{"id":181097867,"date":"2010-09-28T00:57:47","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T00:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=181097867"},"modified":"2010-09-28T00:57:47","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T00:57:47","slug":"losing-sight-of-what-matters-in-america-do-we-value-value-or-just-value-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=181097867","title":{"rendered":"Losing sight of what matters in America Do we value \u2018value\u2019 or just value \u2018cheap\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Mary Newsom<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nAnd in recent days I\u2019ve written about the new greenway along Charlotte\u2019s Little Sugar Creek. Not a few people have told me how they hate to see the \u201cwaste\u201d of public money on things like the greenway\u2019s stone bridges (actually, that stone is inexpensive molded concrete), public art and the rockwork clock tower (clock donated by the Rotary Club). It\u2019s as if people here are so unused to places that celebrate the public that they think it\u2019s wastefully lavish for a public park to hold anything nicer than cinder-block buildings and utilitarian metal bridges.<br \/>\nYou\u2019re probably wondering how these things \u2013 voice mail and airline travel and parks \u2013 are related. To my eye, they all illustrate something about America today: Americans have stopped believing that value is something everyone deserves.<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve stopped valuing workers. The country apparently no longer believes people who work hard deserve wages that pay them enough to afford the rent or a modest mortgage, or deserve a pension to keep them from penury in retirement. We\u2019ve stopped expecting those things from employers \u2013 or at least they\u2019ve stopped providing them. We\u2019ve even stopped valuing public schools, stopped expecting them to have mowed lawns and drinking fountains that work.<br \/>\nWhat we value, instead, is cheapness. Rock-bottom prices. Low taxes. So we get tomatoes that taste like crunchy sponges, but at least we don\u2019t pay a lot for them. Instead of percale bedsheets made in the USA we buy sheets made in countries most people couldn\u2019t find on a map, with seams that dissolve within weeks. We buy food with no taste, clothes that unravel and appliances we have to junk after five years. Our public schools have knee-high crabgrass. People get hacked off if our public parks look better than pesticide factories. But at least they don\u2019t cost us too much.<br \/>\n&#8230;.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nRead more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/2010\/08\/13\/1621427\/losing-sight-of-what-matters-in.html\">https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/2010\/08\/13\/1621427\/losing-sight-of-what-matters-in.html<\/a>oldId.20100928005747452<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mary Newsom &#8230; And in recent days I\u2019ve written about the new greenway along Charlotte\u2019s Little Sugar Creek. Not a few people have told me how they hate to see the \u201cwaste\u201d of public money on things like the greenway\u2019s stone bridges (actually, that stone is inexpensive molded concrete), public art and the rockwork &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=181097867\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Losing sight of what matters in America Do we value \u2018value\u2019 or just value \u2018cheap\u2019?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181097867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181097867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181097867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181097867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181097867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181097867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181097867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}