A Deadly Return to the Master

      Several years ago, I heard news of a man who had been witnessed stabbing his dog and throwing it into the Houston ship channel.  But the dog did not die.  Instead, it swam back to shore and, wagging its tail, returned to its master.  Whereupon, the master stabbed the dog again--this time fatally--and threw it again into the channel.  The newsman concluded that it was as if the dog had returned to the master, saying "I forgive you.  I know you didn't mean what you did.  I'll give you another chance."  

      Memories of this incident came back to me as I tried to justify Republican supporters in present-day American politics, and to assess the Republican Party's opinion and betrayal of average American voters, 

     During the eight years of the George W. Bush presidency, middle-class Americans and the working poor of all political persuasions were stabbed with frozen incomes, despite incomes rising for wealthy and well-to-do Americans.   Before Obama even thought about being president, unfortunate Americans were being victimized by rising unemployment.  The economic injuries inflicted by Bush's Great Recession took its toll on American workers, and Republicans had--and still have--no reasonable remedy to treat the wounds.  Their solution is always not do whatever President Obama did or would like to do.

     Americans of all political persuasions are hurting because of Republican wounds inflicted during those years.   Still, many of these wounded Americans believe Republicans just made mistakes, that they are sorry for their deeds and will do not do it again.  But Tigers don't shed their stripes, and they don't lose their appetite for deer, just because they failed to catch more than one during the last chase.  The beast waits for another election day, the master, another chance to kill.

      Enters, though, an intelligent young man who talked about the need for a united America, and a need for change to address the injuries an unregulated Wall Street had inflicted on America's workers.  A Republican regulated Wall Street had stabbed the American economy and thrown it into the channel.   Convincing themselves that Republicans and Wall Street, which they failed to regulate, were really not bad people, and that they did not mean to do any harm, the American people bailed out the banks and saved other businesses primed for collapse.   

     But Wall Street stabbed the American economy and American workers again by not hiring and not lending to businesses that would, thus throwing consumers into the channel of hopelessness.

     Last November, the American consumer, of whom were already unemployed said with their votes or with the ballots they did not cast, we know you Republican did not mean to freeze our salaries during the Bush presidency.  We forgive you for not knowing that the housing bubble would eventually burst, causing the values of our homes to decline.  We forgive you for not knowing that if jobs were be lost at an accelerated rate, that eventually the unemployed would include people who needed a check or tow to finance their standard of living.  We forgive you for not realizing that stagnant salaries and reduced incomes would render families unable to both save and to keep up with expenses.  But we forgive you because we know you did not really mean us any harm.   

     Well, the forgiven party has shown its appreciation for the trust the American people have placed in them by stabbing them again by blocking every effort Democrats make to rescue them and treat their economic wounds.

     Republicans are asking, again, for a chance to finish the kill, and many Americans still can't believe that Republicans would mistreat them.  Not all Republicans are misguided.  But most Republicans who are running and winning in recent elections seem to be of a different breed, motivated and financed by a kind of American that are alien to the promises of America.

     Most people don't change in terms of how they vote.  That loyalty has been mostly  because the economic status of most people's did not change, no matter who represented them in government.  And they were certain that the people in business and government were honest people who were busy looking after their best interests, not using unsavory ways to look out for their own.

     But these times are different.  The past ten years have affected Americans as never before.  The 2000 election of George W. Bush could go down in history as ushering in the demise of the greatest, most compassionate and most influential military, financial and creative giant the world has ever known.

      The pope reportedly issued a recent warning to the German people.  Quoting the article: "The Pope spoke for 20 minutes in the Reichstag, which was torched in 1933 in an incident used by Hitler to strengthen his grip on power. 'We Germans know from our own experience' what happens when power is corrupted, Benedict said, desecrating Nazis as a highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss'. "  The American people are in need of such a speech by the Pope.   We think people who desire to be dictators are only in Germany or other countries, never are such people in the United States.

       The Pope's scary words should remind Americans of the reasons they vote--or should vote.  Serious thought must be given to which party members deserve a second chance.  

    

Getting Real about Jobs and Debt on C-span (A Revision)

      The President, the Speaker and the congressional Super Committee need to outline job-creating ideas in detail, including how jobs will be created, how many good jobs they will generate and why it will happen.  If they believe a lower tax rate for businesses will generate jobs, it should be because businesses have promised to do so.  We should know how many jobs businesses promise, and have triggers that will tie the rates of tax relief to rates of hiring.    If businesses have made such promises, there should be a time-frame for hiring to begin.  

     Also, there must be the realization that businesses are not the only ones who need "certainty."  Governments also need certainty, and workers need it because they are also consumers.  Workers should consider how certainty might be increased  by sharing either work time or wages during periods when workers  might otherwise be fired.  This would require that workers save more of their earnings during good times, while keeping their spending under control, so they can manage their financial needs, with the help of those savings, during tough times when either their work time or wages must be shared with fellow workers.

      In this uncompromising political climate, all discussions and decisions about jobs and debt should be made on C-Span, where there is a requirement that each position be justified , explained how it will work, has evidence cited from history when such strategies worked in a similar economic environment and has the corroboration of experts.  The fact that  the Super Committee is six Democrats and six Republicans--and not one member of each party--assumes a diversity of expressed opinions in an environment where members of one party may agree with positions of the other party and party members may disagree with each other..

     Our economy always has been consumer driven,  and some Americans have become wealthy because others spent too much, while saving less than they should have.  People whose salaries for years were stagnated and reduced in buying power were enticed to buy homes they could not afford, and which tough times eventually rendered them unable to keep.

     Those who enriched themselves off the middle class no longer have a thriving middle class that can buy more than it can afford, and continue to promote their prosperity.  These wealth-seekers now seek to punish former spenders--who made them rich--for not having saved enough to finance their own retirement and health care needs.   Many Americans are not only unemployed, underemployed, and underpaid; they are being threatening with denial of access to Social Security, Medicare and pensions, which they have helped fund.  

      But there were no suggestions by politicians, during good times, that the middle class save more so they could finance more of their financial and health-care needs after retirement, and businesses certainly weren't advising consumers to spend less.  Unfortunately, those who have improved their financial conditions by taking advantage of an overspending middle class,--which unwisely sought a way of life their incomes would not afford--now punish their benefactors for doing so.     

     Consumers placed their own future retirements at risk by overspending and enhancing business profits.  But businesses now require "certainty" before they will use part of those profits to return the favor to consumers by providing them with jobs.   But how can there be that kind of certainty when fewer consumers are employed, and more of those who are working are saving more because they fear becoming unemployed.

     Discussions of the Obama's plan must raise relevant questions of businesses,  workers, and government in terms of their responsibilities in the American economy.  Businesses, consumers, governments and workers are a team.  And if they are to be a winning team, they must decide how they best work together to become a winner.  How they will achieve that should be discussed on C-Span.

     Workers have invested in businesses with their time and labor and by consuming their goods and services.  Now it is time for businesses to use part of those profits to invest in workers by hiring.  Businesses are waiting for a kind of certainty that only existed in the past only because there were spending  consumers who were "certain" about their employment.  The business world has always been the main engine of job creation.  Job creation breeds profits, and if the goods and services are worth having, working consumers will pay for them.  

     Unfortunately, large companies are having to choose between hiring more American workers and having lower profits for share holders, or hiring more workers abroad, where the labor is cheaper, and having higher profits for investors.  Which is better is not easily answered because many of those profits help finance workers pensions and supplement their retirement incomes in the form of dividends.  Certainly, some investors are entitled to greater financial benefits than others based on the amounts of money invested.  

     But how should that aspect of wealth-distribution be related to the need for an economy to provide employment for all Americans who want to work?  Can maximum wealth generation and maximum job-creation coexist?  The question, which certainly defies an exact answer is:  what combination of American and foreign employment does most good for all Americans and for capitalism in the American economy.. 

     President Obama must chart out a vision for the future of America, as a place where all American feel secure, have no fear of becoming prey, nor feeling any need to prey on fellow Americans.  It must grow out of realization by government, business and workers how they must cooperate to maximize the efficiency of the American economy.

     He must force Republicans to submit their own vision of America, and let the people decide which vision they prefer so they can elect people they can trust to pursue their preference.  If there is common ground in the visions, that's great; voters, therefore, can decide which candidates they trust more to compromise when compromise necessary.  

     Even as each party makes cases for its own ideological preferences, there must be a recognition that the people on the other side of the ideological divide are also Americans, who think they are right--and might be.

    

Ronald C. Spooner

Email:  rcspoon@earthlink.net

Blog:  ronaldcspooner.blogspot.com