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Well, I have been inspired now, thanks to AR and his recent post "An Apology to my Liberal Friends", to dig a little deeper into an issue he half addresses for political points. Now, to be fair to AR, he is a very intelligent, though sometimes frustrating individual to me. But to his credit, he is one of the few republicans who hasn't blocked me because they don't like what I have to say. Anyways, his post has the theme that today's generation of Americans have a sense of entitlement, a laziness that has resulted in many of our current problems. My true response, once getting past the shock and amazement, would have been too long for a regular comment, thus this post.
It would be so easy, to place the blame on the individual when it comes to their financial situations, and it would indeed take the focus off of what is happening with our current financial crisis and how the Republican party is responsible for it. Grover Norquest once said something along the lines of shrinking government small enough to drown it in a bathtub. One way to do that of course would be to bankrupt it, forcing it to rely on the private sector (which almost all conservatives chant without real careful consideration of the consequences). To find truth, we must dig a little further, look a little harder at today, and the yesteryear that conservatives point to and say "things were great then."
In the era of the mid 50s, many things were different, around 35% of jobs were union jobs compared to around 12% today, pay rates were such that a single member of the household could feasibly work and raise a family, and the United States was known as a manufacturing and exporting nation. We built things here (amazing I know). Not only that though, but the Depression had not been so far back that few knew of it's hardships, and the deregulation that republicans of that day sported that set it into motion. Laws were passed to prevent many of the problems that caused the Depression, like something called the Glass-Steagall Act which was a democratically sponsored legislation that came after the banking collapse of 1933. The banking collapse occurred around three and a half years after the Stock market collapse, and was partly due to the fact that the banks and bankers were using money from the people to invest in stocks, and when it collapsed, the banks had a big problem, one that ended up passed down to the people.
Fast forward now to 1999, the end of the Clinton era. Republicans controlled the House and the Senate, and by a Veto proof majority, and a party line vote in the Senate, passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This act, overturned the Glass-Steagall Act, and allowed banks to do what got them, and the American people, in trouble during the Depression, combining commercial and investment banking together again. The Gramm in the name is none other than McCain's former Chief Economic Adviser Phil Gramm, the same one married to a former Enron board of directors member & penned the energy sector loophole that caused the Enron Scandal, and the same Phil Gramm that is now known as "foreclosure phil" for his role in the Mortgage Crisis.
And as we now see, the banks choice to invest in the housing and mortgage industry, was a bad choice. In part thanks to the very man who allowed them to do so. The very man who helped McCain craft his economic policies for the presidency. And today we have already had to bail out Bear-Sterns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and AIG. And now our legislators are working on an Economic plan to save the U.S. economy from a certain crisis, one that honestly probably will come regardless of this legislation, which I will cover in part 2 of this post.
Ironically, McCain's Campaign manager has been exposed as having worked to prevent regulation of Fannie and Freddie for the past 5 years, receiving more than $2 million dollars for those efforts. McCain himself, was a member of Congresses Senate Commerce Committee (good job they have done us during republican control, huh? And by the way, anyone remember the Keating 5 savings and loan crisis which McCain barely got out of?) and the Indian Affairs Committee, which at its heart emerged a major Jack Abramoff Scandal (Ralph Reed, who was also involved in that scandal, is currently part of Camp McCain).
So, in conclusion, we have gone from a manufacturing nation to a service nation. We have become one of the worlds largest debtor nations after years of Reaganomics and Republican/Conservative deregulation of the private sector philosophy and now have both a federal deficit (which doesn't include the cost of the War in Iraq mind you) and a trade deficit. The Republican platform has fought against and weakened the Unionization of workers in our country, has encouraged corporations to ship our jobs overseas with subsidies and tax breaks that we the people have to pay for with what jobs are left, they have fought against a "living wage" and wages (compared to cost of living, education and with inflation)have fallen or been stagnant since 1973 while productivity (the amount of work the worker does) has increased. Is it any wonder the people are needing help with their philosophy of governance, corruption and greed. Is it really shocking that one of our formerly major manufacturing states, Ohio, now has around 10% of the population on food stamps?
This phenomenon, as a whole, has nothing to do with a sense of entitlement! Yea, there are some bad apples, there always is, but saying that people and liberals are promoting a sense of entitlement is looking at, not even half, the problem and politico-environmental situation just to keep from having to accept the responsibility of what Republican and Conservative ideology has done to this nation. Saying its all about entitlement is lazy thinking at its worst.
Today the French President says those behind the crisis in the financial sector should be held accountable. I agree, and your first stop should be Phil Gramm and the Republican lawmakers in the U.S. house and Senate for their direct role or complacency in the global economy's problems.