The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

Letters to the Editor

Letters+to+the+Editor

Brexit outcome

Regardless of Black Lives Matter — Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and St. Paul, white lives have not mattered since the 1980s.

John Higgs in Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History Of The 20th Century (2015): “Today’s investor does not profit from yesterday’s growth” — economically, the first half of the 20th century had been grim. It had been home to financial horror stories such as the hyper-inflation of the Weimar Republic, in which a glass of beer cost 4 billion marks in 1923, and the Great Depression. But the period from the end of World War II to the 1970s looks, from the perspective of the early 21st century, like a Golden Age. Postwar England was bleak, and yet untold millions were lifted out of poverty over the following decades.

The average man in England and Wales was expected to live to 46 in 1900, but that rose by more than a third to 73 by 1990. For women, it rose from 50 to 79. In 1957, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said, “Let us be frank about it — most of our people have never had it so good. Go around [England], go to the industrial towns, go to the farms, and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime — nor indeed in the history of this country.” From a contemporary perspective that statement seems complacent, but from a historical viewpoint, it was a fair comment.

It was an exciting time to be alive. A rising tide of affluence benefited entire populations and suggested that the future could only get better. The American-Anglo Dreams were the reality. The mix of individualism, advertising, and corporate growth was a potent cocktail indeed.

But then, at some point in the 1970s, things changed.

Higgs writes that economic growth continued — but its impact on society began to change in 1980. Unnoticed in the late 1970s, three historical factors were deferring the Dream.

First: the rise of Deng Xiaoping after Mao’s death to the position of paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party in December 1978. Deng introduced a managed form of capitalism into China, offering cheap Chinese labor for Western corporations that led to well-paid Western manufacturing jobs disappearing, as well as world trade imbalances.

Globalization led to the disappearance of corporate taxes from home-government coffers; giddy — corporations re-imaged themselves as stateless/multinationals unbeholden to the nations that birthed them.

French futurist Jean Gimpel in The End of the Future (1995) predicted the effect of Chinese capitalism on the American Dream and eventually Brexit. Few, if any economists or politicians seemed to have noticed this book or its closing essay, “The End of White Supremacy”:

“But we should take heed of the fact that deindustrialization will mainly happen in the West and in the former Soviet Union, and that this dramatic trend will mark the end of 500 years of European domination of the world.”

In a very pertinent book, Pierre Lellouche (Le Nouveau Monde — De L’ordre de Yalta au desoudre des nations.) wrote in 1992 that, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were confronting each other, mankind was witnessing the encounter of two ideologies, the democratic and the Marxist, created by our white reigning civilization. When capitalism and democracy collapse in the West, as I predict it will following bankruptcy of our financial system after the disintegration of Marxism in the Soviet Union, we will very possibly be witnessing the twilight of the white race — provisionally, we hope.

As is now generally recognized, the center of world trade has moved from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1982, the volume of trade across the Pacific overtook that across the Atlantic. The developing countries in the Far East grew in 1993 by 7.4 percent compared with the world’s 0.6 percent. Nevertheless, when Wall Street crashes, triggered off perhaps by a sharp fall of shares in Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Singapore, the Pacific basin will suffer an economic deceleration. But in the long run, the Far East will recover progressively, achieving world economic supremacy while the former countries of our once glorious civilization will become, in their turn, developing countries.

China will progressively dominate the Pacific basin and beyond, and for the second time in her long history, she will have entered an era of growth in which her psychological drive and her technological evolution will rise in parallel curves. China is at the beginning of a cycle that could last a millennium, while Western civilization stands at the end of a cycle that is already 1,000 years old.

— Mary Gravitt

Vote for Claussen

I will cast my vote for J.P. Claussen in the July 19 Iowa City School Board special election.

As a parent of children who attend Alexander Elementary, it is discouraging to hear individuals in this community claim to know what is best for the students at our school. Many of the same individuals are decrying the current secondary-boundary plan, claiming it overturns “thousands of hours of community input.” What these individuals fail to recognize is that the voices and concerns of Alexander (and Kirkwood) families were and have been continually dismissed in this discussion. To me, this election isn’t just about secondary boundaries, it’s about having a voice.

All schools in this district deserve to have a voice, especially our schools that serve our most vulnerable students. This is why we need J.P. Claussen on the board. Throughout his career in education, J.P. has been a fierce advocate for marginalized populations. His decade of experience as a special-education teacher provides knowledge that is unmatched by any other candidate in this race. His role as the president and chief negotiator of the Iowa City Education Association shows that he is a skilled communicator and will fight for what is best for students and teachers.

J.P. will bring his passion for social justice to the board table. He will make decisions that truly promote equity for all and not just for some. Please join me in voting for him on July 19.

— Katy DeMeulenaere, Iowa City

More to Discover