Cuomo Discusses American Obsession With Money

Mario Cuomo is a man who wears many hats--former governor of New York, leading advocate of progressive government, corporate lawyer, Italian and baseball lover. He revealed all of these attributes in his passionate speech at the Harvard Law School Forum last night.

Cuomo fired up the packed audience with a personal anecdote to begin what he promised would not be a speech. He recounted that in his 12 years as governor of New York, his own mother never acknowledged his success "because it wouldn't show the other children respect."

Rather, when she read in Fortune magazine that the president of the Chrysler Corporation makes $20 million a year, she scolded her youngest son Mario in broken English, "What's a matter, you don't know how to make a car?"

The story sparked an uproar of laughter in the forum, and it created a bridge to Cuomo's main point, that Americans are far too concerned with money.

"There is evidence that America is at its most successful place in American history. The stock market is ascending without rationale and there are more American millionaires and billionaires [than ever]," Cuomo said.

However, Cuomo emphasized that this success was only superficial, saying that at the same time, many communities are deteriorating.

"In my old neighborhood in South Jamaica, Queens, the public school is worse than when I went to it," Cuomo said.

Three hundred thousand people in New York cannot afford healthcare, and new bankruptcy records have been set for the past six years, Cuomo said.

"This is not `As Good As It Gets' and Jack Nicholson didn't make a movie about it," he said.

Challenging the idea that America is rich in resources, Cuomo said that out of the 160 million American workers, only 5 percent are highly skilled, meaning that they have had at least four years of post-secondary education.

Without higher education, said Cuomo, unskilled workers are "going backwards as the cost of their housing and health insurance is growing at a rate much faster than their wages."

Even more disturbing than the spread of American poverty, Cuomo said, both Democrats and Republicans had lowered their political standards. He criticized his own Democratic party for adopting the catchy slogan, "the era of big government is over."

Cuomo revealed that hidden in that slogan is a political message directed to the middle class: "We [the government] don't want to worry about those poor people who are using their food stamps to buy steak while you are working, middle class."

Cuomo equated this democratic change in attitude towards the poor with the recent trend for "politicians to follow the polls with an almost Pavlovian success."

He said the American public must acknowledge the chameleon-like side of politicians who are guided by poll percentages and use this as the main way to learn about how the public feels on certain issues.

With only 40 percent of registered voters voting,

Cuomo implored law school students to takeinterest in bigger issues, advocate forthemselves, and try to better their environment"before [they've] traveled the world or bought aPorsche."

He emphasized that taking a personal stance onissues was important because not many peoplepossess the ability or the money to individuallychange legislation by becoming politicians.

Cuomo demanded a shift in the allocation of thegross national product toward giving more money toeducation at the local level.

Comparing the information superhighway to atoll road, Cuomo said that "you can't get on theinformation superhighway without a computer athome and this costs money."

Cuomo's enthusiastic speech reminded audiencemembers of what he said was everyone's individualresponsibility to make a difference and help thedisadvantaged.

"If you think that by helping the weak you aregoing to weaken the strong, that's a lot ofgarbage," he said

Cuomo implored law school students to takeinterest in bigger issues, advocate forthemselves, and try to better their environment"before [they've] traveled the world or bought aPorsche."

He emphasized that taking a personal stance onissues was important because not many peoplepossess the ability or the money to individuallychange legislation by becoming politicians.

Cuomo demanded a shift in the allocation of thegross national product toward giving more money toeducation at the local level.

Comparing the information superhighway to atoll road, Cuomo said that "you can't get on theinformation superhighway without a computer athome and this costs money."

Cuomo's enthusiastic speech reminded audiencemembers of what he said was everyone's individualresponsibility to make a difference and help thedisadvantaged.

"If you think that by helping the weak you aregoing to weaken the strong, that's a lot ofgarbage," he said