The Terrible Price Of American Prosperity

This 16" x 20" wall hanging was given me by the manager of the EconoLodge at 1909 Harper Road Beckley, West Virginia. We've  become friends while staying there several times when visiting the state's Tamarack Arts and Crafts Market Place, the nearby New River Gorge National Park and the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, among other attractions.

I've placed the above photo on the wall above my desk as a daily reminder of the backbreaking and bone weary work of multitudes of hardworking people who have created our economy and have made our super comfortable and convenient lifestyles possible. The photo also reminds me of how a dirty fuel like coal largely powered the Industrial Revolution and in the process spewed billions of tons of toxic carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, wrapping a heat trapping blanket around the globe in the past century.

Meanwhile, we are seeing the American economy making an amazing recovery following the nation's prolonged battle with Covid, in spite of the risk of experiencing a rise of inflation and interest rates. But stocks in the S&P 500 have gone up 26% over the past year, and our financial markets are outperforming the world's by the biggest margins in the 21st century, according to Bloomberg News. In addition, the unemployment rate is down to 3.8%, and many are quitting lower paying jobs and finding positions with higher pay and better benefits.

But should we herald all of this as good news? Surely if our American economy doesn't help relieve worldwide poverty and primarily benefits the already privileged, if it continues to deplete, pollute and poison the planet, and if it fails to rectify the harm we have done to native Americans and to oppressed and enslaved black Americans, it is an economy doomed to fail.

See https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-demonic-trinity-of-evil-nationalism.html