Appetizer:
Counting Really Small Blessings
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: November 23, 2011
This year I am giving thanks for the Republican presidential debates.
Main course:
The Poor, the Near Poor and You
Published: November 23, 2011
“The worst downturn since the Great Depression is only part of the problem. Before that, living standards were already being eroded by stagnating wages and tax and economic policies that favored the wealthy.
“Conservative politicians and analysts are spouting their usual denial. Gov. Rick Perry and Representative Michele Bachmann have called for taxing the poor and near poor more heavily, on the false grounds that they have been getting a free ride. In fact, low-income workers do pay up, if not in federal income taxes, then in payroll taxes and state and local taxes…
“A study by Martha Bailey, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, showed that the difference in college-graduation rates between the rich and poor has widened by more than 50 percent since the 1990s.
“There is also a growing out-of-sight-out-of-mind problem. A study, by Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford, shows that Americans are increasingly living in areas that are either poor or affluent. The isolation of the prosperous, he said, threatens their support for public schools, parks, mass transit and other investments that benefit broader society.
“The poor do without and the near poor, at best, live from paycheck to paycheck. Most Americans don’t know what that is like, but unless the nation reverses direction, more are going to find out.”
Dessert:
Toles speaks quite well of the immense disparity our populace now faces daily. The long-predicted revolution is still unlikely but more and more people are realizing how they have been shunted to the sidelines by corporate greed and Congressional fealty to the rich.
What passes for dessert in our home is the still available freedom to turn off the seasonal movies and the endless football games. I’ve never been a fan of football or basketball, never will be. I’d sooner watch frost form on Newt Gingrich heart after he’s powered down for the night than watch over-paid professional jocks or their supposed student precursors stage a game around a plethora of commercials for bad beer and other items I neither want nor need.
Dessert also includes the knowledge that I have absolutely no need nor desire to enter a mall, a department store, or a big box store between now and 1 January in 2012.
Therefore, I wish us all a happy thanksgiving and would very much like to see all our troops at home by this time next year.
The actual menu for the day is as follows.
Organic hard cider
Deviled Brussels sprouts with chestnuts
Baked sweet potatoes with butter, cinnamon, ginger, & nutmeg
Roast duck with cranberry pistachio chutney
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
Apple pie with Cabot extra-sharp cheddar.
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