What Powerful and Greedy Elites Are Hiding When They Scapegoat the Schools

[xchrom]

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/06


Poverty and inequality, not teachers, are the drivers of deficits in education. (Public domain)

Our economy is changing in ways that are alarming. Income inequality and wealth inequality are at their highest point in many decades; some say we are back to the age of the robber barons. Most of the gains in the economy since the great recession of 2008 have benefited the 1 percent, or even the 1 percent of the 1 percent. The middle class is shrinking, and we no longer have the richest middle class in the world. The U.S. has the highest child poverty rate of any of the advanced nations of the world (and, no, I don't count Romania as an advanced nation, having visited that nation, which suffered decades of economic plunder and stagnation under the Communist Ceausescu regime).

Forbes reports that there were 442 billionaires in the U.S. in 2013. Nice for them. Taxes have dropped dramatically for the top 1 percent since the 1970s. But don't call them plutocrats. Call them our "job creators," even though they should be called our "job out-sourcers."

Now what caused these changing conditions? My guess would be that unbridled capitalism generates inequality. Deregulation benefits the few, not the many. People with vast wealth give large sums to political candidates, who when elected, protect the economic interests of their benefactors. Anyone who wants to run for president must raise $1 billion or so. Where do you raise that kind of money? You go to the super-rich, who have the money to fund candidates of both parties, as well as an agenda to keep their money and make more.

A recent paper by Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University concludes: "...economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence. Our results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism." Recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court removing limits on campaign contributions by corporations and individuals reinforce elite control of our political system. The danger signals for democracy are loud and clear.

[randys1]

1. translation: we are fucked

and half the country thinks the resolution is to elect more republicans, which is why i say we need a drastic, hard, painful rebirth and fix, if that many of us are still that stupid, then we dont deserve better

[cyberswede]

2. K&R nt