September 25, 2013
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Page 7
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The Roaring Twenties Are Back
Economy is
reverting to the
bad old days
W illiam A. C ollins
M any of us who have
reached Social Security age
had a pretty good run.
We lived through those
heady days that follow ed the
G reat D epression and W orld
W ar II, a delightful — though
brief — m om ent in U.S. his­
tory when the rich were losing
the class war. The m iddle class
gained the high ground and
nearly everyone had a shot at
a decent incom e and reason­
able retirem en t. T here was
plenty o f work, and we even
started caring for the poor.
by
A gauge of our
moral progress
by D avid
No longer. The class w ar’s the rise.
over and the rich won. The
The rich are securing hot
U.S. econom y is reverting to spots to live in and fencing
the bad old days o f a century them off. M anhattan (follow ­
ago.
ing London, Paris, and Dubai)
W e alth and in ­ is alive with projects for the
com e for the most ultra-rich — who o f course
privileged among us only live there part-tim e, as
are boom ing once they have so many other homes
again, and th e y ’re to frequent. This upper-crust
p a y in g a s m a lle r housing boom has distorted the
share in taxes. CEO pay has market to the point where many
becom e obscene, production builders have lost interest in
jo b s have been sent abroad or c o n s tru c tin g m id d le c la ss
lost to automation, pensions are dwellings.
rarely guaranteed, health care
Education follow s suit. The
is unaffordable, student debt wealthy pick posh suburbs to
and hom e m ortgages are often raise their kids. Schools there
unpayable, and median family are autom atically segregated,
incom e is sinking like a stone. w ell-funded, and suitable to
One visible sign of the w ar’s train our next generation of
afterm ath is that segregation rulers. Either that, or Junior
— including by class — is on gets sent to private school, also
Baker's point wasn't that more
would die this way, but that this
would allow the U.S. to escalate
the war (which of course would
mean more dying).
Rem em ber that President
Obama's reason for wanting
to attack Syria is to "confront
actions that are violating our
common hum anity." How is it
that support for mass killing
rarely seems to violate our com­
mon humanity if it's that other 96
percent o f hum anity getting
killed, and especially if it's this 4
percent doing it?
Why is the excuse to kill more
people always that others are
being killed, while we never
starve people to prevent them
from starving others or rape
people to protect them from rap­
ing others?
The uncomfortable "60 Min­
utes" interviewer addressed his
remarks to a former CIA officer
who replied by disagreeing. He
claimed to want the war to end.
But how would he end it? By
arming and aiding one side, just
enough and not too much—which
would supposedly result in peace
negotiations, albeit with a risk of
major escalation. While nobody
ever works to extend peace in
order to generate war, people
S wanson
On a recent Sun­
day night on "60
Minutes" John Miller
of CBS News said,
"I've spoken with in­
telligence analysts who have said
an uncomfortable thing that has
a ring of truth, which is: the
longer this war in Syria goes on,
in some sense the better off we
are."
Now, why would that be un­
comfortable, do you suppose?
Could it be because encouraging
huge numbers of violent deaths
of human beings seems socio- I
pathic?
I
The discomfort that M iller at I
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least claims to feel is the gauge I
of our moral progress, I suppose,
I
since June 23,1941, when H any
I
Truman said, "If we see that
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many, and that way let them kill
I N ame : _____________________
as many as possible."
I T elephone :
The next day, Time magazine's
Aryn Baker published an article I
A ddress :
under the h eadline "Syria's I
Rebels Turn on One Another, I
and That's Not a Bad Thing." I o r 'e m a il, subscriptions @portlandobserver.com
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503-288-0033
a healthy grow ing industry.
pay a living w age, if they can
The Great Recession made find work at all.
this disparity of wealth and in­
Could Congress cure all this?
come notably worse by depress­ M aybe if it tried. It could, for
ing tax revenue. Given that the exam ple, raise the m inim um
Pentagon budget is supposedly wage, levy higher taxes on the
sacrosanct, those required bud­ wealthy and corporations, root
get cuts must come from else­ out m ilitary pork, universalize
where.
health care, cap outrageous
W here exactly? Too often, CEO pay, block trade deals
the cuts are made to program s that encourage the export o f
that provide for the most vul­ Am erican jobs, and keep us
n e ra b le A m e ric a n s . F o o d out of new wars.
stamps and housing benefits
But d o n ’t count on our law ­
are on the chopping block. m akers to do any o f those sen­
M eanwhile, the middle class sib le th in g s. T he R o a rin g
plays m usical chairs for an Tw enties are back — seven
ever-shrinking num ber of de­ years early.
cent jobs.
O therW ords colum nist Wil­
This stagnation can ’t keep liam A. Collins is a fo rm e r
pace with our grow ing popula­ s ta te r e p r e s e n ta tiv e a n d
tion, and the leftover workers fo r m e r m a yo r o f N orw alk,
are stuck with jobs that do n ’t Conn.
Murder
are constantly investing in war in ing on whether Obama's secret
the name of peace.
memos say the killings are part
As this man may be very of a war. But why is killing
well aware, arm ing one side in people acceptable in a war?
this war will encourage that We've just watched public pres­
side's viciousness and encour­ sure deny Obama missile strikes
age the other side to arm itself on Syria. Those strikes were
further as well. But suppose it optional. Had they happened
were actually true that you that would have been a choice,
could deescalate a w ar by es­ not an inevitability. What o f the
calating a war. W hy are the immorality involved?
large num ber o f people who
The best news is that we're
would be killed in the process beginning to feel uncomfortable.
unworthy o f consideration?
D avid Swanson's books in­
We've seen lawyers tell Con­ clude War Is A Lie and When
gressional committees that kill­ the World Outlawed War and
ing people with drones is either he
is
s y n d ic a te d
by
murder or perfectly fine, depend- PeaceVoice.
THE LAW OFFICES OF
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C
jJortknih (Ohsertte r
1
■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■ MM I
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd
Portland, Oregon
Portland:
Hillsoboro:
Facsimile:
Email;
(503) 244-2080
(503) 244-2081
(503) 244-2084
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com