From James Preston Allen’s March opinion
Edited by Carolyn Bennett
Few people are discussing the causes of deficits.
Fewer are discussing how to avoid them in the future.
No one is prosecuting those who defrauded the American people in the first place.
The real crooks still hide in plain view.
The problem with our country is not that it is going broke but that it is broken –– politically broken.
Twenty-five percent (approx.) of all children in this ‘greatest nation on earth’ live in poverty, James Preston Allen writes in an opinion piece in Random Lengths News. In many cities of this great nation, rent-by-the-week hotels are doing a booming business with families of unemployed workers, their homes foreclosed — unemployed workers living in single rooms, competing with corner immigrants for day work. Blame immigrants, if you will, but many in the current wave of immigrants follow NAFTA’s decimation of their countries’ economies — part of the same ‘free trade’ system that gave incentives to U.S.-based corporations to offshore good U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Today 400 Americans hold wealth equal to the combined wealth of half the U.S. population, Allen quotes from a speech Michael Moore gave in Wisconsin. Four hundred “‘obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the 2008 multi-trillion dollar taxpayer bailout— now hold as much loot, stock and property as the combined assets of 155 million Americans.
“‘If you can’t bring yourself to call that a financial coup d’état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.’
“… If you are asking why we can’t afford pension funds or health care and social programs, funding for schools and libraries, ask yourselves why the 400 wealthiest deserve any tax break at all.
“This divide between uber-rich and average citizen has been ever growing since the ‘Great Communicator’ [40th, 1981-1989, U.S. president], Ronald Reagan, convinced us that ‘trickle down’ economics was the formula for creating wealth in America.” Reagan failed to say “for whom that wealth was going to be created — and that you weren’t included.”
Our country is not going broke. It is broken — Politically broken, Allen says.
For the biggest robbery in history, no one calls for arrests or prosecutions. “What we have is not that America is broke but that we’ve been robbed. Not by corner bandits but by Wall Street bankers who now hold our government hostage.”
Sources and notes
“America is Not Broke, Just Broken” (James Preston Allen), Saturday, arch 12, 2011, http://www.randomlengthsnews.com/content/view/608/33/
James Preston Allen is an artist, writer, journalist, songwriter and publisher of the Random Lengths News of San Pedro (Los Angeles), California, http://www.nothamlet.com/jamesbio.html
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA was negotiated by the administrations of U.S. president [41st, 1989-1993] George H. W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Preliminary agreement on the pact was reached in August 1992 and signed by the three leaders on December 17, 1992. NAFTA was ratified by the three countries’ national legislatures in 1993 and went into effect on January 1, 1994. [Britannica note]
Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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