1990s: As Golden Age?

I'm trying to find the great economy everybody was talking about in the 1990s...

March 31, 2002

Clean Gene is Dead: Some passing memories on the death of Euegene McCarthy.

Clinton in Coxscakie: Hillary came to town to ralley Democrats around Gillibrand.

Cuomo on the Mohawk: The man from Guy Park Place has yet to decide to run.

Dick Cheney: Shotgun Bandit: What Cheney's shotgun accident means to all Americans, gun owning or not.

Getting Health Insurance: How many desire to get low-cost insurance changed my plans.

Governing with Accountablity: Andrew has two visions on what accountablity is really about.

It's Time to Honor America: Beyond politics, there is a lot to like about America.

NO to Impeachment: Impeaching the President is a waste of time.

Ohio: Updating Neil Yong's lyrics for contemporary events.

On Car Insurance and Autobody Shops: The system that keeps you paying without getting anything in return.

On National ID Cards: Discussing the evil national ID cards.

Our Cowboy President: You don't have to like the President's policies to respect his sense of moral responsiblity.

Poem: Bureaucratic Memorandum: Trying to make sense of the memorandum and corporate decision making process.

Poem: It's 2006: The future seems not to come for man.

Respect President Bush: Not agreeing with the President doesn't make him evil.

Senator Paul Wellstone is Dead: Andrew is still shocked at the news of the death of man who was becoming one of the great Senators of the '00s.

The Blackout Blame Game: In continuing my series on blaming the right people, I try to look beyond the hype and mistakes of the media in covering the blackout.

Those Extra Twenty Hours: Brought to you by the same people who denied you national health care.

Undocumented Immigrants and Farms: Why the real solution to the illegal immigration is changing how we subsidize our farmers and not criminalizing or legalizing guest workers.

What is the Political?: The neological word I often use for describing aggregated political forces.

Why Modern Politics are Ill: Commentary on the ills of politics, and the need for activism.

Why the Democratic Stimulus Package Works: The proposed tax cuts by Republicans fail to provide adquate stimulus for sectors of the economy that need it the most.

1990s: As Golden Age?

Until a few months ago, they were talking about how wonderful the high tech economy was going, and how the new economy changed all the rules. That is until, you consider:

Decrease of Minimum Wage Over the Past Few Years
Decrease of the average wage, since 1973
Our Economy has always grown slower then most of the 60s (1999 - 5.0 v. 1968 - 6.2, and 5.0 in 1966)
Privitization has driven down many people's wages and benifits.
Social Spending is at record lows—5% (1980) v. 3% (Today) of the federal budget is spent on educating Americans, far lower then the rest of the industrial world.
30 million Americans are in poverty, 45 million without any kind of health insurance.
Some of Fordam Universities' social standard indictators have declined signicantly since the 70s—and continue to do so.

With all those facts, one must consider the truth—have economy improved since the 60s, or hasn't it. Maybe the economy is just great for the rich, but are the rest of us feeling it too—or is it just trickery, like before the great depression?

Or maybe I'm just too cynical. It just doesn't appear to me that the world around me has improved much at all.