Last night Dr. Julianne Malveaux, currently president of Bennett College for Women, delivered a talk at the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) campus in downtown Grand Rapids titled, "Wall St., Main St., And The Side St: How Do We Fare In The New Economy?" Dr. Malveaux began her talk by saying that the Congressional economic stimulus package that was just voted on "demonstrates the desperation of the current government in dealing with the weakening economy." She said the "US no longer enjoys eminence," since the country's economic influence globally has declined.
Dr. Malveaux then went on to give some statistics to highlight the current conditions. "When the government says we have a 5% unemployment rate, what does that really mean? The reality is it's 9% for African Americans, 7% for women, an even higher numbers for teens and a tremendous amount of underemployment." Other factors to the falling economy she identified were predatory lending and high foreclosure rates. She said, "wages in this country have been stagnate for years with people earning less." Dr. Malveaux also stated that there is a huge problem when corporate CEOs leave with huge golden parachutes, but workers struggle to make a living.
"What we don't pay attention to is the US in the global community. First, 9/11 happened. We started looking for Osama and ended up looking for Saddam. So the US began to lose world esteem. We are in a war that has no end. The US has lost standing in the global community."
She said the Euro is now the dominant world currency and that the dollar has declined over the past 15 years. Dr. Malveaux cited the Pew Global Attitudes Project that continues to show that the world continues to see the US differently. "Look at Katrina, where the US failed to take care of their own people. Do you think the world recognizes this?"
The presentation then shifted to talking about China and other developing countries. Dr. Malveaux said China is investing in education. "They still have tremendous poverty, but the standard of living is growing. When China decides they are going to drive like we do, we are in trouble. Why, because we have not done the work of developing alternative energies and sustainable energies. We have not improved how we use energy in the past 30 years." China, India and Eastern Europe, she said, produce more engineers because they are investing in education. "The US does not invest in the education of the future generations," said Dr. Malveaux, particularly the black and brown youth of this country."
She said the average student now graduates with a $20,000 debt in loans. Working class students are burden with financial issues in a different way than they were 20 years ago. "The attitude of those in power about funding your education is "find it yourself." Dr. Malveaux also says that another way that the federal government has dealt with this problem is to "provide millions of dollars to groups like Fannie Mae, a federally funded entity, with a CEO who makes more than the President and on top of it they are making money off of you all," pointing to the students in the audience.
As a way of solving the country's economic crisis, Dr. Malveaux says, "we have to invest in ingenuity and diversity. Think about it. Old White people are in the nursing homes and young Latinos taking care of them. We have to pay attention to what we are doing to the youth of this country." She also said that the country can no longer rely on manufacturing, but instead needs a knowledge-based economy.
Again, Dr. Malveaux criticized the government stimulus package as short sighted. She said, "one of the problems with just giving people money, which may temporarily provide relief, is it will prevent the country from looking at the root causes of our economic problems."
During the question and answer period, she was asked about the connection to the amount of spending on the war in Iraq and lack of spending on education and other social programs. The questioner asked if it is possible to have a healthy economy and a huge military budget at the same time? Dr. Malveaux said it was not possible to have war and a sustainable economy. She mentioned that there are more and more soldiers who are physically and psychologically wounded from contemporary wars and if the recent Walter Reed Hospital scandal is any indication of whether or not war spending and a sustainable economy are compatible, "then the country is in big trouble."
