Student Loans and Corporate Gravy (Bangor Daily News, via CommonDreams)

[marmar]

Published on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 by The Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Student Loans and Corporate Gravy
by John Buell

Let me begin with a pop quiz. Who remarked: “The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce that comes from ought always to be listened to with great precaution. … It comes from an order of men who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public.”? (Answer a. Karl Marx, b. John Maynard Keynes, c. John Kenneth Galbraith, d. Adam Smith).

It is not news that economic inequality has been on the rise over the last three decades. What is surprising is that these trends have become more pronounced than even many left and liberal economists believed and that that the trends show no sign of abating. Even more surprising is the role that government plays in exacerbating inequality. The federal government, which conservatives often portray as a modern day Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to support the poor, is often an agent of the rich.

Between 1979 and 2004, the bottom quintile of the economic pyramid saw its income increase only 2 percent, while the wealthiest 1 percent saw a 153 percent increase in income. The share of income going to the top 1 percent is greater than at any time since 1929.

When progressives present such statistics, they are accused of promoting a politics of envy. Don’t we know that this is a classless society, where everyone can hope to become rich? The magic of the market can deliver wonders to everyone willing to work hard enough.

The modern version of Horatio Alger, endorsed by many liberals as well as conservatives, argues that the young only need study hard in school and go to college to gain a piece of the American dream. Yet not only has college become ever more costly, the road to the college degree has been strewn with toll booths that now serve to further enrich the wealthy. The federally subsidized college loan is a classic instance of the way government programs designed to assist poor and working class families have become an instrument to advance the economic interests of the wealthy and well-connected. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/01/888/