I Rise...
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise.
The reason is clear: We have an economy that increasingly rewards education and skills because of that education.
- George W. Bush on the rising discrepancy in the growth of incomes of the wealthy vs. poor.Come on people now! Smile on your brother. Everybody get together. Try to love one another right now.
– The Youngbloods
When Rick Snyder (R) took office in Michigan he immediately cut spending on education and the film industry (we are a union business that trains their own) and offered HUGE incentives to big business. The film industry here, once a white boys club, increasingly embraced minorities and trained them. With a lack of support for the education of the inner city poor where can they possibly go but to lower income jobs? So apparently “Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses…” no longer applies in this country.
A 2009 study by Pew Research showed the drop in household wealth for Hispanics was a whopping 66%, while Blacks faired little better losing 53% of wealth over four years (2005-2009).
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The percent of our revenue from business income is one of the lowest of any European and Asian society, those countries make closer to double the percent of GDP vs. the U.S.
SS = 865 Billion
Individual Income = 899 Billion
Corporate = 191 Billion
All of us came here from somewhere, the exception being native Indians, and benefited from the ideas in Emma Lazurus' (born of Portuguese Jews) poem.. And some very smart wealthy men (including the President) have said they would gladly pay higher taxes to keep this idea alive.
Click chart to enlarge
A Pew Center and CBO study named these as the main reason for a decline in U.S. financial standing:
▪ Revenue declines due to two recessions, separate from the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003: 28%
▪ Defense spending increases: 15%
▪ Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003: 13%
▪ Increases in net interest: 11%
▪ Other non-defense spending: 10%
▪ Other tax cuts: 8%
▪ Obama Stimulus: 6%
▪ Medicare Part D: 2%
• Other reasons: 7%
I opened my film business in 1991 hiring crews of up to 30, employing four, reps in the Midwest and New York plus summer interns, greatly improved a 6500 square foot studio, provided food for neighborhood down and outs and was bringing in business from all over the country. By 2005 most of the assets had been sold and what was once a high tech studio remained shuttered for over five years and the neighborhood declined.
This period represented a switch from a democrat in the Governor’s office to a Republican one, but was mostly under a Clinton presidency. Under Grandholm 2003-2011 the studio became a nursing school and the neighborhood thrived. Young creatives moved to Detroit started high tech businesses like mine and I had more offers to work feature films than I could handle.
I rode out the first recession, but saw the second one coming as the automotives continued to spend, not on the future, but on the cash cow, the SUV. Many of them now support the film industry and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is working to keep the city growing with a new incentive for employees to move downtown called “Live Detroit”.
From Crain’s Detroit Business:
“Here's how the incentives work: New homeowners can receive a $20,000 forgivable loan; new renters a $2,500 rental allowance (and $1,000 for the second year). In addition, existing renters will receive $1,000 for renewing a lease, and existing homeowners can receive matching funds of up to $5,000 for exterior improvements on projects of $10,000 or more.”
For me it’ll be back to high tech with the hope that the Republicans, who seem to always make a creative girls life miserable, will realize after the terrible news from Norway that some of the Tea Party types they have aligned with will ruin this economy and send its poor and its huddled masses packing.
These are the member countries of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the chart above.
