1. Policymakers that put raising taxes off the table in deficit reduction negotiations are disingenuous about their agenda.
2. During tough economic times, those who are doing well need to pick up the slack to help those who are doing badly survive.
3. Defunding public education and laying off tens of thousands of teachers guarantees an unskilled underclass in a society.
4. A negative balance of payments of tens of billions of dollars a year renders budget balancing initiatives futile.
5. Unregulated corporations destroy democracy. Regulation is an indispensable component of free enterprise. Unregulated competition inevitably results in monopoly and oligopoly.
6. Private ownership of natural resources is dangerous to human welfare. Destruction of the environment to make a profit is criminal.
7. Contracts that harm the public good should be invalidated.
9. The same institutions that destroyed global economic stability now control the global economy. This is a BAD thing.
10. Corporations that are "too big to fail" need either to be broken up or nationalized.
11. Corporations are not citizens. They are NOT entitled to equal rights and MUST be subordinate to the public will. Any members of the Judiciary that rule otherwise have violated their oath of office and deserve impeachment.
Watched Too Big to Fail on HBO this weekend. I'm not sure how I feel about big government and big business aanymore. I trust nobody but myself! Certainly, the middle class are getting reamed while the very poor are getting poorer and aid gets slashed while corporate bonuses continue to skyrocket. I don't have answers or even suggestions.
ReplyDeleteI will say that today when I was perusing Bruce Springsteens web site looking for a statement about Clarence Clemons and his condiition after a stroke, I ran across a letter to the editor that her wrote in response to aid cuts. Here it is!
"Thank you for your March 27 front-page story by Michael Symons, "As poverty rises, cuts target aid." The article is one of the few that highlights the contradictions between a policy of large tax cuts, on the one hand, and cuts in services to those in the most dire conditions, on the other.
"Also, you've shone some light on anti-poverty workers and analysts such as Adele LaTourette, Meara Nigro, Cecilia Zalkind and Raymond Castro, among others, all of whom have something important to add to the discussion: real information and actual facts about what is happening below the poverty line.
"These are voices that in our current climate are having a hard time being heard, not just in New Jersey, but nationally. Finally, your article shows that the cuts are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years. I'm always glad to see my hometown newspaper covering these issues."
Bruce Springsteen
COLTS NECK