Forward.com

Dumping On Our Descendants

The Bible says that the sins of the parents will be punished on the children, yea unto the seventh generation. The “sins” we are committing are embodied in the ever-mounting debt that our generation is incurring that will have to be paid off by our kids and their kids and so on and on. The debt is accumulating at an incredible rate.

Official sources inform us that the cost of our war in Iraq comes to $528 billion. There will be a projected $70 billion more for 2009.

Contrast this with the situation when Clinton left office. The budget was almost in balance. Actually, it was in balance if the so-called “off budget” budget was added to the “on budget budget.” The “off budget” budgets are the Social Security Trust Fund and the Postal Department that are independent entities whose surpluses may not be used to defray ordinary expenses.

Our present backbreaking deficits were brought on by two persistent policies of the Bush administration. The first policy was the sharp reduction on taxes from wealthy individuals and corporations. The reasoning of the Bush administration was that by enriching the rich, the beneficiaries would have the money to employ more people and startup or expand existing businesses.

If this “drip down” theory of the way the economy works were valid, the American economy should now be flourishing — which it isn’t. To make matters worse, the Bushies decided to declare war against Iraq, with imulti-billion dollars in additional expenses.

And now the sins of the fathers are about to be visited on their children and children’s generation for who knows how long.

The Wrong And Right Way Out

The American economy is in trouble. It is not the first time. In the 1930s, the American economy sank into a depression. As a candidate for president, Franklin D. Roosevelt described the situation with “one third of the nation ill fed, ill clothed, ill-housed.” He took steps to revive the economy by creating jobs. They were jobs that needed doing but were not being done because, at the time, the private sector of the economy did not find them profitable.

For instance:

There were forests that needed attention. They had been wiped out by forest fires or by depletion for civilian purposes like wood and paper. Under the New Deal, Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was their job to restore the woodlands, serving a double purpose. It met a national need and also created jobs.

As a young college student, I got a job under the National Youth Act. My job was to go from tenement house to tenement house to find out whether they had internal toilet facilities. This led to a federal housing program that provided millions of jobs.

Right now there are all sorts of national needs. Almost daily we hear of still another bridge that collapsed. School buildings are dilapidated and in danger. The medical needs of children lack proper attention. Put bluntly, there are endless needs that go unattended.

Yet, at this very hour, reports The New York Times, (March 16) “the Fed announced a $200 billion lending program for investment banks and a $100 billion credit line for banks and thrifts.”

The Sad Bad Story of Governor Spitzer

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and that violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong,” Eliot Spitzer said.

The obvious question is just why or how a highly intelligent man like Spitzer worked his way into such a situation.

What follows is my own highly speculative attempt to explain Spitzer’s strange conduct: We begin with the fact that Spitzer is not only a highly intelligent man but also a highly emotional bull of a man. He is devoted to his family, although obviously his wife is not fully able to satisfy his sexual needs.

He might have found himself a girlfriend on the side. But she would have to understand that a marriage was not in the works. How long would a worthwhile woman put up with such a lopsided arrangement?

As a practical-minded man, Spitzer probably decided that a realistic outlet for his emotional needs could be satisfied by a professional prostitute or two who would allow him to vent his libido without any further obligations.

Is there a political future for Spitzer? The old saw says, “To err is human, To forgive is divine.”

The Call of the Cold

The latest trend among tourists is the Arctic Circle. Why? The answer may perhaps be found in a quatrain we recall from childhood.

Man’s a fool.
When it’s hot he wants it cool.
When it’s cool he wants it hot
Always wanting what is not.

This strange behavior is not hard to understand. Novelty, as they say, is the “spice of life.”

But this shift of tourist interest in the Arctic Circle is a real reversal of trends that characterized our behavior in the past. Generally, the idea was to get out of the ice and snow of northern winters. “California, here I come,” was a national slogan. Florida was and still is a magnet for northerners from the Atlantic Coast to the northern areas of the Midwest.

But a reversal of the historic trend from traditional climates to the Arctic Circle seemed unlikely. The reason is the much discussed “global warming.” In the past the Arctic Circle was a great big glacier or two. It was impenetrable by humans with the exception of a few incredible explorers. But, now, thanks to global warming, glaciers turn to icebergs and icebergs turn to floating pieces of ice.

But before we call for three cheers for global warming, we had better be warned about the global impact of rising oceans fed by melting glaciers that lift the level of oceans so that one day not so far distant Manhattan Island will be turned into a swimming pool spiked with skyscrapers.

Our Topsy Turvy Times

Once upon a time when the sun never set on the British Empire, the crown jewel in the imperial crown was a country called India. There were many agricultural products that the empire derived from India, including opium. When the power loom for weaving textiles made its appearance, the native Indians started up a lively business. To the British Empire this was a direct threat to their textile trade. So the Brits proceeded to destroy the power looms.

The native Indians (not to be confused with the American Indians) turned to knitting textiles by hand. The British imperialists were not deterred. They cut off the thumbs of the native Indians so they could not knit textiles.

Time marches on. British textile corporations are closing down their mills in the United Kingdom to get their work done in India.

What happened?

Four simultaneous technologic revolutions made it possible for British textile manufacturers to get their work done in distant lands where labor is cheap These are revolutions in communications, transportation, materials handling and computerized management. In a matter of seconds, highly skilled technicians in the British home office could see exactly what was happening in their plants in India, They could instantaneously communicate corrections. In short, modern technologies had turned the world into a global village.

But, regrettably, the “village” has no government to check the outrages of the corporations. The answer lies in a sort of global government where the World Trade Organization is obliged to live by the labor standards code developed by the International Labor Organization.

If and when this ever happens perhaps some savvy historian will call it The Tyler Plan.