White Guilt

When you use averages and compare Minnesota with other states, we look pretty good but when you did into the numbers we look pretty bad. Our problem has to do with the widening gap between whites and people of color particularly blacks. When you look at graduation rates, drop-out rates, test scores, income, crime, unemployment, jobs, welfare and housing the gap is embarrassing. Our state like many others has been aware of this worsening problem for many years and attempts have been made from time to time to correct the situation but all have failed. They have failed because most of what is done is just spending more money on the problem. This is what the white people who say they are concerned recommend. This is what some people see as an example of white guilt. This is what people who see the problem but don’t have the time or the knowledge to do anything about it.

How Obama got elected

Recently a number of people have asked me how Obama ever got elected and I was surprised to find out how soon people forget. Obama held a steady lead in the polls over McCain all during the spring and summer leading up to the election in November. Then in August things began to change and on August 29th he selected Palin as his running mate and the polls turned sharply in favor of McCain. By mid-September the McCain-Palin ticket held a firm 5 point lead and the momentum swung in their favor. Then on September 15th the Treasury headed by Paulson and the NY Fed headed by Geithner refused to come to the aid of Lehman Brothers and they filed for bankruptcy and that ended the McCain chances, as the polls reversed the trend and he fell five points behind within a few days. Since then many people have asked why Lehman was allowed to fail but other banks were bailed. Most experts agree that Lehman should have been bailed and the panic that followed could have been avoided. The overnight drop in the market and the concern of other banks which were in trouble, contributed to the downward economic spiral, that ensued. Some conspiracy theorist point out, that Geithner became Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury and imply a connection between that and the election results. That may have happened but Obama likely had nothing to do with it. It could be that the money lenders felt more comfortable with an amateur like Obama vs an Washington insider like McCain. In any event, the presence of Wall Streeters in Obama’s cabinet, are about the same as the Bush Administration and in both cases almost too many to count.

Movies and Blacks

About a year ago I purchased an Apple TV. For those of you not familiar, this is a device that allows me to view youtube on my TV. I did this because of the music. It is not easy to find the kind of music that I like in stores but on youtube there is an abundance of performances from artist like Sarah Vaughn. What I discovered were hundreds of old movies from the 30’s and 40’s. When I was growing up we did not go to that many movies so most of these I have not seen. While watching them I noticed something quite different from today’s movies and this is especially evident in crime films. The criminals are almost always white males but in today’s movies blacks are prominently represented among the bad guys. In looking further I find that blacks when the do appear are as butlers or servant types. Although black crime in the 30’s was much less than today it was still higher on a percentage basis than white crime, so why was it absent in the movies? I believe the answer to that question lies in the way cities were segregated. When I was growing up all of the black people lived in one part of town. They shopped in that part of town, went to school in that part of town and attended church and other social function in that part of town. White people were mostly unaware of what was going on in the black community so to see a black criminal in a movie would be foreign to their perception of the world. Years later when TV came along and we saw the struggles of the blacks we were surprised. Our ignorance had protected us from reality. This was one of the main reasons for the uprisings in the 60’s and how the baby boomers thought their parents were hypocrites. The greatest generation had always told their children to treat people with respect and when these 60’s kids saw the way blacks were treated they felt their parents lied to them. They never stopped to understand that their parents had no idea what was happening. On a very personal level I knew more about blacks than most of my friends because I often went with my Dad on his milk route which was in the black part of town and I knew they struggled economically but I was still unaware of their true plight. Or is all this just a rationalization of bad behavior!

Whistle Blowers

The recent release of classified information by, Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning has brought renewed interest in the Pentagon Papers. Back in the days of the Viet Nam War, then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara order a group of specialist in the Pentagon to write an extensive up to date report on the Viet Nam War. He was concerned about all the false information that the government was putting out and wanted and honest record for posterity. One of the specialist was Daniel Ellsberg and he was so concerned about the lies that the government was disseminating he decided to reveal the truth. Here is the part of which I was not aware. He said he tried many times to get someone in the government to listen to him but no one would. When I first heard about Snowden, I thought he should have gone to the authorities rather than leaving the country. Here is a quote from the Ellsberg interview: . "I wasted years trying to do it through channels, first within the executive branch and then with Congress." "During that time, more than 10,000 Americans died and probably more than a million Vietnamese," Ellsberg says."That was a fruitless effort, as it would have been for Manning and Snowden," he says. Perhaps the only course of action for Snowden was the way he chose. I may have to reconsider my first impressions of Snowden.

Iran Contra

One of the darkest moments of the Reagan Administration is known as the Iran-Contra affair. The US traded arms to Iran for money to be used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua who were fighting the Sandinistas who were backed by the communist. Now it appears we are facing something similar in Libya. The latest story is that the US was funneling weapons from Libya to Syria by way of Turkey. In Reagan’s case it was illegal because congress had passed something called the Boland Act that prohibited such activity. In this case The President said the US would provide humanitarian aid but not weapons so the most he can be guilty of is lying since this was going on when he made those claims. If we ever find out what happen at Benghazi he may be exonerated but perhaps we may never know. Stay tuned!

Disability

One government program that you don’t hear much about is disability under social security. When I was working, I helped people apply for this and it was difficult to qualify. In recent years we have witnessed an upswing in the number of people who are qualifying and this is directly related to the number who are applying. There is a direct correlation between the level of formal education and the number on disability. This is caused by two reasons. First people with less education are more likely to apply and second the income they receive is close to what they earn by working. For example a man with a wife and two children earning $30,000 per year would qualify for $1,100 per month for himself and another $700 for the family. This would be about 75% of his working wages. A man making $100,000 would get a family benefit of $4,000 per month which would be only 50% of his wages. In addition a man who is obese can still work behind a desk but not in a factory where physical labor is involved so an overweighed man with less education will likely qualify. The numbers applying and thus the numbers qualifying have increased rather dramatically since the start of the recession in 2008 and this has helped hold down the unemployment figures but with 11 million now receiving benefits the fund will be depleted in 2016. Just add that to the socials security fund, the Medicare fund and Medicaid as another area where the government is going broke.

Fast Food strike

There are strikes going on around the country this week at Fast Food Restaurants. The employees are demanding a living wage and I am with them all the way. This has been on my mind since the low pay at stores like Wal-Mart was brought to the public’s attention. This is a something that should be on the minds of all working Americans. The basic questions is would you, as a consumer, be willing to pay more to support higher wages. How much more, can be determined with some straight forward calculations. In general the cost in the fast food industry can be broken down into the following three categories: One-third for materials, one- third for expenses and one-third for labor. If a burger cost $3 then one dollar is for labor so if we double the wages from $8 per hour to $16 per hour the burger would cost $4. For most people working full time this would not be a doubling of their salary, since they qualify for government benefits that would be reduced if they earned more. Many of these full time employees, especially the ones with children, receive and extra $10,000 per year from the government in the form of child tax credit and earned income credit. With salaries going to $16 they would likely lose about half of this. I do not often eat out but I am curious as to what would happen if Burger Kind charged $4 and McDonalds charge $3. Would Burger King go out of business? Is there a way to convince all fast food placed to double the salaries? As the owner of a fast food place I would be delighted to increase salaries if I knew my profits would not be adversely affected and if all places raised pay then it would be a wash. The only ones who would be hurt would be the customer. When viewing this from a macro-economic picture be advised that if every business doubled everyone’s salary then the price of everything would increase accordingly.