[regional_school] Bob Herbert's Last Column
- From: "William Cala" <wcala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:44:59 -0400
This is Bob Herbert's last column from the NY Times. Years ago Richard
Rothstein was fired from the NY Times because he had a social conscience.
While we don't know if Herbert is being pushed out, I have often wondered
when the Times would push him out for his views on social justice.
Bill
March 25, 2011
Losing Our Way
By
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/bob
herbert/index.html?inline=nyt-per> BOB HERBERT
So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in
Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries,
laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom
fall out of the quality of life here at home.
Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of
long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout
from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies.
Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a
pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard
of living.
Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the
essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless
greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil
have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people
today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their
elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.
The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful
country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror
of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to
properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.
Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is
grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals
looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of
opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited
expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that
graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very
much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.
There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But
like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the
marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that
would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has
reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100
percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most
recent extended period of economic expansion.
Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn't
be, and didn't used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income
distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families
accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90
percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now.
The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the
richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation's wealth. The
overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8
percent.
This inequality, in which an enormous segment of the population struggles
while the fortunate few ride the gravy train, is a world-class recipe for
social unrest. Downward mobility is an ever-shortening fuse leading to
profound consequences.
A stark example of the fundamental unfairness that is now so widespread was
in The New York Times on Friday under the headline: "G.E.'s Strategies Let
It Avoid Taxes Altogether." Despite profits of $14.2 billion - $5.1 billion
from its operations in the United States - General Electric did not have to
pay any U.S. taxes last year.
As The Times's David Kocieniewski reported, "Its extraordinary success is
based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks
and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits
offshore."
G.E. is the nation's largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey
Immelt, is the leader of President Obama's Council on Jobs and
Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this
cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully
committed to the best interests of working people.
Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous
imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy
continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars
never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.
New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed.
.
This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly
18-year run. I'm off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of
working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My
thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years. I can
be reached going forward at <mailto:bobherbert88@xxxxxxxxx>
bobherbert88@xxxxxxxxxx
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