RANDOM LENGTHS - As a people, we Americans seem perpetually obsessed with optimism—the practice of looking forward and not back. We do this instinctively as an expression of a particular kind of exceptionalism that reinforces our own belief that we are unique and not like so many other nations or peoples.
This optimism was expressed in the campaign and election of America's first black president, Barrack Obama, and his refusal to look back or to prosecute the crimes of his predecessor George W. Bush and the corruptions of the War in Iraq. This same kind of “forward-only” vision is what drove our national response to both the economic collapse and the concurrent “crisis in education.”
Lately, I have been reading Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges' bestseller, Empire of Illusion– the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, in which he writes the following observation: “...the study of the classics, because it is not deemed practical or useful in the digitalized world, leaves such vital lessons unexamined.
Hedges focuses on Tacitus' account of the economic meltdown during the reign of Tiberius [the Roman emperor from 14-37A.D.] –a meltdown that included widespread bankruptcies, a collapse of the real estate market, and financial ruin. It is a reminder that we are not unique to history or human behavior. The meltdown during Tiberius' reign was finally halted by massive government spending and intervention that included interest-free loans to citizens.”
With the exception of the “interest free loans,” does any of this sound vaguely familiar? Isn't it odd that the causes and the cure for such monetary malfunctions––which have been repeated over the centuries since 33-34 A.D.––aren’t even brought up by our brightest Chicago School of Economics graduates?
The Romans too must have suffered from the delusion of exceptional optimism. My point here is that humans we have not evolved much in the last 2,000 years and that by failing to utilize a more critical analysis of our history, we are doomed to repeat it!
The economic collapse of our financial system in 2008 created a cascading series of deficits that affects everything from the national budget to the state house, and from city hall to the schoolhouse.
We see the value of everything drop, except for the price of gasoline and the stock prices of certain favored corporations. This subservience to debt and deficit, and the continuous cry from the conservative right wing for balanced budgets is probably more of a threat to our democracy and our national security than all the Al Qaeda attacks ever imagined.
This subservience challenges our core values of liberty, justice and equality for all, especially in the areas of education and our justice system. By de-funding education, we will continue spiraling down this road of ignorance of our own history.
Having access to a laptop computer doesn't mean our children or our leaders will know what critical questions to ask or that the information provided– or controlled via the Internet– will be uncensored by governments here and abroad. Think of China or WikiLeaks in this aspect.
This delusion of always looking forward also avoids the uncomfortable problem of accepting responsibility for their actions or deconstructing our problems from a structural perspective. Evading responsibility is something conservatives pound individuals caught in the cross hairs of the justice system of doing, but often refuse to do collectively themselves. Take for instance the Los Angeles City budget.
The current year was balanced with a hiring freeze and the elimination of 4,900 jobs since 2007. Next year’s fiscal challenge is a $220 million deficit, and the only solutions city hall can think of is either, (A.) reducing more services or (B.) raising taxes.
Both options would seem untenable for getting the city out of its current crisis, which was explained by the City’s Administrative Officer, Miguel Santana at a recent community meeting: It’s only going to get worse as time goes on because this deficit is structural–meaning that it is going to persist for years to come.
What seems to be the problem is the inability of our experts and politicians to think outside of the confines of their own a-historical perspectives. The city has a total budget, including all departments, of $20.644 billion.
This budget is equal to the size of some small states or nations. It also has $10.7 billion invested in just one of its pension funds and real estate holdings of some unknown value and quantities!
Yes, Mr. Santana told me personally the other night that the city doesn't even have a list of all the properties that it owns, what is unused or even what values they hold. Can you imagine this?
Here are three solutions for getting Los Angeles out of its tax or cut conundrum:
1. Transfer more revenues out of the Dept of Water and Power and into the general fund. (It’s the only proprietary department that can do so) or borrow from the other proprietary departments of the Airport or Harbor and pay them back over time. 2. Invest a portion of the city's pension funds into bonds to rebuild city infrastructure like sewers, sidewalks and streets, thereby avoiding raising taxes; 3. Sell off or lease excess real estate held by various departments, and use the proceeds to fill the general fund and pay back either loans or bonds.
Here's another one for good measure, the City Council act on the multiple audits that Controller Wendy Greuel has executed over the past three years that reportedly would save the city a total of $125 million. Cutting services and raising taxes in the midst of a recession is the worst of all solutions when our city, our state, and our nation have the financial resources and assets to spend their way out of a down economic cycle.
Historically, this is the only tried and proven way forward. It's not done by ignoring the past and thinking that this recession is uniquely our own!
(James Preston Allen is the Publisher of Random Lengths News and an occasional contributor to CityWatch. More of Allen and other views and news at randomlengthsnews.com where this column was first posted) –cw
Tags: James Preston Allen, Los Angeles, City Council, history, remembering history
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 25
Pub: Mar 27, 2012