Mirror, Mirror, On the wall

07/08/2007

Paul Munnis

Over the years I’ve watched money and its influence on people and marveled at the things that I’ve seen. Like the people who hit it big in the Lotto, take the money, and spend it down in a flash with big-time living. Others get the money and want to use it to help other people and find that it’s hard to do that in an effective way. Running a charity that can really make a difference is hard work and money is only part of the equation.

I have watched and listened to workers at the dinner table discussing their job. Their kids are like antennas and they pick up the vibes right away. “Don’t put out nothin ‘ya don’t get paid for,” is the message at some dinner tables. A generation is off to a bad start in terms of a work ethic as a result. Still other kids hear about the strife at the work place and wonder why they must go to a place that seems more like a slaughter house than a place to spend 8-10 hours a day for life. It’s a sentence making school seem as paradise. Kids also pick up attitudes about money from the dinner table too. Without giving more examples I say these are both good and bad attitudes and are garnered from their parents.

When I got to school I read about our system of government. What I came to realize is that there is Capitalism and it is flawed with a component of monopoly and greed. There is Socialism and it is flawed with a component of idleness and inefficiency. Over these two is a shroud of class warfare -- a sort of ying / yang polarization and struggle between rich and poor.

Then I learned about the New Deal and how it came from leaders in America who observed that the best of Capitalism and the best of Socialism could be joined to avoid the Communist revolutions going on in Europe. The New Deal seemed like a good deal. People like Vanderbilt and Rockefeller got the message, “if you want to hang onto your wealth you had better avoid a Communist revolution in America.” They did and they prospered even more.

So it was for most of my life. The New Deal really flowered I felt as the Korean War ended, troops came home and middle class prosperity reined supreme. Dinner table talk was no longer about hopelessness and being downtrodden and was more about education, raises, health care insurance, company benefits, career choices, and over it all was a sense of belonging to the best nation on earth, one that took good care of its people. Companies like IBM advocated respect for the individual, lifetime employment, and a family workplace. Life was good then.

Others thought so too as America was emulated around the world.

Materialism was always a factor in America and religion used the pulpit to tame it. Some felt that getting the almighty dollar was the essence of American life. Many took the money and used it to good effect, saving it, husbanding it, investing it, and making it grow through good stewardship. This added to national prosperity.

Then neo-cons got into power starting with Ronald Reagan and everything changed. Materialism became dominant. Bush advocated the “ownership society,” a society based on grabbing all of the marbles. Labor was blown off as a bunch of dummies that lacked the education to get ahead. Taxes were laid on the middle class that were onerous while the rich were given a lighter burden. Corporations who used to make up more than half of the tax base were suddenly exempted from paying taxes in a tax code too complicated for anyone to figure out. Companies stopped investing in America, farmed out American jobs, and embezzled company funds leaving investors to rot. Workers were treated as disposable napkins as careers ended and benefits were dropped. CEO’s wrote contracts for themselves that amounted to legalized theft of company assets, while corporations squirreled away profits in off-shore bank accounts. Life in America became not so good anymore. We were given a daily dose of fear and told we had to depend upon our government to protect us from the “evil-doers.” It was like something out of an Ann Rand novel.

To me it didn’t seem fair, didn’t seem right, and in fact went against everything I had learned about America. Who were these neo-cons that could treat people this way? They had to be opposed. They had to be knocked out of power. They had to be warned against lest others fall prey to their nonsense.

I had listened to Conservatives before, people like Barry Goldwater, I didn’t sense such malice in their souls, but I did realize that the Cold War was keeping Capitalism’s worst traits in check.

So I became a Democratic Party activist. I still am. I want to bury this rot and bring America back to stability. We need moral, economic and political revitalization. We need to go back to basics. We need to keep the good part of Capitalism and the good part of Socialism while suppressing their evil aspects. With so many well educated college students among us you would think they would get it – yet the “Material Girl” has become their icon and they seek to get jobs through political connections and to become Capitalist success stories. How sad for them for in the process they are selling their souls and their country short. Some reading this essay will sniff: “he has middle-class values.” They are that and they are good values for they have proven themselves over time.

When I opened a computer business I sought to understand what my customers wanted and it was “inventory control systems” -- workers were robbing them blind. Now it’s “supply chain management” – maximizing the distribution of Asian made goods. Businesses want “productivity improvement” in order to eliminate workers. They want “off-shoring,” to eliminate more jobs. To some degree I am in support of this – there are demographic reasons that validate the demand. But another part of me can see the greed being manifested and I don’t like it a bit.

Wal-Mart has set a new ethos and workers are hurting as a result. Maybe there is some justice there but we must change the dynamics for they too are bad for America.

As Bush and the neo-con leadership goes down we will not automatically become a better nation if we don’t get the revitalization of our spirit accomplished. We will be as hollow men and empty suits. Government will reflect us and if we don’t like our government then we need look in the mirror to figure out what to change and where to begin. We will see the enemy and we will come to realize the enemy is us.