Economic
Justice
for All
By
David
Krieger
President, Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation
TFF
associate
May 28, 2003
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness That to
secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the
Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and
organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and
Happiness."
These revolutionary words from the Declaration of
Independence are worth reflecting upon in light of the
current struggle for economic justice in America. The
government of the United States, the richest and most
powerful country in the world, is perpetuating economic
injustice within the United States and throughout the
world. While the government seems to have unlimited funds
for missiles and munitions, it is failing to provide
health care, housing or education for large segments of
the US population.
Millions of Americans, including working Americans,
live below the poverty line. There are more than 40
million Americans without health insurance with little or
no access to basic medical care. There are tens of
millions of Americans without homes, and home ownership
is becoming an impossible dream for most young Americans.
The possibilities of a college education are also
receding for young Americans, as the funds provided for
education diminish. The truth is that we have no economic
justice in this country and the situation is growing
rapidly worse under the Bush administration.
State budgets are running in the red, and that means
that their services to the people are diminishing. In
2002, states cut $49 billion in health care, welfare
benefits, education and other public services. They plan
to cut another $25.7 billion in 2003. State budget cuts
this year and last year will be nearly equivalent to the
initial amounts requested by Mr. Bush and allocated by
Congress for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Rather
than help the states in meeting their budgets, and
thereby support the American people, Mr. Bush has
squandered our federal funds on an illegal foreign
war.
In spite of these shortfalls, Mr. Bush pressed for tax
cuts of over $700 billion over a ten year period, tax
relief that would go largely to the wealthiest Americans.
Congress ended up passing tax cuts of $330 billion, less
than half of the Bush request. While some $20 billion
will go back to the states, the bulk of the relief will
benefit the very rich, including Mr. Bush and many in his
cabinet. Most Americans will receive a few hundred
dollars or less, and the poorest Americans will receive
nothing or next to nothing. By contrast, the richest
Americans will receive tens of thousands if not hundreds
of thousands of dollars in tax relief.
This means that those at the top of the economic
pyramid will have more money to contribute to the
candidates of their choice, who in turn will help them to
get a larger share of the economic pie. The rest of us
predictably will get a smaller share of the pie, and
there are far more of us to compete for these
leftovers.
In America, if you are rich, it is very likely that
the president and the Congress will be working for your
interests, by providing tax cuts and other benefits. If
you are poor, who will be representing you in our
democracy? It is not likely to be the present incumbent
of the White House. Nor is it likely to be your member of
Congress, when many in Congress are indebted to corporate
interests.
If you are poor and not well educated in America, you
may be able to work for minimum wage. That will probably
be enough to keep you struggling below the poverty line,
particularly if you have children, and your children will
be forced to join you in poverty. Further, if these
children do not receive a decent education, the cycle
will go on and will likely be perpetuated to their
children.
If you are poor in America and you are young, you may
be able to join the military. We couldn't have a
voluntary military without high levels of poverty. And
without a voluntary military, we couldn't have perpetual
wars because then the politicians and their financial
supporters would have to send their own sons and
daughters to fight. They wouldn't be any more likely to
do this than they would be to volunteer to go themselves
to fight. They far prefer to send your sons and daughters
to kill and die in foreign lands. In actuality, only one
member of Congress had a child fighting in
Iraq.
The war against Iraq is likely to cost the American
taxpayer at least $100 billion and possibly much more.
Those who profit will certainly include the Defense
Contractors, those who provide the munitions and other
material expended in the war. Other profiteers from the
war will be those contracted to rebuild what we have
destroyed in Iraq and, of course, the multinational oil
companies.
Corporate names such as Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old
company, and Bechtel will be among the winners from this
war. Lockheed Martin, Ratheon, the Carlyle Group and
other giant defense contractors will undoubtedly also be
among the winners. The poor and middle class in America,
as well as the people of Iraq, will be among the
losers.
We are now spending some $400 billion a year on our
military forces, not including the special expenditures
for the war in Iraq. This is approximately one-half of
the money that Congress has discretion to allocate each
year. The money that goes to the military cannot go to
social programs that would lead to economic justice in
our country. Money that goes to the military cannot even
defend America as 9/11 demonstrated so
dramatically.
Four hundred billion dollars a year on the military is
over $1.1 billion dollars a day. It works out to $45.5
million per hour, $761,000 per minute. Imagine all of the
important social programs that will go unfunded or
underfunded to pay that $400 billion per year for a
military that cannot defend us.
Some 500 billionaires on this planet, mostly
Americans, have the equivalent assets of half of the
world's population. Three billion people on our planet
live on less that $2 per day. More than one billion
people live on less than $1 dollar per day. Over a
billion people lack access to clean water, and over 2.5
billion people do not have access to basic sanitation.
Millions of people die annually throughout the developing
world due to water-borne diseases and inadequate
sanitation.
On our planet over one billion people are illiterate,
and some 100 million children are denied access to
primary education. For a small portion of what the US
government spends on its military, it could be saving
lives and building friendships by humanitarian assistance
in food, health care, education and sanitation.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has called for
battling against poverty in the war against terrorism.
"We have to go after poverty," he said. "We have to go
after despair. We have to go after
hopelessness."
Of course, Secretary Powell is right about this, but
it isn't what our country has done historically, and
Powell's clarion call will not likely be heard in the
White House. The US remains last among industrialized
countries in the amount of its gross domestic product
that it allocates for international development at 0.11
percent. The US is spending more on its plans to
research, develop and deploy missile defenses ($7.8
billion) than it for its international humanitarian and
development assistance ($7.6 billion). We are not
seriously "going after poverty," as Mr. Powell advised,
but rather going after bombs, wars and missile
shields.
Our failure to make a serious effort to stem poverty
and injustice in the world is leading to resentment,
anger and aggression toward America and innocent
Americans. Pumping large amounts of money into the
military is not an answer to these problems and makes the
situation even less secure for the average American. We
need to change our policies both at home and abroad to
bolster economic and social justice. We need to fund
bread rather than bombs.
If we want economic justice in America, we are going
to have to change our direction. We are going to have to
share the resources of the country with its people, not
only the wealthy few, and also be more generous abroad.
The United States is not meant to be a country "of the
rich, by the rich and for the rich." It is a country, we
are taught, "of the people, by the people, and for the
people." We are the People and, for the good of ourselves
and the world, we had better reclaim our country and
reallocate our resources.
This means a far greater involvement of the people in
our democratic processes. It means throwing out the
politicians of both political parties who serve the
interests of the corporations over the interests of the
People. It means reallocating resources away from the
militarization of America toward meeting the social needs
of the poorest among us and allowing all Americans to
live a better life.
The American dream is being squandered by a small
group of extremist ideologues who are both greedy and
myopic. Let us reclaim our land from these extremists.
Let us strive to be a great country because we care for
each other, particularly the least among us, and for the
world in which we live. The implications of restoring
economic justice are profound. They lie at the heart of
environmental devastation of our planet and the suffering
of large portions of humanity. Economic justice may prove
to be a far more important factor in quelling terrorism
than military force.
We can begin by empowering ourselves to bring about
the changes necessary to achieve economic justice in our
country and in the world. We can start by speaking out
and urging our members of Congress to oppose tax cuts and
instead allocate this money to support health care,
housing and education. Let us also urge our members of
Congress to vote to cut back on obscene military
expenditures and transfer these funds instead to meeting
human needs, in the United States and throughout the
world. The next step should be to work through the
electoral process to replace those political leaders who
remain indebted to corporate interests and committed to
the militarization of America. By taking these steps, by
our engagement, we can move toward restoring dignity and
economic justice at home and abroad.
©
TFF & the author 2003
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