Conny Ford's Thoughts of the Week

California’s working families face tremendous risk in 2008 – risk of rising health care costs, risk of losing their jobs, their retirement benefits and their homes. The economy is on the brink of a major recession and our state budget faces a $16 billion deficit. Meanwhile, a recent hearing by the US House of Representatives reported that the gross excess of CEO’s pay and corporate profits has been rising for more than a generation. This story bears repeating. In 2006, corporate CEOs were paid more than 364 times what the average worker was paid. In other words, they received in a single day what the average worker needed an entire year to earn. By contrast, the ratio of CEO-to-work pay was “only” 24-to-1 in 1965 and 35-to-1 in 1978. As a comparison, the highest-paid CEOs of European corporations are paid one-third as much as their U.S. counterparts, even though the corporations they run have nearly 50% higher sales volume.

And then, we hear of the recent “bail-out” by the Federal Government to a very large financial institution. Billions, yes with a “b”, of dollars were made in the unregulated, irresponsible “bundling” of our home mortgages. This “new” policy evolved with very little oversight by our government. This is the same government that constantly beats-the-drum of the importance of “shrinking the government” and the importance of keeping the government’s hands out of the private economy. Just today, 3/18/08, it was revealed that the Federal Reserve will bail out the Bear Stearns financial institution by “giving a line of credit” to Morgan Chase, in order to “buy” it. Not too long ago, when the number of personal bankruptcies started to explode, mostly due to unscrupulous credit-card industry tactics, the government’s response was to pass legislation that made it harder for the average Joe or Josephine to file for bankruptcy (the bankruptcy bill passed by Congress in 2005). Where was our “government bail-out”?

Where did this $30 billion to “lend” to Morgan Chase come from? Good question. It came from 2 places: 1) from you and your tax dollars and 2) from countries that we borrow from – Dubai, Qatar, China, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

Oh – and don’t forget, our so-called war against terrorism. We have already spent nearly half a trillion dollars on a country that had not attacked us! This war, that was suppose to be “quick and cheap, not to mention paid for by Iraqi oil, still has 160,000 troops in Iraq, almost 4,000 US military personnel killed, thousands more dramatically hurt and maimed, over one million Iraqis’ dead and no resolution in sight. Senator John McCain says it is all worth it; even if we have to stay for 100 more years. You be the judge.

Something is deeply wrong with what is happening today. I don’t know about you but the only answer that makes any sense to me is for us – you and me - to come together, work together, picket together, march together, vote together. We are the majority. Let’s start showing it.