Occupy the Schools

I found the Occupy Wall Street movement the most interesting thing about 2011, even though it disappointed me.  It disappointed me because I thought that they would make people aware of the criminal activity in our financial system and the inequality of opportunity that now pervades our society.  Instead, the people who occupied Wall Street and the financial centers of other cities did little more than display a sense of entitlement.

By focusing on the one percent of Americans who have more wealth than the 99 percent of the rest of us, members of the Occupy Wall Street movement failed to convince the rest of us that we need to make profound changes in our financial system and our government in order to restore the equality of opportunity that the authors of the United States Constitution had in mind.  Inequality of income is just a symptom of inequality of opportunity.  Many of us do not have an issue with others having enormous wealth, unless they acquired that wealth by cheating the rest of us.  Occupy Wall Street has said little or nothing about lax enforcement of insider trading laws, and they have said little or nothing about the financial geniuses who rigged the system so that it is harder to tell the difference between investment and speculation.

I thought the Occupy Wall Street movement would try to put pressure on the government to prosecute those who were responsible for the banks having to be bailed out by the government, or at least try to get them fired.  One of my Facebook friends claims that the banks failed because they were forced by the government to give home loans to people who could not pay back the loans.  Neither Occupy Wall Street nor the mass media has addressed this issue.  No one has addressed how the public educational system no longer provides access to opportunity as it once did.  A person who graduates from high school in a wealthy school district has many more college and career opportunities than a person who graduates from high school in a poor school district.  It should not matter whether a person graduates from a rich school or a poor school, but it does.

Occupy Wall Street was correct in protesting on Wall Street instead of protesting at the United States Capitol, because the real power is on Wall Street.  However, it is futile to tell Wall Street that they have too much money and that they should share it with the rest of us.  To bring about change, they need to do much more than complain about how some people have more money than others.  They need to remember that if all of the wealth in America were to be fairly distributed around the world, all Americans would have much less than we do now.  They need to come up with an idea to restructure the tax code so that all schools are equally funded.  If we all receive the same educational opportunities, economic inequalities will be less severe.

Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas

I had a short discussion with a co-worker last week about saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” The conversation got interrupted because we were making phone calls, and had to get on with our work. Some of my friends on Facebook have posted comments along the lines of, “It’s Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays.”

I have not heard anyone complain about anybody saying Merry Christmas for several years. I even forgot myself for a minute, and wished a Jewish person Merry Christmas yesterday. I understand why the controversy arose. Christmas is the most important day on the calendar for most Christians. People who are not Christians may feel as though Christians are trying to force their beliefs on them by saying Merry Christmas. Since Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and New Years Day all arrive close to Christmas, it makes sense to cover them all and not offend anybody by saying Happy Holidays.

“Happy Holidays” sounds so watered down. It just sounds like a person wants to wish others a Merry Christmas in a Politically Correct way. Christians may feel that they are not giving testimony to their faith if they say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Jesus told us not to judge others, but he also said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” (John 14:6) He was trying to tell us that we can’t wander into salvation through any old religion. We need a focus, and Jesus came into the world to be that focus. Without a focus, it is easy for us to be led into darkness through false religion.

Those who object to hearing Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas may need to ask themselves if they announce their faith at times of year other than Christmas. We celebrate that Jesus came into the world at Christmastime. His birth was an expression of God’s love. We need to remember Good Friday and Easter. Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday so that we could have our sins forgiven by believing that he endured the crucifixion for us. His resurrection on Easter Day was his greatest miracle. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection were the reasons for Christ’s birth.

So, if you want to insist on Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, ask yourself if you are witnessing and evangelizing the rest of the year.

Worldwide Income Inequality

I admire the people involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement for bringing attention to some serious flaws in our financial system.  One of those flaws is the fact that many people responsible for our current financial problems have not had to face consequences for rigging the system so that they could bet on its failure.  Our system of investment has moved further away from realistic assessments of the productivity or profitability of an enterprise.

One of my Facebook friends works in banking.  He claims that the housing crisis and the financial collapse that followed were caused by legislation that forced lenders to make loans available to people who could not pay the loans back.  Although they have not used the exact words, he and other Facebook friends have made comments that lead me to believe that they think the people occupying Wall Street are operating under a sense of entitlement.

Income inequality is an important issue to address, but I get the impression from some things I read that some members of the Occupy Wall Street movement need to be reminded that no one owes anyone else a job.  Businesses hire people to do jobs because they think they can make a profit from the work that gets done.  If a worker is paid more than the revenue brought to the business as a result of the work done, that worker will not have a job for very long.  Those who protest income inequality in the United States need to consider income inequality worldwide.  Those who claim to be among the 99% in the United States may be among the 1% worldwide.

For many decades, the citizens of the United States have made up a small fraction of the world’s population, but have consumed the majority of the world’s resources.  We take many things for granted while people around the world do without food, housing and medical care.  Improved communication technology is changing that.  Employers can now find workers around the world who are more skillful and reliable than domestic workers, and will work for much lower wages.  This means more profit for businesses that send office work overseas.  As the Chinese economy grows, more people in China can now afford to buy things that they could not afford in the past, such as beef.  A greater worldwide demand for beef will result in higher prices for beef at supermarkets and restaurants in the United States.

Even if those who occupy Wall Street are successful in reducing income inequality in the United States, addressing income inequality and consumption inequality worldwide will mean that we in America will have much less than we do now.  The Arab Spring may result in even higher gas prices.  We forget that dictators in the Middle East made it convenient for us to extract oil from their countries at low prices.  Democratically elected governments in Egypt and Libya may want their fair share of oil revenues.  Overall, we can expect to become poorer as people in other parts of the world become less poor, especially if we continue to think that someone owes us a job.  We have to have skills or products that we can sell in a global marketplace if we want to maintain our current standard of living.  Advances in communication technology will give us the chance to do that, but will also give a chance to everyone else in the world.

Invest, Don't Protest

The Occupy Wall Street movement is as historical as the movements that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall or the protests at Tiananmen Square, because instead of taking their protests to the United States Capitol, citizens are taking their complaints to the place where decisions about money are made.  They know that our government is unable to help them.  They acknowledge that our elected representatives are puppets of Wall Street.

I ask the people occupying Wall Street to look deeper.  Wall Street is a puppet, too.  Wall Street is merely one component in the Military Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.  President Kennedy also warned us about a monolithic conspiracy.  Taylor Caldwell wrote a novel about an international cabal that controls our lives.  I am now starting to wonder if this vast complex devised a powerful system to control trading and banking that is now out of control. 

If Occupy Wall Street wants to correct the abuses of our financial system, I suggest that they use their organizational skills to get people to pool their money to invest.  Wall Street will not listen to protests in the park.  They will listen to how shareholders vote for board members.  If we want our media to give us real news instead of celebrity gossip, we need to elect enough directors to the boards of media corporations to make that happen.   If we want to make sure that pharmaceutical companies are not sitting on patents for lifesaving drugs, we need to organize with each other to put enough money together to buy enough shares of pharmaceutical companies to elect directors to the board.  If we don’t want a manufacturer to ship jobs overseas, we need to own enough of that company to make them keep the jobs here.

If corporations are our government, getting involved in public life means owning a piece of Corporate America and getting our neighbors to do the same.  We also need to organize boycotts of privately-traded firms if they do harm to the social good.  The boycott of one bus company helped end racial segregation on public transportation throughout the United States.  We can influence policy with how we decide to use the few dollars we have.  Getting more directly involved in the financial world may be the only effective way to uncover and correct the shadowy forces that control our government and our financial system.

"If it weren't for the unions, you'd be working for peanuts!"

I am grateful that I do not have to work on Labor Day, but will get paid for it anyway.  I had to work the Saturday and Sunday before Labor Day this year, but I am grateful for that.  I hear about so many people being out of work lately, that I am grateful to have work.  I am also grateful to have the day off because I predict that by the end of the decade, Labor Day will no longer be a legal holiday.  Labor Day reminds me of other things that I should be grateful for.  In some parts of the world, Labor Day is called Eight Hour Day.  Think of that.  We take for granted so many things that the labor unions negotiated for us, such as not being expected to work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week without being paid time and a half or compensatory time off.

I remember witnessing an argument between my grandfather and one of his friends when I was a kid.  My grandfather's friend had said something about unions being useless or that they had outlived their usefulness.  My grandfather said "If it weren't for the unions, you'd be working for peanuts!"  I remember that when I hear about union-busting legislation in Ohio and Wisconsin.  The unions are almost dead.  Much of it is their own fault.  They allowed themselves to be corrupted, and they did not share a global vision of business with employers.  In many cases, they priced themselves out of markets.  Corporations determined that they could get higher quality work for less money in foreign countries.  Ohio and Wisconsin are probably just the first two cash-strapped state governments to refuse to continue to pay for unaffordable salaries and benefits.

As the unions die, we can all expect to see the benefits they negotiated for their members fade away.  Many of these benefits apply to all of us, not just union members.  The laws of supply and demand will give employers greater negotiating power as unemployment remains high.  We will all be competing with each other for fewer jobs, so employers will hire those of us who will settle for lower pay and fewer benefits.  We can expect to see less paid time off, less coverage for health care insurance and longer workdays and workweeks.  We can expect working conditions to deteriorate.  Laws governing these things will either not be enforced or will be weakened or repealed.

I hope my predictions are wrong.  I would like to have Labor Day as a paid holiday until I retire, and would like my son to be able to take a long weekend when he joins the workforce.  I hope we can remember the power  of collective bargaining, and learn to use it wisely.

Jesus, The Performance Artist

Two different Facebook friends have posted declarations of faith in the last few days, requesting that all of their friends copy and paste the declaration to their Status.  Both of the declarations contained reminders that if we deny Christ in front of men, He will deny us to The Father at The Judgment.  I needed to ask myself why I hesitated to comply with their requests.  It is because I have become leery of reposting anything on Facebook, and I do not want to be responsible for turning anyone away from Christ. 

Many requests to repost information on Facebook turn out to be rumors or hoaxes.  That was not true in this case, as both of my friends accurately paraphrased what Jesus said.  I am concerned about turning anyone away from Christ because I have seen it happen.  Jesus told us not to judge anyone, but my impression has been that many people who call themselves Christians are some of the most judgmental and mean-spirited people around.  I think that many other people share this impression.  People I have known who have been some of the best examples of loving thy neighbor, who were most like the Good Samaritan, have been people who did not even think of themselves as Christians.  Reminding people that they face damnation unless they declare themselves as Christians will probably not motivate people to learn about Jesus Christ.  Jesus said that he came not to condemn the world, but to save it from condemnation.

If we are going to use Facebook and other social media to share the Good News, we must share the good news with those who have not heard it.  They can learn about not hiding their light under a bushel after they get interested and start reading a Bible.  Jesus preached a message of love and hope and the power of faith.  One important thing I learned from reading the Bible is that we do ourselves a larger favor by forgiving others than any favor we do for anyone else when we forgive them.  I learned that we can overcome fear by faith.

Jesus was the ultimate performance artist.  Historians regard the Gospels as historical documents.  The Crucifixion was an historical event, not just a religious event.  Even if we leave aside some of the dogma, such as whether Jesus was born of a virgin, He really did go to the cross to send a message.  He had enough love and enough faith in him to undergo torture and die an extremely painful death so that the rest of us can have a focal point for our faith.  He died so that we can have life more abundantly and so that we can face the afterlife without fear.

Taxation Without Representation

An important principle for us to keep in mind on Independence Day is the idea of taxation without representation.  It was an important reason for the American Revolution.  It is the reason the franchise was expanded to include more than male property owners

Many citizens of the United States today are taxed without representation, but that is at least partly their own fault.  Less than half of the eligible voters in Ohio showed up at the polls to narrowly elect the now unpopular governor, John Kasich.  The government of Minnesota is now shut down because the governor and the legislature cannot agree on a budget.  The Democratic governor wants to raise taxes on state residents with the highest two percent of income, and the Republicans in the legislature refuse to agree to this.  It looks as though the same thing may happen to our national government.

The people who represent us in our state and national governments do not represent all of us.  They certainly represent the wealthiest among us, because the wealthiest among us vote.  They also have the means to fund election campaigns to influence how the rest of us vote.  If the wealthiest among us have a disproportionate share of power, it is because we gave it to them through our apathy. 

This problem goes back many generations.  Many people are apathetic about voting because they do not understand the importance of voting.  They did not adequately learn about civics in school because their parents did not vote for adequate funding for the public schools.  Those parents did not vote for money for the schools because they did not understand that their children must have an adequate education to participate in government effectively.  As a result, we have a population that believes that their votes do not count.  Many of those who do vote are manipulated by politicians who tell them what they want to hear.

If you are a poor working stiff, your incompetent brother-in-law sleeps on your couch.  If you are well-to-do, your incompetent brother-in-law works in your tax shelter business.  If you are wealthy and powerful, your incompetent brother-in-law holds public office so that you can get government contracts and subsidies and so that the tax structure favors your business interests.

We can reverse this situation simply by voting.  This means all of us.  If we simply bothered to learn about the issues and vote for candidates who truly represent our interests, we might be able to choose from more than two parties, and we might be able to field candidates who know something about the United States Constitution and the law.  We might not have to put up with campaign ads that insult our intelligence.  We might be able to keep our government in operation.