From Web writer to popcorn-sweeper-upper–that’s how Barbara Card Atkinson, an underemployed California mother, tells of her fall in the modern American economy. And, oh, yes, there’s a school library angle, too, in her Salon piece, alas:
In my 8-year-old daughter’s backpack last night was a notice from the school’s volunteer committee asking parents to help teach art this year. The committee is new, formed to bridge the gap left by the extreme budget cuts made by our town this spring. Included in the cuts were art education, both enrichment and remedial instruction, and all counseling services, as well as drastically reduced time spent in the gymnasium, at the computers, and in the library.
Meanwhile the poverty rate here in the States is growing. Time for more efficient ways of spreading the books around? We can’t afford not to use technology to make our schools and libraries more efficient and effective. Moreover, isn’t it time to think of new business models–whether in librarydom or elsewhere? And yet, as shown by the ISO item below, the greedsters are trying to take us backwards.
Yes, there are broader political implications. I won’t get into elections and the like, but I will point you to a perspective that more and more Americans will acquire if our well-bought pols don’t wake up from their comas.
Update, 2:30 p.m., Sept. 27: I’ve just run across some relevant tidbits on page 60 of Forbes’ October 6 issue. The Fed Reserve compared the total personal wealth of Americans with the sum of the wealth of members of the the Forbes 400 list. Results? The 400’s percentage of the total rose from 1.6 percent in 1989 to 2.3 percent in 2001.
So much for all this babble on CNBC about America being a capitalistic democracy with a fair chance for all. I’m still a capitalist, remarkably, but it’s no small challenge–given all the thievery that Washington permitted and probably still does.
Companies such as AOL Time Warner did a great job of playing Robin Hood in reverse, and even now Steve Case is doing quite well, thank you, with $610 million to his name and a rank of 393 on the list, despite all the questionable happenings at the company among his former subordinates, none likely to see the inside of a jail soon.
During The Boom, Mr. Case was selling stock to “diversify” and assuring us that it was all routine. I’d love to know if Ms. Atkinson and spouse entrusted the AOL crowd with retirement money.
(Salon piece spotted via J.D. Lasica.)
