Photos: History of Economic Downturns

As a public high school teacher, the current state of our public institutions reflect our values as a society, from my point of view. We are bailing out these failing institutions with taxpayer dollars while the state of our public school system continues to decline. I ask American voters to consider the following comparison of our institutions: private sector financial powerhouses vs. our public school system.

Good teachers are being laid off and class sizes are growing. No child left behind is a law that requires improvements without the promised funding to implement these improvements. And our schools are listed as "failing schools" because of unrealistic goals from unfunded mandates by the federal government. What is left in our public schools is often a stressed out skeleton staff that does not have the ability to properly educate our students.

Meanwhile, corporate lobbyists effectively secured deregulation and what they consider "optimal" conditions for their financial success (deregulation). And a few well-connected people have lined their pockets with enormous amounts of other peoples' money.

This sort of short-term gain at the expense of long-term growth way of thinking has infected our entire way of running our society. Enough is enough.

Unfortunately middle and lower class young people (the MAJORITY) of our future do not have the money or the resources to hire corporate lobbyists. Their teachers and their schools have very limited resources. Where are the organized efforts to actually support the reform and progress to advance our public schools into the 21st century and educate and prepare our future?

In every other developed and developing country we compare our students' progress with, there is a clear and dedicated effort to improve, fund, and prioritize education. In America, we are starving our schools while bailing out reckless fat cats who've thrived on greed. Is this the American Way? Or have we lost our way?

Imagine where we might be in ten years if only a FRACTION of the billions our federal government has spent on the Iraq war and corporate bailouts were actually INVESTED in making our public schools the most advanced in the world. THAT IS INVESTMENT. We will be "paid back" in our BEST capital resource: Highly Educated American Workers. This is NO LONGER A DEMOCRAT VS REPUBLICAN "WEDGE" ISSUE!

Let this be a lesson. Hopefully (as we say in class) we will learn from our mistakes and use our lessons to improve, grow, and succeed - hasn't that been the American Way?

To Just Steve: had Social Security been privatized 30 years ago there would not be a problem with Social Security. Come to think of it, had Clinton not vetoed drilling in ANWAR we would not be in as bad of an energy mess.

Totalitarian democracy is a term made famous by Israeli historian J. L. Talmon to refer to a system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government. The phrase had previously been used by Bertrand de Jouvenel and E.H. Carr.

Well, did you ever think we would have state run mortgage companies, insurance, investment and banking companies? We do. So why are people so concerned with socialized healthcare? Anyway, why don't we merge with China and Russia so we can atleast streamline the new totalitarian regime and get rid of the redundant beaureacrats?

I believe the upset on Wall Street may be the begining of a permanent change in humankind. We are witnessing greed and short term thinking, lack of regulation on an unprecendent scale. This also explains corporations dumping pollutants into the skies, seas and land. This explains mass human slaughter in Africa, Russian agression, Chinese lack of abiding by international fair trade agreements, Americans use of SUVs. Chicken Little was right. Over population, lack of time, greed and other factors all point to a major world-wide disaster, such as pandemic, breakdown in a total ecological system such as a dead Atlantic Ocean or Antarctic melt down. The end for life as usual is showing up in Wall Street.

america's a big country. here in the eastern midwest and the rust belt, the 80's were worse than the 30's. for one thing, industries like coal, iron, and heavy manufacturing disappeared permanently, instead of going through a temporary downturn. but california boomed in the 80's, just like it did in the 30's. these last two "recessions" wouldn't even have been called recessions 20 years ago. but i'm sure certain parts of the country are hit pretty hard right now.

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