Growing up in Suburbia as so often depicted by the TV shows of the times, like Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, and the Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet my childhood years were pretty much sheltered from the harsh realities of the times. The McCarthy Era, The beginning of the Cold War, continued racial conflicts in the South, the ever persistent turmoil in the Mid-East, and all the other atrocities against man and nature was in my realm of reality in a totally different world. The innocence of my youth really started to unfold just after JFK was assassinated. All of a sudden that tragedy triggered all those other events that were being played out to come pouring into my conscious thoughts. When I was 18 the Vietnam War was raging and all my childhood dreams came crashing down around. In college one of my classmates failed to make it past probation, lost his student deferment status, was eventually drafted, sent to Nam and never returned. A harsh reality for my own self preservation took hold.
In the years that followed I had become quite acutely aware that gradual changes were taking hold of American society. If I had to put a finger on the first not so subtle change occurring within America during the early 1970’s it was in public education. To improve on what was already working where the United States ever since the end of World War II our educational system was at the pinnacle of prestige in the global community. Our high schools continually ranked either number one or two in global rankings in math and science. Now, when we tried to improve on what was already working within our public education beginning by 1969 we all know that today what was done hasn’t worked. In fact the United States has fallen so far back in educational standards it’s not only embarrassing but out-right unconscionable that we let this nation loose our supremacy in education. This is the biggest factor in determining when the United States started down that slippery slope that proverbial path toward economic decay.
When our educational standards eroded each subsequent generation since, high school graduation rates have continually fallen so that today,17 of this nations largest cities 50% of high school students never graduate. Compounding this enormous statistic are these facts: more teen pregnancies have occurred, the nations incarceration rates are soaring, there are more single parent families than ever before, more of our children are being placed in foster care or worse in state custody, divorce rates continue to climb and the circle of poverty only continues to grow wider. All as a direct result of decline in our educational system. What has also occurred as a result is that the United States employment opportunities have diminished so far that even those who manage to graduate not only from high school but college are finding it almost impossible to become employed in the areas in which they have trained for and their subsequent education. We have continually forgotten that education relevant to the business world is only as good if there are readily available employment opportunities for all those who have attained a certain degree of proficiency and training to apply that training and education in. Today, we have hundreds of thousands of college graduates that can’t find employment and are stuck with in most cases thousands of dollars of student debt. This also is a major factor in our rise of a nation overwhelmed in poverty.
As in so many other countries where literacy rates are below 50% poverty rates continue to climb, governments are more corrupt, and a greater discrepancy and division of their society is a result. Sound familiar? It should, because that is precisely what has and is happening right here in America today. For over 35 years the United states continues to eradicate the middle class while the wealthy only continues to garnish more wealth while pushing the majority of the population down that slippery slope toward economic deprivation ending in acute poverty. The forward mobility that my father experienced is no longer available not only for me but for many millions of Americans today. As a whole society this nations forward mobility to rise above poverty has all but been squashed by policies, attitudes, and a self serving ideology that has evolved thru the years.
There are other contributing factors to consider that have had a direct influence in the surge of lost opportunities which equate to an increase of poverty right here in America. Our elected officials have for the past 35 years been accomplices with corporate America. The policies, mandates, laws and treaties for the past 35 years have had a direct affect in which the corporate world has garnished billions of profits at the expense of the American worker. We have encouraged foreign corporate investment rather than domestic investment. We have now a political system predicated by wealth where compromise is never an option. We have a corporate climate where achieving the most profit in the quickest amount of time has become the norm. Today, we have leaders of government that are so callous in their behavior where benevolence and compassion for all those less fortunate has yet to surface in the proposals and legislation that is considered to offset the economic crisis this country faces.
Not since the Great Depression has a nation become so destitute. The resolve of unity in purpose that propelled the United States out of the Depression is now where found today. The clouds of anxiety, apprehension and despair hang heavenily over America. The question remains now: How can the United States end this spiraling out of control rise in poverty that is sweeping all over this country and is spreading like wild fire in Europe as well? To really answer that we have to look to history for the answer. When FDR realized that the way to put America back on track in empowering the population in putting America back to work required massive investment in people not corporations or financial institutions. All with saveguards that the Depression would not repeat itslef latter. We all know that some 80 years latter history did repeat itself because some failed to learn from the mistakes of the past. Granted the governments stimulus in 2008 that went directly to those same financial and industrial conglomerates that pushed this country to the edge of an economic abyss did for short term ease our slide down the path of economic decay. But for long term resolution to the greatest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression that stimulus didn’t solve the problem of stemming the tide of rising poverty within America.
What is needed now is complete and total reform of all policies, laws, mandates and treaties that for years have all contributed to this nations social and economic decay. National Economic Reform with it’s ten articles of confederation when implemented will felicitate the economic recovery that is now so elusive. Like that old business analogy “It takes up front funding to make money.” Investment in people and achieving the Williams Theory of Economic Evolution is paramount to any societies economic stability, security and prosperity.