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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…
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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
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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.