Preparing for Institutional Collapse
posted by Larry Littlefield
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littl..._collapse.html
Sat, 03/29/2008 - 10:39am
Letting go of one’s illusions is a difficult process that takes a long, long time, but I am just about there. From a young age I have been a believer in public services and benefits as a way of providing some measure of assurance for other people, people I rely on every time I purchase a good or service, of a decent life regardless of one’s personal income or standing. After all, I initially chose public service as a career. And I have been a defender of the public institutions when compared with those who were only concerned with their own situation and preference put in less, or get out more, as if the community was a greedy adversary to be beaten in life rather than something one is a part of. Now, however, I see that it is probably hopeless.
Under the current generation of “leaders,” “the community,” in its governmental form, is controlled by insatiable interests and sits on top of those who happen to live in New York City, New York State, and the United States. While promising general, universal benefits in the future, or lower taxes in the present, they have already taken so much out of that future for themselves and self-interest groups that it is unlikely that there will be a functioning school system, usable parks, convenient mass transit, affordable health care, or a livable Social Security retirement stipend for my children’s generation. Even at high future taxes. They’ve blown it all, rationalized or just ignored the near certain effects on others, and they won’t give it back. So perhaps all the time, energy and money directed toward trying to reform or improve our social institutions, particularly out government institutions, would be better spent preparing to do without them.
This is a difficult conclusion for me to arrive at, for three reasons. First, my chosen lifestyle, which might be described as happy living through materially modest living, assumes the substitution of cheaper shared amenities -- public parks, transit, etc. -- for more costly and wasteful personal amenities. If I end up paying for those shared amenities and not getting them, the way I paid local and [[especially) state taxes for elementary school and didn’t get it for my children, that choice isn’t possible.
Second, my goal in life has been for the rest of the world to, net, be somewhat better off for my existence, rather than getting a “profit” by imposing a “loss” on others. So beating the system to suck more out and put less in isn’t going to make me happy. And being well off enough personally that I don’t rely on social institutions won’t do either, as I am concerned about my neighbors.
Worst of all ,we in New York City are at the end of a long climb back from institutional decline. After prior generations “took all their was to take,” in the words of one union leader, before decamping to the suburbs, city residents were left paying high taxes for rich pensions, other public employee retiree benefits, debts run up in the pasts, and sinecures for those still around and milking the system. In return they endured a police force that did not stop crime, subways that barely worked, parks that were dangerous and in disrepair, schools so bad they violated the state constitution, bridges that were never painted and had to be closed, etc. Money for nothing. While most of those who chose to live here paid and got little, those who mattered avoided the subways by driving to their special free parking spaces, went to “politician beach” instead of Coney Island, sent their kids to the handful of decent schools by special variance, or lived in the suburbs while drawing money out of the city.
People I admire spent decades rebuilding the city’s public institutions, often substituting their own personal time money when tax dollars were directed elsewhere and public employees stopped working. But while the city tried to recover, political control at the state level remained in the hands of the sort of people who had sucked NYC dry in the 1950s and 1960s. And now, they have repeated the trick statewide. Indeed, in some ways their generation has done it nationwide.
Consider that three bond issues have been passed for the Second Avenue Subway, but as a result of benefits distributed in the past the MTA is so deep in debt that I can’t imagine how we [[or should I say they) will be able to maintain the transit system we have.
Consider that property taxes remain far higher in NYC than they were ten years ago, and spending has soared in its public schools to the point where spending per child is now well above the national average even with a cost of living adjustment. But most of the increase in spending has been on retiree benefits, and with the recent deal to allow teachers to retire and receive pension and health care benefits seven years earlier, money spent in the schools themselves is certain to be slashed, again.
Consider that in 1983 my generation and those after were told we must pay vastly higher payroll taxes throughout our careers, and accept a later retirement age, to ensure Social Security would be there for us. Then all those extra contributions were spent, so now 25 years later we are told that further benefit cuts for, and/or much higher taxes on, those who were not “at or over 55” when Bush said the words are required to once again “save Social Security” -- after all of those who came of age in the 1960s and earlier are in the system and “grandfathered” from any sacrifices.
Consider that every year public spending and subsidies soar for ever-richer health care for those who happen to benefit from public programs or publicly-subsidized private insurance, even as more and more people get nothing.
Consider all the donations people, including my family and many of my friends, have made to public amenities such as parks and libraries, when the services received is cut in the coming years.
Consider how tax breaks mean the rich can disguise their work earnings as capital gains and pay just 15% at the federal level, while in New York City and New York State those benefiting from retirement incomes we will never see pay nothing.
It isn’t just that those who have skillfully obtained “good deals” for themselves in the past are “grandfathered” and get to keep them. Worse, those who already have such deals take more and more every year. Like a bad parasite, the political class and its supporters feel so needy, so entitled, that they cannot help but kill their host. They will just keep grabbing and grabbing until government institutions collapse. [[The executives who sit on each other’s boards and award each other an ever-greater share of business income are doing the same to the broader economy). No one is willing to even impose a psychological price on the inside beneficiaries by forcing them to confront the difference between their unearned privileges and situation of those without. If forced, expect them not only to turn hostile but also to simply rely that “everyone should have more” and “everyone should pay less” in the future, when it might be “possible.” But when the future arrives, all the money has been taken off the top.
And don’t expect the collapse to be announced. Services and benefits will dribble away by stealth. The subway line will not be closed, but trains will seldom arrive due to “circumstances beyond our control.” Medicare will not be repealed for our generation, but payment levels will be reduced to the point that almost no health care provider will accept Medicare -- even as special funds mean more money for Local 1199. The inflation adjustment for Social Security will be recalculated. Future teachers will be paid less in order to direct money to the life of leisure of those retiring, so certification -- and sick leave -- rules will be loosened up so someone will more or less show up. High School requirements will be maintained, but required courses will fill up with insiders, forcing others to wait years to take them -- until they drop out or are given a piece of paper anyway to help their “self esteem.” We’ll have libraries -- without books, open two days per week. And if you get robbed, you can make an appointment to file a police report in a month or two. Etc.