On the Economy

["John Gelles" <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

:            I have been a Bill Bradley supporter, now
            for many months.  I still may be.

            Today he made a speech "On the Economy"
            at Columbia University, New York City.
            It was February 23, 2000.

            What he said was sometning.  It is at his
            billbradley.com website.  I will send it
            by email to anyone who asks -- although
            it is too long and too weak.  Its best use is
            to compare it with what YOU would have
            said in his place.

            Just in case you do not want to ghost write
            for him -- let me do it for you.


          WHAT HE SHOULD HAVE SAID TODAY:

        I wish that I were talking to each of you -- with just
        your family and a close friend or two -- sitting around
        your kitchen table.

        I wish we could level with each other on one of the
        toughest topics we Americans face every four years:
        The topic of money.

        You know what I mean.  What we call the economy.
        How each of us is doing.  Are we hurting financially?
        Do we have a job?  Does it look secure?  Do I need
        a raise -- like badly?  Is our business making money?
        Is there something I want from my President?  From
        my Congress?  From my central bank -- the bank
        we call in this country, "The Fed"?

        Yes I wish we were sitting at your kitchen table and
        talking the plain truth.

        You know we could say we're living in the best of
        times.  Lots and facts and figures say we have great
        resources, great skills, great business systems, even
        business colleges and what some called business
        sciences.

        Unemployment is very low. The stock market is
        very high.  In recent years more of us come to own
        our home than ever before.  Car sales have been
        good.  The dollar is very strong.

        Yet for ordinary people,  wages are not very high.
        A great many farmers are not making money.  Lots
        of blue collar and white collar workers were let
        go -- and they now work for less money -- many of
        them without the decent benefits they once had.

        And, as we know, there remains a good deal of
        poverty, homelessness, children without adequate
        health care or educational opportunity.  There is,
        we would have to admit, a great deal of wealth
        needed by people at the bottom.

        That needed wealth that can only come by
        producing a great deal more of the things that are
        missing in good people's lives.  In the lives of
        innocent children.  In the lives of children who
        will grow up and become a part of our nation --
        a part we would prefer to have well educated,
        well behaved and well off.

        I think, you and I, sitting around your table,
        would say we want all wages to be higher --
        but not so high that what we produce costs
        more than we can afford.  We want our
        employer to get low interest loans.  But
        we want our money to pay us as much
        interest as possible.

        Some of the things we want would cost us
        in the end -- they would cost us other things
        we also want.

        Our market system, where we buy the things
        we get paid to make, is always in need of
        balance -- else costs grow too high, profits
        disappear, wages can't be paid, and so on.

        We do not have a simple system where what
        you make is what you buy.  Such simple systems
        went away when we moved from the farm to the
        city.  And what we have now is so complicated
        whole nations rarely get what they want -- or
        know where they'll be, economically, in a year
        or two.

        So what do you and I do, sitting around your
        table, with me making promises to you -- and
        you giving me your vote?

        I think we do this:  I'll promise you more security
        than our system now offers -- especially health
        care for all children, no matter how poor, and
        better education for children, and traiining for
        adults in need of a new career.

        I'll promise that if the economy slows I'll demand
        that Congress spend what it takes to get us back
        on track -- fast.

        How can they do that?  To get back on track
        takes more than Congress -- it takes business
        smarts and labor's sweat.  That's true.  But we
        know we have that -- if the economy slows, it
        will likely be that demand for workers has
        slowed.  I will insist that Congress lend or
        spend enough money to restore the level of
        employment we need to promote prosperity,
        freedom and democracy.

        How can I do that -- if they control the purse.
        I'll go to the people on television and ask them
        to tell the Congress to act -- act or you will kick
        them out -- in less than two years at most.

        Where will Congress get the money?

        That will be up to them.  You know they can get
        any amount we need when we go to war.  They can
        get any amount we need when great institutions
        fail.  They can get any amount we need, provided
        we produce the goods it represents, if our people
        need work.

        We want a competitive economy, but one that
        wins -- not loses.  In the last analysis, what we
        make from our resources and our sweat is what
        we can enjoy.

        If the market shows signs of fatigue, we will
        build the houses, clean the water, run the
        schools and hospitals, even create the arts and
        recreational facilities, with money we generate
        under new technological regimes.  We will put
        our information systems to work to take control
        and re-energize any market that fails to work
        as expected.

        We may not have to do any of this. But if we
        must, I will be your Franklin Roosevelt, not
        your Herbert Hoover.

        Well, that's my promise to you. What do I want
        you to promise me?  Promise to be who you
        are.   To be an American voter whose learned
        from depression and war.  Promise you'll
        work and compete with the best.  But promise
        me, in economic matters, you won't tolerate a
        Congress or President who fails.
                    If we politicians want the job, it comes
        to us on condition we can do it better than
        anyone else.
                    You promise me that.