We Found the Money—and It's on Wall Street

Octafish

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Fri Mar-04-11 09:14 AM
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We Found the Money—and It's on Wall Street

An idea what's time has come: Make Wall Street Pay.

We Found the Money—and It's on Wall Street

by George Goehl
The Nation

It must be glorious. You crash the economy, get a taxpayer bailout and hand out record bonuses. You poll less favorably than Congress and have every reason to be on defense, but instead you are consolidating economic power and expanding your already overwhelming political might. You then insert politicians of your choice in office, and they unleash a fierce attack on working families, going directly for the last barrier standing between you and total triumph--organized workers. And you have the pleasure of watching your masterpiece unfold from a yacht or country club, martini in hand. A Hollywood scriptwriter would have trouble dreaming up such an outlandish tale, but this is a true story, concocted in lower Manhattan.

In this insecure moment for most Americans, conservatives have forcefully advanced a narrative that names government as the problem. But when we look into the heart of the crisis we find massive and unaccountable corporations driving wages down and health insurance costs up, shipping jobs overseas and failing to contribute their fair share in taxes. Government is not the problem but rather the prize, and right now it sits in a trophy case on Wall Street.

In the Populist Moment, Lawrence Goodwyn’s landmark account of the American agrarian revolt in the late nineteenth century, he describes tipping points when masses of people gain a sense of “collective self-confidence.” He explains how this growing collective certainty allows movement members to experience a “new plateau of social possibility.” Though it would be a far stretch to say we’ve reached this point in the United States today, the incredible show of force and spirit taking place in Wisconsin (as well as in the Arab world) has awakened a sense that we can transform our politics—if we move from fingers on a keyboard to feet in the street. So, as we defend the people’s bottom line, we need to be clear that behind every Scott Walker or John Boehner are corporate elites pulling the strings. And while we have an obligation to directly challenge politicians, we also must do more than rhetorically challenge the corporate executives running the show.

We need to get to the root of the issue of budgets—we’re facing a revenue crisis. There is simply not enough money in our cities and states to support the investments needed to rebuild the American middle class. The good news is this: we know where the money is. And though politicians might tell you differently, it’s not in Grandma’s pension. It’s not in the homes of families fighting off foreclosure. And it’s not in the pockets of American schoolchildren or schoolteachers. It’s on Wall Street.

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/03-4

Money for Power. Power for Money. Repeat ad infinitum.