I am writing to you from New Jersey, where approximately 250,000 people work in the financial sector. Many are employed by the most prosperous Wall Street banks hedge funds, and private equity and venture capital firms. Some of them are friends and neighbors in my home town, Montclair, and have over the years helped me understand how high finance actually works.
Job killers they are. Remotely and anonymously, they are arguably destroyers of humans, too--those "deaths of despair" that happen to unimportant people. <cue: "we weren't responsible" "we didn't know" "just doing our job" type excuses after WWII by friendly, respectable neighbors of the victims>
Yesterday (4/25) I commented on Chris Hedges' site regarding his piece on what's happening on campuses; lots of 'likes'. Your account of how workers were treated at Oberlin fits the pattern.
I open with 2 sentences not relevant here. The rest is:
As for Hedges saying..."the heads of these institutions grovel supinely before wealthy donors, corporations" I don't think they're acquiescing at all. I just finished reading //American Oligarchy (The Permanent Political Class)// by Ron Formisano (2017.) A class whom he characterizes as "satisfied to bask in billionaire approval and to mingle with the One Percent." Similarly the heads of academia--except they're not merely basking. Formisano lists the outrageous salaries and perks these people receive plus the large slush funds they distribute to allies, calls it "Wall Street level compensation at academic institutions," and notes that "a report from the Institute of Policy Studies found that from 2005-2012, student debt and the number of low-paid faculty rose fastest at the 25 universities with the highest compensated presidents."
This egregious academic elite is quite cognisant whence the butter on its bread. To them, this sort of unrest is merely by ingrates, privileged students biting the hand that feeds them. And of course the declasse', the uneducated American majority, deserve nothing but crumbs.
Template for education of, by, and for perpetuation of oligarchy.
Great analysis on this issue. Corporations are destroying our country from so many different angles. We need to go back to the old days of prosecuting this illegal activity.
The laws are still there but aren't being enforced. Seeing the non-compete change is a nice win.
But as citizens, we need to rally around this issue and join together in our efforts to hold corporate America accountable and reclaim a government that represents our needs and not that of their corporate donors.
Thank you Les as you continue to document the collapse of the Anglo-American Empire. We are starting to see the end, where all this is leading. Ukraine and Gaza are giving us a preview. Also see my own book on how we have arrived here:
Job killers they are. Remotely and anonymously, they are arguably destroyers of humans, too--those "deaths of despair" that happen to unimportant people. <cue: "we weren't responsible" "we didn't know" "just doing our job" type excuses after WWII by friendly, respectable neighbors of the victims>
Yesterday (4/25) I commented on Chris Hedges' site regarding his piece on what's happening on campuses; lots of 'likes'. Your account of how workers were treated at Oberlin fits the pattern.
I open with 2 sentences not relevant here. The rest is:
As for Hedges saying..."the heads of these institutions grovel supinely before wealthy donors, corporations" I don't think they're acquiescing at all. I just finished reading //American Oligarchy (The Permanent Political Class)// by Ron Formisano (2017.) A class whom he characterizes as "satisfied to bask in billionaire approval and to mingle with the One Percent." Similarly the heads of academia--except they're not merely basking. Formisano lists the outrageous salaries and perks these people receive plus the large slush funds they distribute to allies, calls it "Wall Street level compensation at academic institutions," and notes that "a report from the Institute of Policy Studies found that from 2005-2012, student debt and the number of low-paid faculty rose fastest at the 25 universities with the highest compensated presidents."
This egregious academic elite is quite cognisant whence the butter on its bread. To them, this sort of unrest is merely by ingrates, privileged students biting the hand that feeds them. And of course the declasse', the uneducated American majority, deserve nothing but crumbs.
Template for education of, by, and for perpetuation of oligarchy.
Great analysis on this issue. Corporations are destroying our country from so many different angles. We need to go back to the old days of prosecuting this illegal activity.
The laws are still there but aren't being enforced. Seeing the non-compete change is a nice win.
But as citizens, we need to rally around this issue and join together in our efforts to hold corporate America accountable and reclaim a government that represents our needs and not that of their corporate donors.
Thank you Les as you continue to document the collapse of the Anglo-American Empire. We are starting to see the end, where all this is leading. Ukraine and Gaza are giving us a preview. Also see my own book on how we have arrived here:
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Country-Then-Richard-Cook/dp/1949762858