I have long had this instinct that it is the interests of big corporations that determine government policy in the United States.
I don’t claim to know how to fix our educational system. But I have an idea about why it hasn’t been fixed, which I’m sure someone can write up as a cute two-period economic model.
Assume that society is divided into the capitalists and everyone else, and the capitalists make investment decisions for society as a whole. Until 1980, if the capitalists wanted to make more money, they needed to invest in technology, which meant they needed an increasingly educated workforce, and therefore they were willing to invest some of their profits (via taxes and public schools) in education. And, according to Goldin and Katz, from 1930 to 1980 the average educational level of Americans increased by 4.7 years.
But since 1980, and especially since 1990, the world has become more open. If the American capitalists want to make more money, they still have to invest in new technology, and they still need an increasingly educated workforce. But now, because of globalization, they can get that workforce anywhere in the world.
And an appropriate roar from the Volatility blog:
We can reply that we spit upon your lies and your claims to the mantle of America. We can refuse them, reject them and renounce them. They’re not citizens. They’re nothing to us.
Even though we know this is not our government, not our system, not our polity, we can, by the act of articulating our demands, lay bare the fraudulence of this whole usurping bastard system.
Since it’s Labor Day, we can start here: We demand of this government a jobs program. What else is this government good for if it doesn’t coordinate the economy to create sufficient jobs for all? What could capitalism be good for if it doesn’t create living wage jobs for all? What are the corporations good for if they don’t create fulfilling jobs for all? What are the rich good for if all their stolen wealth doesn’t trickle down in the form of real jobs for all?
Today the Earth has been fenced off by thieves, and the produce of our hard work is stolen every day. And now, in accordance with the new feudal war upon us, more and more of us, already almost 20% of the work force, are permanently excluded from even subsistence labor, as the jobs themselves are liquidated.
All this is nothing but crime.
“Democrats are bad enough, but Republicans block anything that will help the American people and this economy at every turn”, says Robert Oak.