To the Editor:
Many citizens, even with advanced degrees yet nevertheless unemployed, would probably agree with the sentiments expressed by your writer, Amy Waldman, in your November cover story "Class, Not Race". Her article is very welcome, but too narrowly and moderately describes a problem central to the future well-being of our nation.
I can't afford the Washington Post, but I've often gagged on Robert Samuelson's columns in Newsweek . Many baby-boomers --- once, supposed members of the liberal counterculture movement for equality, peace, and justice --- apparently were only hopping on the fad bandwagon of the moment. With economic success, they now are spouting today's conventional wisdom of conservatism. The media decry President Clinton's lack of character, but many of them exhibit the same fickleness of principle.
The self-interested jargon parading as justification for not raising the minimum wage or continuing to provide the Earned Income Tax Credit will be counterproductive in the long run. How many people can be thrown off welfare or "downsized" and "mergered" out of jobs so CEOs can "earn" more than 100 times their remaining workers' salaries before a new lack of demand causes a serious economic downturn? Just study the history of the '20s and '30s!
People kept from acquiring high quality educations, health care, and jobs --- white and black --- become those with no stake in this "society", creating a criminal underclass, alienated revolutionaries-in-the-making, or dictator-fodder.
Other sectors of the nation --- including much of the health-care establishment, business and governmental leadership, and the lawyer class --- are also complicit in today's moral bankruptcy, but media affluence is one of the saddest contributors to America's problems. Reporters were supposed to be early-warning watchdogs. As Ms. Waldman comments, they've now lost touch with average people --- seldom adequately covering white-collar crime, labor news, or anything more than "he said, she said" inadequate rehashes of the elite's rhetoric and demagoguery on any public issue.
"Post-Naderism" is a catchy description of our nadir. Possibly quite a few ought to root out Phil Ochs in Concert and listen again to the "Ringing of Revolution" or "Love Me, I'm a Liberal". Otherwise, it should be interesting if the common people finally get together on the Internet and bring this system down.
Sincerely,
Barbara V. Smith