Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo was on the radio last weekend talking about what he called “cultural pollution.” Mr. Tancredo is from Colorado and the district he represents includes Littleton, where the high school shooting took place almost two months ago. His talk on the radio was in support of a piece of legislation that would limit children’s access to movies, video games and television.
Mr. Tancredo’s remarks were aired as the national Republican radio address, a weekly counterpoint to the president’s radio address. The House Republicans, the same group that has joined the National Rifle Association to water down a reasonable gun safety bill, now turns around and blames Hollywood for the recent spate of high school shootings.
Mr. Tancredo called upon Americans to “turn our resolve to cleaning up the cultural pollution that has seeped into our nation.” To give the Republican Party its due, I don’t like the violent crap coming out of Hollywood or on video games any more than they do, but I’m not prepared to start shredding the Constitution to stop it. Aside from the dangerous precedent it would set, I don’t think it would do any good, the problem goes beyond movies and video games.
The disintegration of the American family has less to do with Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Sylvester Stallone and more to do with Lawrence Summers and Alan Greenspan. It’s the economy, stupid – and even though the major economic indicators are breaking records every quarter, if you read into the details of today’s economy, the picture isn’t so bright.
After adjusting for inflation, the median family income between 1973 and 1997 rose by $1,260. That’s it. Twenty-four years and Jane and John America have twelve hundred bucks to show for it. And that’s family income. Chances are, there was one wage earner in 1973, and two, maybe three by 1997. And how many hours did we have to work to get that extra twelve hundred dollars? Well, the average American worked 148 hours more in 1996 than she or he did in 1973. One hundred, forty-eight hours a year. That’s almost four extra weeks at 40 hours a week, but in reality, it was nights and weekends. If you wonder why the family unit is breaking down, there’s a good place to start looking. Children never see their parents anymore and when they do, mom and dad are exhausted and worried about money. The median income for families with children dropped 33 percent between 1973 and 1994. This is a betrayal of the American dream, this generation is not doing better than the one that preceded it, and our children’s prospects are even worse.
To get ahead in today’s world, it’s commonly agreed that you need a college diploma, but college tuition and fees have increased 94 percent since 1989. The cost of going to college has doubled in the last ten years. Is it any wonder high school students are out of their minds with anxiety?
But the economy is booming, inflation is down, unemployment is down, the stock market is up. Where is all the money going? To the rich. The gap between rich and poor in America is growing faster than ever before. In 1980, the average CEO made 42 times as much as the average factory worker. By 1997, the average CEO made 326 times as much as the average factory worker.
People have scratched their heads and wondered why all the recent violence has come from white, middle-class, suburban schools. Could it be that as the middle-class gets stretched, those kids know a few of them will become extraordinarily rich and most will join the ranks of the poor?
Republicans like Tom Tancredo don’t like raising the minimum wage, or aid for the poor, or subsidized health care – but what they may have forgotten is the alternative is revolution, and the opening shots are being fired at a school near you.
Cultural Pollution
Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo was on the radio last weekend talking about what he called “cultural pollution.” Mr. Tancredo is from Colorado and the district he represents includes Littleton, where the high school shooting took place almost two months ago. His talk on the radio was in support of a piece of legislation that would limit children’s access to movies, video games and television.
Mr. Tancredo’s remarks were aired as the national Republican radio address, a weekly counterpoint to the president’s radio address. The House Republicans, the same group that has joined the National Rifle Association to water down a reasonable gun safety bill, now turns around and blames Hollywood for the recent spate of high school shootings.
Mr. Tancredo called upon Americans to “turn our resolve to cleaning up the cultural pollution that has seeped into our nation.” To give the Republican Party its due, I don’t like the violent crap coming out of Hollywood or on video games any more than they do, but I’m not prepared to start shredding the Constitution to stop it. Aside from the dangerous precedent it would set, I don’t think it would do any good, the problem goes beyond movies and video games.
The disintegration of the American family has less to do with Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Sylvester Stallone and more to do with Lawrence Summers and Alan Greenspan. It’s the economy, stupid – and even though the major economic indicators are breaking records every quarter, if you read into the details of today’s economy, the picture isn’t so bright.
After adjusting for inflation, the median family income between 1973 and 1997 rose by $1,260. That’s it. Twenty-four years and Jane and John America have twelve hundred bucks to show for it. And that’s family income. Chances are, there was one wage earner in 1973, and two, maybe three by 1997. And how many hours did we have to work to get that extra twelve hundred dollars? Well, the average American worked 148 hours more in 1996 than she or he did in 1973. One hundred, forty-eight hours a year. That’s almost four extra weeks at 40 hours a week, but in reality, it was nights and weekends. If you wonder why the family unit is breaking down, there’s a good place to start looking. Children never see their parents anymore and when they do, mom and dad are exhausted and worried about money. The median income for families with children dropped 33 percent between 1973 and 1994. This is a betrayal of the American dream, this generation is not doing better than the one that preceded it, and our children’s prospects are even worse.
To get ahead in today’s world, it’s commonly agreed that you need a college diploma, but college tuition and fees have increased 94 percent since 1989. The cost of going to college has doubled in the last ten years. Is it any wonder high school students are out of their minds with anxiety?
But the economy is booming, inflation is down, unemployment is down, the stock market is up. Where is all the money going? To the rich. The gap between rich and poor in America is growing faster than ever before. In 1980, the average CEO made 42 times as much as the average factory worker. By 1997, the average CEO made 326 times as much as the average factory worker.
People have scratched their heads and wondered why all the recent violence has come from white, middle-class, suburban schools. Could it be that as the middle-class gets stretched, those kids know a few of them will become extraordinarily rich and most will join the ranks of the poor?
Republicans like Tom Tancredo don’t like raising the minimum wage, or aid for the poor, or subsidized health care – but what they may have forgotten is the alternative is revolution, and the opening shots are being fired at a school near you.