By Jim Hoover

You remember hearing the legend that depicted Roman Emperor Nero as fiddling while Rome burned and was mostly destroyed by fire in 64 AD?

The truth of the legend is irrelevant. What is relevant is that corruption and narcissism were endemic in Roman society at the time, leading to a decline that no one – leaders or citizens – had the recognition, will, or interest to stop.

We are in such a decline. Our leaders are swindling us of our democratic heritage and the economic gains that Americans have made with the suffering and sacrifice of many before us.

We have the same Nero problems: no real interest in governing for the good of the people and a host of noxious characteristics for leaders, including corruption, deceit, cynicism, and abuse of power.

We all have seen ample evidence of this toxic leadership, so let me cite just one wrenching problem that will eventually kill our nation, a problem our leadership is either too ignorant to understand, too preoccupied to notice, or just plain doesn’t care.

Vested plutocratic interests, and politicians they own, have used our institutions for self-gain. Power and money have taken precedence over everything else, and the people have stood by and allowed it. We have allowed them to trash our economy by fashioning it into an economic black hole that sucks almost all the riches into the singularity of corporate profits and executive pay.

Ten percent unemployment, actually more like 20% underemployment and unemployment, and tanking worker pay is not an accident. It has been engineered by neo-conservative influences back to the time of Ronald Reagan, and it continues today.

Destroying America’s manufacturing capability through outsourcing has been a plan since the late ’70s and early ’80s. Accordingly the manufacturing share of U.S. employment has tanked since then, as shown by the following table:

An economy without manufacturing cannot supply good working class jobs — even middle class jobs, can’t raise exports even with a declining dollar, and won’t sustain rising income levels for the middle class – ever again.

So don’t believe Democrats or Republicans who say their number one priority is jobs. We have what is called a postindustrial economy, composed of mostly service industries: computer software, health care middlemen, finance, consulting, entertainment, think tanks and so on. We wouldn’t even have had an auto industry, except for Ford, if Republicans had gotten their way.

Service industries don’t supply plentiful, well-paying jobs and generally their products can’t be exported. If this situation does not change, you will see continued prosperity for the rich and increasing joblessness and eroding income for the rest of us, not to speak of higher import prices.

A bleak prospect, but look for more of the same, that is unless we demand government for the people, rather than for corporations.