Taxes Are Last Step Not First

[This blog post contains both a Gazette column, immediately below, a variation that appeared in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the earlier blog post from which both were drawn [Introduction; Follow the Money; Where to Begin], and a sample of two of the comments they produced.]

Decisions Must Come Before Taxes

Nicholas Johnson

The Gazette, January 3, 2018, p. A5
[link to location on Gazette Web site.]
The worst thing about tax cut discussions is the “Oh, look at the squirrel” distraction from what we should be talking about.

Example? Cutting Iowa employers’ taxes can’t create more jobs when employers say their real problem is a shortage of skilled workers.

If a skilled workforce is needed, it’s time to increase, not slash, funding for the state’s universities and community colleges that create those workers.

What is your vision for America?

Some believe we are a nation of 320 million rugged individualists, where everyone is obliged to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps — even those without boots. As Grover Norquist revealed, “My goal is to get government down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Others believe those benefiting from a community are morally obliged to care for everyone in the human family. Some cite Jesus’ urging us to provide food, drink, clothing, health care, and prison visits for “the least of these.”

Until we decide whether we want an America of rugged individualism or humanitarianism, little agreement on public policy can follow.

This newspaper is full of reporting and opinion about our plethora of policy challenges — affordable housing, education, environment, flood control, health care, homelessness, hunger, jobs, net neutrality, refugees, transportation, water quality. The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas project explores some answers.

Lynda Waddington recently described Philip Alston’s U.N. report on U.S. poverty and human rights. Read his comparative rankings for U.S. infant mortality (highest), water and sanitation (36th in the world), incarceration rate (highest), youth poverty (highest), poverty and inequality (35th of 37). [Philip Alston, "Statement on Visit to the USA on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights," United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner Human Rights, December 15, 2017.]

We built this America. Is it the nation and state you want? No? Then fix it. How do we do that? In order:

1. Don’t start with tax talk.

2. Decide whether we’re rugged individualists or humanitarians.

3. Provide enforcement of metrics for the values and society we want — for ourselves and “the least of these” — not just aspirations.

4. Develop public policies that can reach those goals.

5. Calculate their costs.

6. Explore ways of accomplishing goals through education and training, philanthropy and volunteerism, churches and trade unions, corporate policies and cost avoidance, other innovative approaches.

7. Propose a tax code, consistent with community values, sufficient to provide the remaining, necessary public funding. And remember:

• No tax cuts until there are surpluses and declining debt.

• When corporations and the wealthy have trillions of dollars they don’t use, don’t hand them more.

• Consumer spending drives 70 percent of the economy. If stimulus is needed, give the money to the bottom 80 percent who will spend it.

8. Vote.

Philip Alston reports that only 64 percent of Americans bother to register, and many of them don’t vote. In Canada and the U.K., 91 percent register, 96 percent in Sweden, nearly 99 percent in Japan.

Could that possibly be a part of our problem?
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• Nicholas Johnson is a former law professor and commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission. Comments: mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org

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Taxes Are Last Step, Not the First, to Making U.S. Great

Nicholas Johnson

Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 27, 2018, p. A6
The worst thing about tax cut discussions is the “Oh, look at the squirrel” distraction from what we should be talking about.

Example? Cutting Iowa employers’ taxes can’t create more jobs when employers say their real problem is a shortage of skilled workers.

If a skilled workforce is needed, it’s time to increase, not slash, funding for the state’s universities and community colleges that create those workers.

What is your vision for America?

Some believe we are a nation of 320 million rugged individualists, where everyone is obliged to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps — even those without boots. As Grover Norquist revealed, “My goal is to get government down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Others believe those benefiting from a community are morally obliged to care for everyone in the human family. Some cite Jesus’ urging us to provide food, drink, clothing, health care, and prison visits for “the least of these.”

Until we decide whether we want an America of rugged individualism or humanitarianism, little agreement on public policy can follow.

There’s no shortage of policy challenges, such as affordable housing, education, environment, health care, hunger, jobs, net neutrality, refugees, transportation and water quality.

Last month, Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, reported America’s standing among nations: infant mortality (we’re highest), water and sanitation (36th in the world), incarceration rate (highest), poverty and inequality (35th of 37). (Read more: https://tinyurl.com/y8avqv4p)

We built this America. Are the present policies of America, Iowa, and Iowa City what you want? No? Then fix it. How do we do that? In order:

1. Don’t start with tax talk.

2. Decide whether we’re rugged individualists or humanitarians.

3. Provide enforcement of metrics for the values and society we want — for ourselves and “the least of these” — not just aspirations.

4. Develop public policies that can reach those goals.

5. Calculate their costs.

6. Explore ways of accomplishing goals through education and training, philanthropy and volunteerism, churches and trade unions, corporate policies and cost avoidance, other innovative approaches.

7. Propose a tax code, consistent with community values, sufficient to provide the remaining, necessary public funding. And remember:

• No tax cuts until there are surpluses and declining debt.

• When corporations and the wealthy have trillions of dollars they don’t use, don’t hand them more.

• Consumer spending drives 70 percent of the economy. If stimulus is needed, give the money to the bottom 80 percent who will spend it.

8. Vote.

Alston reports that only 64 percent of Americans bother to register, and many of them don’t vote. In Canada and the U.K., 91 percent register, 96 percent in Sweden, nearly 99 percent in Japan.

Could that possibly be a part of our problem?

Nicholas Johnson is a former law professor and commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission.

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Original Blog Post
Why Would You Want to Do That?
Introduction. It's not easy losing weight, and I wanted to share my accomplishment with my doctor.

"Got my weight down to 215 pounds," I proudly said, "and my new goal is 210" -- before I realized what would surely come next. It did.

"Why would you want to do that?" he asked. It was not the first time during the previous near-forty years he'd uttered those words.

If medical treatment was essential he'd provide it. Otherwise, if he thought a patient had a touch of anxiety about their health, he believed some exercise and a sense of calm and well being were often as good as, and always cheaper than, any pills he could prescribe.

He appeared puzzled. "Don't you experience the joy of eating?" he continued. "Why deprive yourself of that pleasure?"

"I just thought it might be better for my health," I mumbled. Whereupon he brought out the morbidity and mortality data to reassure me that the additional five pounds would provide no statistically significant difference in my health or longevity.

Follow the Money. I thought again of his words when reading about the Republicans' plan to put $1.5 trillion on a credit card and then hand over the cash to billionaires. "Why would you want to do that?"

The top 1% of Americans own 40% of the country's wealth -- more than the total owned by the bottom 90% combined, more than anytime in the last 50 years. Worldwide, the total wealth of 62 families exceeds that of 3.4 billion people. [Christopher Ingraham, "The Richest 1 Percent Now Owns More of the Country's Wealth Than at Any Time in the Past 50 Years," The Washington Post, December 6, 2017.] [Photo credit: Kalynn Hines, "Why Are All American Houses Like Mansions?" Quora.]

It's hard to get a precise number on the dollar value of the wealth of individuals in the 1%. It depends on which economist you ask, what is and isn't counted, means vs. medians, and what year you use. But here are some (approximate) numbers from 2007 (obviously there have been substantial increases during the last 10 years of a soaring stock market).

Top 1% -- $14,000,000
Top 5% -- $1,250,000
Middle Fifth -- $110,000
Bottom Fifth -- -$14,000 (debt)

Joshua Kennon, "How Much Money Does It Take to be In the Top 1% of Wealth and Net Worth in the United States," Thoughts on Business, Politics, and Life, Table 3, November 14, 2011.

Even more significant is the near-two-trillion dollars of cash (and cash equivalents) held by American corporations (one-third of it by the top 5; 72% held overseas). [Matt Krantz, "A Third of Cash is Held by 5 U.S. Companies," USA Today, May 22, 2016.]

"OK, so what's your point?" you ask.

Ultimately, I want to address why a discussion of taxes is not the right place to begin. But since that's where the nation's dialog is at the moment, let's deal with it.

1. There's a "National Debt Clock" that increases by the second. On December 23, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. CT, the national debt was $20.6 trillion and growing. If massive tax cuts might sometime be appropriate, this is not that time.

2. If there ever were to be rational tax cuts they should come after the national debt is significantly reduced, and from balanced budget surpluses. Putting the cost of tax cuts on a credit card makes no more sense that paying for wars of choice with debt.

3. Why mention individuals' wealth and corporations' cash reserves? Because when there are trillions in cash sitting on the sidelines and bank loan rates are relatively low, there is no compelling rationale for handing out more cash to those who already have access to more than they can use.

4. Using the funds to improve the environment and the lives of those at the bottom of the wealth pyramid would not only create more human happiness per dollar, but would also more effectively boost an economy 70% dependent upon consumer spending. The wealthy already have most of what they need or want, and tend to invest, rather than spend, any excess income. [Photo credit: unknown; file photo.]

5. If the idea of helping the bottom 50% is not appealing, the money could at least better be used to carry out President Trump's expressed support for massive, essential, overdue, infrastructure projects.

In short, "Why would you want to do that?" It doesn't make economic sense.

But economics -- more specifically taxes -- is not where this conversation should begin.

Where To Begin? Imagine this breakfast table conversation:

"What are your plans for the day?"

"Oh, I thought I'd go down to the bank and borrow some money."

"How much?"

"Maybe $10,000, maybe $25,000. I don't know."

"Tell me now, why would you want to borrow that much money?"

"I don't know. I was just thinking I'd like to have more money."

"But you wouldn't have more money. After paying off the loan and interest you'd have less money. What are you going to do with the money anyway?"

"Just have it. I haven't really thought about what I'd actually do with the money."

That's one unlikely breakfast conversation. This one is more likely:

"We have to fix that big hole in the roof. How are we going to pay for it?

Insurance should cover most of it. And what better use for our "rainy day fund"? "Rainy day fund," get it?

Yeah, I get it. It's just that right now I don't find it funny. What if we need more?

Once we find out how much it's going to be, if we don't have enough I can always go down to the bank for a loan.

Where do you start? You start with your desire for a warm, dry house, and the ongoing maintenance to keep it that way. Then you address how you're going to pay for it.

That's how it ought to be with all governmental budgets -- city, county, state, and our federal budget. You don't ignore economic growth, the need for revenue, and tax policy. It's just that you don't start there.

You start with the most fundamental question. From your answer to that one the answers to the others will more easily flow.

Do you believe you have an obligation -- or if not, at least a desire and willingness -- to create an America that is a large, caring community in which no one is invisible? Or, do you find more appealing a country of individuals, with everyone on their own, where "greed is good," pollution is acceptable as long as it's profitable, and everyone must "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" -- regardless of whether or not they have boots -- until they, like you, can say, "I've got mine, Jack"?

If we're not just talking about professions of belief on Sunday, but the supporting evidence of action throughout the week, there is a discouraging quantity of evidence that a substantial number of Americans, and their elected representatives, are somewhere between a willingness to accept, and an enthusiasm for, the second choice.

So, let's pause for a moment to examine where America may have holes in its roof -- and its safety net.

I am indebted to The Gazette's Lynda Waddington for bringing to my attention Philip Alston, "Statement on Visit to the USA on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights," United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner Human Rights, December 15, 2017. (Mr. Alston is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.) Lynda Waddington, "American Poverty is On Display," The Gazette, December 23, 2017, p. A5 (not yet available online).

When Philip Alston crawled up there on America's roof to take a look, here are some of the things he found.

In talking with people in the different states and territories I was frequently asked how the US compares with other states. While such comparisons are not always perfect, a cross-section of statistical comparisons provides a relatively clear picture of the contrast between the wealth, innovative capacity, and work ethic of the US, and the social and other outcomes that have been attained.

• By most indicators, the US is one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
• It spends more on national defense than China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan combined.
• US health care expenditures per capita are double the OECD average and much higher than in all other countries. But there are many fewer doctors and hospital beds per person than the OECD average.
• US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world.
• Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the “health gap” between the U.S. and its peer countries continues to grow.
• U.S. inequality levels are far higher than those in most European countries.
• Neglected tropical diseases, including Zika, are increasingly common in the USA. It has been estimated that 12 million Americans live with a neglected parasitic infection. A 2017 report documents the prevalence of hookworm in Lowndes County, Alabama.
• The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world.
• In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world.
• America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand and the Russian Federation. Its rate is nearly 5 times the OECD average.
• The youth poverty rate in the United States is the highest across the OECD with one quarter of youth living in poverty compared to less than 14% across the OECD.
• The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality ranks the most well-off countries in terms of labor markets, poverty, safety net, wealth inequality, and economic mobility. The US comes in last of the top 10 most well-off countries, and 18th amongst the top 21.
• In the OECD the US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality.
• According to the World Income Inequality Database, the US has the highest Gini rate (measuring inequality) of all Western Countries.
• The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality characterizes the US as “a clear and constant outlier in the child poverty league.” US child poverty rates are the highest amongst the six richest countries – Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Norway.
• About 55.7% of the U.S. voting-age population cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. In the OECD, the U.S. placed 28th in voter turnout, compared with an OECD average of 75%. Registered voters represent a much smaller share of potential voters in the U.S. than just about any other OECD country. Only about 64% of the U.S. voting-age population (and 70% of voting-age citizens) was registered in 2016, compared with 91% in Canada (2015) and the UK (2016), 96% in Sweden (2014), and nearly 99% in Japan (2014).

Is that really the country you want? Or is it just kind of what happened while we were watching the Superbowl game, neither voting nor otherwise paying attention?

That's where we need to begin. What kind of country do we want? Is it inevitable, or at least OK, that we are accelerating climate change, that some people are just going to have to sleep on the streets, go without healthcare, lack adequate nutrition, education, job training, and the dignity that comes from at least some kind of regular work?

There is no secret sauce. It's clear what we could do, and how to do it. Other countries have offered us examples of how to create a caring nation -- one in which everyone has healthcare and meaningful work to do, one in which free public education extends beyond the 12th grade, one in which there's always someone to care for those without family or friends. Indeed, we accomplished some of these things ourselves coming out from under the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Until we candidly confront the kind of country we have become, decide we want a change, and fashion the programs that can bring it about, we can't begin to address how much it will cost, the best ways to pay for it -- and how to restructure our tax system.

# # #
Comments
Note: These columns and blog post generated much positive comment. With the permission of the authors, I reproduce here two emails that are illustrative of the others. Most merely addressed the proposed process and thought it a good idea. The author of the second comment, below, assumed hypothetically that the proposed process was in place and set forth some of the values and approaches he would bring to the table.

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I am an old man soon to be 79. was the Mayor of my small town for 8 years. HEAR-HEAR for your logical thoughts.

I wish the common sense you express was a very contagious viral disease and you could haunt the halls of all our elected bodies, state and federal, and infect all our law makers.

I am contacting my reps and telling to read and heed your thoughts.

Please continue your efforts to instill common sense in the electorate.

-- James Raymond

____________________
Read your piece in the Gazette today.

There are 6 million open jobs in America looking for qualified applicants.

The immigration systems both legal and illegal are bringing in people who do not have the skills or ducation to fill those jobs. So I assume you oppose the current immigration systems. Many people say we need immigration but then why are so many jobs unfilled with millions of illegal immigrants here?

Let's fix it:

- Revise the immigration system to be merit based. Limit chain migration and lottery systems that support unskilled entrants. Fund the wall and improve border security. Address VISA's for foreign students who want to stay, they are skilled people. I'm OK with DACA given these limitations.

- Approve a national voucher system so parents can chose where their funding goes for their children's education. Eliminate the US Dept. of Education and start over.

- Slash university funding. Focus resources on the kinds of skills and education the economy needs and minimize producing people with degrees who cannot find a job that matches those degrees. The current situation creates financial individual burdens and wastes valuable resources on inefficient programs.

- Create more programs to encourage trade schools to fill the jobs required to support the economy. Connect the funding to actual economic needs.

- Approve a federal budget amendment to limit federal debt. There is no net benefit to keep pushing ourselves toward the brink of financial > ruin.

- Impose a border tax so that countries that limit trade with the US are limited in access to our economy. Develop trade policies that support American jobs not American wealth.

- Reform Social Security and Medicare. Eliminate people who have not supported funding the system (see immigration). Increase the expense for those that can afford to pay a larger percentage of the cost of service.

- Make sure that the bottom 80% have skin in the game. Handing out free money is a fool’s errand. Instead of minimizing the number of people in poverty government policy has actually grown the percentage of the population on government assistance. The Great Society has been a colossal failure. Refer to 6 million job openings.

I vote every election. I vote against every Democrat because their party has moved so far to the left as to be unrecognizable as American citizens. Obama and Hillary Clinton are being proven to be crooks worse than the Watergate affair. At least the Republicans had the guts to tell Nixon to leave.

In conclusion the level of taxation is well above what is reasonable in a free society. I understand your point about deciding who you want to be before setting a level of funding. We simply disagree with so much of the current funding it seems reasonable to try and starve the beast, or as Grover put it "drown it in a bath tub". I would point out that the usual zero-sum arguments made by progressives receive on distain from me. There is always middle ground. I think you proposed that but I'm not really sure.

-- Gary Ellis

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Mediacom's 1000% Interest Late Payment Fee

It takes a lot of money to survive in this economy if you're an unemployed single mother, trying to raise a couple of kids -- or working multiple jobs at the minimum wage or less. Millions of American men and women of all ages confront similar challenges.

How's that?

Dependent on public transportation, poor folks may end up paying convenience store prices for their groceries, rather than the cheaper prices (for more nutritious food) at Costco or mega-supermarkets. When there's "too much month at the end of the money" they have to borrow, paying interest on the money they use to pay their bills. If the bank won't loan to them, the interest on a "payday loan" to pay off the last payday loan may end up costing hundreds of dollars more than they initially borrow. Annual percentage rates of 400% are not unusual. If they're lucky enough to have a checking account, but unlucky enough to not have enough money in the bank, they may end up owing the bank $30 for each "insufficient funds" check -- plus another $30 to each of the merchants they were trying to pay, depending on merchants' charges for returned checks. [Photo credit: Nick Graham, staff, Dayton Daily News.]

These are expenses with which the wealthy are unfamiliar, because they've never had the experience of dealing with them.

However, there is one more expense analogous to Anatole France's observation that, "La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain." ("The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.") Le Lys Rouge, ch. 7.

Rich and poor alike are subject to the penalties for late cable bill payments.[fn 1]

Of course, like laws criminalizing the theft of bread, late payment fees fall heavier on some than others. The wealthy don't fail to pay their bills on time because they don't have the money. It's because they were on holiday in Europe when the bill arrived, put it in a pile of paper that they didn't go through in time, someone pays their bills for them, or they just don't care. For their poorer cousins it may mean one more payday loan.

I'm not wealthy. And I didn't major in STEM courses. But I do know enough math to work the numbers.

Here's an example of what I mean. Our City water bill is something less than $60 a month. What would it cost me, I wondered, if I just kept a balance of $60 with the City? These days it's hard to get more than 1% a year return on invested cash. So if I put that $60 in a savings account or CD it would produce 60 cents at the end of the year. That would be my cost, my loss, my "insurance policy" premium, for letting the City hold my $60 for a year. In exchange, I would never have to pay a single late payment fee (5% of the bill, plus unspecified "service fees" plus an additional fee for turning water back on). Such fees would be, in total, for a single offence, multiples of the 60-cent annual cost of avoiding them. And so long as I didn't fail to pay the bill for over two months I wouldn't have to worry about precise due dates.

It worked. No more risk of late payments fees. I started maintaining a balance with others. Except for the cable company, Mediacom. I tried it, but they seemed unable to handle the concept of a positive balance, so I gave up and tried to remember to pay promptly. Until this past month, when their bill got lost in a stack of paper, and they introduced me to their version of a late payments fee.

Now there's a little background you need.

• (1) To the best of my recollection I had a record of prompt cable payments every month for 28 years.

• (2) Very significant in this case, the cable company bills in advance. That is, I was charged a "late payment" fee for not paying in advance promptly enough for service I hadn't yet received (and is of often of unacceptable quality -- a technician is coming this morning to deal with broken signals[fn 2]).

• (3) Not knowing of the late payment fee that had been assessed on April 24, I had paid the amount due when the bill was discovered on April 26, in a check that cleared on April 27.

• (4) Thus, on the assumption that had I paid two or three days earlier the penalty would not have been imposed, what had the company lost? It had lost what it could have earned on $76.19 for (let us be most generous) four days. What would that have been at an annual percentage rate of 1%? Slightly less than one penny.

• (5) And how much was the penalty for this loss of 8/10ths of one cent? $8.50. And what is the annual percentage rate represented by $8.50 for four days use of $76.19? Roughly 1000% per year -- for paying a bill in full, four days late, for services not yet received. Rates like that make the pay-day-loan business look like a public charity.

Thirty years go this year (September 14, 1987), I was asked by an organization of cable company executives (CTAM) to participate in a debate with former FCC Chair Dick Wiley regarding the state of the cable industry. Here is a brief excerpt of my comments on that occasion. Although a bit harsh, they were delivered in good humor and received as such by the executives present. The question today is, just how much better has the industry become during the intervening years? Is it enough that they aren't dragging customers out of their recliners and onto the streets, airline style? Shouldn't we demand a higher standard?



[fn 1] I should make clear that the objection I advance in this post addresses the amount of the penalty for late payment, not the existence of such fees. The value of money, a payment, or a debt, is always a function of time. I would not deny for a moment that creditors are entitled to that value. I would strongly disagree that they are entitled to 400% (payday loan) or 1000% (cable company fee) returns during that time.

[fn 2] In fairness I should report that the two techs who came (and resolved the problems) were excellent in every way. They arrived at 10:00 for a 10:00 appointment, combined a friendly demeanor with a professional, experienced, serious approach to the challenges at hand, diagnosed more difficulties than they anticipated. Stuck with it until the problems were resolved, and left me a happy customer.

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Eastern Iowa's Declaration of Human Rights

Note: Each year around January 1 The Gazette calls upon its "Writers Circle" for brief pieces regarding the year to come. What follows was my contribution to "Writers Circle: Our Resolutions for 2017."

Focus on Our Common Values

Nicholas Johnson

The Gazette, January 1, 2017, p. D2
The prefix, “comm,” has been around for 700 years: “communication,” “the commons,” a “commune,” “communitarian,” “communal” – and “community.” My column in this space last year focused on the role of communications in defining and building a community.

This year’s focus is on our common values; the standards we want for all.

A couple weeks ago, in a play based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I played Mr. Fezziwig – a jolly employer with communal values, in stark contrast to their absence in Ebenezer Scrooge. It is a contrast, alas, that persists 170 years later.

Eastern Iowa, and this newspaper, are blessed with a good many Fezziwigs. My suggestion for 2017 is that we come together in the spirit of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights to draft our own (see especially Articles 25 and 26 – look it up).

What do we wish for all who live among us? We are all in need of something. Even the well-educated wealthy can suffer disabilities or addictions. But what can we do for those with less income, new immigrants, recently released prisoners, homeless veterans, or those with jobs but no reliable transportation?

A “community” should know, and implement, the answers.

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Doing It Ourselves

Include People in Process

Nicholas Johnson

The Gazette, July 24, 2106, p. D3
I started life in a house on the former underground railroad, in an Iowa City with “northern racism” -- few black students and fewer professors, none of whom could find a barber to cut their hair, or a landlord to rent them an apartment.

I spent the 1950s in a Texas with “southern racism” – including the poll tax and other remnants of slavery those underground travelers escaped. I clerked for a federal court of appeals judge when civil rights decisions sparked burning crosses in judges’ yards.

Later, as a President Johnson appointee, I watched how he passed the Voting Rights Act, knowing it would hand the South to the Republicans.

And how, as a result of that act, the mud and gravel roads in southern black neighborhoods began to be paved. The number of southern black legislators increased from 5 to 313.

Those memories came back to me as I read that Cedar Rapids’ leaders had met regarding a sub-set of local gun violence that gets little public or media attention: young black gang members shooting each other.

Ultimately, those leaders created the Safe, Equitable and Thriving (SET) Communities Task Force.

Wisely, the members chose to focus, not merely upon the existence and consequences of these shootings, but upon their causes. They mentioned “poverty, social vulnerabilities, and other systemic hardships.”

Having done so, they realized their challenge is less about race relations (though that’s involved) than about the basic needs of all residents – a challenge confronting most American cities.

The usual approach lists things like jobs at livable wages, housing, transportation, and healthcare – noting their interrelationship. Three weeks ago this paper addressed the adverse effect on education from both inadequate housing (in an editorial) and insufficient transportation (in a column).

Perhaps our answer this time will be found, not alone in substance (like housing proposals) but in process. The Task Force might first find the problems by focusing on those most impacted by what Cedar Rapids lacks (for them), rather than those most benefited by what it has. It might focus more on listening to their stories, recording and reporting anecdotal evidence, than on cold data and multiple choice questions. [Photo credit: Unknown; interviewing people where they live may be more revealing than the multiple choice questionnaire results from those willing to attend meetings.]

What if identifying each individual’s problems came before those of the community, a search through the catalog of alternative solutions, pilot projects, and the difficult task of final implementation?

We might just find that, like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, we, too, have been “waiting for someone/to really discover America,” and that our democracy requires more than voting. It needs citizens who feel, and are, included in the identification as well as the resolution of our challenges.

Indeed, our leaders might wish to meditate upon Lao Tsu’s 2500-year-old observation that the goal of a good leader is that “When his work is done [the people] will say, ‘We did this ourselves.’”

Iowa City now has less “northern racism.” And Cedar Rapids can have less shooting by gang members. We can do it. But only when the people can say, “We did this ourselves.”
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As a former FCC commissioner, Nicholas Johnson highlighted the role of media in race perceptions and relations and urged increased station ownership by women and minorities. Contact: mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org.

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Three Steps to Creating a Caring Community

September 13, 2015, 8:00 a.m.

Note: Looking for the blog about the UI president search? Click here.

Note: For a documentary related to this blog post ("Three Steps to Creating a Caring Community"), see Michael Moore's "Where to Invade Next." Here is a review from the Toronto Film Festival.

Create a Caring Community

Nicholas Johnson

The Gazette, September 13, 2015, p. C3
What does it take to create a civic society, a sense of community, a preservation of culture?

Our Declaration of Independence asserts that every American is “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The World Bank reports 2.2 billion people try to subsist on less than $2.00 a day. Our Census Bureau says 45 million Americans (half are children) live below the poverty threshold.

Poverty, whether here or abroad, can put quite a crimp in one’s life, liberty and happiness. Indeed, a Princeton study found you can buy additional happiness -- up to $75,000. (Additional income adds nothing.)

But even in a capitalist (or our corporatist) country, true happiness -- self-actualization, sense of self-worth, a sense of community – requires more than money.

We’re aware of income inequality, the gap between us and the 1%. But what of the happiness gap?

Let’s say roughly 30% of Americans confront challenges and conditions – in addition to finding too much month at the end of the money – that limit their sense of self-fulfillment.

Clearly, we provide them some government and volunteer assistance. Equally clearly, it’s not enough. And when money’s tight the support is cut. That is, in part, due to the political power of the “I’ve got mine, Jack,” “Greed is good,” “I built that” persuasion. [Photo credit: St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, Altadena, California.]

Adam Edelen, Kentucky’s state auditor of public accounts, said “it is not Christian” to cut health coverage; “maybe this side of the aisle should put down the books of Ayn Rand and pick up the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”

The Pope and many religious leaders agree. Others draw similar conclusions from basic ethics and morality.

That ought to be enough. Unfortunately, it’s not. Little rationale beyond trickle-down is required to enact billionaires’ tax breaks. Programs for the 30% have to prove their tax savings – or increased businesses’ profits.

Fortunately, this proof is often available – even if it should not need to be. Most of Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposals are not only supported by 50-to-80% of America’s voters, they have been adopted by most industrialized nations, and found to produce more wealth than they cost.

The 30% are not just homeless drug addicts. Some belong to highly skilled trades, or hold graduate degrees, like a Ph.D. who can’t find a teaching position.

Some cities find the cost of housing for the homeless is less than the total costs of keeping them on the streets.

Mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes cost taxpayers, impact families, and reduce inmates’ education and potential productivity. Tuition-free college education built our nation’s economy after World War II with the GI Bill, California and New York’s later, and Germany’s today. The cost of four years in prison would pay for four years in college. Drug courts are cheaper than prison.

The 30% includes those who can’t afford desperately needed dental and medical care. And yet universal single-payer health care costs less and returns more than emergency room visits – or even health insurance.

Concerned about the economy? It’s 70% driven with consumer spending. Minimum wage increases will be spent immediately. A full employment, federal government as employer of last resort policy, would create substantial improvements to our communities, increase the skills and self-esteem of those now welfare-dependent, and give the economy a boost.

There are similar approaches to other challenges of the 30%. Persons of color who, regardless of socio-economic status, must daily deal with systemic racism. Single mothers earning minimum wage. Persons with physical or mental disabilities. College grads, burdened with debt. Those who’ve lost homes or farms. Those addicted to alcohol or tobacco. Residents of East Los Angeles, without cars, who provide services to those in West LA – after hours on buses.

How do we create a sense of community? We focus first on “doing well by doing good” for the 30%. Then on the “middle class.” And last on the top 1%. Our only problem has been that we had it backwards.
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Nicholas Johnson, a native of Iowa City and former FCC commissioner, maintains http://nicholasjohnson.org and http://FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com. Comments: mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org

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Forbes, Mural, Poverty and 7 Presidential Candidates

August 17, 2008, 11:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m.

Currently Most Popular Blog Entries
"Earthpark: 'Pretty Quiet Phase; No Timetable to Speak of,'" August 14, 2008.
"UI Sexual Assault Update," July 19-August 9, and related Web page, "University of Iowa Sexual Assault Controversy -- 2007-08," July 19-present.
"Media's Medicines," August 12, 2008.
"How to Build an Indoor Rain Forest," July 10, 2008.
"Georgia on My Mind," August 13, 2008.
"Police Accidental Shootings -- Of Themselves," May 9, 2008.
"Random Thoughts on Law School Rankings," April 29, 2008.

Forbes and Ferentz

Forbes magazine has been ranking colleges and universities -- and their football coaches. Forbes is no friend of the University of Iowa. It ranks the University 331 out of the 569 ranked schools. Hana R. Alberts, Michael Noer and David M. Ewalt, eds., "America's Best Colleges," Forbes, August 13, 2008, 6:00 p.m.

And while "We're Number One!" "We're Number One!" in at least one category, we'll probably want to consider postponing any public celebrations of the honor.

Forbes ran a kind of comparative benefit-cost analysis of what every college football coach is being paid, and what they are producing for the money. The University of Iowa came in number one in the nation for "most overpaid coach."

Peter J. Schwartz, "The Business Of College Football; The Best (And Worst) College Football Coaches For The Buck," Forbes, August 13, 2008, 6:00 p.m. ET ("But the best bargain was Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, who scored a 122. Tressel has led the Buckeyes to the last two national championship games (losing to Florida in 2007 and Louisiana State in 2008) and was paid $2.6 million last season, less than eight of his peers. . . . The most overpaid coach is Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, who made $3.4 million last year despite lackluster results on the field, for a score of 71. Just how lopsided is Ferentz’s deal? During the last three years he’s pocketed $10 million, including a record $4.7 million in 2006, but has led the Hawkeyes to just a 19-18 record.").

If the Press-Citizen's Pat Harty is to be believed, it doesn't look all that much better for the 2008 football season. Pat Harty, "Lack of competition for starting jobs is alarming," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 17, 2008, in this morning's paper as, "Offense Up in the Air; Lack of Desire is Alarming," p. B1.

Of Mural and Money

Fungibles -- whether bushels of graded corn or cars -- have cost, market price, and based on their potential use by the owner, a "value." Lose one, or break one, and you can just buy another. "It's only money."

Irreplaceable natural resources, such as petroleum, are thought to have a "value," and price, that are merely equivalent to the cost of removing and consuming them (plus profits) -- not the millions of years it will take to replace them, or the billions of dollars it will take to find replacements for a fossil-fuel-based economy. It's "use it and lose it."

Paintings, or a multi-generation family Bible, likewise, have a cost (materials and artist's time) and market price. But their "value" is something that exits separate and apart from the economist's realm.

And so it is with the UI's Jackson Pollock painting. See, Nicholas Johnson, "Selling the Pollock" in "Floodplains, Art and Celebrities' Affairs," August 9, 2008, and . . .

Editorial, "True value of Iowa's art? Priceless," Des Moines Register, August 17, 2008 ("'Mural' belongs to the people of Iowa - those alive today and future generations. It's one of Iowa's gems, the same way public land, artifacts, monuments and rare documents are pieces of this state's history. . . . Iowa leaders should recognize the value of these items and places - beyond what they could bring at an auction.").

Pamela White, "What's the value of 'Mural'? Irreplaceable," Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 16, 2008 ("Museums have stringent standards regarding when it is appropriate to sell artwork from their collections. Donors give their art to museums in trust so future generations may enjoy and learn from them, and it is the duty of the museum to honor the donor's intention and to ensure that the art remains in public, not private, hands.").

Performance and Poverty

Richard Doak, who has had a long and distinguished journalistic career, including as an editor and columnist, is in fact one of Iowa's best sources of thoughtfully creative public policy analyzes. This morning he lays out a persuasive case for increasing educational performance by decreasing poverty. Richard Doak, "Best reform in education? End poverty," Des Moines Register, August 17, 2008 ("Poverty in itself does not produce low student achievement, but the conditions of life for children in poverty are not conducive to learning. . . . In the richest country in the world, a certain level of poverty seems to be increasingly intractable, chronically pushing down the average on test scores, among other social pathologies.

Finland, South Korea, Canada, Japan and other countries that outperform the United States in education are not as wealthy as America, but their gaps between rich and poor are not as wide. The wealth they do have is more evenly distributed. So is their student achievement.

We might not want to talk about it, but one of the most serious problems in contemporary America is the deep and widening chasm between rich and poor. There is a segment of the population . . . who are at risk of becoming members of a permanent underclass . . . in which poor and undereducated parents beget poor and undereducated children. . . .

[P]oliticians find it convenient to blame the schools, bash teachers and demand non-solutions such as vouchers. The political right chants a mantra that is uttered like one word: thefailingpublicschools.

Wrong. It is not the public schools that are failing. It is the larger American culture and economy.").

Look Who's Running for President

Jason Clayworth, "Seven presidential candidates on ballot," Des Moines Register, August 16, 2008,

"Iowans will have seven presidential candidates to choose from when they go to the polls in November," and here they are:

"PRESIDENT: (In addition to Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama) Bob Barr, Wayne A. Root for the Libertarian Party; James Harris, Alyson Kennedy for the Socialist Workers Party; Gloria La Riva, Robert Moses for the Socialism and Liberation Party; Cynthia McKinney, Wendy Barth for the Green Party; Ralph Nader, Matt Gonzalez for the Peace and Freedom Party."

. . . Knock, knock. Who's there? Shmoo. Shmoo who?

A high school friend who has been staying at our home just gave me what I guess is what we used to call a "house gift." It's called a "shmoo" (spelled by some as "schmoo").

In case shmoon (the plural) are unfamiliar to you, permit me to quote a line from the Wikipedia lengthy entry: "A shmoo (plural shmoon, also shmoos) is a fictional cartoon creature. It first appeared in Al Capp's newspaper comic strip Li'l Abner, on August 31, 1948."

In short, the Shmoo is coming up on his or her 60th birthday.

The only reason I mention this gift at all, thereby risking your judgment that I have finally totally fallen off the ledge, is because the donor is curious to know how many of you out there have any memory of these creatures -- or in fact actually have one of your own. I think it is social science research of some kind. Feel free to attach your comments to this blog entry and I'll pass them along to him.

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How To (And Not To) Grow Iowa's Economy

January 27, 2008, 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; January 28, 2008, 3:45 p.m.; January 30, 2008, 10:00 a.m.

"Our Quick Take on This Weekend's Stories
The Press-Citizen has a regular Sunday editorial page column called "Our Quick Take on Last Week's News Stories." Editorial, "Our View -- Our quick take on last week's news stories," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 27, 2008, p. A9.

But its Saturday issue contained so many stories that relate to topics followed by this blog that I've decided we can have an "Our Quick Take on This Weekend's Stories."

The folly of corporate subsidies vs. the sure path to economic development.

We often comment about the folly of injecting taxpayers' money (in the form of tax breaks, TIFs, infrastructure development, and outright bribery) onto the bottom line of for-profit businesses -- sometimes in general, such as Nicholas Johnson, "Courage, Councillors," Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 3, 2007, and sometimes with specific examples, such as most recently, Nicholas Johnson, "Football, Skating and Corporate Welfare," January 25, 2008 (both Genencor and Burlington's sad mall experience with the disappearing developer).

So yesterday we learned that we must add a couple examples from North Liberty to the long list of disasters following in the wake of such giveaways. Kathryn Fiegen, "N. Liberty looking ahead after closings; Officials discuss what city can do," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 26, 2008, p. A1.

A company called "Victor Plastics" has begun laying off its 420 workers, following Whirlpool's recent announcement that it is leaving North Liberty -- and its 92 local employees who will be left unemployed.

North Liberty Mayor Tom Salm "said he couldn't remember if any financial incentives were offered to Victor Plastics when it came to the community." However, "North Liberty officials offered Maytag [subsequently acquired by Whirlpool] incentives such as Tax Increment Financing [ a TIF], a tax abatement, construction of the water main and the etension of Jones Boulevard to 240th Street to locate in the community." So it's likely Victor Plastics was similarly bribed in some way.

It's scarcely one day later [Jan. 28] and already we have yet one more very sad story of the "tangled webs we weave" and the consequences of subsidizing for-profit enterprises with taxpayers' dollars: Lee Rood, "An Iowa town's 'gamble on future' stirs concern," Des Moines Register, January 28, 2008.

City Councils: "When will they every learn?"

. . . So how can we more effectively promote economic growth?

By providing the things that really do attract businesses -- as the linked blog entry, above, quotes a Genencor executive as stating its reasons for coming to Cedar Rapids, "because of its geographic location in the center of the country and its proximity to the fuel ethanol and corn sweetener manufacturing sector."

The Register editorializes this morning, Editorial, "Make Quality of Life Iowa's Edge," Des Moines Register, Des Moines Register, January 27, 2008, p. OP1. Certainly, that's a valid suggestion.

But much of quality of life, and the things that attracted Genencor, are attractions of geography over which we do not have total control.

A far more universal attraction is the well educated workforce that is dependent on things which we can control.

Iowa has well educated community college and university graduates. Unfortunately, because they leave the state after receiving that education, they don't constitute a workforce and therefore aren't much of an attraction for business. Kyle Carson, "Young Iowans Do the Math on Salaries -- and Leave; Commission Urges Higher-Ed Tax Credit and Help With Repaying Student Loans," Des Moines Register, January 27, 2008, p. OP1; "Commission Members Weigh In On Worker Shortage," Des Moines Register, January 27, 2008, p. OP6.

For a lawyer, Kyle Carson cuts to the core of the answer with an unusual economy of words: "So what should Iowa do? Pay them more."

And just how bad is it? Consider the recent report on "affordable housing":

The report said about 13 percent of people in the study area work in industries with entry-level wages of less than $15,000 annually, and another 40 percent work in industries with entry-level wages between $15,000 and $20,000. Almost 30 percent of all households in the study area have incomes less than $25,000.

The analysis determined that to afford a median-priced home in the area -- $162,000 -- a household income would have to earn about $53,150 and and not have much additional debt. The study said only 389 units were sold in 2006 that were valued at $100,000 or less, equaling about 15 percent of the total transactions that year.

Kathryn Fiegen, "Study warns of housing shortfall; Area prices outpacing incomes," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 24, 2008. (The study, prepared by Mullin & Lonergan Associates, Pittsburgh, was described by Fiegen as a "127-page, data-intense report.) That report was the basis for a meeting reported in the paper on Saturday: Rob Daniel, "Summit: Housing policy needed; Lack of affordable housing reaching all area sectors," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 26, 2008, p. A3.

And how can Iowa "pay them more"?

When was the last time you heard a boss say, "I'm feeling guilty about exploiting you guys with these low wages, seeing your kids go hungry, and without health care or new shoes, so starting next Monday everybody gets a 50% wage hike." It's not likely to happen.

A single person, out of work and desperately needing a job, is not in a very strong bargaining position when confronting a potential employer in front of him -- with 700 people standing in line behind that job applicant, all equally anxious to win one of five new job positions.

That's why they invented unions and "collective bargaining." "For the union makes us strong," is the old union song lyric; at least strong enough to get something more than the minimum wage for long hours at backbreaking work in unsafe working conditions.

Without unions professionals wages are driven down to those of skilled trades people; wages for skilled tradespeople that should be at union levels are driven down to those of unskilled labor; unskilled labor get paid what the working poor earn elsewhere -- and those in every pay category leave Iowa.

That being the case, I find it remarkable that neither Kyle Carson nor any other member of the Commission -- nor for that matter the Governor, members of the legislature, media, education leaders -- seem willing to mention, even as an "option," the possibility of Iowa becoming a little more labor union friendly. Nowhere in today's stories does the word "union" even appear.

In researching an op ed four years ago I discovered that Iowa was then 43rd of the 50 U.S. states in wages; that our State's anti-union "right to work" laws put us in a minority of states that included the solid South: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina; that from 1950 until now, anti-union bashing has driven union membership nationally from 35 percent to 13 percent of the workforce, and even less in Iowa.

With corporate campaign contributions going to Democrats and Republicans alike, the disparity between the income of CEOs and hourly workers has gone from 42:1 in 1980 to 531:1 in 2000. Two million workers recently fired for the sake of profits and executive bonuses don’t even have that.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports 70 percent of its investigations involve things management knew, or ought to have known, would cause serious injury or death. Nearly 6000 workers a year are killed, more than 5 million injured.

Even the most minimal efforts to help the working class and working poor are successfully resisted by Iowa businesses and their legislative representatives, most recently the "fair share" proposal (that those who get the benefits of union negotiations, while refusing to join the union, should at least pay their "fair share" of the costs for those union activities from which they personally enjoy increased wages and benefits). I could not get our local school board to support a "project labor agreement" for its new school construction projects. Nicholas Johnson, "Make School Projects Labor-Friendly," Iowa City Press-Citizen, May 15, 2003, p. A11 (with an appended list of sources). And see State29, "Viva La Slave Labor, Child Labor," January 26, 2008.

A mere three days later [Jan. 30] and we find the following in The Daily Iowan:

Union membership rates were down in Iowa and 29 other states in 2007, according to a recent report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

. . .

[U]nion membership in Iowa is below the national average for a second-consecutive year.

Jennifer Sherer, a labor educator at the UI Labor Center, said . . .
"We're losing higher-paying jobs and gaining lower-paying jobs," . . ..

Sherer also attributed the low rates to employers who make it difficult for new unions to form by using threats and intimidation. The law protecting unionization has not been strongly enforced, she said.

"We need political changes to make it possible for people [to form new unions]," she said.

Ben Travers, "Union Membership Going Down in Iowa; Despite a Report Indicating That Union Membership is Up Across the Nation, the Percentage of Iowan Union Workers Continues to Drop," The Daily Iowan, January 30, 2008, p. A3.

Of course, Iowans and their governments have the political right to continue our anti-labor traditions and reputation. It's just that it's a little self-defeating and hypocritical to continue to do so while simultaneously complaining about the disappearance of the workforce needed to attract the businesses we think we need to promote genuine economic growth.

News From the West Bank

For many Iowans "The University of Iowa" is the athletic program (especially football and basketball) and/or "The Hospital" (UIHC) on the West side of the Iowa River.

And that's certainly where a lot of the news comes from.

And the lack of news. "No news is good news"? Well, not always. It's now over three months since an alleged sexual assault by alleged football players, and there's still not a peep from the University or the Johnson County Attorney as to what the hell's going on (or not).

Meanwhile, there have been enough Iowa football players in trouble with the law recently to make up a full team (11 or more). So we can be grateful (or not) that at least one more has gotten off light -- with the substitution of a "deferred judgment" and "probation" for a two-year prison term for theft -- essentially no penalty at all. (I simply don't know if that is ballpark-standard under these circumstances, or if the fact that this wide receiver "was ranked first in the country among freshmen in receptions and second in yards" played any role in the sentence.) Lee Hermiston, "Ex-Hawk Granted a Deferred Judgment," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 26, 2008, p. A1.

. . . Build it and they will come -- and pay.

Nonetheless, our emphasis on athletics continues.

Former UI women's athletic director Christine Grant describes the Carver-Hawkeye Arena, built some 20 years ago at a cost of $18 million, as "one of the best in the country."

And yet UI Athletics Director Gary Barta, acknowledging that it's "still a great place" believes "we need to update" -- something women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder refers to as "a face lift."

The renovations he has in mind as an "update," and she calls "a face lift," are already projected to cost $40 million -- more than twice what it cost to build the entire structure initially -- costs Barta represents will be paid with "athletic gifts and earnings" thereby warranting his already having gone ahead with the hiring of a couple of architecture firms and having set a completion date of 2010.

And what will we get for our $40 million? A practice area, elevators, air conditioning, plus "premium seating, club seating rooms and renovating and expanding office space." Brian Morelli, "UI pushing forward with renovations," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 26, 2008, p. A5; Brian Morelli, "Still a Hawk stronghold; 25 years in Carver-Hawkeye Arena," Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 26, 2008, p. A1

Far be it from me to suggest that the "scheduling" problems for practices could be resolved with the space available in the Field House, near-by recreation building, and additional facilities scheduled for construction on both the East and West side of the River. I don't know enough to document that.

But $40 million does sound like a pretty expensive "face lift."

Which is just one more reason why it might make sense to completely divest the athletic program/s from the University -- something that is already in progress with regard to their funding -- formalizing the independence that already exists once they are raising their own funds and making the decisions as to how to spend them. For a description of how that might work, see Nicholas Johnson, "Colleges and Universities" in "Athletics and Academics," September 30, 2006. That way, like any other business in "the marketplace," so long as their expenditures do not adversely affect others or otherwise violate the law there would be little basis for comments by others -- like this one.

And, Finally, What's Driving the Emphasis on School Safety?

As usual, Bob Patton's pictures on January 25 -- titled "Safety in Numbers-Crunching" -- are worth more than a blogger's many words (as in Nicholas Johnson, "The Limits of Duct Tape," January 9, 2008):


Copyright by Bob Patton and the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and reproduced here for non-commercial, educational and commentary "fair use" purposes only.

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