The latest economic disaster facing America has been described as catastrophic. But experts have noted there were numerous warning signs we were heading for disaster. And experts have also noted the true fault lies with our elected officials–Republicans and Democrats.
We used to have anti-trust laws to prevent corporations from becoming so huge they choked competition or wielded too much power over government. But politicians have weakened and ignored these laws. Corporate mergers are still rampant and breeding the next list of mega-corporations politicians will say need bailouts because “we can’t afford to let them fail.”
We have laws against price fixing but they’re also not enforced. We could prosecute corruption and fraud by CEO’s and executives but generally politicians turn a blind eye or send the corporate thieves off for a short stay at a posh “Club Fed.” The escalating cost of our health care could be corrected with more regulation and oversight on mergers, price fixing, and fraud (do you really think hospitals should charge $129 for a box of Kleenex?) but again politicians have turned a blind eye. The current housing crisis and the bailouts could have been avoided if politicians hadn’t repealed the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. This law was enacted in 1933 after the Great Depression to prevent exactly what is happening today. We need the law re-instated but even now politicians don’t want to mention it—-and they hope you won’t either. Free trade and globalization has merely resulted in globalized corruption and fraud and huge multinational corporations that can no longer be held accountable in any country.
We have made grave errors in those we have elected at the national level. But have we done any better at the local level?
For years I and others, like Will Raymond, have been warning that Chapel Hill has an imbalance of residential versus commercial development. Commercial development generates taxes to keep a town running; residential development is a drain on taxes. And yet even with a national housing glut and a national multi-trillion dollar deficit that will inevitably cripple average workers with high taxes, Chapel Hill town leaders keep approving high density residential development which will raise local taxes even more.
In the midst of economic hard times and high gas prices our local leaders recently took a trip to Ann Arbor partly paid for with taxpayer money. When critics pointed out information sharing could be done via teleconferences they justified their trip saying it helped them “bond” with one another. In 2007 Mayor Foy and his wife took a trip to South Korea on the taxpayer’s dime.
This June after voting to raise local taxes 11% every member of the Chapel Hill town council except Matt Czajkowski voted to give themselves lifetime health benefits paid for by you the taxpayer. They dropped their plan (maybe just temporarily) but whined that elected officials in other municipalities had the benefits so they felt they should too. And in spite of the fact average citizens are now terrified by the imploding economy and are stressing over the price of a gallon of milk, our local elected officials are still talking about even more spending on non-essentials as if they believe McCain’s statement that our economy is “fundamentally sound.”
And to add insult to injury, while the elected officials in Chapel Hill crow about being liberals and environmentalists, they are clear cutting trees like crazy for development even in environmental sensitive areas (the clear cutting at Southern Community Park was accompanied by surveillance cameras) and they have made government less transparent and less responsive to the citizens. You can call yourself a liberal but actions speak louder than words.
So here’s the trillion dollar question? Why do local citizens keep voting for incumbents who seem as “out-of-touch” as those who have been asleep at the helm nationally? And why do so many of you not even bother to vote in local elections? Are you waiting for the local meltdown?
