Friday, October 14, 2005
Week 3 Analysis
I found some really great stuff this week. I am glad we are pushed to find ten resources as it forces me to really get creative in my searching. I found a few in particular that I think are helpful to our group. I focused this week entirely on general economic issues such as welfare and the working poor, these topics interest me. If big business (Walmart or whatever) has a seemingly singular focus on itself and if it's CEO's are getting rich at the expense of the rest of us. Then generally those working at big companies in the lower level positions are the working poor. The welfare system is how we have chosen to handle the issue of poverty in the last 50 years or so. These two factors seem to play much into economic poverty in our country. Factor one: big business is out for itself and seeks to have profit go to the top small percentage of those who work at the higher levels. Factor two: welfare is a system that is fairly dehumanizing and does nothing to truly end poverty in our country. Since much of our discussion of evil this week reveals itself in systems that dehumanize. These are two nearly unchecked "systems" which seem to me to be dehumanizing.
This guy I had never heard of named Dr. J. Larry Brown gave an address that I posted called: Poverty and Inequality: Albatross or Opportunity? I found this to be such an interesting article. He says that in the middle of the last century a war on poverty was waged. The problem was that instead of dealing with systematic issues or making the war AGAINST poverty. We, instead, in the U.S. made it a war against THE POOR.
Here is a direct quote from that article, "For a period of time we really were gearing up to fight a war against poverty. But it got way-laid by two factor. One was the Vietnam War that ate up needed resources and distracted our leaders. The other was faulty ideology. Instead of fighting a War on Poverty, we fought what Bill Ryan called a War Against the Poor. Rather than taking steps to see that policies were changed to give poor people true opportunity, and rather than focusing on private and public structural barriers to meaningful participation in our democracy – major outside factors, in other words, that hamper the poor – we instead decided that we needed to change the poor. They needed to be counseled, constrained, educated and dealt with (as if they are children)..."
This article was a revelation for me. We do view the poor as the problem rather than as a result of some larger problem which is systemic in our country. With the statics of those who are poor increasing, we need to start addressing the larger issues in our country that prohibit everyone from resources they need and access to a voice to talk about their disparity of circumstances. We DO treat them as if they are children. We pity them rather than attempting to give them a more just world. This along with the book "Nickle and Dimed," which I recommend reading regardless of this project, really give a human perspective to the injustice of having working poor people in a nation of such enormous wealth. It seems to me that much of the words of the minor prophets which are words from God are dealing with this very issue: hording wealth and flaunting it. We have a system failure not simply people who should work harder. That is startling and therefore maybe should be a focus in our economic policies as a nation.
The second person I found on this issue from the perspective of large investment/big business was financial analyst John C. Bogle. I posted his soon-to-be-released book and two articles from his website. His book is going to be released in November. This is what is said about his upcoming book: "Bogle argues for a return to a governance structure in which owners' capital that has been put at risk is used in their interests rather than in the interests of corporate and financial managers. Given that ownership is now consolidated in the hands of relatively few large mutual and pension funds, the specific reforms Bogle details in this book are essential as well as practical. " His book deals with the soul of capitalism. I found it at first because the title seemed so appropriate. He seems particulary interested in reestablishing small business' which redistribute wealth and financial security. This is in line with my thoughts on some of the previous Walmart statistics. He is a financial analyst who advocates for distribution of wealth and he thinks this will stabilize our economy. If American Capitalism only benefits the rich then we need to do something about it. This seems like a huge sort of structural issue. How can we tackle that from a grass roots kind of thing?
This guy I had never heard of named Dr. J. Larry Brown gave an address that I posted called: Poverty and Inequality: Albatross or Opportunity? I found this to be such an interesting article. He says that in the middle of the last century a war on poverty was waged. The problem was that instead of dealing with systematic issues or making the war AGAINST poverty. We, instead, in the U.S. made it a war against THE POOR.
Here is a direct quote from that article, "For a period of time we really were gearing up to fight a war against poverty. But it got way-laid by two factor. One was the Vietnam War that ate up needed resources and distracted our leaders. The other was faulty ideology. Instead of fighting a War on Poverty, we fought what Bill Ryan called a War Against the Poor. Rather than taking steps to see that policies were changed to give poor people true opportunity, and rather than focusing on private and public structural barriers to meaningful participation in our democracy – major outside factors, in other words, that hamper the poor – we instead decided that we needed to change the poor. They needed to be counseled, constrained, educated and dealt with (as if they are children)..."
This article was a revelation for me. We do view the poor as the problem rather than as a result of some larger problem which is systemic in our country. With the statics of those who are poor increasing, we need to start addressing the larger issues in our country that prohibit everyone from resources they need and access to a voice to talk about their disparity of circumstances. We DO treat them as if they are children. We pity them rather than attempting to give them a more just world. This along with the book "Nickle and Dimed," which I recommend reading regardless of this project, really give a human perspective to the injustice of having working poor people in a nation of such enormous wealth. It seems to me that much of the words of the minor prophets which are words from God are dealing with this very issue: hording wealth and flaunting it. We have a system failure not simply people who should work harder. That is startling and therefore maybe should be a focus in our economic policies as a nation.
The second person I found on this issue from the perspective of large investment/big business was financial analyst John C. Bogle. I posted his soon-to-be-released book and two articles from his website. His book is going to be released in November. This is what is said about his upcoming book: "Bogle argues for a return to a governance structure in which owners' capital that has been put at risk is used in their interests rather than in the interests of corporate and financial managers. Given that ownership is now consolidated in the hands of relatively few large mutual and pension funds, the specific reforms Bogle details in this book are essential as well as practical. " His book deals with the soul of capitalism. I found it at first because the title seemed so appropriate. He seems particulary interested in reestablishing small business' which redistribute wealth and financial security. This is in line with my thoughts on some of the previous Walmart statistics. He is a financial analyst who advocates for distribution of wealth and he thinks this will stabilize our economy. If American Capitalism only benefits the rich then we need to do something about it. This seems like a huge sort of structural issue. How can we tackle that from a grass roots kind of thing?
# posted by ErinW @ 8:45 PM 
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