Bob Herbert's columns trouble me. And, they trouble me for a good reason -- they remind me of how in so many ways we are not the City on the Hill so much as the slums and warrens and hovels at the bottom. But of the many sayings of Joshua ben Joseph, the one that he often makes me think of is "Whatever you do for the least of these my brothers, you do it to me." So, when Herbert reminds us not of the perils of the middle class but what's happening at the bottom -- the poor, the dispossessed -- we need to frankly listen and pay attention. We can shake it off and say "It's their fault that they are poor, hungry, unemployed, unemployable, disease-ridden, homeless, bankrupt..." but as the poet-twit put it 40 years ago, "Instant Karma is going to get you..."
I've been twisting this problem in my head for a while -- the collapse of the ownership society -- and I frankly had been as guilty as John McCain in not thinking lately or enough about the fate of those who would like to be able to aspire to the middle class, but can't get there from where they are. It's just another part of the whole, and in the United States, since the depression, the poor have been The Other America. However, shit does roll down hill...and you're safe, higher up on the hill, unless you slide down.
Few Americans have noticed, but a tremendous number of hospitals, from Boston to Los Angeles, are in serious, even dire, financial trouble. A survey of 4,500 hospitals by the New York consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal found that more than half were technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency. The current economic downturn, combined with an anticipated surge in patients without health insurance, will only worsen what is already a crisis.
The nation’s financial system was all-but-overwhelmed by the mortgage crisis because none of the nation’s leaders paid serious enough attention to the widespread symptoms of what turned out to be a metastasizing disease. A similar situation exists on a number of important fronts right now: the deteriorating national infrastructure, the woefully inadequate public school system, our self-defeating energy policies, health care. Symptoms of serious trouble are staring us in the face, but no one is mounting an adequate response.
When a new president takes office in January, the temptation will be to delay bold action on these fronts until the overall economic situation improves. That is the kind of mistake (like ignoring the housing and credit bubbles until it was too late or refusing to heed the pre-Katrina warnings in New Orleans) that opens the door to additional crises.
Ultimately, comes the kleptocracy, and chaos. What Herbert points out today, focusing on the health care infrastructure, is that we have an underlying systems problem, not a crisis. The crisis exists because of short-sighted solutions, thirty years of greed, exploitation, and the return of the Robber Barons. He concludes by saying that at no time since World War II have we required a president who can lead on so many fronts.
Ultimately, Ronald Reagan sold snake oil, and George H.W.Bush was right in 1980. Ever since then, we have had a national addiction to...snake oil. Whomever leads going forward has to wean us off snake oil. Yeah, the marginal tax rate needs to go up, probably higher than 39% on income over $250K. Payroll taxes need to go up, in that they need to cover income earned up to $250K. We've been spending like drunken idiots and we need to pay down the debt while at the same time spending money where we need to spend it. Infrastructure, health care, education, basic research (Fruit Flies, I kid you not) and defense. I see a massive jobs program as one possibility.
But, it's easier to call the other guy a Muslim. Kerry's campaign, and Gore's to a similar extent, were about complex solutions to complex problems. "Nuance, and complexity -- fuck, no. We're 'Muricans. Got a problem cuttin' that diamond. Sheetfuck...just get me a bigger fuckin' hammer, Clem."
"Never thought about tomorrow..." We're lost, and I have no confidence that we can find ourselves again. In fact, I'm pretty sure we won't -- that's the reason I'm a defeatist. Jesus isn't the answer; Alan Greenday Greenspan has admitted he's clueless. Joe the Plumber is a fucking idiot. We got lost at some point, and we'll see about tomorrow...
Metaphysically, I expect we're going to end up like Peter Wolf, doing what looks like a wedding in a tent someplace Lost in America. But, Herbert indicates a different fate if we pay attention and take action. Me, I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm having problems seeing how this ultimately works.
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