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9/13/2006 We’ve Tried It And It Doesn’t Work. Let’s Buy Back Our Government By Jack E. Lohman The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com. Let me see if I have this right. Violent crime is on the rise nationwide. As well, all reports confirm that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The top fifth of Americans now receive over half of America’s annual income and own 83 percent of the shares in the stock market. The divide between CEO and worker pay has widened to over 500-to-one. The average CEO salary is in the $10 million range, yet we can’t get the federal minimum wage increased from $5.15 per hour. Congressmen have received seven salary increases and have given nine tax cuts to the wealthy since the minimum wage was last adjusted. Government revenues have been drained by the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and money needed to fight terrorism is being diverted to wealthy Bush supporters. There’s little revenue left for border or airport security; even control tower staffing has been cut and planes are crashing. But the war in Iraq is going great, as Halliburton will attest. Manufacturing jobs are going overseas as U.S. workers are becoming unemployed because of bought-and-paid-for government policies like GATT, NAFTA, CAFTA, and the multinational corporate giveaways via the World Trade Organization. Health care is now so expensive that companies are moving to countries that have universal health care, thus saving them the more than $6,000 per employee per year cost in the US. The Big Three now makes more automobiles in Ontario than in Detroit, thanks in part to $100 million per year in lobbying and campaign contributions from U.S. health care interests. Get the connection? Local anti-crime revenues are now lower in order to fund Bush’s No Child Left Behind act, which turned into an unfunded mandate that must now be paid out of local revenues. Bush’s plan to match willing workers with willing employers is succeeding. Illegal immigrants are making it across the border to fill jobs at wage levels compatible with the willing employer’s bottom line (whom I should say are also very willing campaign contributors). This is easier with an underfunded border, and the 14-foot-high fence lets in only the physically fit. Hopefully that will help reduce the growth rate of free medical care the immigrants get and the taxpayers fund. Our government representatives really know how to get things done. But not to worry. Increases in multimillion dollar CEO salaries have bolstered the luxury home and yacht business, and private jet ownership is on the rise. This all helps to create new jobs, and there is now little reason for people to be unemployed. College tuition grants have been cut, but kids can still opt for service industry jobs. Anyway, engineering and programming jobs are now being sent to India and China, so it’s not like we need colleges as much as we once did. And, oh, did I say that violent crime is on the rise nationwide? Should we be expecting this, or is it just me that recognizes that with no middle class there will be fewer consumers or jobs? Isn’t this what has happened in Mexico over the years? That country consists of the elite and the poor, with nothing in the middle. That’s why their people are climbing fences to get into the United States. That’s what Americans will be doing in years hence, as our people move northward into Canada to escape American poverty. Canada, are you ready for this? It is time for our politicians to look at where this country will be when these dominoes fall. Our country is on the line, and they have their finger on the trigger. They must fix the system, but that requires a clean government that has a solid ethics and a clean campaign funding system. Otherwise the moneyed interests will continue to win. This regime had its chance and failed at all of the above, so it’s time for new blood. We voters must let them feel our pain in November. -- Lohman is a retired business owner from Colgate and founder of http://www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org. He can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com. |
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