I don't have the figures but a few years ago there was quite a lot of talk about how much greater the divide was between CEO's compensation and that of workers in this country as compared to others. That got quieted down, but it was a big difference. I don't really care who's rich, but I do think it's a shame when a few people at the top of the corporate pyramid have more than they can ever use, while the people sweating at the bottom can't make the bills that come with even a modest home and small family. I also have been very unimpressed with the skills and abilities of some of the biggest earners I've met. Just because you're rich doesn't mean you can't be stupid. For the last few years I've witnessed more idiot decisions being made, which ultimately pretty much sunk the company I've been working for, than I could count. Half the assembly line workers there could have given better advice than the expensive consultants they used to drive a once thriving business right into the toilet. It wouldn't be so bad if they were the only company in this condition, but it seems to be happening all over the place.

Actually, it's probably best not even to get me started on the current state of the business world. But, as much as it's disgusting, I don't think huge changes are in the cards. Too many people still buy the trickle down concept. I don't think that this tax plan is going to fly, though. I've heard that Bush is already saying that it's not really happening. I guess we'll see.

It's when the idea of an income cap resurfaces in the media that the 'powers' panic. And so do a lot of people who, like Pam, don't want their own American Dream limited. (Who does, really?) But what I don't get is why, especially after the ups and downs in the last 23 or so years, the general public isn't demanding a safety net for housing, food, and medical care. Of course we can afford it. It wouldn't eliminate the rich; it might mean that they have slightly less of what they cannot possibly use anyway. Why aren't people demanding the assurance that they won't be living under a bridge after a lifetime of working hard and doing what they're s'posed to do, like the Enron employees? It's the big, bad "W" word. (No, not the bench--Welfare.) The Republicans did such a good PR job with Welfare that all they have to do is call any proposal "Welfare" and it's dead.

I would think anyone proud to be an American would be even more proud to say America is so strong and so good that we assure all our citizens a basic living and medical care. But everyone within their own little group is too worried that "those people" will get something for nothing, and they won't get it also. Maybe it's one of the prices we pay for having a less homogenous society than is the norm in Scandinavia. Or maybe it's something else, like greed and stupidity. Whatever it is, I do not get it.

I hereby nominate lcj to be Larry's economic advisor and I think we all need to go on an investigative trip to Scandinavia next summer to prepare our economic reform platform. <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/wink.gif" width=15 height=15>

Ceashel, I nominate you for press secretary or director of information or speech writer or whoever's in charge of explaining things because your post covers the way things are better than anything I've ever read.

Ceashel, sign me up for the field trip. I agree that there is no reason in a country with as much wealth as ours that anyone should go hungry or not have a safe place to live in. Some of it is the "It must be the other guy's fault" type of thinking many people have been indugling in for awhile.

It's also easy to lose touch with reality when you are earning mega-bucks. Some of the truly wealthy haven't lived paycheck to paycheck for generations, if ever.

Yet, many Americans are among the most generous, even those who have little to give. It's a paradox, fer sure!

Letter to the Editor:

The TV series "60 Minutes-Tuesday Edition" ran a piece this week about how the old "bread lines" (government food handouts) of the depression era are again becoming commonplace across America. They are growing every week as more and more Americans find themselves unable to feed their families even though most are employed. In the piece, they spoke with average working Americans in a small Ohio town, waiting 5 hours for a meal. There were 1,000 people in this food line, for many, their first experience dealing with hunger and needing help.

The economic policies of the current conservative movement are successfully eliminating the middle class. We are moving towards a future where the power elite will control all of the assets, while the rest of us cook their burgers, clean their toilets, and care for their aging parents for $6-$9 bucks an hour. The good jobs that once afforded a middle class are being moved out of the country so that the powerful can profit from the cheap labor, putting more Americans in bread lines. Labor unions are dying, wages are heading south, and as usual the conservative answer to all economic problems is another tax cut for the wealthy, and more cuts to the social safety nets of the poor.

If the above scenario sounds like the future America you want your children to inherit, congratulations, we're now on that track. Just keep voting Republican, and we'll be there in no time. It doesn't have to be this way. We really, truly, could have a fair and just society even with the low tax rates we currently enjoy. This country has PLENTY of resources, if only we distributed them in a manner that places higher priority on human need than on profit. I find it hilarious that when the working poor point out these injustices, the President accuses us of "class warfare." But when the Conservatives enact their obscene economic policies, which are the very definition of class warfare, they try to sell them as "the American way."

Which America do you want to live in? Don't answer that until you or someone you love has stood in the bread line.

I'm hearing a shift in opinions of some people at work who have been Rs; they're starting to be openly critical as they see their own families affected with lost jobs, they're seeing they may be losing children to the war, and beginning to understand what the tax cuts may do to them. I don't know what it will take for the majority, though. Really feeling the effects of all this in another year or two, I guess.<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/frown.gif" width=15 height=15>

This is beginning to sound exactly like the end of Papa Bush's term in office.