HOW DOES IT FEEL NOT TO BE NEEDED?

There are recurring adages that pepper our lives. Little truths like: "The apple never falls far from the tree," "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," "the best things in life are free." I grew up with these. But here's one new to my scene: "Right now, someone's getting rich from this."

When you think about it, that's probably been true from the time tribal shamans sold prayer beads and pharonic high priests kept the key to their boss' pyramids. Over time, the idea of making money became institutionalized. At first it was called inherited wealth. Later, mercantilism. More recently, capitalism.

So long as capitalists like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford felt a social obligation to their workers, there was peace in the valley. But over time, corporate "good citizenship" lost some of its charm Today, corporate profits skyrocket even while the rest of the economy remains stalled in a deep recession.

Enter the adage: "Right now, someone's getting rich from this."

Whether it was their spiking oil prices or growing food prices, corporations were known to have shared-the- wealth through the jobs they provided, and the salaries & benefits they pumped back into the economy. Today, however, Americans face a hard new reality. Our corporation don't need us anymore...!

Increasingly, their products, revenues and workers come from abroad (the preferred name is Global Economy). Harold Meyerson writes in The American Prospect: "With every passing year, America's leading corporations grow more and more decoupled from the American economy. Their interests grow increasingly more detached from those of our workers, our consumers, and our economic future. Unlike any other recession, including the Great Depression, today's leading employers can return to profitability without hiring large numbers of American workers."

Everyone -- from the posturing political parties to the chattering political pundits -- have decided that the weapon of choice in today's crippling recession is to slash government spending. If done judiciously and justly, that will help. But until corporate America rejoins America, much of the help will continue to benefit only those who least need it.