2 Wednesday, March 11, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Robert B. Reich American Voices Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not neces- sarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: Yet another letter from Greg Werts regard- ing the evils of asphalt (as long as you don’t take those god-given roads of his away). I think I’ve seen just about the full gamut of straw-man arguments raised with respect to the Sisters-to-Black Butte Ranch trail, but gee, here comes yet another pile-on argument that the duly elected county commissioner shouldn’t be in favor of improvements for this community either. I’ll say one thing regarding these repetitive attacks on a multi-use trail for everyone but motor vehicles, it sure keeps the issue alive for those that aren’t blinded by the continuous claims of impending environmental harm to a young and rapidly growing forest, impacts to wildlife on a trail next to a major high-speed highway (really?), and of course the ultimate bugaboo of funding something that would be a community asset. Even if you don’t like it, dude, it will eventually happen, and Sisters and the surrounding areas will eventually see the benefits and acclaim will rise where now we only hear endless debate and talking points. And before you start pointing that finger at anyone about lies, keep in mind those other fingers are pointing back directly at you. And thank you, Commissioner Unger — our second home is in Sisters, but I do so wish our county commissioners and state representative in Polk County were as forward-thinking. Randy McCall s s s See letteRS on page 11 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday friday Saturday Sunday Monday Rain Chance showers Sunny Chance showers Chance showers Mostly sunny 54/35 61/32 65/37 64/38 60/28 57/na The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson News Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Williver Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Lisa Buckley Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $40; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2014 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. The U.S. economy is picking up steam, but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well. American corpora- tions exert far more politi- cal influence in the United States than their European counterparts exert in their own countries. In fact, most Americans have no influence at all. That’s the conclusion of professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern Uni- versity, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues and found that “the preferences of the aver- age American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” Instead, American law- makers respond to the demands of wealthy indi- viduals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corpora- tions — those with the most lobbying prowess and the deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns. Most big American cor- porations have no particu- lar allegiance to America. They don’t want Americans to have better wages. Their only allegiance and respon- sibility is to their sharehold- ers — which often requires lower wages to fuel larger profits and higher share prices. When General Motors went public again in 2010, it boasted of making 43 percent of its cars in place where labor is less than $15 an hour, while in North America it could now pay “lower-tiered” wages and benefits for new employees. As an Apple executive told The New York Times, “We don’t have an obli- gation to solve America’s problems.” I’m not blaming Ameri- can corporations. They’re in business to make profits and maximize their share prices, not to serve America. It’s folly to count on them to create good American jobs, improve American com- petitiveness or represent the interests of the United States in global commerce. By contrast, big corpo- rations headquartered in other rich nations are more responsible for the well- being of the people who live in those nations. That’s because labor unions there are typically stronger than they are here — and are able to exert pressure both at the company level and nationally. Governments in other rich nations often devise laws through tripartite bar- gains involving big corpo- rations and organized labor. This process further binds corporations to their nations. Meanwhile, American corporations distribute a smaller share of their earn- ings to their workers than do European or Canadian corporations. And top U.S. corporate executives make far more money than their counterparts. The typical American worker puts in more hours than Canadians and Europeans, and gets little or no paid vacation or paid family leave. In Europe, the norm is five weeks paid vacation per year and more than three months paid fam- ily leave. And because of the over- whelming clout of Ameri- can firms on U.S. politics, Americans don’t get nearly as good a deal from their governments as do Canadi- ans and Europeans. Governments there impose higher taxes on the wealthy and redistribute more of it to middle- and lower-income households. So it shouldn’t be surpris- ing that even though U.S. economy is doing better, most Americans are not. The U.S. middle class is no longer the world’s rich- est. After considering taxes and transfer payments, mid- dle-class incomes in Canada and much of Western Europe are higher than in U.S. Either we lessen the dominance of big American corporations over American politics, or we increase their allegiance and responsibility to America. It has to be one or the other. Americans can’t thrive within a political system run largely by big American corporations — organized to boost their share prices but not boost America. © 2015 By Robert Reich; Distributed by Tribune Con- tent Agency, LLC Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.