Molly Ivins: Public is getting pockets picked

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Sat, 23 Jul 2005 05:52:13 -0700

[Zepps_News] #Molly: public is getting pockets picked

 

 

 

 

Molly Ivins: Public is getting pockets picked

 

By Molly Ivins

Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, July 21, 2005

 

AUSTIN -- If you had done a poll in November 2000, or in November 2004,

I don't think you would have gotten out of single digits with this

proposition: " George W. Bush wants to radically revise American law,

including complete repeal of the New Deal, and take us back to the

economic legal system that prevailed at the turn of the 19th century --

Robber Barons Redux. "

 

 

 

During the past five years, both media and political circles have

devoted an enormous amount of attention to social issues and culture

wars -- rise of the Christian Right, anti-abortion groups, our debates

over moral decline and moral relativism, prayer in the schools, school

vouchers, displaying the Ten Commandments, sex and violence in

entertainment, bias in the news media, gay marriage and all the rest of

it. I sometimes think all of it amounts to a bunch of people saying,

" The world would be a much better place if everybody else thought

exactly the same way I do. " Reminds me of Dr. Henry Higgins in his

famous philosophical disquisition, " Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A

Man? " Higgins finally discovers the ultimate problem: " Why can't a

woman

be more like ME? "

 

Then, of necessity, we have spent huge amounts of time on Sept. 11,

terrorism, Iraq, and related and ancillary problems. It is not

necessary

to review the bidding here, but Iraq is becoming as divisive and

unpopular as the Vietnam War.

 

While we have been absorbed in the silly circus of cultural issues and

the and riveting questions of the war, we've also been getting our

pockets picked. Big time. I am impressed that cartoonist Lloyd Dangle

in

the strip " Troubletown " managed to get the whole problem into 12

panels,

each announcing some piece of economic news accompanied by an American

saying, essentially, " What, me worry? " The U.S. is over $7 trillion in

debt (no problem); China buys $1 billion worth of U.S. treasury bills a

day (thanks for floating us); Americans love the prices at Wal-Mart

(made in China, cute!); the Chinese save 50 percent of their domestic

product; the average American has $9,000 on his credit cards; our

economy is fueled by a fragile housing bubble; the minimum wage is

$5.15

per hour … ; taxpayers who earn over $1 million saved $30K under Bush

tax cuts; the war in Iraq costs $9 billion a month; by 2040, our kids

will be unable to do more than pay the interest on the national debt …

;

bankruptcy reform makes it impossible to escape your debts; in Darfur

[sudan], people earn $1.25 a day.

 

For those who prefer to get their economic news from a more respectable

source than a cartoon, I recommend Bill Greider's op-ed article in the

July 18 New York Times, " America's Truth Deficit. " He begins with the

startling thesis that we face structural economic problems as serious

as

those that destroyed the late Soviet Union and that, like the USSR

before its breakup, our leaders cannot talk about these problems

honestly. " [Our] weakening position in the global trading system is

obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the

news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and

why. Instead they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free

trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best. "

 

It is a curious thing that as the disadvantages and, indeed, perils of

globalization become clearer and the subject of ever-more worried books

by respected economists, the mainstream media keep treating the whole

problem as though it were about a bunch of protesters in turtle

costumes

at the G8 summit. If it were not for Lou Dobbs on CNN, one would never

even hear it mentioned on television.

 

Forget what the Supreme Court thinks about teaching creationism in the

schools: Think about what it will contribute to the spiraling disasters

of globalization by dismantling the entire economic regulatory system

built up over the past 100 years. As Greider notes, " Washington defines

'national interest' primarily in terms of advancing the global reach of

our multinational enterprises. " Problem is, our multinational

corporations increasingly work against the interests of Americans

themselves. In addition to outsourcing jobs, the companies locate sham

headquarters in off-shore tax havens to avoid paying taxes. The only

restraints we have ever had on multinational corporations are

government

regulation and the right to sue the bastards for the various kinds of

harm they cause. It is precisely those two forms of control that are

being not just undermined but tossed out entirely by an increasingly

activist right-wing judiciary.

 

Recommended reading: Greider's " One World, Ready Or Not " ; David

Korten's

" When Corporations Rule the World " ; and Paul Krugman's " The Great

Unraveling. "

 

 

--

The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making ten-thousand revolutions a

minute and man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. Religion is

the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him

the ride. --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

 

 

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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