Confluences are the building blocks of the world’s
waterways. When two or more rivers meet, changes in velocity and turbulence tend
to result in geologic scouring; erosive activity that may alter the shape of
the river and its bed. The action may produce a ‘scour hole’ downstream from
the confluence. For a river runner, a hole creates “potential for trouble and
the need for deft maneuvers.” America may be heading toward a scour hole that
is being shaped by a confluence of factors and events, domestic and global,
economic and demographic.
Several of these factors were highlighted by last
Friday’s employment report which showed unemployment has fallen to 7.3 percent.
This may seem like a positive development until you realize just 63 percent of
working-age Americans have a job or are looking for one. According to The Washington Post, that’s the lowest
workforce participation rate in 35 years.
The change in American employment is rooted in the
Great Recession and relatively slow pace of economic recovery, as well as a
confluence of demographic trends. Younger Americans of working age are staying
in school longer before looking for a job. In addition, and perhaps more
importantly, the Baby Boom generation has begun to retire at a rate of about
10,000 a day or 300,000 a month, according to PBS NewsHour.
America’s changing employment picture may be a
significant challenge to economic growth, but other factors will influence the
shape of our future, as well. Congress returned from recess on Monday. They may
not get to all of it this week, but their agenda includes determining: America’s
response to Syria, the government’s operating budget, the debt ceiling, and
funding for the Affordable Healthcare Act.
As if that weren’t enough, next week, the Federal
Reserve will be making an important decision about tapering quantitative easing
(which could be complicated by a potential government shutdown and debt ceiling
expiration if Congress waffles).
We live in interesting times.
in 1835, in Democracy
in America, Alexis de Tocqueville said:
“AMONG
the novel objects that attracted my attention during
my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general
equality of condition among the people... it gives a peculiar direction to
public opinion and a peculiar tenor to the laws; it imparts new maxims to the
governing authorities and peculiar habits to the governed… The more I advanced
in the study of American society, the more I perceived that this equality of
condition is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived and
the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated.”
One
wonders what he would make of the difference in pay between lawmakers in
various states today. A recent chart published in The Economist showed pay for state legislators ranges from nothing in
New Mexico, where the median household income from 2007 through 2011 was about
$44,600, to more than $90,500 in California where the median household income
was about $61,600 during the same period.
If
you believe having a greater number of legislators means the opinions of the
masses are better represented, then it would seem citizens in states that pay
lawmakers more are less well represented. The average number of legislators per
million people in the 10 states that pay the most is about 22. In the 10 states
that pay the least, it’s about 112 per million people. The exceptions appear to
be Alaska, which pays about $50,000 a year and has about 82 legislators per
million people, and Texas which pays less than $10,000 and has about 7
legislators per million.
The Economist pointed out lawmaking
may be less costly in other ways, too, in states that offer lower salaries to
policymakers. As it turns out, about one-third of state legislatures are
part-time. States like Texas, Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota, where
lawmakers meet every second year, tend to spend less than states where
legislators meet more frequently.
Weekly Focus – Think
About It
“Democracy
cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose
wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt, American President
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