[Peace] Response to Martire talk yesterday

[David Green]

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-04-28/want-fix-state-budget-heres-how-says-one-expert.html Ralph Martire offers a sound analysis of how Illinois has historically beggared its General Fund, which effects education, human services, etc. Nothing much different than I've heard before, but that's fine. He affirms that we are a rich state, and can well afford to support these programs. He probably understands how the rich have gotten to be so rich, and the poor so poor. Nevertheless, his proposals don't incorporate that awareness in terms of taxing the rich (income and or wealth), or a financial transactions tax.  He's mistaken, in my view, in his emphasis on education for social mobility. We should fund schools much better and more equally for many reasons, but not because education is the "only hope" for poor children. If that's the case, then they have no hope. We need living wages and full employment, period. Regarding pensions, I asked him about just having a transfer (social security type) system for government employee retirement; he dismissed that as impractical, and he's probably right. But the fundamental point is that we have a pension system sucking money out of the real economy and into Wall Street--including Rauner's private equity wealth; the whole public/private pension model that we've been sold for the past 40 years is for the benefit of the 1%, and it only adds to systemic risk, as we can now clearly see. If we need to have a public pension system apart from social security, we need to invest that money in a state bank where it can be invested for the public good, not used in hedge fund/private equity Ponzi schemes. Martire has a clear and sound understanding of state budgetary issues; unfortunately, he doesn't recognize or acknowledge that we have ruthless top-down class warfare on our hands, and it can be fought at the state as well as national level. Even his modest, practical proposals are ignored by most Democratic Party politicians, notwithstanding Carol Ammons' support. I'm not sure how much longer we can ignore the need for a fundamental and honest analysis, however "impractical," as well as a political party that straightforwardly represents that analysis. David Green
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