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Little Heard Views on the State of the Economy
In his new book, 'Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips argues that adverse economic forces are largely behind the ongoing collapse of the American family. In the 1950s, he said, 26.5 percent of federal taxes were paid by corporations and 6.9 percent from payroll taxes. In 2000, only 10.2 percent of federal taxes came from corporations and 31.1 percent were from payroll taxes Americans enjoyed the best pay and fewest hours in the 1950s. By 1999, the work year had increased by 184 hours, and U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported that the average American works 350 hours more per year than the average European.
Wage earners ended the decade with less pension and health coverage and the least amount of vacation time, shortest maternity leaves and shortest average notice of termination in the industrialized world. The U.S. also has the world's highest ratio of two-income families.
From 1960 to 1995, the percentage of women with children under six who worked grew from 19 to 64 percent.
The U.S. also has the highest inequality of dollars earned in the democratic world. In the U.S., those in the top fifth earned 11 times what those in the lowest fifth earned, almost double the disparity in Germany, the next highest nation, where those in the top fifth earn 5.8 times more than those in the lowest fifth. In Japan, the top fifth earn only 4.3 times more than the lowest fifth. The income share of the top 1 percent in the U.S. is now proportionately the same as it was in 1929.
Phillips believes a great fall is in progress. 'Historically,' he writes, "an Icarus tendency, an overambitious national wingspread for finance, has been a problem, not an asset, for leading world powers." In the 1990s the financial sector ahead of manufacturing in U.S. income and GDP measurements.
"The economy is dangerously out of balance," Phillips said.
The loss of equity wealth over the past 18 months is equal to 75 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), a bigger proportionate loss than after the 1929 crash. Since March 24, 2000, the market has lost more than $7 trillion in value and shed more than 1,000 companies. 41 percent of the value of all publicly traded stocks in the U.S. has disappeared in 28 months!
The problem, Phillips said, is not just finance getting out of its proper place, but its linkage with new technology. Technology has always led to manias and most of the notable speculative bubbles of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the words of columnist Charley Reese, "anybody who believes the bilge that 'the basic structure' of the economy is strong must be reading the funny papers rather than the business section."
In another column, Doug McIntosh accuses President Bush of making war noises against Iraq in order to distract public attention away from how bad the economy really is. Politicians like to maintain the illusion of normalcy as long as they can, he said.
Former presidential candidate and columnist Pat Buchanan said that the U.S. has several major problems it should take steps immediately to correct. (1) The $500 billion a year merchandise trade deficit is siphoning money out of the U.S. at record rates. The U.S. should rebuild its production and manufacturing base. Buchanan says that more and more Americans are now aware that U.S. industry has been gutted and our economic independence lost.
(Try and find American-made at Wal-Mart!) (2): The freak euphimistically called "free trade" is not 'free' at all. It is 'managed trade,' Buchanan says, with 20,000 pages worth of deals and lots of jobs for bureaucrats and lawyers. True free trade would be a simple 6 or 8 or 10 percent or more, tariff on all imported goods from anywhere, including American companies that have relocated to China or a hundred other countries. DON'T bail out the internationalists who move American jobs offshore for low wages if they get in trouble in other countries.
(3): Cease bank bailouts. The American taxpayer is saving international banks, not poor countries, according to Buchanan. U.S. taxpayers bailed out Brazil to the tune of $41 billion in 1998 and another $45 billion since then. Uncle Sam isn't bailing out peasants, says Buchanan, he's bailing out big banks such as Citigroup, FleetBoston, and J.P. Morgan Chase which have made bad loans to those countries. And, then there's the foreign aid to.... whichever corrupt government happens to be our 'friend' at any given time. Third World countries default on their debt to the big banks and U.S. taxpayers race to the rescue through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations.
American taxpayers keep Israel afloat, send their money to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Africa, prop up one dictator one year and pronounce him the "axis of evil" the next.
Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas asks: "Why should poor taxpayers in America fund rich, corrupt government officials in Third World countries?"
Both Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan admonish: Cease all foreign aid. Our favoritism continues to increase our number of enemies. In the 1980s, we took the side of Saddam Hussein against Iran and the Ayatollah Khoumeini and helped build Saddam's war machine with taxpayer dollars. Now we want to "take out Saddam" and tear down the very war machine we helped build. Also during the 1980s, we took the side of Osama bin Laden and his followers in the Afghan/Soviet War, thus catapulting bin Laden into prominence. Now we want to take him down (if we can ever find out what happened to him).
Probably, not many Americans remember our 'friends' of the 1980s are our enemies of 2002.
Thomas Jefferson said "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none."
As we look at a future where more and more people who once respected the U.S. now fear or despise it, and developing countries clamor and demand ever more U.S. money even as our own tangible economic base is gutted and the majority of our people are losing faith in the American dream, it's beginning to look as if Thomas Jefferson had more smarts about the inherent dangers of "entangling alliances" 200 years ago than all our leaders of the 20th century combined.
"Therefore, by objective standards, the leading managers of the U.S. economy...are collectively, clinically insane." --Lyndon LaRouche Perhaps as a 22-year-old who is a candidate in the new America First Party for state office in Tennessee says, now is the time for MORE, not fewer Americans to open their eyes, educate themselves from sources other than corporate media, and get involved in politics... if they want to change the present discouraging, decadent, debt-ridden, demoralized and dependent trends that are changing the course of our country.
Payson.cc © 2002 Carrol Cox
Payson Arizona Editorial and Opinions on National USA / World / and Local News Issues