America, where teachers must beg for donations that a private foundation will match. Giving to a cause like this is kind. But we must ask what we have done to make this necessary.https://twitter.com/mshardisonsroom/status/1032437256768745472 …
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Her language of "win-win" is revealing. As I write in
@WinnersTakeAll, "win-win" has become a dog whistle to the rich. It tells them this is a form of change that won't cost you.Show this thread -
Funding public schools adequately so that donors and foundations won’t need to bail them out? That means paying more taxes. Cutting taxes, funding schools locally so that rich people’s kids get the best education, and then requiring schools to beg online? Win-win.
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Let’s be honest about who we have become: We are no longer a country that believes people can make their own fate. We are a country that believes that destiny is inherited. And our policies reflect that belief.
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The donor society: Restaurants, Uber, even coffeeshops where you buy at the counter don't pay workers enough -- but you can tip! Our government doesn't fund schools enough -- but you can donate! Our government is full of liars -- but you can GoFundMe the truth out of them!
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"In the not too distant future philanthropic giving will outstrip federal outlays on non-defense discretionary programs, like education and the arts" --
@ElizKolbert in The@NewYorker. This is the society you want to live in?Show this thread -
Do you know what it's called when the young and the vulnerable and the poor depend on the whims of rich people rather than our shared institutions? Feudalism.
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What I've spent the last three years trying to investigate and demonstrate in
@WinnersTakeAll is that "giving back," noble as it seems, is really just trickle-down-economics with a cherry on top.Show this thread -
I want to say one more thing, speaking very personally. Starting when I was little boy, my family would leave Ohio and fly to India every couple years to visit our relatives.
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We in America did things around the house for ourselves. But our relatives in India had servants. And those servants lived dependent on the whims of those with money.
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There was no meaningful Indian safety net to speak of, no common institutions in the society to buffer them from the ups and downs of fate, no labor laws that were actually enforced for house servants.
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And so when rains flooded their village, or their roof fell in, or their child took ill, or malaria came for them, what did the servants do? They sought a donation.
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And affluent Indians are happy to make those donations. It makes them feel good and helps the servants. Win-win. But those affluent Indians don't pay servants a living wage. Don't fight for a safety net that will cost them. Don't abide by labor laws limiting the workday.
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Donors choose, indeed. But when we look at a faraway country, it may be more clear to us that that isn't a fair society. The donation is an act of generosity that is allowed to substitute for justice.
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America is becoming such a place. A society in which the rich ensure that there are no common institutions capable of helping ordinary people, which saves the winners money and makes them feel important when donations must be sought.
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I remember writing about the founder of TaskRabbit. This was her vision of the economy of the future. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/us/02iht-currents02.html …pic.twitter.com/OplbiLnYvz
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We are heading toward a state in which a small few throw bucks and tips and donations at the many while capturing and draining our shared institutions. A Downton Abbey republic. If you want to go deeper, there is a book where this thread came from: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539747/winners-take-all-by-anand-giridharadas/9780451493248/ …
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End of conversation
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Because education & teachers and nurses & healthcare are an afterthought in the United States. PERIOD. FULL STOP
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