When it comes to the gap between the rich and poor, we’ve all heard the numbers. The richest one percent of US households own 34.3% of the nation’s wealth. In 2006, according to Forbes, the top 20 private equity & hedge fund managers took in $657.5 million, 22,255 times the pay of the average US worker. CEOs earn roughly 364 times the average full and part-time worker. But who’s counting anyway?
Tonight on GRITtv we examine why wealth matters with Chuck Collins, Director of the Program on Inequality & the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, Dorian Warren a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Maureen Lane, Co-Director of the Welfare Rights Initiative and a fellow of the Drum Major Institute. And an unexpected guest: Phil T. Rich, a member of Billionaires for Bush and the newly minted organization, Lobbyists for McCain. He tells us why trickle down economics works…as long as you’re patient. A hostile takeover of GRITtv’s studio? Find out here.
Also in this hour, an interview with Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times, one of the few reporters who still covers workplace issues for the mainstream press. His new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker is a recent Progressive Book Club selection, described as a manifesto for change. In this interview Greenhouse discusses why American-style capitalism is out of control and what can be done to create a fair and equitable system for workers.
Finally, an interview with singer/songerwriter Morley. She has been dubbed the Nina Simone of her age. She writes songs of protest but also possibility. Today on GRITtv she discusses her new album SEEN, what it means to be a subject in your own life, and how protest music can be a force for change.
Also in this episode of GRITtv: A tax loophole for yacht owners in California? Find out why the Courage Campaign thinks it’s a bad idea. And the War on Greed, starring Larry the Loophole.
Excellent show! I think you have one of the best, if not THE best show on the scene now.
Re American v. European capitalism, Michael Albert wrote a great book some years ago titled, appropriately enough, Capitalism v. Capitalism which elaborates the points Mr, Greenhouse made. The question was raised as to how we got here. I would like to suggest the following (written awhile ago for a local newspaper)
Fifty years ago people built schools and hospitals for the public good; today we build malls and casinos. Fifty years ago business subsidized educational and healthcare institutions with taxes and contributions; today the public subsidizes business with tax credits and subsidies. Fifty years ago people empathized with those less well off and set up “safety nets” for the poor and elderly knowing that we and our progeny would/could all be there one day; today we empathize with the rich and set up tax shelters and rebates for corporations fantasizing that we will be there one day. Fifty years ago people built and fostered businesses that actually made things and paid “living wages” so that one person with one job could support a family: today we foster businesses that buy and sell things made far away and pay wages such that two people need several jobs to get by.
To add insult to injury, not only are we abandoning all those institutions built by the public for the public that have served us so well, but we are actively dismantling them as we substitute and subsidize institutions built by private interests for private interest while plaintively (pathetically?) crossing our fingers that our subsidies (”incentives”) will result in a “trickle down” of public crumbs from the private table. Fifty years ago we, the public, were builders, today we are beggars. About the only ideas we have preserved from 50 years ago are an acceptance of pollution and of weapons of mass destruction as the price of “progress” and “freedom”.
In short we will promote an economic philosophy that benefits those we identify with and the MSM and Madison Avenue have spent the last 50 years convincing us to identify with the rich. Once we understand that we are much closer to the poor than we are currently really willing to admit, we will fix things again as we did (over) 50 years ago. Until then, things will keep getting worse under the American brand of cowboy capitalism.
By Aquifer on June 27th, 2008 at 12:17 pm