Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"

[babsbunny]

http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766

Wednesday 03 November 2010

by: Bill Moyers, t r u t h o u t | Speech

Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.

I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn’s life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian. The difference between a journalist and an historian is that the historian knows the difference. George Bernard Shaw once complained that journalists are seemingly unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. In fact, some epic history can start out as a minor incident. A young man named Paris ran off with a beautiful woman who was married to someone else, and the civilization of Troy began to unwind. A middle-aged black seamstress, riding in a Montgomery bus, had tired feet, and an ugly social order began to collapse. A night guard at an office complex in Washington D.C. found masking tape on a doorjamb, and the presidency of Richard Nixon began to unwind. What journalist, writing on deadline, could have imagined the walloping kick that Rosa Park’s tired feet would give to Jim Crow? What pundit could have fantasized that a third-rate burglary on a dark night could change the course of politics? The historian’s work is to help us disentangle the wreck of the Schwinn from cataclysm. Howard famously helped us see how big change can start with small acts.

[canoeist52]

1. average income of Americans increased just $303 dollars in 28 years

"for the bottom 90% of Americans. Average income went from that $30,941 in 1980 to $31,244 in 2008. Think about that: the average income of Americans increased just $303 dollars in 28 years."

You can't tell me that the cost of health care or a home, car, washer/dryer or even a phone has increased by that percent.
How the heck are we families making ends meet??

[Mimosa]

2. Credit. We did credit cards and used our home equity as banks...

Just like Alan Greenspan suggested.

[reggie the dog]

3. drug dealing, prostitution, and stealing

[felix_numinous]

4. What a timely article by Bill Moyers-

I hope more people read it all the way through.

:kick:

[lfairban]

5. K&R

long, not boring

[Blue_Tires]

6. kick

[leftstreet]

7. K&R

[Celtic Raven]

8. Kicking

even though I'm too late to rec it.



:kick:


Sending to some friends.