From Eisenhower to Warren Buffet (orig. 3/6/2011)

Let's begin with a quiz: Who said, "Unions have a secure place in our industrial life. Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice."

That would be the notorious socialist president Dwight Eisenhower. How times have changed. 

Second question: Let's add up all the cash, stock and property (in other words, the assets) of the 155 million Americans who make up the bottom 50% of the economy. Now let's start from the top adding up the assets of the richest Americans. How many do we need to include before we find the equivalent wealth of those 155 million? Four hundred will do it. That's right, the wealthiest 400 Americans have assets equal to those of 155 million of us! If we work just a little harder, maybe we can get back to the wonderful world of the "robber barons!" Gosh, those were just wonderful times for working people.

The first quiz item is from a column in today's "Washington Post" by the two authors of "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer -- And Turned its Back on the Middle Class." It's a fascinating book I'm just getting into. If interested, here's the Amazon.com link to the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Winner-Take-All-Politics-Washington-Richer---Turned/dp/1416588698/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299436363&sr=8-1

According to the authors: "When Eisenhower spoke, unions were a critical source of political capital for ordinary Americans who lacked substantial financial capital. Indeed, according to a number of political science studies, the effort by unions to get sympathetic voters to the polls was one of the main forces behind the high rates of voter turnout - regardless of income or education levels - in the decades just after World War II."

Here's the link to their column:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030402416.html?nav=hcmoduletmv

The second item is from a speech that filmmaker Michael Moore made to the Wisconsin protesters. I am aware that Moore irritates some people. As the saying goes, however, "You don't take a knife to a gunfight." Those who would do away with unions have come to the fight heavily armed. We can act like Oliver, going up to the headmaster with cup in hand asking, "Please sir, can I have more gruel?" Or, we can get into their faces with those damn irritating facts that blow up their "talking points." Personally, if I'm fighting for the economic life of my family, I'll take Moore over Oliver any day!

Here's a link to what he had to say, called "America is Not Broke!":

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/michael-moore-wisconsin-america-not-b

Some will respond that this is all "class warfare." I'll leave you with 2 quotes from one of the richest men in the country, who has the decency to be upset that his effective tax rate is less than his secretary, Warren Buffet.

1) "Of course it's class warfare, and my class is winning!"

2) "The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on."