I was talking to my mother the other day about the Marie Antoinette theory of leadership wherein world leaders sit around drinking $500 wine while the economy goes to hell in a handbasket and wise woman that she is, she suggested that maybe what we need to do is to hold a bake sale.
After all, it is usually women who run those sugar-laden fundraisers for desperately needed programs that are routinely left out of our national budgeting priorities and whose voices are routinely left out of the economic decision-making process. If ever there was a time to bring them to the table, baked goods in hand, this is it.
Another woman whom we should all be listening to is Naomi Klein who is the rare voice of courage and clarity when it comes to understanding the current economic crisis. Listen to what she has to say about the culpability of the Democrats in enabling the continued treasonous plunder of the economy:
“Despite all of this potential lawlessness, the Democrats are either openly defending the administration or refusing to intervene. “There is only one president at a time,” we hear from Barack Obama. That’s true. But every sweetheart deal the lame-duck Bush administration makes threatens to hobble Obama’s ability to make good on his promise of change. To cite just one example, that $140 billion in missing tax revenue is almost the same sum as Obama’s renewable energy program. Obama owes it to the people who elected him to call this what it is: an attempt to undermine the electoral process by stealth.
Yes, there is only one president at a time, but that president needed the support of powerful Democrats, including Obama, to get the bailout passed. Now that it is clear that the Bush administration is violating the terms to which both parties agreed, the Democrats have not just the right but a grave responsibility to intervene forcefully.
I suspect that the real reason the Democrats are so far failing to act has less to do with presidential protocol than with fear: fear that the stock market, which has the temperament of an overindulged 2-year-old, will throw one of its world-shaking tantrums. Disclosing the truth about who is receiving federal loans, we are told, could cause the cranky market to bet against those banks. Question the legality of equity deals and the same thing will happen. Challenge the $140 billion tax giveaway and mergers could fall through. “None of us wants to be blamed for ruining these mergers and creating a new Great Depression,” explained one unnamed Congressional aide.”
While we all have high hopes for the Obama presidency, we cannot be complacent. We need to insist that our budget priorities be completely revamped to be supportive of sustainable economics for those of us who don’t drink $500 wine.
And who says you can’t have have your pie and eat it too? Just in time for the holiday season, Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) has launched the Great American Pie Campaign, call it the nutritional antidote for the economic pyramid that is eating up our well-being!
The Great American Pie Campaign is about raising awareness of how our federal budget affects our everyday lives. And the lives of people around the globe.
It’s also about know-how and action.
And it’s about women — because women are big stakeholders, and women have what it takes to turn things around.
The Great American Pie Campaign is about you – your vision for a better world, your contribution.
We are baking a new American Pie:
One Response to “The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 3–Time For A Bakesale”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
[...] Everyone should be aware of how the recession and economic strife are impacting women (and frequently, therefore, children and families) disproportionately. Here’s a list of articles that provide numerous perspectives on the issues: 1. From Women’s eNews today: Women are almost twice as likely as men to hold subprime mortgages. That means the ability of many to hang on to their homes could be tied up with Senate action–expected this month–on a bill to reduce mortgage payments. 2. Feminist Peace Network wrote a nine-part series on the economic impact on women, here and around the globe. Many of the posts offer links to more information. These entries have been published between October 2008 and March 12, 2009: The Girls’ Guide To The Economy The Girls’ Guide To The Economy–Part 2 The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 3–Time For A Bakesale The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 4–Marie Antoinette and the Katrina Analogy The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 5–The Shopping Edition The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 6 The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 7–Health Is Not A Luxury Item The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 8–There are NO Women On The Stimulus Conference Committee The Girls’ Guide To The Economy Part 9–The Impact Of The Economic Downturn On Women’s Lives 3. The Women’s Media Center asks us to think about women, poverty and the burden on President Obama in As Global Recession Drives More Women into Poverty, a Challenge to Obama. 4. Nancy Goldstein, writing for Salon.com’s Broadsheet section in February, discusses how The Economy is a Feminist Issue. 5. Also in February, Ruth Rosen asked, What kind of stimulus do American women want on Talking Points Memo’s TPM Cafe. 6. The New York Times blog, Economix, posted a entry about how early childhood education is the “ultimate growth industry” to be considered when considering the stimulus. 7. PunditMom aka Joanne Bamberger submitted a project that would involve interviewing women who live in different places all over the U.S. and chronicling their stories of how they’re kicking “the economic crisis in the butt.” You can vote for her project through April 3, 2009. Those should get you started but good. var addthis_pub = ‘Jill’; var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, delicious, myspace, google, facebook, reddit, live, more’; [...]