Greg Roach's Berkshires Blog
Saturday, February 21, 2009
  We've only just begun...
Pulitzer Prize Winner David Cay Johnston, who wrote the amazing book "Perfectly Legal" about how the super rich and mega corporations have completely gamed the tax system, writes a great essay about some relatively simple fixes to tilt the playing field back towards the working class:
For anyone born after, say, 1970, the world has been shaped by Ronald Reagan's remaking of government's relationship with private interests—a vision of lower taxes, less regulation, and maximum economic leeway for those at the top. In this view, the pursuit of wealth is the warp and weft of America; everything else will follow.

By contrast, the preamble to the Constitution tells us the nation's reason for being in 52 words that can be reduced to six principles: society, justice, peace, security, commonwealth, and freedom. Individual riches don't make the list. They are a product of American society, not its guiding purpose. Progress, then, must begin with a return to the best of the values that created this Second American Republic—one born, it's worth remembering, from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, whose principles (weak government, unfettered capitalism) found their resurrection in the economic policies of the past three decades.
Who's gonna' tell the Dittoheads that our constitution's framers were "socialists?"
 
Comments:
The Founders were Socialists indeed, apart of course from the little detail that they envisioned a minimal government spending less than 1% of national wealth, and with little planning of or direct effect on the economy other than through tariffs and maintaining a currency.

But if Reagan's modest reduction in the growth of government shows his belief that the "pursuit of wealth is the warp and weft of America" then doesn't the founders' vision show even more of this philosophy?
 
Dave- You're on vacation. Put the computer down and go to the beach.

Anyways- Reagan's own interpretation of his policies aren't the problem. It's folks like Grover Norquist, Limbaugh, Club for Growth, et al, as well most of the modern GOP who twist Reagan's actual history to create a mythological justification to act like idiots in the modern day that Mr. Johnston appears to be talking about.
 
Reagan's "modest reduction" gave way to Grover Norquist's "drown in the bathtub." For that reason alone, the Reagan approach to government should be completely discredited. It won't be, of course, and I await more lengthy wastes of bandwidth about how the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression or whatever.

And Reagan himself said the best thing about America was it was a place where a man could grow rich. As Molly Ivins said (paraphrasing; I've long lost the book to any number of friends), "That's it. The summations of our highest aspirations as a people."

Remember, kids; the rich want less government, because when government can't do its job, it's easier for the malefactors of great wealth to, well, factor more male.

WF
(who still loathes Randroids and libertarian douchebags; talk about missing the point of the Framers)
 
Post a Comment



<< Home
A blog of random thoughts and reactions emanating from the bank of a mountain stream in the farthest reaches of the bluest of blue states.

ARCHIVES
May 2006 / June 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / August 2008 / September 2008 / October 2008 / November 2008 / December 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / June 2009 / July 2009 / August 2009 / September 2009 / October 2009 / November 2009 / December 2009 / January 2010 / February 2010 / March 2010 / April 2010 / May 2010 / January 2011 / May 2011 / June 2011 / July 2011 / October 2011 /



CONTACT:
greg at gregoryroach dot com

"Livability, not just affordability." - Dick Alcombright




My ongoing campaign for North Adams City Council

iBerkshires' Online Event Calendar



Because a Chart is Worth 1000 Words


Source:
Congressional Budget Office data

Powered by Blogger