[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: A steeper ladder for the have-nots

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>A steeper ladder for the have-nots
>
>By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist
>
>May 18, 2005, Boston Globe
>
>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/18/a_steeper_ladder_for_the_have_nots/
>
>It is stunning to see the Wall Street Journal and The New
>York Times simultaneously devote a series to the American
>class divide. The Journal reported last Friday, "Despite the
>widespread belief that the US remains a more mobile society
>than Europe, economists and sociologists say that in recent
>decades the typical child starting out in poverty in
>continental Europe or in Canada has had a better chance at
>prosperity."
>
>In an echo, the Times wrote vitually the same thing, adding
>that in America, a child's economic background is a better
>predictor of school performance than in Denmark, the
>Netherlands, or France. The best that could be said was that
>class mobility in the United States is "not as low as in
>developing countries like Brazil, where escape from poverty
>is so difficult that the lower class is all but frozen in
>place."
>
>Oh joy. This is what we have come to? Comparisons to
>developing countries?
>
>Another odd thing about the series is that the mainstays of
>the mainstream press are making a big deal out of the divide
>after years in which many economists warned that our policies
>were plunging us straight toward Brazil. For years, groups
>like the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy and the
>Institute for Policy Studies sent up smoke signals that
>should have been a smoking gun.
>
>In 1973, the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay was 43 to 1. By
>1992, it was 145 to 1. By 1997, it was 326 to 1. By 2000, it
>hit a sky-high 531 to 1. The post 9/11 shakeouts and
>corporate scandals of recent years on the surface narrowed
>the gap back to 301 to 1 in 2003. But a much worse parallel
>global gap is emerging in the era of outsourcing. United for
>a Fair Economy published a report last summer that found CEOs
>of the top US outsourcing companies made 1,300 times more
>than their computer programmers in India and 3,300 more than
>Indian call-center employees.
>
>Such groups say if the minimum wage kept up with the rise in
>CEO pay, it would be $15.76 an hour instead of its current
>$5.15. Looking at it another way, the Center on Budget and
>Policy Priorities, another often written-off liberal think
>tank, published a report last month that in the last three
>years, the share of US national income that goes toward
>corporate profits is at its highest levels since World War
>II, while the share of national income that goes to wages and
>salaries is at a record low.
>
>This completes a perfect storm over the last quarter century
>of corporate welfare for those with the most among us and
>vilification for those with the least. Americans have been
>seduced by simplistic notions of rugged individualism to vote
>more to punish people (welfare mothers, prison booms, and
>affirmative action in the 1990s, and gay marriage in 2004)
>than for programs and policies that might lead to healing the
>gaps (national healthcare and revamped public schools).
>
>It is obvious that Americans believed that none of the
>inequalities long endured by the poor (because it's all their
>fault, right?) would seep into our lives. We were wrong. With
>suburban schools slashing their budgets, healthcare costs
>rising, retirement funds in doubt, and the next generation
>facing a drop in their life span from obesity and diabetes,
>the nation is sliding into a dangerous place.
>
>A quarter century of a "mine, all mine" ethos continues to
>work for CEOs and the upper class. The rest of America finds
>the ladder taller and steepening. Much of the nation is now
>one catastrophic injury away from falling into poverty. It
>should be a national emergency that stratification in the
>richest nation in the world has us fading from the relative
>mobility of Europe and sinking toward the discouragement in
>developing countries.
>
>It is no wonder why politicians who protect the wealthy
>scream "class warfare" every time someone talks about
>inequity. It is a diversion to keep those who vote against
>their own interests from realizing they are victims of
>friendly fire.
>
>[Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson at globe.com.]
>
>(c) Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand