* A majority of workers are making less now, inflation adjusted, than in 1979
* Over 20% of children were growing up in poverty during the past decade, by far the highest among comparable western countries
* The minimum wage is lower today, inflation-adjusted, than in 1979
* American workers are working longer and longer hours-on average an additional 163 hours per year, compared to 20 years ago-with less time for family and community
* Many full-time family farms cannot make a living in a market of giant buyer concentration and industrial agriculture
* The public works (infrastructure) are crumbling, with decrepit schools and clinics, library closings, antiquated mass transit and more
* Corporate welfare programs, paid for largely by middle-class taxpayers and amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, continue to rise along with government giveaways of taxpayer assets such as public forests, minerals and new medicines
* Affordable housing needs are at record levels while secondary mortgage market companies show record profits
* The number of Americans without health insurance grows every year
* There have been twenty-five straight years of growing foreign trade deficits ($270 billion in 1999)
* Consumer debt is at an all time high, totaling over $ 6 trillion
* Personal bankruptcies are at a record level
* Personal savings are dropping to record lows and personal assets are so low that Bill Gates' net worth is equal to that of the net assets of the poorest 120 million Americans combined
* The tiny federal budgets for the public's health and safety continue to be grossly inadequate
* Motor vehicle fuel efficiency averages are actually declining and, overall, energy conservation efforts have slowed, while renewable energy takes a back seat to fossil fuel and atomic power subsidies
* Wealth inequality is greater than at any time since WWII. The top one percent of the wealthiest people have more financial wealth than the bottom 90% of Americans combined, the worst inequality among large western nation
* Despite annual declines in total business liability costs, business lobbyists drive for more privileges and immunities for their wrongdoing.
A few illustrative questions can begin to raise our expectations and suggest what can be lost when the few and powerful hijack our democracy:
* Why can't the wealthiest nation in the world abolish the chronic poverty of millions of working and non-working Americans, including our children?
* Are we reversing the disinvestment in our distressed inner cities and rural areas and using creatively some of the huge capital pools in the economy to make these areas more livable, productive and safe?
* Are we able to end homelessness and wretched housing conditions with modern materials, designs, and financing mechanisms, without bank and insurance company redlining, to meet the affordable housing needs of millions of Americans?
* Are we getting the best out of known ways to spread renewable, efficient energy throughout the land to save consumers money and to head off global warming and other land-based environmental damage from fossil fuels and atomic energy?
* Are we getting the best out of the many bright and public-spirited civil servants who know how to improve governments but are rarely asked by their politically-appointed superiors or members of Congress?
* Are we able to provide wide access to justice for all aggrieved people so that we apply rigorously the admonition of Judge Learned Hand, "If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou Shall Not Ration Justice"?
* Can we extend overseas the best examples of our country's democratic processes and achievements instead of annually using billions in tax dollars to subsidize corporate munitions exports, as Republican Senator Mark Hatfield always used to decry?
* Can we stop the giveaways of our vast commonwealth assets and become better stewards of the public lands, better investors of trillions of dollars in worker pension monies, and allow broader access to the public airwaves and other assets now owned by the people but controlled by corporations?
* Can we counter the coarse and brazen commercial culture, including television which daily highlights depravity and ignores the quiet civic heroisms in its communities, a commercialism that insidiously exploits childhood and plasters its logos everywhere?
* Can we plan ahead as a society so we know our priorities and where we wish to go? Or do we continue to let global corporations remain astride the planet, corporatizing everything, from genes to education to the Internet to public institutions, in short planning our futures in their image? If a robust civic culture does not shape the future, corporatism surely will.
* Over 20% of children were growing up in poverty during the past decade, by far the highest among comparable western countries
* The minimum wage is lower today, inflation-adjusted, than in 1979
* American workers are working longer and longer hours-on average an additional 163 hours per year, compared to 20 years ago-with less time for family and community
* Many full-time family farms cannot make a living in a market of giant buyer concentration and industrial agriculture
* The public works (infrastructure) are crumbling, with decrepit schools and clinics, library closings, antiquated mass transit and more
* Corporate welfare programs, paid for largely by middle-class taxpayers and amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, continue to rise along with government giveaways of taxpayer assets such as public forests, minerals and new medicines
* Affordable housing needs are at record levels while secondary mortgage market companies show record profits
* The number of Americans without health insurance grows every year
* There have been twenty-five straight years of growing foreign trade deficits ($270 billion in 1999)
* Consumer debt is at an all time high, totaling over $ 6 trillion
* Personal bankruptcies are at a record level
* Personal savings are dropping to record lows and personal assets are so low that Bill Gates' net worth is equal to that of the net assets of the poorest 120 million Americans combined
* The tiny federal budgets for the public's health and safety continue to be grossly inadequate
* Motor vehicle fuel efficiency averages are actually declining and, overall, energy conservation efforts have slowed, while renewable energy takes a back seat to fossil fuel and atomic power subsidies
* Wealth inequality is greater than at any time since WWII. The top one percent of the wealthiest people have more financial wealth than the bottom 90% of Americans combined, the worst inequality among large western nation
* Despite annual declines in total business liability costs, business lobbyists drive for more privileges and immunities for their wrongdoing.
A few illustrative questions can begin to raise our expectations and suggest what can be lost when the few and powerful hijack our democracy:
* Why can't the wealthiest nation in the world abolish the chronic poverty of millions of working and non-working Americans, including our children?
* Are we reversing the disinvestment in our distressed inner cities and rural areas and using creatively some of the huge capital pools in the economy to make these areas more livable, productive and safe?
* Are we able to end homelessness and wretched housing conditions with modern materials, designs, and financing mechanisms, without bank and insurance company redlining, to meet the affordable housing needs of millions of Americans?
* Are we getting the best out of known ways to spread renewable, efficient energy throughout the land to save consumers money and to head off global warming and other land-based environmental damage from fossil fuels and atomic energy?
* Are we getting the best out of the many bright and public-spirited civil servants who know how to improve governments but are rarely asked by their politically-appointed superiors or members of Congress?
* Are we able to provide wide access to justice for all aggrieved people so that we apply rigorously the admonition of Judge Learned Hand, "If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou Shall Not Ration Justice"?
* Can we extend overseas the best examples of our country's democratic processes and achievements instead of annually using billions in tax dollars to subsidize corporate munitions exports, as Republican Senator Mark Hatfield always used to decry?
* Can we stop the giveaways of our vast commonwealth assets and become better stewards of the public lands, better investors of trillions of dollars in worker pension monies, and allow broader access to the public airwaves and other assets now owned by the people but controlled by corporations?
* Can we counter the coarse and brazen commercial culture, including television which daily highlights depravity and ignores the quiet civic heroisms in its communities, a commercialism that insidiously exploits childhood and plasters its logos everywhere?
* Can we plan ahead as a society so we know our priorities and where we wish to go? Or do we continue to let global corporations remain astride the planet, corporatizing everything, from genes to education to the Internet to public institutions, in short planning our futures in their image? If a robust civic culture does not shape the future, corporatism surely will.
