Page 4 - Dinuba Sentinel 12-6-18 E-edition

Opinion
A4 | Thursday, December 6,, 2018
failure of our schools and colleges to teach history in the modern classroom? “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” That quote appears to have originally come from George Santayana, a philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist who lived and worked in the latter part of the nineteencenturyandcontinuedhis legacy until the mid twentieth century.
Education seems to have moved
on to social issues and the politically correct position of the time rather than providing perspective of the historical events who make us who we are. Young people are essentially carefully programmed drones who have been submersed in the philosophies of their teachers. Severelyneglectedarecore educational concepts such as history, reading, writing and communication skills. Childrenleaveschool(that includesourcollegesandhighschools) woefully unprepared for the real world while being ingrained with opinions which are entirely unsupported.
What would you say if I were to tell you that the current epidemic of class warfarewasnothingnewbutexisted
as far back as 350 BC? One would think that, if history were truly and effectively being taught, we would know that it existed that long ago and was an element in the destruction of a society. Frankly, then as now, this war was joined and even driven by the writings andpronouncementsoftheeducated elite Plato actually described Athens as being bifurcated or decidedly two cities. He declared one as a city occupied by thepoorandonebytherich. Onewas openly at war with the other.
Men of means were forced to defend themselves against claims of wealth and property ownership as if it were acrime. Aswithallconfrontations,
it was inevitable that one would gain control over the other. Just as we
are experiencing today, class envy
led to higher taxes and the essential destruction of upper and middle classes. Government will inevitably crumble, usually resulting in the takeover by a despot with an iron hand who returns order but exacts an awful priceintermsoffreedomslost.
This week, for example, we will experience a day of remembrance— December 7 will mark that day of vicious attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941- -which changed the world forever. Probably,asidefromtheawfuldeath toll of a sneak bombing raid early on
a Sunday morning, the saddest thing to be said is that we have people who don’t truly understand what happened. We’ve since apologized for bombing the perpetrator, after a bloody 4-year conflict, in an effort to end the killing
Guest Column
BA lesson from Belgian economics
Fred Hall
back in 1945, the introduction of such a frightening display of power was the best solution to end the bloodletting forever. The results were nightmarish but the
Fred Hall - Publisher Rick Curiel - Editor
In My Opinion
KHnowledge is the greatest weapon
ow often have all of us, at and destruction. one time or another, found Although it was ourselves lamenting the evident to everyone
resultwasundeniable. NooneIknew felt good about what had happened. Wartime, itself, is basically inhumane but it seems there will always be those among us who create war for a variety of reasons, but especially over territory and financial considerations.
It’s always best to end any conflict by any means necessary and as soon as possible.
Therearemanyamonguswho, through the years, have become either taught of convinced that everything thathappensintheworldisAmerica’s Fault. Wehavealargeswathofcollege students who have matriculated believing that, somehow, this country is inherently evil because we have committed missteps while becoming the world’s most benevolent super power. Isuspecttherewillbeadayof rude awakening if those people are ever successful in their efforts to diminish America’s power.
The best solution so much of the misinformation we are fed in schools and through a biased media is to either buy books and read them or go to the librarywhiletheystillexist. Social media and the internet have taken a huge toll on American intellect in areas of social interaction. Anyone expecting togetanunvarnishedviewofhistory or current events should not expect to find them on Facebook or any of the on-linenewssites. Fartoomuchof today’s writing, even with newspapers, is cloaked in advocacy journalism.
One of the wonderful lessons available to all of is that it is never
too late to learn and knowledge is the greatest weapon available to combat tyranny in the educational process being foisted upon the last two or three generations. I realize it might sound trite but awareness of the truth can be a great tool to combat the dumbing downofAmerica. We’veseenallofthis before and no matter how fashionable some of the socialistic thinking currently being foisted on all us may appear to be, please remember: we’ve tried it all before somewhere in history anditneverworks. Nothingisworth surrendering one’s freedoms for!
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Fred Hall is publisher of the Dinuba Sentinel
Guest Column
T
wo years ago, I left a corporate job as a chemist and bought an artists’ studio and gallery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
citizenship.
This flies in the face of what we, the
people, want. Poll after poll shows that big majorities favor people being able to get citizenship and live with their families.
Making it worse, the administration say it’s also going to count Medicaid and food stamps against people in the immigration process. Most people who are applying for their green cards aren’t eligible for these important programs as it is. But the
Immigrants don't enter rich, but make the country richer
I’d just become a mother, and my corporate job was taking me away for some of my daughter’s most important milestones. I was meeting with clients when she rolled over for the first time, crawled for the first time, and said her first words. This broke my heart.
The studio, which I co-own with my mother, has meant more time with family and the chance to be more involved with art — my own and others’.
We’ve also made our studio a place for cultivating community. Here, we celebrate all the people who make up Lancaster. One of our exhibits shared #BlackGirlMagic, and another featured Latinx artists. In July, we held an exhibit called “Hex,” highlighting Amish artists. We want to make sure everyone’s art is seen, and everyone feels welcome.
Our studio has also begun offering free art classes. Money shouldn’t be an obstacle for people engaging with art, just like it shouldn’t be an obstacle to education, food, or health care.
Knowing how important community has been to my business, my heart breaks when I see how much fear and racism is being sown by politicians who want to shrink our sense of community instead of enriching it.
The news is flooded with stories about this, but a lot of it’s happening behind the scenes. For example, the Trump administration is rewriting the rules to make it harder for people to become citizens. One idea they’re proposing is a new wealth test for people seeking a green card, one of the first steps toward citizenship.
That test has an income threshold of almost $63,000 a year for a family of four — a test that about a third of the U.S. population would fail. Are we all supposed to think we’re not good enough to be U.S. citizens?
This test puts huge power in the hands of government officials to reject people for a green card, when already too many people are denied any chance to move toward
Dreya Moore
elgian waffles. Belgian beers. at $98.2 trillion. If we Americans love ’em. divvied up that wealth
But what Americans really need as equally as Belgium
rules are complicated, and immigrants at all stages in the process are afraid of risking their chance at citizenship.
As a result, immigrant families will miss out on food and health care, whether they’re citizens already or hoping to become citizens. We’re already seeing stories of families walking away from essential assistance out of fear.
This new wealth test is a cruel maneuver to make our community and our country smaller instead of stronger. We shouldn’t be a country that takes food and health from people — and denies them citizenship — because they aren’t rich.
Immigrants have enriched Lancaster. They’ve helped give new life to our downtown and neighborhoods. They’ve created new opportunities for learning and sharing. And they’ve brought vitality to our local economy, helping us keep more than a thousand manufacturing jobs local.
Leaders whose strongest message is division aren’t real leaders. So, it’s up to all of us to be leaders in our communities.
I try to do this in my business every day. Today
I’m going to do it in one more way: by writing to the administration and telling them I’m against wealth tests and for immigrants in my community.
Dreya Moore co-owns The Artist Studio & Gallery @ Annex 24 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She’s a member of Main Street Alliance. Distributed by OtherWords. org.
from Belgium has nothing to do with beer or breakfast treats. We need Belgium’s much more egalitarian distribution of wealth.
The English philosopher Francis Bacon once long ago compared wealth to manure. Both only do good, Bacon quipped, if you spread them around. Belgium is spreading about as well as any nation on Earth, according to the Swiss bank Credit Suisse’s latest annual global wealth report.
Why should Americans care about what’s happening in Belgium?
The new Credit Suisse report at first doesn’t make that clear. On average, the Credit Suisse numbers show, Belgian adults hold less wealth than Americans. Belgians average a bit over $313,000 in net worth. The average American holds nearly $404,000.
That $404,000 figure sound about right to you? Probably not. Most Americans hold personal fortunes nowhere near that level.
America’s average wealth per adult looks so good only because America’s rich are doing so fabulously well. The United States currently boasts some 1,144 individuals worth over $500 million in net worth. Their enormous fortunes are pumping up — and distorting — America’s adult wealth average.
How big a distortion? The new Credit Suisse report points us to the answer.
Credit Suisse researchers have computed, for each nation, how much wealth typical adults are holding. In
the United States, the most typical — or median — American adult holds just $61,667 in wealth, far below the nation’s average wealth of $403,974.
In Belgium, a nation with only 16 adults worth over $500 million, the typical
adult has a net worth of $163,429 — over $100,000 more than the typical American.
Credit Suisse puts America’s total wealth
Sam Pizzigati
does, the typical American would have a net worth of $210,900 — more than triple the $61,667 the typical American actually has.
In other words, Americans are paying
an inequality penalty of almost $150,000. Some might dismiss the significance of
this comparison between Belgium and the United States. Belgium, after all, has only 8.9 million adults. The United States has 243 million.
Fine. Let’s compare the deeply unequal United States to a much more equal nation closer to America’s size. Let’s try Japan.
Like Belgium, Japan also has a lower average wealth per adult than the United States. In fact, the U.S. average wealth — $403,974 — nearly doubles the $227,235 average in Japan.
But Japan, also like Belgium, has far fewer super rich than the United States. Japan hosts only 71 individuals worth over $500 million. To reach the U.S. total of $500-million fortunes, Japan would have to double its super-rich population, double it again, and then quadruple it.
Japan’s modest number of grand personal fortunes means more wealth
for typical Japanese adults. The typical Japanese adult now holds $103,861 in net worth, well above the typical American’s $61,667.
And what would the typical American be worth if the United States had as equal a distribution of wealth as Japan? A robust $184,642, over $120,000 more than the typical America’s current net worth.
More waffles — or sushi — anyone?
Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org, where an earlier version of this appeared. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
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