From: Hank Roth <pnews@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Sklar: Imagine A Country
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 19:20:21 GMT

<<< via P_news/p.news >>>
From: Philip Feeley <pfeeley@unixg.ubc.ca>
TO: Progressive News & Views (P_news & p.news)
{Transcribed from Z Magazine, November 1992)
 
IMAGINE A COUNTRY
by Holly Sklar
 
	Imagine a country where one out of four children is born into 
poverty while the top 1 percent of families have a net worth 
greater than that of the bottom 90 percent.  The top one half of 
the 1 percent hold over one-fourth of the nation's total private 
wealth. Imagine a country where budget deficits go hand in hand 
with greed surpluses. Where the poor and middle class are told 
to tighten their belts to pay off the debts, high salaries and 
tax breaks of the rich. It's not Mexico. 
 
Imagine a country whose economy, says a leading business 
magazine, grew enough from 1977 to 1989 to "have lifted 
everybody's real income by 10 percent if the gains had been 
distributed evenly.  Instead, the top 1 percent of families -- 
about 1 million in 1989 -- saw their average incomes soar by 80 
percent, while the living standards of most" of their 
countrypeople stagnated or fell.  The top 4 percent of wage 
earners are paid as much as the lower 51 percent. 
 
Imagine a country where the average chief executive officer (CEO) 
of a large corporation earned as much as 42 factory workers in 
1980, 93 factory workers in 1988 and 104 factory workers in 1991. 
It's not Japan.  There, CEOs earn about as much as 18 factory 
workers. 
 
>From 1980 to 1991, CEO compensation leaped 138 percent, after 
inflation.  CEO greed raised enough of an outcry to cause an 
apparent 1991 cut of 7 percent in average salary and bonuses to 
$1.1 million.  But when less visible longterm compensation such 
as stock options are counted, the average CEO's total pay jumped 
by 26 percent to $2.5 million (nearly 5 times the Japanese 
average), not counting the tax-deductible perks unavailable to 
workers. 
 
Imagine a country where average workers' wages have crashed 19 
percent, after inflation, since 1973.  In 1973, before two-income 
families were the majority, median household income was $30,944.  
In 1991, adjusting for inflation, it was $30,126.  Most children 
can't expect to equal their parents' living standards.  Many can 
expect less. 
 
Imagine a country where, according to a leading news magazine, 
"Unemployment stands at 7.6 percent...but more people are 
experiencing distress. A comprehensive tally would include 
workers who are employed well below their skill level, those who 
cannot find more than a part-time job, people earning poverty-
level wages, workers who have been jobless for more than four 
weeks at a time and all those who have grown discouraged and quit 
looking. Last year those distressed workers totaled 36 million, 
or 40 percent of the...labor force...The much touted job gains of 
1980s were, for the most part, low-wage positions earning $250 a 
week or less. More than 25 percent of the...work force now toils 
in this class of job, up from less than 19 percent in 1979. Laid-
off workers who return to the market often must take huge pay 
cuts." 
 It's not Britain.
 
Imagine a country were peopel are working more for less. 
According to a leading business journal, the average work year 
for all people holding jobs is 1,890 hours (1,938 for 
manufacturing), the second highest among industrial nations and 
15 percent higher than it was in the 1950s. The average worker 
has less than 11 paid vacation days (most European countries 
provide 4 to 6 weeks). The average worker has no right to leave, 
paid or unpaid, in the case of the illness, birth or adoption of 
a child. Less than 16 percent of workers are unionized. 
 
Imagine a country where, as the rich got richer, they got even 
stingier. In the 1980s, for all wage groups who itemized 
deductions on their tax returns, the average charitable 
contributions increased by over 9 percent; average contributions 
by those with pretax incomes above $1 million decreased by nearly 
39 percent. 
 
In 1968, the country had a progressive tax with a bottom tax rate 
of 14 percent and a top rate of 75 percent. In 1992, it has three 
rates: 15, 28 and 31. Whether you are middle class or a 
billionaire, you pay almost the same rate. And then the rich get 
more of it back in the form of tax-free interest on the national 
debt---debt incurred, in part, to pay for the tax breaks of the 
rich. The richest 1 percent will owe $43 billion less in federal 
taxes in 1993 than they would have paying at the 1977 rates. 
 
How much is $43 billion? More than the total budgets for AFDC 
(Aid to Families with Dependent Children), Food STamps and Head 
Start plus most of the budget for employment and jobs training. 
The way the budget cutters throw women and children overboard, 
you'd think they were sinking the boat. In fact, AFDC accounted 
for less than 1 percent of federal outlays in 1991 and 2 percent 
of spending by states.
 
Imagine a country with the world's richest economy that has more 
children die before their first birthday than 23 other nations. 
The people of 14 countries have longer life expectancies. It is 
one of only two industrialized countries without national health 
insurance. Studies estimating the number of hungry people in the 
country range from a low of 20.4 million to a high of 42.8 
million. A three-year study in a major city showed that the 
number of emergency room visits by underweight children increased 
by 30 percent after th ecoldest months of the year when poor 
parents face the cruel dilemma of "heat or eat."
 
Imagine a country which is first in military spending among 19 
industrialized countries, but last is spending on houseing, 
social security and welfare. 
 
Imagine a country where one out of every seven people are poor. 
Many of them work. Between 1979 and 1990 the proportion of full-
time, year-round workers paid low wages (below $12,195 in 1990) 
increased by half---to nearly one in every five full-time workers 
overall, one out of four women workers, one out of four Black 
workers, and one out of three Hispanic workers. Three of every 
four low-wage workers were high school graduats. Among young 
full-time workers (18-24), the percent earning low wages jumped 
from 23 percent in 1979 to over 43 percent in 1990. Among young 
women workers, the figure was nearly one in two workers.
 
People are encouraged to see unemployment and poverty as personal 
failures though jobs are so scare that when one company announced 
100 jobs at its new television assembly plant some 20,000 people 
responded. The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage, now 
$4.25 an hour, is 23 percent below its average value during the 
1970s. Federal funding of employment and training programs has 
been cut by more than half since 1981, after adjusting for 
inflation.
 
Imagine a country where corrupt banks are bailed out while 
farmers and unemployed homeowners are foreclosed. Homeownership 
is increasely out of reach for all but the richest. Morgages are 
tax-deductable, not rent. In fiscal year 1990, direct spending on 
federal low income housing assistance programs totaled $18.3 
billion. More than four times as much was spent through the tax 
code in the form of homeowner deductions amounting to some $78.4 
billion. In 1991, about 81 percent of the $37 billion in tax 
benefits from deductible mortgage interest went to the top 20 
percent of households with incomes above $50,000.
 
Imagine a country where corporatins are rewarded with government 
subsidies to move abroad to "free trade zones" where they are 
free to pay workers much less and repress them much more. Where 
they are free of taxes and environmental regulation.  One ad 
financed by the country's agency for international development 
shows a Salvadoran woman in front of a sewing machine.  It tells 
corporations, "You can hire her for 33 cents an hour."
 
Imagine a country where nearly two out of three women with 
children under six work outside the home, but there is no 
national day care (in 1960, 20 percent of women with children 
under six were in the labor force).  Most working mothers work 
full time.  Women earn 74 cents for every dollar men earn; 66 
cents if part-time work is included.  Women don't pay three-
fourths what men pay for their college degrees or three-fourths 
as much to feed their children. 
 
Sixty-two countries have more women legislators.  In the early 
1970s, 99 percent of corporate senior management was male.  Now, 
97 percent of senior management is male.  And, in the words of a 
leading business magazine, "at the same level of management, the 
typical woman's pay is lower than her male colleague's--even when 
she has the exact same qualifications, works just as many years, 
relocates just as often, provides the main financial support for 
her family, takes no time off for personal reasons, and wins the 
same number of promotions to comparable jobs." 
 
Imagine a country which leads the world in rape and where 
violence against women is so epidemic it is their number on 
health risk.  Much of the violence, from beatings to murder,  is 
so-called "domestic violence," a term as inadequate as the 
response.  The country has no equal rights amendment. It's not 
Saudi Arabia. 
 
Imagine a country where descendants of its first inhabitants live 
on reservations stripmined of resources and opportunity.  There 
life expectancy averages in the 40s--not the 70s.  Infant 
mortality is seven times higher than the national average and a 
higher proportion of people live in poverty than any other ethnic 
group. 	Imagine a country where Indian names are used as labels 
for sports teams, cars and beer.  Where a popular children's toy 
catalogue advertises cowboy and Indian gear with lines like "It's 
heap big fun to wear this Indian Brave costume" and "Hunt for 
game and defend your homestead with these Wild West toy 
firearms."  Where 500 years of plunder and lies are masked in 
expressions like "Indian giver."  Where the military still dubs 
enemy territory, "Indian country." 
 
Imagine a country where one out of two Black children are poor.  
Black infant mortality is twice that of whites.  Black life 
expectancy is five years less.  Blacks are turned down for 
mortgages at twice the rate of whites with similar incomes.  
Blacks are rejected more often than whites when they apply for 
benefits under social security disability programs.  Black 
unemployment is three times that of whites.  One out of two Black 
young adults are unemployed.  The proportion of Black males ages 
25-34 who were either unemployed or earned below the poverty 
threshold rose from 36.5 percent in 1979 to 45.3 percent in 1989.  
 
Imagine a country that subsidized decades of segregated 
suburbanization for whites while the inner cities left to Blacks 
became outsider cities--with underclass housing, underclass 
schools, underclass street repair, underclass trash removal, 
underclass job opportunities.  "Separate and unequal" is present, 
not past. 
 
Imagine a country that imprisons more Black men than any other.  
One out of four black men between 20 and 29 are either in jail, 
on probation or on parole.  How many of them are there because of 
trumped up charges by racist cops whose mission apparently is not 
to stop crime but make sure every young Black man, guilty or 
innocent, has a record?  A recent newspaper article is titled, 
"GUILTY...of being black:  Black men say success doesn't save 
them from being suspected, harassed and detained."  A bank CEO 
says he has had trouble cashing checks and hesitates to shop in 
neighboring suburbs where suspicious shopkeepers don't know him.  
A prominent law professor says he has "encounters with police 
almost annually, and they never cease to amaze me.  They 
frequently happen when I am out of uniform--that is, not wearing 
my suit and tie.  They are as innocuous as being pulled over 
because my car looks suspicious, or being stopped and frisked 
because I fit the description of someone who is wanted by 
police."  A professional basketball player was forced to the 
pavement by police with drawn guns who mistook him for a bank 
robber; never mind that he didn't fit the description.  In 
another state, a university recently helped a local police 
dragnet by providing a list of all Black male students. It's not 
South Africa. 
 
Imagine a country where public school budgets are determined 
largely by private property taxes.  In one large state spending 
per pupil ranges from $3,190 in the poorest schools to $11,801 in 
the richest.  In the rich schools, kids take well-stocked 
libraries and computers for granted.  In the poor schools they 
are rationing textbooks and toilet paper.  The rich schools look 
like country clubs--with manicured sports fields, swimming pools 
and tennis courts.  The pool schools look like jails--with 
concrete, metal detectors and grated windows. 
 
Imagine a country where corporations serve students fast food in 
their school lunchrooms and fast news laced with advertising in 
their classrooms.  The country ranks 18th in school-age 
population per teacher. 
 
Imagine a country which has the world's leading homicide rate and 
you can buy a gun in many states more easily than you can 
register to vote.  One out of two homes have guns.  More teenage 
boys die from gunshots than from all natural causes combined.  
Homicide is the second-largest killer of young people ages 15 to 
24, after accidents; AIDS is third. 
 
Imagine a country where children are taught violence through 
entertainment.  Where television is becoming increasingly violent 
and the most violent programs on television are children's 
cartoons.  Toy commercials and music videos ranked fourth and 
fifth.  Numerous private and government studies have shown that 
television violence leads to more aggressive behavior by those 
who watch and contributes to crime and violence in society.  Many 
urban parents keep children indoors as much as possible to 
protect them--indoors where they watch the violence that passes 
for children's programs on TV. It's not Nazi Germany. 
 
Imagine a country where the new Supreme Court motto for those on 
death row is "Better 10 guilty prisoners are executed quickly 
than 1 innocent prisoner goes free." 
 
Imagine a country that puts a far higher portion of its people 
behind bars than any other. It's not China. 
 
The prison population has more than doubled since 1980, a time of 
heavy cutbacks in education, job programs, housing and wages.  
Half the prisoners are drug offenders, many of them small-time 
dealers trying to feed their own habits.  They can't check in to 
the clinics treating the elite.  They can't exchange the $25,000 
or $30,000 it costs the state to keep them in prison for a high 
school or college degree.  Their neighborhoods don't get to use 
it for economic revitalization. 
 
Imagine a country where first-time cocaine dealers can get 
mandatory-minimum sentences of life without parole.  With jails 
overflowing, officials sometimes let violent criminals out to 
make room for nonviolent prisoners with mandatory minimums. It's 
not Turkey. 
 
The same country is number 4 in alcohol consumption and number i1 
in drunk-driving fatalities per capita.  And it is the number 1 
exporter of weapons and addictive, cancer-causing tobacco. 
	Imagine a country that has only 5 percent of the world's 
population, but uses 25 percent of the world's oil resources.  
Only 3 percent of the public's trips is made by public 
transportation.  It has no national conservation policy.  It is 
the number 1 contributor to global warming.  It has felled more 
trees since 1978 than any other country. 
It's not Brazil.
 
Imagine a country spending almost $300 billion a year on the 
military even though the enemy long used to justify it no longer 
exists.  It has no national plan for military-civilian conversion 
though its people need jobs and homes, its schools are in crisis 
and its public works infrastructure is crumbling. 
 
Imagine a country whose congressional representatives earn more 
at $125,000 than 95 percent of their constituents (senators make 
$135,000).  Among their many perks and benefits is free health 
care. 
 
The country is 51 percent female and 49 percent male.  It is 75 
percent non-Hispanic white, 12 percent Black, 9 percent Hispanic, 
3 percent Asian and Pacific Islander (the fastest growing group), 
and 1 percent Indian, Eskimo or Aleut (more if Hispanic Indians 
are included).  In the nation's 102nd Congress, women hold 2 
seats in the 100-member Senate and 6 percent in the House.  Asian 
and Pacific Islanders have two seats in the Senate and 1 percent 
in the House.  There is one Indian member of Congress. 
 
Imagine a country where people stand tall on the backs of others, 
and encourage those they are standing on to look down in anger, 
not up.  The anger is directed into punishing those even worse 
off--taking food from the mouths of poor babies, not higher taxes 
from the bulging wallets of the rich. 
 
Imagine a country where at the national convention renominating 
the President for reelection a White House communications 
directory-turned TV-commentator-turned presidential candidate 
declares than another party's candidates "would impose...abortion 
on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual 
rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat 
units....It is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we 
still call God's country....There is a religious war going on in 
this country.  It is a cultural war."  Delegates wave signs 
saying "Gay Rights Never"--the 1990s version of segregation 
forever.  The speaker's concluding words turn to recent rioting 
in a major city.  He says, "I met the troopers of the 18th 
Cavalry, who had come to save the city...And as those boys took 
back the streets of [that city], block by block, my friends, we 
must take back our cities and take back our culture and take back 
our country." It's not Iran. 
 
Imagine a country where the President's sons repeatedly cash in 
on their family value at taxpayer expense.  They've enriched 
themselves and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in 
banking scandals, Medicare fraud and assorted overt and covert 
scandals. 
 
Imagine a country where numerous officials from the last 
Administration were convicted of crimes and misdemeanors 
including a national security advisor, assistant secretary of 
state and CIA officers. The secretary of defense and two high 
level CIA officials are still under indictment.  Then the 
President and Vice President were never held accountable and the 
Congress let expire the independent counsel legislation which 
make such prosecutions possible. It's not Greece. 
 
Imagine a country where the President's press secretary told 
reporters after a 1984 debate with his then-vice presidential 
opponent:  "You can say anything you  want in a debate, and 80 
million people hear it.  If reporters then document that a 
candidate spoke untruthfully, so what ?  Maybe 200 people read 
it, or 2,000 or 20,000." 
 
Imagine a country where only half the eligible voters cast 
ballots in the 1988 presidential election. Sound familiar?  It's 
the disUnited States. 
 
 
(Philip Feeley, who typed this article from Z Magazine, is one of 
our volunteers providing P_news/p.news with articles from 
progressive *Left* wing sources. You can do the same. Type and 
either post to P_news on Fidonets or p.news on Peacenet (and it 
will be cross-posted) or e-mail your comments or articles to: 
odin@world.std.com....) 
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