Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly…
—T. S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton" (1943)
If the root of all evil is money, the root of all good is education. Our stubborn recession is the result of greed on the one hand, and ignorance on the other.
We know we're being misled by those in charge, who game the various systems to their own advantage. But how many can understand the problem of diced derivatives, subprime mortgages, housing bubbles, securities rating systems, junk bonds, debt defaults and trillion-dollar deficits?
It's not so much that Americans are poor (though many are), but how large the gap has grown. Our country's now financially divided far more than any other Western democracy, easily seen every day on television, architecturally symbolized by our gated communities on the one side and overcrowded (mostly with young black men) prisons on the other — over 7 million in jail or on parole, the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Much of this has happened because Republicans have foisted a false idea of freedom with an equally false idea of socialism on the American public. Fueled by enormous amounts of lobbyists' cash and counting on our ignorance, they tried to block, and did weaken, three major bills — extending unemployment uninsurance (the last thing we should be cutting to save money!), the estate tax and the new financial oversight bill — all of which are necessary if we're to pull out of this recession. They do this by claiming the poor won't work if they get unemployment insurance, the rich won't work if they have to pay estate taxes, and the inventive will stop inventing if financial restrictions pass — none of which has ever been even remotely true. The Republicans don't care; basically, they're betting that stalling any Obama accomplishment will help them get reelected.
While we enjoy watching sports, we should remind ourselves how dependent these skills are on regulation: without rules, sports would be chaos. Somehow, we haven't applied this lesson to our finances and government. Of course we need to give people space to do their stuff, but when we see clear problems, we need rules to fix them. And the main rule should be transparency, so people can see it and understand it.
We, as individuals and a country, need to know what we have, what we make, what we buy and what we owe. What's Halliburton's role in the oil fiasco, and who checks them? What exactly is our military budget, and why can't we cut it? What's the Pope's role in the Catholic sex scandal, and who checks him? What was General McChrystal's role in the Pat Tillman coverup, etc? One can play any sport with imagination and bravery, but strict and clear rules are necessary or the game's corrupted.
The key is education; we need to get smarter. James Surowiecki, in a recent New Yorker, suggested that public schools require a course in basic Financial Ed, parallel to and at least as important as Drivers Ed. Good idea. Let's start early: Get out those piggy banks. Preferably glass ones so we can count the pennies.
It says something about these times that Jeanne went out the other day to buy a piggy bank to draw for this column — and couldn't find one. So she decided instead to draw "Old Possum" — a nickname given to Eliot (who was a banker in his youth) by poet Ezra Pound, whose ignorance in money matters led him to the insane ward at Washington D.C.'s St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding" (1944)
—St. Petersburg Poet Laureate Peter Meinke will be teaching and reading at the Anhinga Writers' Studio Summer Workshops in Gainesville, July 28-31.
This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2010.