News
Sports
Once again we are hearing, this time from Dan Logue, “We need a new commission to combat overregulation,” that old Reagan mantra: “The government is the problem.” Since the “Reagan Revolution,” almost 30 years ago, working American's wages have remained flat.
With fewer regulations, moving jobs overseas to cheaper work forces, automation, and the added efficiencies of computers, the owners of industry have done very well, thank you.
The “trickle down” to Americans never came as we vied for the fewer jobs, lost benefits, and lessened the taxes on the already rich. To make ends meet, we began borrowing.
Wall Street created a “bubble” telling us our homes were worth about twice their real value.
We borrowed more believing our new equity was more than our debit, and just like a ponzi scheme it all eventually fell down leaving many owing more than their equity.
In the midst of all these foreclosures, we witness Wall Street and the banks using our money, in the form of a “bailout,” to line their pockets.
This is where we find ourselves after nearly 30 years of “Reaganomics.” I once heard someone describe the “trickle down” theory as: “If you want to feed the birds, give the horses more oats.” Seems to me that's what we've done. Rather than give a portion of the increased productivity back in the form of living wages, we were sold debt, with interest.
Now, to pull this off in a democratic society, you pretty much have to keep the masses unaware and distracted. So the media keeps us arguing among ourselves.
Still today, we hear calls for fewer regulations, lower taxes, distrust of government and our new leader, Barack Obama, as if these were new, untried solutions.
The reason our schools, social programs and health care are in such bad shape is because we have allowed the top 1 percent in America to amass more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.
Unemployment is not caused as much by over regulation as by a greedy few who have “gamed” the system.
Unless you are among the very rich, Reagan got it wrong. Government is not the problem. It's the greedy self interests, the corporations, the banks, and Wall Street that have made off with the “golden goose.”
Wouldn't it be wiser for us to create a new commission to rein in the corporations, Wall Street, the banks, and what Eisenhower foresaw and warned of — the “military-industrial complex”?
The public needs to become informed and demand controls over the greedy men behind the curtain pulling the levers, rather than arguing among ourselves about local government regulations, Obama, or one another's ideologies.
John Winks lives in Oregon House.
With fewer regulations, moving jobs overseas to cheaper work forces, automation, and the added efficiencies of computers, the owners of industry have done very well, thank you.
The “trickle down” to Americans never came as we vied for the fewer jobs, lost benefits, and lessened the taxes on the already rich. To make ends meet, we began borrowing.
Wall Street created a “bubble” telling us our homes were worth about twice their real value.
We borrowed more believing our new equity was more than our debit, and just like a ponzi scheme it all eventually fell down leaving many owing more than their equity.
In the midst of all these foreclosures, we witness Wall Street and the banks using our money, in the form of a “bailout,” to line their pockets.
This is where we find ourselves after nearly 30 years of “Reaganomics.” I once heard someone describe the “trickle down” theory as: “If you want to feed the birds, give the horses more oats.” Seems to me that's what we've done. Rather than give a portion of the increased productivity back in the form of living wages, we were sold debt, with interest.
Now, to pull this off in a democratic society, you pretty much have to keep the masses unaware and distracted. So the media keeps us arguing among ourselves.
Still today, we hear calls for fewer regulations, lower taxes, distrust of government and our new leader, Barack Obama, as if these were new, untried solutions.
The reason our schools, social programs and health care are in such bad shape is because we have allowed the top 1 percent in America to amass more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.
Unemployment is not caused as much by over regulation as by a greedy few who have “gamed” the system.
Unless you are among the very rich, Reagan got it wrong. Government is not the problem. It's the greedy self interests, the corporations, the banks, and Wall Street that have made off with the “golden goose.”
Wouldn't it be wiser for us to create a new commission to rein in the corporations, Wall Street, the banks, and what Eisenhower foresaw and warned of — the “military-industrial complex”?
The public needs to become informed and demand controls over the greedy men behind the curtain pulling the levers, rather than arguing among ourselves about local government regulations, Obama, or one another's ideologies.
John Winks lives in Oregon House.
