Advocate, March 2009, Vol. [20], No

City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works The Advocate Archives and Special Collections 3-2009 Advocate, March 2009, Vol. [20], No. [6] How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_advocate/11 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Watching the Watchmen page 22 March 2009 http://gcadvocate.org [email protected] Academic Labor Under Siege Henry A. Giroux on the Politically Engaged Academic ALSO INSIDE Hampshire College and the Politics of Divestment (page 8) Jean-Luc Godard at 24 Frames a Second (page 14) FROM THE editor’s desk March 2009 Give it Back!: Getting New York’s http://gcadvocate.org [email protected] CUNY Graduate Center Wealthiest to Pay Their Fair Share Room 5396 “Experience demands that man is the as fewer and fewer people control larger a crisis of revenue, not spending, and to 365 Fifth Avenue only animal which devours his own amounts of the nation’s wealth. try to solve it by further cutting spending kind, for I can apply no milder term to So if many of us would be delighted to while refusing to increase revenue only New York, NY 10016 the general prey of the rich on the poor.” make even a mere $150,000 a year, and goes to show how little our state repre- (212) 817-7885 —Thomas Jefferson the facts indicate that much more than sentatives actually care about the living “Hey baby, nobody suffers like the poor!” that doesn’t really seem to make anyone conditions of the majority of their con- EDITOR-IN-CHIEF —Charles Bukowski any happier, why does the New York State stituency. James Hoff I know it’s difficult, especially for the ma- income tax system insist on taking the Thankfully, there is a growing number jority of GC students facing several years same percentage of income from those of citizens, unions, and grassroots politi- MANAGING EDITOR of fruitless job searches and adjunct lec- who have little or nothing to spare as it cal organizations who are pushing for a does from those who already have more more reasonable and moral solution to Michael Busch turing in pursuit of that coveted $55,000 a year tenure track gig; but take a min- than enough, and according to Gilbert the current state budget crisis, one that would suffer nothing should they take seeks to distribute the burden of that cri- LAYOUT EDITOR ute and imagine what it would be like to make $200,000 a year. For most of us this home a little less each year? Why is it that, sis in a more equitable way. The Working Mark Wilson number must seem outrageously large: given the state’s record breaking budget Families Party in conjunction with sev- four or five times our current yearly wag- deficit, the governor, rather than increas- eral state and municipal unions have pro- MEDIA BOARD CHAIR es and a lot more than even the most well ing taxes on those who already have ev- posed what they are calling a Fair Share erything they need, is instead proposing Tax Reform bill. Introduced in the New Rob Faunce paid and distinguished professor makes at CUNY; but nonetheless, give it a shot. to raise costs and slash services for those York State Senate by Senator Eric Schnie- who can least afford to pay more or to go derman, the Fair Share Tax Reform Bill CONTRIBUTORS How would your life be different? Would you finally be able to afford your with less? proposes a modest increase in taxes Andrew Bast own apartment instead of giving your Not only does Governor Paterson want on those New Yorkers making above Michael Busch money to a landlord or living with room- to slash Medicaid, which obviously af- $250,000. The bill, which is gaining mo- fects only those without adequate health mentum in the state legislature (Thanks Frank Episale mates? Would you finally feel secure enough to let your spouse take time off insurance (i.e. the poor) but as we have in part to the determined efforts of or- Henry A. Giroux from work to have a child, and would you all heard, he is also planning to increase dinary citizens and grassroots organiza- Patrick Inglis take comfort in the fact that your child tuition at CUNY and SUNY campuses tions), would raise the state tax rate on Tim Krause would grow up in a safe and healthy envi- by a total of $600 per year. Since many those making more than $250,000 from of you reading this are no doubt trying 6.85 percent to 8.25 percent. Likewise Matt Lau ronment? Would you be able to set aside a college fund and make sure that they to piece together a meager living teach- those making more than half a million a Clay Matlin received the best education and health ing CUNY students, I don’t have to tell year would see their state tax rise to 8.97 Renee McGarry care available? Would you take vacations you how little they already have and how percent, while those making more than a Daoud Tyler-Ameen in Europe or the Caribbean, eat at more hard they work just to stay on top of their million dollars a year would be asked to of the great restaurants New York has to tuition bills, much less their course read- pay 10.3 percent. ing and homework. Add to this Paterson’s Even at the highest tax bracket pro- PUblICATION INFO offer, or become a subscriber to the Met- ropolitan Opera? Of course you could proposals to slash the MTA budget, which posed in the Fair Share Tax Reform Bill, TheGC Advocate is the student do any or all of these things if you made will likely result in significant cuts in ser- this is a total increase of only 3.45 per- newspaper of the CUNY Grad- $200,000 a year. In fact with a lifetime vice as well as a potential fare increase, cent. That 3.45 percent, however, would, uate Center and is published of that kind of income you could easily and it’s not hard to see the economic war according to Fiscal Policy Institute of the seven times a year. Publication retire in your early sixties and spend a that is being waged on the working poor New York State Department of Taxation is subsidized by Student Ac- significant part of your adult life doing of New York. While the poor are being and Finance, generate as much as $6 bil- asked to pay more and to get by with less lion a year for New York State. Further- tivities Fees and the Doctoral whatever you liked, volunteering your in almost every aspect of their daily lives, more, these increases would affect only Students’ Council. time in a meaningful way that helped make the world a better place. Indeed, those making well above $250,000 a year a small portion of New Yorkers, (only let’s face it, regardless of what you might are being asked to sacrifice absolutely the wealthiest 3.25 percent, according SUbmISSIONS think about the rich or how much you nothing. to The Working Families Party) and the The GC Advocate accepts con- believe, like Roger Waters, that money “is Currently the New York State tax on few who would actually be affected are, tributions of articles, illustra- the root of all evil today,” life would be income over $40,000 is 6.85%. That rate let’s face it, uniquely situated to with- tions, photos and letters to the pretty good if you made just that much applies not only to those making $40,000 stand a small decrease in their annual a year but to everyone making more than income. editor. Please send queries to money wouldn’t it? that marginally livable wage, regardless Although there seems to be a growing the email address above. Now imagine if you were making $250,000 or $300,000 or even $3million; of how many millions of dollars they consensus in the legislature that some Articles selected for publica- would those extra dollars really make you bring home each year. That means that kind of progressive tax reform is neces- many of us are probably paying exactly sary, opponents of the Fair Share Tax tion will be subjected to edi- any happier? Would more vacations or a more expensive house really make your the same percentage of taxes as our es- Reform are gearing up to seek major torial revision. Writers who life any more fulfilling? Perhaps for some teemed Chancellor Goldstein, who makes compromises to the bill that would force contribute articles of 1,000 of you they would, but the fact is that even $540,000 a year in wages and perks and more of the burden for the budget deficit words will be paid $50 and a moderate amount of income, much less has largely bent over backwards to ac- onto poor working families. As the April those who submit longer ar- than $250,000 can sustain great happi- commodate the governor’s proposals for 1 deadline for the next New York State ticles requiring research will ness. As Harvard University psychologist tuition hikes, while at the same time giv- budget quickly approaches, now is the ing himself several significant raises. In- time to take action.

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