Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Watching President Barack Obama’s eulogy for the 29 coal miners killed in the methane gas explosion at the Upper Big Branch of Massey Energy Company's Montcoal W. V. operation, one was most `forcibly reminded of the callousness with which the operators had disregarded citations for hundreds of violations (thousands, over several years), by fighting them in court. Secondly, though, this watcher remembered the cautious manner in which Mine Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agony officials discussed their findings and inability to act on them. "The people hate us, we hurt their ability to make a living" admitted an EPA man, reluctantly. Coal mining has been since 1890 fraught with strife between unions and owners. In 1950 some 130,000 miners brought out 160 million tons of coal, by using the ancient method of tunneling into mountains and manually bringing out the black rock treasure. As time went on, coal became scarcer, and open pit mining, then strip mining, then blasting off mountaintops with explosives became the more economic procedures used. Technology became prevalent, the cost of labor was shrunk, and in 2000 some 20,000 miners brought out 180 million tons of coal, with the aid of huge machines that follow seams, extract and transport the coal by almost fully automated trolleys through a huge network of tunnels and elevators, with sensors throughout the route detecting the methane gas and other dangers, and ventilators and air shafts to remove them. The miners, now technicians, earn around $70K/yr, with health benefits, rivaling union pay, with no checkoff for dues. Also, no careful watch on safety violations and no enforcement for repairs of safety problems, of defunct ventilators and reversed extract fans. Workers were careful not to disclose all findings, for fear of work stoppages and management reprisals, and no pay, worst of all. Also, with a management of global warming deniers, tax shrinkers and large government fighters, a fertile ground for the worst tea party connections. This is not an unusual workingmen’s attitude, unfortunately, I have seen it also traveling through St. Mary's, a pretty but smoke -filled town on Georgia -Florida border, where people cough and wheeze all day but do not attempt to correct the health violations, not too actively. "We live off that plant," is the answer when the visitor complains. Also, think of Love Canal. Whether that worker attitude also applies at Toyota, another negligent company exposed, I will not guess. Look, America is not an easy place to make a living, our generation has had the best of it, and our children will suffer for it. In this service type economy with negative export balances and rising longevity to go with increasing population, making a living is getting harder, as it is all throughout the world. In 1935 when FDR installed Social Security, paying retirement benefits at age 65, the overall longevity averaged out at 63 years of age, in 2010 it averages at 78 years, and the trend is upwards. Even by raising full retirement age to 67 (for non-hazardous jobs) and indexing it to longevity, the Social Security tax rate will still need be increased, and the benefit indexed to overall taxable income more than it is now. It makes sense, since the population share of heavy industry workers has dwindled from 50% to 20% in the same 70 years, and the service industries employ more desk workers, who can remain working for longer years (Greenspan likes 72). Even Europe has recognized this, and Germany has raised the full benefit age to 67, with others following. The notable exception is Greece, where shaky governments much indebted to powerful unions for national stability have permitted to lower the retirement ages for dozens of employment codes, to age 50, including such hazardous jobs as those of hairdressers, exposed to fumes of noxious chemicals. Meanwhile the Greek public debt has risen to 124% of GDP, highest in European Union, and Greece, world's 27th largest economy and the second-busiest country in EU (1800 work hrs per person, after Spain with 1900 ) , has been cautioned by the European Commission to reduce the deficit (they promise 8.7% in 2010) with cuts in pension payments, government employment. Greek government bond ratings by Fitch and S&P have dropped below A-, and the bond interest rates are nearly 300 basis points above those of Germany, the EU standard. Looking at this picture, one asks how we (US and EU) got there. I sometimes follow the spend-spend-spend Nobelist Paul Krugman’s acolytes, and it seems it started way back, with the three hour lunch break in Italy and France, with kids coming home for the day’s most important meal, and a siesta for Dad. The two hour midday store closure in many European cities also continued until not that long ago. along with the six week vacations. While American women had a 38 and 40 hour work week, the French had 34; Germans had 30 and Dutch a restful 24. American women spent 10 hrs a week less on the EU traditional home chores (Kinder, Kleider, Kueche), and paid others; the Euros fell into the leisure trap, with less good jobs for both the well educated and the less educated. It may be that the Europeans had the best of it, but then we can point to our houses, condos, cars and electronic living rooms to argue otherwise, discounting the fear for our jobs. Or should we? Robert Reich thinks we should have the Europeans’ vacations and George Will believes the EU nations should adapt the American work ethic. I know where I’d like my country to be, but can that work for my progeny?

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Yesterday, upon opening the latest T&V, my heart jumped with joy, figuratively. Egad, behold, we now have The Soapbox, a column of differing opinions, a battlefield for ideas, actively encouraged (space permitting). Twenty years ago when I started writing this column as a community service, there were hardly any opinions contradicting me. Over the years, about four controversies arose, one over my profiling gypsies and the others I no longer remember. From time to time I had some doubts about whether my straight-on opinions were so uniformly accepted, or whether I was meeting reader indifference. The latter idea was promptly dismissed here, because of the street corner encounters with readers who recognized me and said kind things, the worst being that I overload my pieces with facts, making them hard to read. I also come from the era of 1968, of flower children, public awakening, and the Chicago convention. Teaching then was still mostly compensated by psychic rewards: I left a five year adjunct teaching run at NY University in 1970s when family priorities intruded. It was also then that the Blackboard Jungle era cooled, and teaching became better paid, attracting career people, and the street culture in schools became more noted. Ah well, that's another story/or myself, I have also cooled, not likely to jump into controversies with joy, as I would have two decades ago, and will not be much of a participant. As for the Soapbox, I am looking forward to debats with the tone well up, the participants not letting their righteous indignation overwhelm the facts. But I should not quibble, free expression rewards the reader with an opportunity to evaluate, and it is a good sport, as long as it the expressions are reasoned, and not limited to "I like" or "I dislike," as the pseudonymous comments in the simplistic social networks and blog comments encourage. One should stand with one's name and address behind what he/she says, we live in a free society where people express opinions without fear and are listened to when they reason, just like the men and women in Norman Rockwell's painting of Town Hall meeting, Four Freedoms. Thus, I appreciate Dr. Robert Bennett's comments in the April 19th T&V issue, because they are reasoned, allowing the reader to see specific evidence, for instance in denying climate change (I feel that scientific studies overwhelmingly support it), and requiring natural born citizenship for Presidents (I comment that all early US presidents were natural born citizens of the British Empire, and that Chester Arthur had a non-US citizen father.) If the authot feels that Roe v. Wade made an unwarranted extension of the establishment clause, and that this justifies the United Citizens extension and the expected Obamahealth extensions, I respectfully disagree - but appreciate his emotional argument. That’s all my comment on our intramural discourse; however, the discourse on national level is more worrisome. The NYTimes/CBS latest poll seems to advance Mitt Romney's chances for presidency to a 46-46 percent or even level with Obama, probably as a result of recent events. For one, Hillary Rosen's ill-advised comment about Mrs. Romney not working a day in her life was gleefully noted and objected to by the candidate's wife as an unwarranted critique of stay-at-home mothers, giving her husband's candidacy a counterweight to the anti-women’s charge levied at him. Then the GSA Secret Service scandal. Couple that to the heavy Taliban's attacks in Afghanistan, which boosted Romney’s criticism of the President’s troop withdrawal date announcement, as inciting the Taliban to wait us out, then attack. This may be a legitimate criticism, but the President’s action was by popular request. Romney, by the way, also occasionally voices his agreement with the withdrawal date fulfillment, and has trouble with matching his contradictory statements, not uncommon with him. That may be trouble for him, but what is bad for the country is that all the Republican candidates have sworn, on Grover Norquist’s commandments of “no new taxes,” to denounce all proposals and new laws embraced by President Obama, on principle, a position that will and does hurt the voters of US, not just by affecting our lives but also by destabilizing the US in the eyes of the world. Some of us may say that this may be even tantamount to treason. On a lighter topic, traveling in NYC, the other day, a taxi trip to the WestBeth complex in West Greenwich Village cost only $10, plus tip. I congratulated the driver, who pointed to his Smart phone and its GPS as the tool. On the late evening trip back, driving through traffic on the narrow picturesque streets and passing bicycles without lights and the drivers in dark clothes, not one but two (incredible stupidity!), we talked about the recent tightening of avenues, such as the Second and First in our T&V area, with access and parking lanes, as well as around Eight and neighboring avenues. The driver, with a Caribbean intonation, a part-time cabbie (his second job, he now has a daughter to see through college) with slight irony discussed what Mayor Bloomberg could add to his street reforms, if he should opt for another term, since implementing the closed streets around Times Squire, Madison Square and Union Square, with restaurant deliveries coming through sporadically and tourists going hungry (only joking, Mr. Mayor!). We spoke of European cities with downtowns closed to vehicle traffic, and benefits of fresh air. People really care about that, climate change deniers should remember it.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis We have just spent some winter weeks in the sunny South, in the company of retiree snowbird families, small business owners and corporate people, a few professionals, people who have driven down from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Maryland and upstate NY. These are people we have gotten to know over the period of two decades as we have shared our winters in a 90 unit condominium, with a pool and the Florida Bay for swimming and sunsets. This should qualify me to make some general observations about our fellow sun lovers and our country, not quite De Tocqueville but I am reaching. To begin with, our fellow voters are informed people. There is a morning rush for the coin dispenser of Miami Herald and USA News, and at least a quarter of us do crossword puzzles, with one couple driving out a mile to the Publix Supermarket for the NY Times. Some puzzle workers are compulsive, and carry dictionaries, though not to poolside. The rest read books, purchased hardcopy and paperback, or on library loans, by James Patterson and similar fiction, or do Sudoku games. Exercises are morning walks around the campus, bicycling outside, or climbing stairs, five stories at a stretch, while the morning coolness lasts. Poolside telegraph and reading are major daytime topics, between swims, and we all suffer when someone has bad news – health, predominantly. Kids and grands are chief topics. Few of the young seem to join family businesses, and three have taken to the pulpit, a Baptist and a Methodist preacher and a youth minister. E-mail literacy is essential for young and old, either on premises or at the local library. In evenings, most tenants congregate at bayside, in a teepee at a charcoal cooker or at picnic tables, to watch the sun set over the Bay. This used to require bringing a cup of cheer (only plastic, glass is dangerous to the pool and the marina), but now there are mostly soft drinks or wine. Given the close quarters, exchange of opinions is free, except for controversial stuff. When we, the liberal New Yorkers, are of the company, politics are shunned, which is significant. My test question is climate change, and denial still persists. An occasional word against Obama sometimes slips out, but any attempt of discourse is brings on change of topic. When a visitor’s nine year old daughter from Michigan had a political survey as homework, and asked questions at a Thursday covered basket get-together, her dad limited her questions, away from party affiliation. Surprisingly, at our table there were cautious middle of the road answers, even to a child (“Obamacare needs to be clipped”). During and after the January Republican candidates’ massacre any mention of primaries evoked groans and such characterizations as “shameful, is that the best we have?” \ As to Obama, one heard “never again” words with some frequency, but subdued. With a bit of background of my Midwestern friends I can dissect some of it. Thus, the WWII vets (we have a few, God bless) think of him as a pipsqueak usurper college professor (“ he has some nerve”etc etc), the self-made men likewise (”what does he know about business, life” etc). The racist tinge has faded, if it ever was there, the foreigner image ditto – people have begun to know that he is the seventh president with a foreign born parent. As to our return trip North, I think that Americans will never lose their thirst for gasoline. Of the 100 or so of my fellow snowbirds’ cars ,and of the thousands of Florida vehicles on the roads in the Keys, none were Chevrolet Volts, are comparable; there were no electric charge stations, and none were contemplated, and the same applies to the mighty overburdened I-95 as it winds from south Florida up through Maine. The road was full of large hatchbacks, with occasional Toyota Prius hybrids. For local travel one could find some Smart cars, and bicycles. tricycles, motorbikes (very macho with bearded ponytailed refugees from the 1968s) for shopping in town. Renewable energy? My friends from the Midwest speak of natural gas and how easy it would be to convert modern cars to it. As for sun and wind energy, little interest. The road was good, with stopovers at Cumberland-St. Mary’s in Georgia, where an animal- friendly Comfort Inn accepted us and our two cats, and at its counterpart in Rocky Mount, NC, both 450 mile points in our usual daily travel. Somewhat ahead of schedule, we interrupted the drive to dally in Washington, DC, passing the Washington obelisk and Jefferson dome on National Mall, looking briefly at the Occupy Washington tents on Freedom Plaza. Most cheering were the blooming cherry trees on the neat malls, and our capital city has lots of them along 14th Street. After a lunch stop on 17th and R streets, meeting friends and their new baby, we drove up the entire length of 16th Street , through three alphabets worth of cross streets until merging into the Capitol Beltway I-495 that circles DC and rejoining I-95 for a calm drive home. Well then, what of the country? The consensus here is that Obama will survive 2012, since we the people don’t favor the radicals. The Supreme Court is more of the problem, acting as though they were elected lawmakers. Good luck to all of us in June, their month of decision.