News & Articles

“History,” as the old adage goes, “is written by the winners.” Even though many “winners” are losers as human beings.
For a clear example of this irony, check out the new National Monument to corporate greed created by our Park Service in Chicago. It’s on the site of what had been Pullman, a company town created by the feudalistic, 19th century profiteer, George Pullman. He amassed a fortune as a rail car manufacturer, infamously suppressing the wages of his 5,000 factory workers.
Yet, he considered himself a beneficent employer, having built a 600-acre town for the workforce and vaingloriously naming the new homeplace for himself. It included houses he rented to them, churches, schools, a bank, library, and parks – all owned by his company. Indeed, when officials announced this year that Pullman’s town was becoming an honored part of America’s park system, officials attested to his generosity by hailing it as a place he created “to provide his employees a good life.”
PullmanTown’s workers, however, were less charmed, for he ruled the burg as autocratically as he did his factories. No saloons or “agitators” were allowed, nor did he allow any public speeches, town meetings, independent newspapers, or even open discussions. Resentful residents created a little ditty that summed up the surreal feel of the place: “We are born in a Pullman House, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman schools, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die, we shall go to Pullman hell.”
In 1894, the workers got Pullman’s hell on Earth when he drastically cut their wages, but refused to lower their rent. He had guaranteed a six-percent return to the wealthy investors who financed the town, he explained – and their needs came first.
Now, 120 years later, we taxpayers are financing a monument to this loser’s greed?
“Nearly $8 Million Donated To National Park Foundation In Support Of Pullman National Monument,” www.NationalParks.org, February 19, 2015.

How to lift up America’s middle class

Some days, I get a bad case of “trichotillomania” – an irresistible compulsion to tear out ny hair.
My latest outbreak was triggered by a New York Times opinion piece by Peter Georgescu, the former chairman of the giant PR outfit, Young & Rubicam. He issued a clarion call for his corporate peers to reverse the dangerous widening of income inequality in our country by increasing the paychecks of America’s workaday majority. “We business leaders know what to do,” he wrote, “but do we have the will to do it?”
Apparently, no. But he says he knows just the thing that’ll jar the CEOs into action: Corporate wage-hike subsidies. Yes, he actually wants us taxpayers to give money to bloated, uber-rich corporations so they can pay a dab more to their employees! As Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical you get, it’s hard to keep up.”
First of all, paying to get “good behavior” would reward bad behavior, completely absolving CEOs and wealthy shareholders of their guilt in creating today’s gross inequality. They’re the ones who’ve pushed relentlessly to disempower labor unions, downsize and privatize the workforce, send jobs offshore, defund education and social programs, and otherwise dismantle the framework that once sustained America’s healthy middle class.
Secondly, Georgescu & Company are proposing that working families be reduced to charity cases, lucky to be “given” a dollop of aid by generous bosses. He’s obviously clueless about the deep democratic yearning that has sparked a rising worker rebellion across our country. People are not seeking handouts, but the economic and political power to lift themselves up.
As Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said in response to Gerogescu’s offer of charity: “Strengthen labor laws, and we can have democracy and equality again.”
“How to Help the Middle Class: To The Editor,” The New York Times, August 17, 2015.
“Capitalists, Arise: We Need To Deal With Income Inequality,” The New York Times, August 7, 2015.

Scott Walker cuts higher-ed budget to fund corporate welfare

Meet Scott Walker, corporate whore.
The Wisconsin governor says he should be America’s president because he’s a proven budget whacker who, by gollies, has dressed down teachers, slashed funding for higher education, busted unions, and gone after welfare recipients. He’s the Koch brothers’ favorite because he’s tough on government “moochers” – unless, of course you’re a corporate moocher. If a corporation wants public money… well, then Walker’s your go-to Wisconsin whore.
Wesley Edens could vouch for the governor’s willingness to bestow public favors on big men with big money. Edens is a New York City hedge fund gazillionaire who bought the Milwaukee Bucks pro basketball team last year. Showing the usual ethical perversity that afflicts “private-enterprise” sports owners, this flim-flamming carpetbagger immediately demanded a $250 million subsidy from Wisconsin and Milwaukee taxpayers to build a sparkling new sports palace for him.
Oh golly, Scott squealed with unseemly delight, it will be my exquisite pleasure to ramrod the deal through my Republican legislature for you, and I’ll also schmooze secretly with Democratic officials of Milwaukee County to get them to put out for you! Edens did his part to consummate this back alley affair by doling out ownership shares of his basketball team to prominent Republicans, including Jon Hammes, a developer who just happens to be co-chairman of the national finance committee for Walker’s presidential run.
Sure enough, in mid-August, the beady-eyed governor signed this $250 million giveaway of public money into law. Compounding his sleaziness is the fact that, only one month earlier, Walker had slashed $250 million from the budget of the University of Wisconsin. So, if you’re keeping score on Scott, corporations get the goldmine, students get the shaft.
“Bucks’ Owners Win, at Wisconsin’s Expense,” The New York Times, August 15, 2015.