't afford a sustainable healthcare system?

What do we think will happen to the average American worker when corporations have unlimited financial access to our courts and our legislature? Corporations, in our free market society get billions of our tax dollars outsourcing our jobs to other nations. Many of these corporations increase their profits by subjecting peoples of other nations to sweatshop/slave wages and conditions in which there are also no labor costs, e.g., healthcare, unemployment benefits, safety costs, or workman's compensation. Corporate justification - "well, these people (sic) are better off to at least have the work we give them as there are no alternatives for them." We have laws in this country to protect against such human usery - why are we surprised the corporations are off shore? Labor supply and demand laws tells us exactly what to expect in our country - global labor supply will drive down national wages. Then we rejoice that our stock market shows profit strength. Shameful!

Today, the average American will never really "own" their homes, and for those fortunate enough to get a college education, their loans will take them most of the working life to repay. Millions of Americans lose their homes as we lose our jobs and the banks play Monopoly with securities. Tens of thousands file bankruptcy due to medical bills. Banks take their "pound of flesh" with inflated interest and fees, all while getting billions and billions of our tax dollars, and awarding the vampires at the top at our expense. 1% of the American population owns 90% of this country's concentrated capital wealth. What does that leave in the economic pot for 270 million Americans? Why isn't our economy recovering? Why are there not jobs, the very source of economic generation? If 6% of our GDP is in healthcare, won't protectionism for this industry supercede the very reforms needed to save the bleeding patient?

In the light of our delusions and denials, I find moments of lucidity studying history for the answers, yet there is no comfort. The message is clear: "Feed them to the lions." "Let them eat cake." "Tell our people to dig for potatoes." "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Our system is broken and I wonder if we have the will to revolt, to change, to find the courage and sacrifice required for radical social and economic justice?

[upi402]

7. +1^ kick for this must read post n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Late reply to your comments

Yeah, eventually people revolt.
And it takes years to re-gain a bit of ground.

Those of us born and/raised in the 30 years of the late 40's, 50.s even late 60's will be seen as
people who enjoyed a golden time.
Funny thing..I was raised listening to my grandparents talk about the Depression but also they talked about the fight to create unions.
I always mentally say a thank you for the people of the last 2 generations who made my earlier decades more pleasant than this in is turning out to be.

The history of unions/fair wages is cyclical. Sucks to be on the down side of the cycle, doesn't it?

[grasswire]

9. welcome to DU

keep posting.

[upi402]

4. Revolting

Speaking of which...