Egypt needs an ECONOMIC revolution, and the U.S. could learn from its unrest

[Enrique]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/02/13/2011-02-13_time_for_an_economic_revolution.html

Egypt needs an economic revolution - and the United States could learn from its unrest

Since the protests began in Egypt more than two weeks ago, culminating in President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, President Obama has waxed loftily about human freedoms, fair elections and democratic aspirations. But he has said next to nothing about the soul-destroying economic conditions of the Egyptian population.

(...)

Yes, the Egyptians want a more honest, participatory government. But they also want, and perhaps more urgently need, a more just economy, and that is something about which Washington has been nearly silent. Perhaps because rising rates of youth unemployment, poverty and income inequality is a little too close to home, it has been more convenient for our leaders to pretend that the Egyptian revolution is solely about democracy.

The truth: It was a policy of catering to the short-term financial needs of foreign investors and the wealthy internal elite above the long-term ones of citizens that intensified the income inequality gap. The official unemployment rate in Egypt is 9.7%, but similar to the U.S., the figure underestimates underemployment, quality of employment, prospects for employment and a growing youth population with a dismal job future. About 325,000 college graduates enter the job market each year in Egypt. Roughly a quarter of them can't find jobs. Additionally, nearly 20% of the country lives in poverty (compared to 14% in the U.S.). The Global Index Of Income Inequality ranks Egypt as the 90th worst country for inequality.

We must not deny the fact that, economically speaking, the U.S. is on the same planet. Our poverty rate is 14%. In economic inequality, we rank worse than Egypt. Here, 17 million students graduated college last year to the highest unemployment rate since 1970. Last summer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the percentage of unemployed American youth was 48.9%, the highest since they began tracking the figure. And we also have a government that, over many years, has favored the economic elites over the broad base of the people.

(...)

The Mubarak regime underestimated the economic anger of its masses and youth. So did, and do, other leaderships. We must first correct our vision, then support Egypt to fix its mistakes - and, finally, muster the foresight and courage to address our own.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/02/13/2011-02-13_time_for_an_economic_revolution.html#ixzz1DsEbMdJs

[midnight]

1. Wisconsin listening...

[Moostache]

2. When the youth of this nation wake up, there will be hell to pay.

The fact is that they are collectively anesthetized by advertising and the superficial concerns of youth. Beauty products, celebrities, sex, drugs, music and nonsense...I was once a teen and a twenty-something and I was the same way...but I had only 1/2 of the red-hot poker of Reaganomics shoved up my ass, they are facing the entire thing.

Too many college grads without jobs or career prospects (100,000? 500,000? 1,000,000? more?) are facing the very real prospect of no career at all or a permanent state of underemployment, coupled to a $100,000-$200,000 (OR MORE) in accumulated debt. There IS no industry in America that offers a path to a long career.

Even life sciences and biochemistry, (which should be flourishing - with an aging US population and a stalled drug discovery process), is among the fields with increasing job exportation or immense downward salary pressures. India and China are pumping out chemists, biochemists and technicians at a breath-taking rate and even engineers and physicists face the dwindling prospects of domestic careers in the USA. This is a country in terminal decline and hitting the gas instead of the brakes. When we cannot get funding for the consequential and future and are actually arguing about whether or not to 100% divest from our military misadventures instead of freezing the poorest of our own citizens, there is not much hope left.

To all of this misery, we can add banks stealing a generation's worth of investment capital to avoid the consequences of their own actions, total inaction on climate change and laughable investment (relative to the scope of the problem) in renewable energy. When the youth of America - especially the minority youth we get to deal with all of the above AND an added cherry on top of some redneck ass-face looking down on them for their skin tone - then we will have the tinder for the next American Revolution. May they find enough wisdom to locate and conscript the next generation of Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Monroe and Washington, but I will be firmly on the side of the insurgents when it does happen here.

[Catherina]

4. I hope that happens soon. We're sleepwalking to a painful tragedy n/t

[bhikkhu]

3. Self-sufficiency in agricultural production would be a worthy goal

though not an easy one. Egypt produces only half of the food it needs, so is in some form of bondage to the larger industrial food exporting nations. Perhaps all is goodwill now, but no one expects the global trend of price increases to slow, and there is no freedom where one doesn't know where the next meal will come from.

[Catherina]

5. Rec'd n/t