Katha Pollitt, in the current (June 28, 2010) issue of The Nation, begins her column recounting how World War II was “the last time Americans accepted the challenge of sacrifice in pursuit of common goals.” War had necessitated rationing, conservation, war bond purchasing, and other efforts that showed an awareness for a bigger, collective “good.” Since then, and now, after (during?) The Great Recession, while millions are still unemployed or under-employed, while the budget hawks in the government nickels and dimes itself out of effective reform that could revitalize our economy and our nation, while consumers self-righteously fume at BP’s environmental destruction, but fail to acknowledge their own fuel thirst that has created the demand for off-shore oil drilling, have Americans become so accustomed to wanting more while contributing less that when a new “national sacrifice” is in order, it is not only seems to be a politically disastrous position, but the existing inequities of our society get replayed and reinforced? 

We must start by looking honestly in the mirror, revisit the ideas of fairness and equality, and refocus on that collective good, as Pollitt fantastically does here:

I would gladly pay higher taxes to prevent layoffs of teachers, cops and firemen; to improve our schools and universities; keep libraries open; expand public transportation; and put unemployed people to work repairing our tattered infrastructure, building public housing, maintaining our parks, staffing childcare centers. And what about that green technology Obama used to talk about—wind power, solar power, high-speed trains? There is no shortage of important work that needs to be done, and the costs of not doing it are very high. Unfortunately, the same leaders who fear asking us to sacrifice by paying higher taxes have no qualms about spending the money we already give them—and borrowing more—to pay for wars, war toys and prisons, while organizing the tax structure around the greed of corporations and the richest sliver of the population. The lavishing of treasure to pay for our militarized, increasingly unequal society is the sacrifice most of us are already making. Is it any wonder that people respond to calls for sacrifice with defensiveness and cynicism?

Adding to the difficulty of selling the public on sacrifice is that the salesman is usually a very rich and successful person who will barely feel the pinch of the policies he proposes. “Americans have become masters of ‘sacrifice avoidance,’ ” intones Eliot Spitzer in his Slate column. This immensely wealthy man, who spent more than $100,000 on prostitutes and thereby cost New York its best shot in a generation at a functioning state government, tells me to read the Gettysburg Address and be inspired to “a greater sense of national purpose”?

Multimillionaires who argue for raising taxes should start by proposing taxes on themselves that would actually lower their standard of living. Until then, they’re not really sharing the sacrifice they want to impose on the rest of us.

Is it a wonder that so many think Americans are the greediest people on earth?