Little Tommy Friedman Wants To Take Stuff From You

Like a livable wage, a 40 hour work week, vacation, health care, a pension and Social Security - but only for working and middle class folks, of course.

From Dean Baker at The American Prospect:

Thomas Friedman told readers that: "But now it feels as if we are entering a new era, 'where the great task of government and of leadership is going to be about taking things away from people,' said the Johns Hopkins University foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum."

Unfortunately, Mr. Friedman apparently doesn't talk to anyone who has ever taken any economics. There are no serious forecasts that do not project that productivity will continue to grow for the indefinite future, and many project that productivity will grow at a more rapid pace than it did in the years from 1973-1995. This means that there is no reason, except incompetent economic management and/or the continuing upward redistribution of income, why the vast majority of the population should not experience improvements in living standards. This would mean an increase in both public and private services.

This is the meme that the corporate overlords have been selling for the last 20 years.

Times are tough and global competition is tough, so you are going to have to work longer and harder to make less money.

You're going to have to give up your 40 hour work week and employer-provided vacations and your employer-provided health care plan (if you're lucky enough to have one.)

You're going to have to delay your retirement and work longer and harder longer into your old age (but not at a good paying job, of course...you'll be laid off and stocking shelves at Walmart or delivering pizzas to college kids for those golden years...)

And that's if you can get a job at all. As the NY Times reported today, plenty of people who once lived middle class lives are unemployed, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

Now of course the folks at the top - the Bloombergs, the Gateses, the Blankfeins, the Philip Falcones of the world - they'll be raking in gobs more money, sucking up more of the world's resources - while you're losing your stuff.

And according to Little Tommy Friedman, who lives in a 4,000 square foot house in Washington and writes books about how great the Indian economic system and education systems are, says there's nothing we can do about it.

About all we can do is get used to the new reality and socialize our kids to expect to work longer and harder for a lot less than we ever had to.

And that, of course, is where education reform and the charter school movement that forces a 60 hour/6 day work week onto kids, comes into play.

And notice who is driving the education reform/charter movement - the Bloombergs, the Gateses, the Blankfeins and the Philip Falcones of the world.

And they have Little Tommy Friedman and others of his ilk to to sell their jive in the media.

It's all so perfect.

Unless people wake up to it.

The problem is not education, the problem is not the American workforce.

The problem is that the corporate overlords are crooks and have rigged the system for themselves.

You can see the latest Matt Taibbi article for just how easily they've done it.

Until something is done to take care of the Bloombergs, the Gateses, the Blankfeins and the Philip Falcones of the world and the shills who sell their jive like Little Tommy Friedman, things are only going to get worse for the working and middle classes.

You can see the anger over a lot of this in the Tea Party Movement or the nutcase flying his plane into the IRS building in Austin.

But of course the crazies are directing their anger at the wrong people.

Sure the IRS and the federal government are stealing your money and screwing you over and over - but they're doing it for the Bloombergs, the Gateses, the Blankfeins, and the Philip Falcones of the world.

How The Hedge Funders See The Rest of Us

The NY Daily News has details of a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed against Philip Falcone, hedge fund manager and founder of Harbinger Capital:

A billionaire hedge fund chief and his shapely socialite wife are being sued for sexual harassment and discrimination by their gay former house manager.

William Gamble alleges that he was subjected to repeated come-ons from Lisa Maria Falcone, the wife of the man listed as No. 296 on the 2009 Forbes list of the world's richest people.

Gamble, 47, worked less than two months in 2008 for Harbinger Capital Partners founder Philip Falcone and his wife - but contends that was enough time to face "unwelcome and unsolicited sexual overtures" from the sexually revved-up lady of the house.

The suit says Philip Falcone used anti-gay slurs before hiring Gamble to manage the couple's five homes - including a 10,000-square foot Manhattan spread on E. 67th St. - from a cramped office once occupied by the Falcones' pet pig.

Gamble saved his sharpest arrows for Lisa Maria Falcone, alleging that she drunkenly shoved her hands down his pants and suggested that he needed a "good f---" to go straight.

"[Gamble] became highly disturbed and physically ill as a result of this incident," the suit says.

Falcone, nicknamed the Midas of Misery for making hundreds of millions of dollars off the misery of others, has also been sued by his former partner for allegedly cheating him out of $63 million dollars.

But if you think he's all Gordon Gekko, think again. He's a big charity guy and sits on several education-related boards (see here and here), though even at the charity gigs he tends to put himself before others.

For instance, here he is pushing his way into a charity photo-op over a bunch of underprivileged kids.

What a swell fellow! So glad he is part of the education reform movement! So glad he's making more money than god off the misery of others!

And the wife - wow. What can you say about a woman who sexually harasses a gay employee and says all he needs to go straight is a "good f---" from her?

But as bad as Falcone and his wife seemed to have been in the past, this lawsuit is the first time we know of that he has been quite literally accused of treating a pig better than an employee.

And given this guy's track record, that's saying something.

Now the NY Post has been doing lots of rubber room stories alleging that all the teachers there are perverts and criminals and as I noted in an earlier post, Joanna Molloy of the NY Daily News extrapolated from the stupidity of one or two teachers that all "teachers are getting dumber."

So if the Post and the News can extrapolate depictions of all public school teachers from just a few bad eggs, should we extrapolate from Mr. Falcone's alleged behavior and treatment of employees, business partners and people who have the unfortunate luck of being in front of him at photo ops that all hedge fund managers/education reformers are crooked, egomaniacal, homophobic creeps?