Why Our Record Inequality?

 Financial FAQs

“Why are we the only developed country without universal health care, tuition free public college, mandated paid vacations and paid child leave, among other benefits, all major indicators of social well-being? We should not need a Michael Moore documentary, such as his latest Where To Invade Next, to tell us what we either no longer provide to our citizens or that cost more?” H Green/Huffington Post

CIA World Factbook

I first wrote a version of this column in 2016, on seeing what I consider to be Michael Moore’s best documentary, Where to Invade Next, a portrait of what other countries have taken from us that we no longer provide for our own citizens, a better standard of living

Nobelist Robert Shiller lamented this fact in a recent New York Times Upshot column. "Economic inequality is already a concern, but it could become a nightmare in the decades ahead, and I fear that we are not well equipped to deal with it."

In fact, the latest CIA World Factbook statistics have told Americans for years that we have a very unequal society; in fact the greatest income inequality in the developed world.

The US is ranked 102nd in the Gini inequality index of 145 countries that the CIA measures for income distribution. Only China of major countries is lower. Even Russia has less income inequality.

And it is this statistic that best highlights the social benefits that all Americans no longer enjoy. For instance, US residents going to public colleges and universities paid no tuition until the 1970s, making a university education prohibitively expensive. 

Another measure that helps to smooth out income inequality is an adequate national minimum wage, which is still $7.25 per hour in many states that did not enact a higher minimum wage of their own, whereas Australia’s national minimum wage, a country with similar demographics, is $16 per hour for a full time working adult.

Why aren't we equipped to deal with it? Dr. Shiller and even Angus Deaton co-discoverer with wife Ann Case of the exploding drug and suicide rates of non-college educated white adults, commenting on what he called the "grotesque expansions in inequality of the past 30 years," gave a pessimistic prediction: "Those who are doing well will organize to protect what they have, including in ways that benefit them at the expense of the majority."

And that has happened since the 1970s and the dominance of free market, so-called Laissez Faire ideologies that strove to cut taxes and government regulations for the sole purpose of protecting the wealth “at the expense of the majority” which has resulted in the election of Donald Trump twice.

Yet we do know how to level the playing field. We should reenact the labor laws of earlier years that allowed collective bargaining and disallowed the right to work laws in 25 states where a mass exodus from unions occurred with the loss of manufacturing jobs that paid higher wages and salaries. Then raise the income tax rate that prevailed before President Reagan succeeded in lowering taxes of the wealthiest 70 percent of Americans.

We could also pass real universal health coverage that all other countries enjoy. It would lower health costs--maybe to what it is in other developed countries, which is 50 percent less than Americans currently pay.

So, we do know how to enact economic programs that create a more equal society. European countries have succeeded via higher tax rates but provide many more services and at much cheaper costs than so-called private enterprise.

Private enterprise has been allowed to decimate the public good to such a degree that the CIA World Factbook showed an unpleasant fact; we are in danger of becoming a developing country in the company of other Third World, developed countries once again.

And because of it, the CIA announced this year the Trump administration is no longer allowing its publication, in a vain attempt to hide the damage over the last 30 years that such income inequality has done to our democracy.

Harlan Green © 2026

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

Why Did Michael Moore Invade Those Countries In Film, "Where Do We Invade Next?"

The answer is so simple, and sad.  Mr. Moore’s latest eye-opening documentary, “Where To Invade Next?” visits countries that have learned from, and adopted our laws and policies, policies that no longer exist in the U.S. of A.; such as tuition-free public colleges (Slovenia), prison systems that rehabilitate rather than punish (Norway), where drug use is not a crime (Portugal), and 8 weeks paid vacation is the law (Italy).

His film shows America on the way to becoming a Third World country, somewhat lost in the last century and falling behind other developed countries and many developing countries, in caring for our citizens.

Perhaps the most moving segment was that on women’s rights. We who were not able to pass the Equal Rights Amendment that prevented discrimination against women in the 1970s, were imitated in countries like Iceland with the first democratically elected President in 1980, and where women’s rights are enshrined in their constitution (Tunisia, a Muslim country).

For some reason, beginning in the 1970s, these countries began to give more rights to their citizens, while America, the world’s oldest democracy, took them away.  Germany has enshrined collective bargaining in their corporations, where 50 percent of the governing board has to be made up of its employees, whereas many states in the U.S. have either banned collective bargaining, or the paying of dues to support collective bargaining, in 25 right to work states. 

And Icelandic corporations must have at least 40 percent of each gender on their boards, which was made law after 2008 and the collapse of their banking system.  The 3 largest banks all filed for bankruptcy, and some of their all-male executives went to jail, the result of “excessive, testosterone-driven risk taking” said a commentator on their trials.  The result was a mass revolt by Iceland’s women that demanded a greater role in the running of their own country.

Michael Moore interviewed Iceland’s special prosecutor for financial crimes, Olafur Hauksson, who said he had learned his prosecution techniques from Bill Black, a U.S. special prosecutor who had convicted bank executives resulting from our Savings and Loan scandal.  But no U.S. executive has been prosecuted since, much less convicted, for their excessive risk-taking and disregard of financial regulations during the subprime meltdown and Great Recession.

Why have such more modern democracies passed us by?  Moore hints that maybe they have learned from their horrific past of religious and world wars to care better for their citizens.  But the U.S. hasn’t learned from the biggest stain on our democracy—slavery.  We still enslave mostly African Americans in our prisons, thanks to the war on drugs initiated by President Nixon, after President Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act that finally gave Blacks the same rights as other American citizens.

While crime rates have gone down, the number of people incarcerated has gone up in U.S. prisons. According to Human Rights Watch, 2.3 million people were incarcerated as of 2007. The United States has the largest incarceration rate in the world with a staggering 762 per 100,000 residents. Compare this to the U.K. whose rate is 152 per 100,000 residents, or Canada whose rate is 102.

Graph: Policy.mic

So many prisoners create a large workforce. According to truth-out and the Left Business Observer, “the federal prison industry produces 100 percent of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98 percent of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93 percent of paints and paintbrushes; 92 percent of stove assembly; 46 percent of body armor; 36 percent of home appliances; 30 percent of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21 percent of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.”

And why do we no longer have tuition-free public colleges?  It perhaps began when Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966, UC Berkeley was a hotbed of protests, and tuition-free for California residents. 

Governor Reagan didn’t believe such an education should be free for rebellious college students.  His most famous action of that time was the firing of the UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr for not following his orders to ban the student protests. Reagan vowed to “clean up that mess in Berkeley,” warned audiences of “sexual orgies so vile that I cannot describe them to you,” complained that outside agitators were bringing left-wing subversion into the university, and railed against spoiled children of privilege skipping their classes to go to protests, according to Dissent Magazine, describing that time.

            “He cut state funding for higher education, laid the foundations for a shift to a tuition-based funding model, and called in the National Guard to crush student protest, which it did with unprecedented severity. But he was only able to do this because he had already successfully shifted the political debate over the meaning and purpose of public higher education in America.”

California was becoming more conservative, in other words.  Instead of seeing the education of the state’s youth as a patriotic duty and a vital weapon in the Cold War, Reagan cast universities as a problem in and of themselves—“both an expensive welfare program and dangerously close to socialism”. He even argued for the importance of tuition-based funding by suggesting that if students had to pay, they’d value their education too much to protest.

Reagan’s assault against higher education was only the beginning of the neo-cons attack on our educational system.  Their real purpose was an attempt to dumb down the electorate by crippling our public school and university systems.  The fewer that were well educated meant the fewer could challenge the power of those that supported the so-called Reagan Revolution.

So there is a reason our educational system ranks lower than 20 or more countries in the world.  M Moore visited Finland to learn why they are ranked #1 in the world, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), “a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues.”

He interviewed teachers, students, and education officials. They all said their students’ welfare came first, and standardized tests should be abandoned.  They had learned from our educational system that once upon a time allowed more free time for social interaction, little or no homework, when music and art were an important part of our educational curriculum from elementary school onward.

            Perhaps that is the saddest revelation of Michael’s film.  How we have come to undervalue the lives of so many American citizens, including our own women and children.

Harlan Green © 2016

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

Why Did Michael Moore Invade Other Countries?

The answer is so simple, and sad.  Mr. Moore’s latest eye-opening documentary, “Where To Invade Next” visits countries that have learned from, and adopted our laws and policies, policies that no longer exist in the U.S. of A.; such as tuition-free public colleges (Slovenia), prison systems that rehabilitate rather than punish (Norway), where drug use is not a crime (Portugal), and 8 weeks paid vacation is the law (Italy).

His film shows America on the way to becoming a Third World country, somewhat lost in the last century and falling behind other developed countries and many developing countries, in caring for our citizens.

Perhaps the most moving segment was that on women’s rights. We who were not able to pass the Equal Rights Amendment that prevented discrimination against women in the 1970s, were imitated in countries like Iceland with the first democratically elected President in 1980, and where women’s rights are enshrined in their constitution (Tunisia, a Muslim country).

For some reason, beginning in the 1970s, these countries began to give more rights to their citizens, while America, the world’s oldest democracy, took them away.  Germany has enshrined collective bargaining in their corporations, where 50 percent of the governing board has to be made up of its employees, whereas many states in the U.S. have either banned collective bargaining, or the paying of dues to support collective bargaining, in 25 right to work states. 

And Icelandic corporations must have at least 40 percent of each gender on their boards, which was made law after 2008 and the collapse of their banking system.  The 3 largest banks all filed for bankruptcy, and some of their all-male executives went to jail, the result of “excessive, testosterone-driven risk taking” said a commentator on their trials.  The result was a mass revolt by Iceland’s women that demanded a greater role in the running of their own country.

Michael Moore interviewed Iceland’s special prosecutor for financial crimes, Olafur Hauksson, who said he had learned his prosecution techniques from Bill Black, a U.S. special prosecutor who had convicted bank executives resulting from our Savings and Loan scandal.  But no U.S. executive has been prosecuted since, much less convicted, for their excessive risk-taking and disregard of financial regulations during the subprime meltdown and Great Recession.

Why have such more modern democracies passed us by?  Moore hints that maybe they have learned from their horrific past of religious and world wars to care better for their citizens.  But the U.S. hasn’t learned from the biggest stain on our democracy—slavery.  We still enslave mostly African Americans in our prisons, thanks to the war on drugs initiated by President Nixon, after President Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act that finally gave Blacks the same rights as other American citizens.

While crime rates have gone down, the number of people incarcerated has gone up in U.S. prisons. According to Human Rights Watch, 2.3 million people were incarcerated as of 2007. The United States has the largest incarceration rate in the world with a staggering 762 per 100,000 residents. Compare this to the U.K. whose rate is 152 per 100,000 residents, or Canada whose rate is 102.

Graph: Policy.mic

So many prisoners create a large workforce. According to truth-out and the Left Business Observer, “the federal prison industry produces 100 percent of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98 percent of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93 percent of paints and paintbrushes; 92 percent of stove assembly; 46 percent of body armor; 36 percent of home appliances; 30 percent of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21 percent of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.”

And why do we no longer have tuition-free public colleges?  It perhaps began when Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966, UC Berkeley was a hotbed of protests, and tuition-free for California residents. 

Governor Reagan didn’t believe such an education should be free for rebellious college students.  His most infamous action of that time was the firing of the UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr for not following his orders to ban the student protests. Reagan vowed to “clean up that mess in Berkeley,” warned audiences of “sexual orgies so vile that I cannot describe them to you,” complained that outside agitators were bringing left-wing subversion into the university, and railed against spoiled children of privilege skipping their classes to go to protests, according to Dissent Magazine, describing that time.

            “He cut state funding for higher education, laid the foundations for a shift to a tuition-based funding model, and called in the National Guard to crush student protest, which it did with unprecedented severity. But he was only able to do this because he had already successfully shifted the political debate over the meaning and purpose of public higher education in America.”

California was becoming more conservative, in other words.  Instead of seeing the education of the state’s youth as a patriotic duty and a vital weapon in the Cold War, Reagan cast universities as a problem in and of themselves—“both an expensive welfare program and dangerously close to socialism”. He even argued for the importance of tuition-based funding by suggesting that if students had to pay, they’d value their education too much to protest.

Reagan’s assault against higher education was only the beginning of the neo-cons attack on our educational system.  Their real purpose was an attempt to dumb down the electorate by crippling our public school and university systems.  The fewer that were well educated meant the fewer could challenge the power of those that supported the so-called Reagan Revolution.

So there is a reason our educational system ranks lower than 20 or more countries in the world.  M Moore visited Finland to learn why they are ranked #1 in the world, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), “a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues.”

He interviewed teachers, students, and education officials. They all said their students’ welfare came first, and standardized tests should be abandoned.  They had learned from our educational system that once upon a time allowed more free time for social interaction, little or no homework, when music and art were an important part of our educational curriculum from elementary school onward.

            Perhaps that is the saddest revelation of Michael’s film.  How we have come to undervalue the lives of so many American citizens, including our own women and children.

Harlan Green © 2016

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

Republicans’ Dark Side—Their Job Killing Machine

Financial FAQs

As Maureen Dowd just put it in a New York Times Op-ed, the debt ceiling audience has staggered away from a “slasher flick still shuddering…The gory, Gothic melodrama on the Potomac is a summer horror blockbuster—without the catharsis.” The shuddering had to come from the audience facing what Jungians would call their shadow side—the worst, most atavistic part of our nature that we have avoided facing until now.

In this case, it is the rise of the job killers—no compromise Republicans who would rather sink the economy that raise any revenues to pay down the debt. They are being led by the Tea Partiers, a mix of racists, misogynists, birthers—mostly white and less educated—who want to take back America to what it was before the last wave of immigrants reached our shores—maybe 100 years ago?

The result was incredible panic selling as ghoulish whispers of recession echoed through the financial markets. But a double-dip recession? No way, not with corporations holding $2 trillion in excess cash profits, and banks holding $1 trillion in excess reserves. These excesses are the real reason the Fed has held interest rates so low for so long. The Fed is attempting to coax them into doing something with their cash and reserve hoard, rather than hold them in MZM accounts—zero maturity earning almost zero interest rates.

Americans have not had to face the worst elements of our culture for a long time. Although our characterization of Vietnamese as “gooks” in order to make them enemies despicable enough to invade wasn’t so long ago.

The debt ceiling agreement was no catharsis because not enough was done to prevent the S&P downgrade of U.S. Treasury debt to AA+. They could not agree to reduce the deficit roughly $4 trillion, in S&P’s view, to stabilize the deficit by 2015. So S&P has begun to slash AAA ratings here and abroad.

Paul Krugman’s comment on the dark consequences of the European Union also embracing austerity when it should be stimulating growth was “Got that 30s feeling, all the way.” The results of insufficient job creation and growth would be ugly; such as the unrest in Greece cited in an AP report by Krugman.

ATHENS, Greece — They descended by the hundreds -- black-shirted, bat-wielding youths chasing down dark-skinned immigrants through the streets of Athens and beating them senseless in an unprecedented show of force by Greece's far-right extremists. In Greece, alarm is rising that the twin crises of financial meltdown and soaring illegal immigration are creating the conditions for a right-wing rise -- and the Norway massacre on Monday drove authorities to beef up security.

It took FDR, maybe our greatest President, and WWII to pull us out of the Great Depression. Right now, we have no such leadership when we need him or her the most. We happen to have President Obama, who seems to not want to face his own inability to find any villains of the Great Recession. And so the villains are prevailing at the moment.

If only he could face his enemies—which are those who want to tear him down by tearing down the economy. Roosevelt was able to face them down in his famous 1936 Madison Square Garden reelection campaign speech while on crutches and debilitated by polio:

“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”

Obama has failed to recognize the bullying tactics of House Republicans, such as blatantly ruling out any kind of compromise during the debt ceiling negotiations. It was also the Nazi’s main tool of intimidation during their rise in 1930’s Germany, described most recently via U.S. Ambassador William E Dodd’s account, “In the Garden of the Beasts”.

It is even showing up in our schools with the rise of children’s bullying in schools. Is all this pessimism warranted, is the real question, or is it the product of our 24/7 media feeding frenzy that wants to show up any sensational incident or event in its worst light to gain attention?

Alas, it is more than that. It is the steady loss of opportunity and growing income inequality we have allowed to happen over the last 30 years that is the real cause of the rise of our dark side. Michael Moore answers it best in his latest letter to his followers:

“From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?..."It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981.

“Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves. And they've succeeded.”

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

Reagan had been backed by Big Business in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person, said Moore.

The best evidence of Republicans job killing machine is their attack on government spending in the debt ceiling agreement, when government employment has fallen by 946,000 over the past 13 months, according to Barron’s Gene Epstein, while private payrolls have grown by 1.96 million over that time. And their attack has continued in Wisconsin, Indiana, and even Ohio with cuts in public employee benefits. This is when we most need to strengthen our governmental institutions that pay for environmental protection, education, health care, and public safety.

These are not signs of an incipient recession, in other words, but a lack of responsible leadership, as even S&P said in their downgrade announcement. So how do we put the darker side of ‘U.S.’ back into its bottle? The huge stock market losses make it harder for even the no tax, free marketers to deny the results of their work. The free market had spoken, after all, and did not like what it saw.

We can hope the panic subsides and rational thought returns. But it is really up to our leaders to lead again, as President Roosevelt once did.

Harlan Green © 2011