European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday March 16, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Ellen Goodman Only for elections do states flaunt differences one of the Side effects of the primary season is that for a few precious weeks every four years the United states is divided into its 50 parts. We experience a resurgence of states rights a the rights of states to be themselves and different from one another. The South rises again. The rust Belt re emerges. Texans in ten gallon hats Tell the to Folk just How big they think. And candidates talk of Home turf and Neutral ground. Two weeks ago an Illinois party official told a reporter a this Isnit Colorado where people Are looking at mountains and streams every a Florida Campaign manager explained that outsiders done to a understand her state. And assorted people were quoted As describing their state As a unique a a a different and this attack of states ism or regionalism will eventually subside. But not before it raises All sorts of flags. Is geography destiny does where we live still determine How we live and even think or is it Only the local color of our National and personal identities As a native new englander i like a certain accent in my life. While i done to Fialk my Cah in Hahn and Yard a towing yes in Cambridge Are astronomical a the everyday concerns of How i dress warmly and where i spend my Days indoors Are affected by my location on the National weather Chart. My attitude May be equally affected by the economic map gloomy. But increasingly regional identity is like regional cooking. It exists but it is harder to find. It is less Likely to be cooked As daily fare for the natives than As special treats for the tourists. They serve grits in the South and Coffee before dinner in the Midwest but today it is easier to get a a Nugget in Boston than a pot of baked Beans. In the last 50 years America has become both homogenized and subdivided. Walk into any mall and you see the same Brand names. Where there is a Gap there is a uniform America. We have become a mass Market an 800 number a network television show. In a crisis we get the same news at the same time from the same network anchors. We Are expected to respond to the same anthems Star spangled banners and yellow ribbons. But we Are increasingly stratified and clustered in Small a a communities that have no geographic roots at All. The medical a a Community has no Borders nor does the arts a a Community nor the educational americans who move 12 times in an average life May identify More with their professional Peers than their next door neighbors. Those who catch a computer virus May have More in common than people who catch the flu from one another. At the other end of the spectrum America has become a Loose collection of individuals. The Media not Only broadcast but they also a narrow cast to us. The National audience these Days is divided into 100 different Cable channels according to a Hundred different special interests from opera to animals. Advertisers talk More about markets than about cities with names. They pick and choose the right zip codes from coast to coast to create a consumer neighbourhood out of strangers. This restructuring of America from 50 states to hundreds of markets and More a communities of choices is a byproduct of the data collectors. On polls and in graphs we Are increasingly divided by race gender ethnicity education income religion. A fourth generation american May carry More hyphens in his name than his immigrant ancestor. This polarizing process creates a generic american at one end and millions of individuals at the other. But in this shifting terrain the states and the regions have lost much of their meaning in our lives. Our sense of place has no place to go so for a few More weeks we will be hearing the politics of state and the Primacy of Region. But there is less Here than meets the map. Today politics is no More or less rooted than George Bush a Hometown. The Down Home flavor of a presidential election in the 1990s is about As real As Kentucky Fried Chicken. C the Boston Globe 7oo-i6o ser me feel her that pounce has passed ase a Quot William f. Buckley s what a free Market society is All about the congressional budget office has released figures on the accumulation of wealth Between 1977 and 1989. Freeze for a moment on the record of the co which is tendentious by democratic and explore the implications of what it tells a namely that the Rich have gotten much Richer while the poor have made Only exit Nous Progress. Specifically the after tax income of the top 1 percent Rose by 77 percent that of the median income by 4 percent that of the Bottom 40 percent actually declined. The last figure engage too much concern because it fails to take into account such sundries As the value of government subsidies the end of All income taxation and the multiplication of single Parent families., and then the co does mention if fleetingly that the income polarization is not alien to american history. It was so a a graduating spread Between the very richest and the median income earners a in the 18th and 19th centuries. What broke the Back of the Nch was the depression from which they have been climbing or trying to do so Ever since. Another Factor to take into consideration says the co is the extraordinary circumstances of the �?T70s and �?T80s. The High inflation rate of the �?T70s shoved the Stock Market up an average of 16 percent per year and did As much and More for real estate. It was also the 12 years in which spectacular increases were recorded in executive compensation and m the Cash value of general stardom a and 1989 was the Peak of the affluent season Donald Trump was Rich in 1989. Executive tycoons were making 120 times As much As the average worker compared with 35 times As much in the mid-1970s. Baseball players and Rock stars looked Down with pity on Mere corporation executives. An identical examination today would certainly reduce the polarity then too there were the two tax acts 1982 and 1986, which induced men and women who had previously sheltered their assets to bring them out into the open away from Gold and Art and Antiques and tax exempts exposing them to taxation and to the Glare of co technicians. What this suggests is that the Rise is less than it appears to be still it is substantial. And then there is the Factor Seldom noticed of upward mobility. One half of the families in the top 1 percent sector at the beginning of the decade Are still there at the end of the decade. Others move in which is Good to hear about a society that prides itself on Opportunity. Now All of that said let us move to the question of fairness which is the favorite word of vote seeking democratic candidates and of the redistribution St academics. What is fairness Well unless you Are going to take the position that everyone should earn the same thing fairness is going to be arbitrary. One economic moralist writing a decade or so ago said that there should never be a difference of More than six times the compensation Between the richest and the poorest. That formula Rolls tripping by off the Tongue and quiets the Jacobi Nical appetite a until someone raises a hand and says a Why not make that five times a indeed. Why not on the other hand Why not seven times and so on. It is at times like these that it pays to re mind oneself of the postulates of a free society and of a free Market society. With respect to the latter the governing Assumption is that unless there is fraud or extortion involved any Exchange of goods involves a profit to both parties. If Jimmy and Jane elect to pay $100 to hear Michael Jackson sing they have by their reckoning improved their lot. They Are minus $100, but they Are plus an evening with Michael Jackson. The same applies at the dizzy Heights of economic Exchange. The shareholders who authorize a $20 million salary for the services of King q. Midas figure they Are better off with Midas running their affairs than with $20 million to distribute in dividends. They May be fools but that is their problem and one of the reasons Why one half of the very Rich become less than very Rich in the course of a decade. And the Money the very Rich acquire seeks opportunities every Day to aggrandize through investments in stocks or Bonds which Are instruments through which people Are continually exchanging apples for oranges shoes for shirts savings for houses or by buying economic futures that when Lucky pay off. It really does not matter if the top 1 percent s holdings appreciate in value to get there they Are rendering services to those they Deal with according to their lights. And of course the philosophical postulate is manageable in a single sentence. After you have paid your taxes which ought not to be discriminatory what you have left is yours. Not Tom harking a not Bill Clinton a. And what you do with it is your business including your right to spend a crazy night out on the town listening to Michael Jackson. Cj1992 Universal press Syndicate
