Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

This staggering figure stands out in Dickensian nineteenth century terms symbolic of the "two nations" the English novelist wrote about concerning his country.  The point was graphically made in the Sir Carol Reed hit 1968 musical film hit "Oliver!" that was adapted from the Charles Dickens novel "Oliver Twist."

Nothing makes a point quite like graphic examples and the opening sequence from "Oliver!" accomplished it as young Oliver Twist, a hungry child orphanage resident, holds up his empty porridge bowl and requests "more" in a move seen as thoroughly impudent by his tight-fisted superior.

Carol Reed's camera then shifts to a smaller adjoining room in furnishing the starkest of contrasts.  In the orphanage section we see shabbily dressed young boys looking scrawny and subsisting on small amounts of porridge.  

The dining room of the orphanage's wealthy proprietors contains plush velvet wall covering.  The men who occupy it are resplendently dressed with the finest in Savile Row tailoring and sport substantial paunches, indicative of the fact that they are not forced to beg for additional amounts of porridge in the manner of young Oliver Twist.  

In fact, the lavish spread on the table of which they are liberally partaking tells the story, containing all the gourmet items that a wealthy Londoner could desire.

Even when the federal income tax reached a peak level of 91 percent in the late fifties socialist author and sociologist Michael Harrington was bustily at work writing a future best seller called "The Other America."  Published in 1962, it highlighted economic disparities that afflicted the U.S.A. in that period and prompted the launching of a "war on poverty."  

Future president and then Senator John F. Kennedy was denounced by Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election after he had declared earlier in the year that "17 million people in America go to bed hungry each night."  

When Kennedy stuck to his guns and defended a Senate study that provided this figure, President Dwight D. Eisenhower reached one of the low rhetorical points of his presidency by replying cynically, "I go to bed hungry.  I'm on a diet."

We stand at a deeper and more dangerous crossroad in twenty-first century America.  Homelessness is sharply increasing , as particularly noticed by those living in large cities.  Many of these individuals suffer from mental health problems.

This is concurrently accompanied by increasing unemployment along with underemployment.  Those who are working regularly find themselves treading more water than ever, putting in longer hours for fewer real dollars.  Greater numbers find themselves unable to keep up with soaring medical costs while keeping their families fed and clothed.

In order to reverse this trend and thereby cut increases in crime that accompany economic struggle the tax code needs to be revised.  In Scandinavian nations such as Denmark and Sweden living standards are increasing while they steadily decline in America.

Examine the national tax structures in those countries and it is learned that the citizens of those nations dole out higher percentages of their incomes in taxation.  

It is also notable that schools and health care are provided, that there are more parks and other conservation land for the citizenry to enjoy, that what is there can be enjoyed free of the kind of pollution generating sickness and death among America's citizens, and life can be experienced free of the pervasive crime fears Americans encounter, particularly those living in the nation's largest cities.  

Also, parks and common areas in Scandinavian nations are not rife with impoverished homelessness coupled with poor health and despair.