I was pretty critical of McCain’s support for a “gas-tax holiday”, and I’m pretty disappointed in Clinton’s support of the idea. As I said before, the gas-tax holiday just doesn’t make any sense if you think about it. It’s an extremely small amount of money ($0.18 on the gallon translates to about $10 per month for the average driver). And it rewards the precise behavior that we ought to be discouraging: consuming gasoline. But that being said, energy prices are such that lower-middle class and poor families are feeling pinched–especially by their transportation and utility budgets. It is perfectly understandable for politicians to do something to help. Which is why, if they are smart, they will turn to the lowly bus pass.
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Unemployment is up. Inflation is rising faster than wages. The dollar is historically week. Interest rates are already low, and can’t be lowered too much further. Personal savings rates are extremely low, while consumer debt is very high–which mean that a short-term boost to consumer spending is unlikely (and unwise). The stock market is down more than 14% since its high less than six months ago. The economy is in serious trouble–as serious as it’s been since at least the 1970s. It’s also an election year, which means we’re being flooded with “solutions”. Some of them are good ideas. Some of them are bad ideas.
I’ll start with the bad:
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In his New York Times editorial today, David Brooks argues that American society has become increasingly splintered along racial and ethnic lines. The bulk of his evidence comes from the world of music. He notes that the artists and audience for rock bands is increasingly white-only, and that as a result modern rock bands don’t have the mass appeal that the great bands from previous generations had. He ends by noting the following:
We live in an age in which the technological and commercial momentum drives fragmentation. It’s going to be necessary to set up countervailing forces — institutions that span social, class and ethnic lines.
Of course anyone who has actually turned on VH1 (in the middle of the night when they are showing actual videos–hey, insomnia happens…) or read the production sheet on a pop music album lately understands that Mr. Brooks is 100% wrong. But in this case, why Mr. Brooks is wrong says quite a lot about white America.
The last few days I’ve been reading Come On People, by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint. The book, and the extensive book tour that they’ve been doing to support it over the last week, is a call to action for black community leaders, teachers, and parents, among others. I’m only about half-way through it, and I might write a more extensive review when I’m finished, but as of now I’m finding it very intriguing.
In any case, the most interesting thing about the book so far is that it mostly sounds a lot like what the most conservative, white evangelical preacher would say. Among their prescriptions for the black community, for instance, are the following:
- Encouraging men who father children to not abandon that child
- Returning at least some of the social stigma on becoming an unwed mothers
- Teaching young men to be good fathers
- Speaking proper English
- Dressing professionally
- Disciplining children appropriately
- Avoiding “gangsta rap” and other violent and degrading media images
- Going to Church regularly
Because of these admonitions and others, at times you have to wonder if they authors aren’t taking their cue from James Dobson. This is traditional conservative family values, spelled out in great detail, with only one or two variants (in particular, they are very critical of using physical punishment as discipline). The authors want to live in a world full of two-parent households, with well-dressed, well-behaved, and well-spoken children, where the hard work of both the parents and children is rewarded and where laziness and slovenliness is punished.
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