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CSotD: Living on hay

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Mike Peterson Published: February 19, 2011 1 minute 4 comments

Stuart Carlson not only calls upon the Old Testament concept of the scapegoat, but depicts someone already living on hay, which brings to mind a Joe Hill parody of an old hymn. (Those links provide the lyrics to each)

The issue in Wisconsin, and of public employees generally, is not as simple as either side paints it. For example, there was a time when teacher pay was unconscionably low, and schools sweetened the pot by offering generous health coverage for which teachers did not have to contribute. As the years progressed, pay got better, but there was not generally a concommitant agreement to start paying into their health care. There probably should have been, but there wasn't, and you really can't blame the teachers for not insisting on it. And yet anti-union, pro-business commentators seem to do just that.

It is also true, however, that the calls for sacrifice do not seem to raineth upon both workers and management. The same conservatives who cry out against unfunded mandates that fall upon the states are the ones who insisted on federal tax cuts for the wealthy without, apparently, considering the impact on states and their tax structures.

Or consider the lies and distortions surrounding the estate tax, starting with who it would actually impact. Now, bringing that tax back to its previous level would not erase the deficit, but neither does taking away fringe benefits, laying off workers or shipping jobs overseas.

I don't think every move has to be the One Move That Makes It All Work, but I do think that every move has to reflect a fundamental fairness. Cutting taxes for the wealthy while doing nothing for the working class is not fundamentally fair.

And, by the way, the idea that a CEO who brings home a larger share of his paycheck will be motivated to hire more people is neither good nor bad economic theory. It is simply silly — when did any CEO of a corporation turn back a chunk of his own personal funds for the company to spend like that?

In a functioning democracy, fairness trumps theory anyway. Look, I don't think that scrap metal drives and liberty gardens actually did much to turn the tide in World War II, but they did create a sense that we were all doing something to help, and there is value in that. If you're going to salute "The Greatest Generation," you might bear in mind the sense of fairness that, despite the serious flaws that remained in that age, permeated our national identity.

That sense of fairness is now derided as soft liberal sentiment, and a threat to our nation.

What I find discouraging is the ease with which the demagogues are able to create a false sense of grassroots clamor for moves that are fundamentally unfair to the middleclass while preserving their own privileges. And the ease with which workingclass people accept this as a truly populist movement.

Carlson has it right. And so did Joe Hill. Below are the original hymn and Hill's version.