by Dorothy Hoffman

Created on: October 02, 2010

The children of the 60s were into flower power and antiwar protests. In the 80s we had the “me generation” and learned that “greed is good.”

Of course, there were plenty of selfish people in the 60s, and for that matter, in every decade. And many people from the 80s into the new millennium have worked for the good of their communities and the world at large. But I believe Western society, and the United States in particular, has become far more focused on “what’s in it for me” than it was in the past.

Modern “free market” societies in fact are based on the greed-is-good principle, and this unquestioned faith in cut-throat capitalism has taken on a kind of religious fervor among the American political and business elite. Politicians and pundits, when the gap between the haves and have-nots is at an all-time high, still seem eager to work on behalf of the wealthiest and most privileged, while the hard-working middle class sinks deeper into poverty. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, our government gave us Social Security to ensure that people who’d worked hard all their lives wouldn’t face starvation and poverty in retirement. Government supported work projects put the unemployed to work and helped build the nations infrastructure for the good of all.

After our most recent economic meltdown, the bankers and Wall Street felt entitled to their corporate jets and huge bonuses after creating a global financial crisis that wiped out the life savings of millions of ordinary citizens. When it comes to cutting costs, the workers are asked to make the sacrifices – giving up benefits, health care, pensions, even their jobs and homes; the rich and powerful get bailed out.

Though many highly respected economists today tell us you can’t dig out of a serious recession by cutting costs and lowering taxes on the rich, our leaders are using our economic troubles as an excuse to undermine the all the social safety nets we fought for and won in the New Deal and Great Society– Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment insurance – when millions of citizens need these social services more than ever.

Meanwhile, tax cuts for the rich are defended, health care “reform” focuses more on guaranteeing record-breaking profits for insurance and pharmaceutical companies than providing good, affordable care for all, and immigrants working in the lowest-paying and most difficult jobs are

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