Workers of Wisconsin

Lately I have been thinking a lot about spirituality, psychology and human society at this cross-roads in our species’ existence. In explaining these things, I should start out with a few premises, which may be debatable but in which I profoundly believe:

-That we are currently living in a period of decline of human society, i.e. the decline of the mightiest empire the Earth has ever seen (the U.S.) and the corresponding decline of the capitalist system at its rotten heart. There are many symptoms of this decline which I will not take the time to elaborate on here, except for one that I think is particularly illustrative: recent polls have shown that for the first time, less than 50% of young people in this country believe they will see an improvement in their lives from the previous generation.

-That along with this decline, the masses of people living in this country and the areas it most affects are increasingly disoriented and scared. These fears breed reaction and a clinging to the promised certainty offered by evangelical or fundamentalist religion. This happens all the more so when the harsh reality of the decline can no longer be ignored by immersion into reality substitutes (T.V., drugs, etc.). As with the grim reaper at the window, the masses try to shut the shades and find a happy reality to immerse themselves in; though after a time, his presence is still felt, as with the loss of a job, the stacking up of debt, the decline of available income. So people run to religion, which offers a Way Out, and simply ignore that they may be used for political ends; they don’t want to think of the Church as mortal, but rather wish to see it as an escape from their problems.

-That the decline is marked also by spiritual bankruptcy of our society, brought about by fear and insecurity both rational and irrational. Our actions are quite often subconsciously driven by our insecurities, and unless we work actively to confront them they can have grave consequences. Why does the playground bully pick on others? Why does the car company tell us to help save the environment? The reason is the same: the bully is really afraid of his own weaknesses, so he must tear others down to make himself appear strong; the car company knows that it pollutes, so for the sake of acceptance by “consumers” it must convince them that it wants to save the environment. Now a pop quiz: why does the Bush Administration espouse the spread of “Freedom”?

This spiritual bankruptcy is perhaps the most dangerous thing of all, for how to we act to save society when we are paralyzed by our own fears? We are then unable to use our conscious intellect to solve problems, and worse, unable to see each other without suspicion, as brothers and sisters in the fight to save humanity.

I got into a conversations the other day with both an evangelical Christian and a liberal Episcopal minister for whom I have a great deal of respect. The former exemplified the insecurity, the yearning for certainty, and the ultimate spiritual bankruptcy which I discussed before. The latter held a different view. In his words, the purpose of life is love. He sees God’s creation as the ultimate act of love, that God created the world and Man so as to have something other to love. Note that I don’t share the religious view of a divine Creator; this is described for example purposes only. Still, this is a compelling idea. What are the implications for living if the purpose of life is to love?

I sympathize with this notion to a great extent. Thinking on it, I came to realize that, though I am not religious, perhaps ironically I have lived my life by many of the tenets and morals that I think come out of this spiritual view. Treat everyone equally. Show compassion and love even to those you don’t like or don’t know. Humans are inherently communal, not self-interested.

This last view comes from a slightly different starting point. I always started from the idea that our purpose here is simply to live; life is its own adventure, and there is no deeper purpose than life itself. But if you believe that humans are social beings – that is, we need each other to survive – then inevitably you wind up with the conclusion that any desire to improve life should lead to building the human community, and that takes love. It also takes bettering oneself so as to be able to act on and better the human community (and, through its holistic connections, the community of life).

My morals and ideas come from many sources, not the least of whom is Maria Montessori. An engineer, medical doctor, humanist and above all teacher, her philosophy of education was ingrained in me from an early age, but I am just now coming to appreciate how revolutionary her ideas truly are. In reading The Absorbent Mind, I came across this passage:

“If the standards to which we cling are solely connected with our own self-perfection, with the raising of ourselves to spiritual heights, this brings us into the region of spiritual pride. It is a grave error, perhaps the greatest that man can make… Man’s life is purposive. It is not enough to be always reaching out to higher levels of spiritual refinement and inward beauty. Naturally, a man may aim, and ought always to aim, at the highest levels of physical and mental perfection, but his life would be a vain and worthless thing if his wishes ended at this point. Indeed, what would be the use of his having a brain or muscles? There is nothing in the world which plays no part in the universal economy, and if we are endowed with spiritual riches, with aesthetic feelings and a refined conscience, it is not for ourselves, but so that these gifts shall be used for the benefit of all, and take their place in the universal economy of spiritual life.

“Spiritual powers are a form of wealth. They must go into circulation so that others can enjoy them; they must be expressed, utilized, to complete the cycle of human relations. Even the heights of spirituality, if pursued for their own sake, have no value, and if we aim at these alone, we shall be neglecting the greater part of life and its purposes. Were we believers in reincarnation, and said to ourselves, ‘By living well now, I shall be better off in my next life,’ this would be only selfishness speaking in us… If we are always thinking about ourselves, and of ourselves even in eternity, we shall be eternally selfish.”

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Though Montessori never proclaimed herself a Marxist, many of her ideas about society are undoubtedly shared by socialists and others seeking to better society by scientific means. One of the themes that she developed throughout her career as a revolutionary educator, which is shown in embryonic form by the above quote, is that work is sacred. Indeed, work, which she identifies as part of the “universal economy” (and here she is including not only humans, but all of nature, which humans are seen as a part of), lies at the very heart of spirituality. It is by our labor that we build society, and that we help one another to live in it.

What is so revolutionary about this idea is that it completely counterposes meaningful work to the warped idea of work as applied under capitalism, i.e. work as in a despised job which one must do to make enough money to feed oneself. It would be understandable for someone who only knows this skewed definition of work to recoil at the perception that what they do for a living should somehow be considered their sacred duty – indeed, it is this very idea that enslaved masses of people to the authoritarian Church-state complex for centuries under feudalism. But if we truly look at work as sacred, and that the meaningful work involved in caring for and bettering oneself and others, and in producing what’s needed for society is what gives purpose to our lives, then we see how putridly capitalism has defiled work to turn it into something hated. One can also see the modern Church’s interpretation of the Bible as playing into this twisted vision of work through the story of Adam and Eve, in which the consequence for eating the fruit of knowledge is toil in the wilderness for eternity.

It is indeed a revolutionary idea that real work and participation in the universal economy should bring one a sense of joy and fulfillment. This idea is held jointly by Montessori and by Marxian socialism. Instead of the vision of Man “toiling for eternity in the wilderness,” we get a vision of our work tying into the universal economy of nature, benefiting the whole. This view better reflects reality: ask any small farmer whether she feels more fulfilled working with the land or working in a city, and you will find that it is really only economic necessity that drives the farmer to leave her land. Going a step further, when the land is viewed as something to be subdued with chemicals and machinery, it tends to become quickly exhausted, whereas farming that works with and as a part of nature (call it “permaculture” or “organic” or “biodynamic”, what have you) is usually sustainable indefinitely.

Work in which the products of labor are exploited by business elites and not by those who labor to make them is artificial, deadening to the individual and ultimately fatal to society. It is another symptom of how unhealthy our society is that idleness is seen as an ideal, that the ultimate luxury for many people would be to be able to stay home and do nothing.

This idea of work gives us guidance toward what true spirituality means. Spirituality is fulfillment is work – work for a better society. Only if we can unify the masses to stand up to and depose the exploitative capitalist system under which we now live can we establish a healthy spirituality, one which recognizes the true value of human labor and community.

The Military Spending Burden on
Duluth and Minnesota

Report Prepared by Robert Kosuth
August 27, 2006

For the Northland Anti-War Coalition
I. The Overall Military Spending Budget.

The overall military spending budget is far more than the already outrageous sum submitted to Congress as the Department of Defense (DoD) budget. Military spending as a part of the government budget is also consistently misrepresented due to the fact that much actual military spending is actually hidden in other departments, for example, as nuclear weapons development is part of the Department of Energy. Another common misrepresentation is to show the DoD budget as part of all government programs, rather than as part of discretionary spending, the part of government spending that is actually controlled by Congress, as opposed to social security funds, which are earmarked to go into a separate budget that Congress cannot touch from year to year.

Below are two charts that show the difference. The first, from the National Priorities Project website www.nationalpriorities.org, includes non-DoD spending (except veterans benefits & energy), while the second is a typically slavish NY Times reprint of a government press release masquerading as news.



The Government DeceptionThe pie chart below is the government view of the budget. This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security), and the expenses of past military spending are not distinguished from nonmilitary spending.

Source: New York Times, Feb. 7, 2005, based on
Budget of the United States FY2007.
(from War Resisters League: www.warresisters.org)

II. Spending for the Iraq War and Afghanistan. The chart below, from data from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), shows the additional spending for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, specially appropriated in addition to DoD spending above. (These totals are estimated as of the end of FY 06September 30, 2006)
CRS Data on the Costs of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ($billions)

Fiscal Year
2001+2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Total
Iraq 2.5 51.0 77.3 87.3 100.4 318.5
Afghanistan [1] 18.1 17.0 15.1 18.1 19.9 88.2
Noble Eagle [2] 12.0 6.5 3.7 2.1 1.9 26.2
Unable to Allocate 3.9
Totals 32.6 78.4 96.1 107.5 122.2 439.9

(Source: The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on terror Operations Since 9/11, Amy Belasco, CRS Report for Congress, RL33110, p. CRS-4)

1. Includes other global War on Terror activities.
2. Elsewhere includes Operation Noble Eagle in the US (facility security and (formerly) fighter patrols over population centers).
III. How Much is a Billion Dollars??? Well, its a lot of money but most cognitive psychologists would probably agree that such concepts are beyond the human ken. To help get closer to visualizing how much a billion is consider the following.

1. If you were to try to count to a billion, counting once every second, it would take you 31 years, 259 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes and 40 seconds to reach a billion.

2. If you had the job of going out and spending $1000 per day until you spent 1 billion dollars, it would take you over 2,739 years to spend a billion dollars.

IV. Some National Data for Military Spending on the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, the Overall Military Budget, and the War in Afghanistan.

1. Cost of Iraq War spending per household: $2,844 (source: NPP)
per person: $1,075
per taxpayer: $2,379

2. Rate of Iraq war spending (already spent or allocated) per hour: $10,000,000 (NPP)
per day: $244,000,000

V. The Minnesota Military Spending Burden.

Minnesotas tax burden for the Iraq invasion and occupation: $7,600,000,000 (NPP)
DoD & non-DoD military spending: $12,750,000,000*
Afghanistan invasion & occupation: 1,900,000,000
Total military spending burden for Minnesota: $22,340,000,000

*based on figures form the War Resisters League ($449 b. DoD + $114 b. non-DoD military spending) (www.warresisters.org)

VI. Trade-offs for Minnesotas 7.6 Billion Contribution to the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (only Iraq!)

Taxpayers in Minnesota will pay $7.6 billion for the cost of war in Iraq. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
999,184 People Receiving Health Care or
139,534 Elementary School Teachers or
1,090,342 Head Start Places for Children or
3,278,785 Children Receiving Health Care or
60,368 Affordable Housing Units or
720 New Elementary Schools or
1,074,885 Scholarships for University Students or
147,697 Music and Arts Teachers or
175,458 Public Safety Officers or
15,562,323 Homes with Renewable Electricity or
240,248 Port Container Inspectors
(Source: www.nationalpriorities.org)

Other trade-offs for Minnesotas 7.6 billion contribution to the invasion and occupation of Iraq (Iraq only!): Specific Minnesota budget items:

1. MN Pell Grants 2005-06 $342,000,000
(76,000 MN students x $4500 avg./student)
as a % of MN Iraq war contribution 4.5%

2. MFIP/AFDC (MN share) 2005 $76,465,581 1%
2006 $54,655,532 .7%

3. Minnesota Care 2005 $227,253,488 2.9%
2006 $255,211,663 3.5%
(Source: www.dhs.state.mn.us Family Self-Sufficiency Health Care Program Statistics, June 2006) Note: The average benefit per enrollee in 2006 is $281.70/mo.

4. MN DNR 2006-07 biennium budget $641,049,000 8.4%

VII. Duluth
Duluth will contribute over $91,000,000 toward the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the end of the fiscal yearSeptember 30, 2006.
(Source: www.costofwar.com)

Other trade-offs for Duluths $91 + million contribution to the invasion and occupation of Iraq (Iraq only!): Specific Duluth budget items:

1. Poverty. Duluth has over 12,000 individuals living below the federal poverty line. 20% of Duluth children are living in poverty. About 1,713 families are also below the federal poverty line of $13,423 for a family of 3 (one adult and 2 children).
(Source: p.6 Duluth Regional Assessment Project www.rapsite.org)
Cost to raise 1,713 families out of poverty to the level of considered livable by the Economic Policy Institute ($28,933): $26,568,630 = 29% of Duluths Iraq war burden.
2. Hunger. Duluths Hunger Project (a common effort of the Damiano Center, United Gospel Mission, the Salvation Army and CHUM) has a total budget of $1,200,000, which equals 1.3% of Duluths Iraq war burden.

3. Emergency Shelter. CHUMs emergency shelter for the homeless has a budget of $675,000 (including staff), equivalent to .7% of Duluths Iraq war burden.

4. School lunches. 35% of Duluths K-12 students are eligible for free or reduced lunches at school. The school district serves 1,300,000 free lunches per year at a total cost of $2,288,000 = 2.5% of Duluths contribution to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

5. Housing. 1,212 households in Duluth are on the waiting list to get Section 8 housing vouchers.

6. Budget Crisis. Duluth faces a budget crisis due to the cost of its insurance policies for active and retired city workers. For fiscal 2004-2005, the insurance cost for the city of Duluth was $12,208,900, 13.4% of what the Duluth paid for invading and occupying Iraq. Budget cuts, fire and police lay offs, and privatization of utilities have all been discussed as ways of dealing with this crisis. Parks and Recreation in Duluth received $7 million for its 2005 budget, less than 8% of the Iraq war cost to Dulthians, and it will probably be cut to make up for rising insurance costs. Needless to say, city employees will have to take pay cuts, pay higher premiums, or forego retirement until a much later age.

Of course, not all of Duluths health care insurance problems can be taken care of with military spending. By the end of 2006, according to the Post Employment Health Care Task Force Report on Implementation of Recommendations, Duluth will have a liability of $308,900,000. This is really a problem of health insurance on a state and national level.

VIII. Health Care.

According to Minnesota COACT (www.COACT.org) 585,000 Minnesotans under the age of 65 will go without health insurance for 6 months within any given 2-year period. Assuming $500/mo for private insurance (compared to the payment of $281/mo for Minnesota Care), it would take only 24% of Minnesotas Iraq war burden to make up this cost.

However, the real need is for a single payer health care program. This is the solution to the problem in Duluth, in Minnesota and across the country. The Physicians for a National Health Program (http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php) have made just such a proposal. Their program would be funded by modest payroll taxes on employers (3.3%), along with current Medicare payroll taxes, and higher taxes on the wealthiest 5% of Americans.

The interesting part is that the entire program would cost $1.86 trillion, a lot of money to be sure. The more staggering fact is that more than half this figure could be covered from current military ($563 billion), the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan ($407 billion) and the interest on the national debt that comes from military spending ($282 billion) for a total of $1.25 trillion! Even some movement in this direction would go a long way in solving the most pressing social-economic problem facing American families todayhealth care.

IX. Economic Conversion

Time and space do not permit, but there is a huge literature about how military spending not only robs citizens of money that they could be using right now to meet human needs but also how it harms economic development in the long run due to the lack of funds for investment in job creation and technological development, whether the expenditure is for small arms in a developing country or for the latest generation of nuclear weapons in a superpower. We have barely scratched the surface of this issue.