Whatâs
Wrong Today:
The
widening gap between rich and poor is eroding faith in the American dream.
By almost
two to one â 64% to 33% â Americans say the US no longer offers everyone an
equal chance to get ahead, according to a poll by Bloomberg. The survey of
1,004 adults was conducted by Selzer & Co., an Iowa-based
pollster from December 6-9. The poll was taken just after the statements by President
Obama and Pope Francis, who both expressed alarm about growing income
inequality.
By way of
background, the richest 10% of Americans earned more than half of all US
income last year, the largest share since 1917, according to Emmanuel
Saez,
economist at the University of California at Berkeley. From Bloomberg:
the American dream] is especially pronounced among those making less than
$50,000 a year: By a 73% to 24% margin, they say the economy is unfair. Even 60%
of those whose annual income is $100,000 or more bemoan the absence of a fair
deal while 39% say everyone has an equal shot to advance
In the poll,
68% of Americans say the income gap is growing, while 18% say it is unchanged
and 10% say itâs shrinking. It is amazing that FACTS just donât seem to matter to the 28% who say that
inequality isnât growing! More from Bloomberg: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)
action is strongest among lower-income Americans, with 52% saying officials
should do something and 35% putting their faith in the market…Middle-income
Americans, those making $50,000 to $100,000, favor relying on the market by 54% to 39%
So, if you
are doing ok, you think âthe marketâ is the answer, and if you make less than
$50k, you are looking for some help. Is inequality simply another way to talk
about class warfare and income redistribution as Republicans complain?
The Market
is not going to re-animate our middle class. It is six years since the start of the Great Recession, and it hasn’t happened yet. An unfettered business environment
will not produce wage growth. Nor will trickle-down. Even Adam Smith realized
the limitations of just letting businessmen do what they pleased. While he is
often quoted by conservatives, who wrongly assign a God-like virtue to the
“invisible hand” of the market, he also had this to say:
surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members
are poor and miserable
From Tomdispatch.com:
phrase âclass warâ in twenty-first-century America, the odds are that itâs been
a curse spat from the mouths of Republican warriors castigating Democrats for
engaging in high crimes and misdemeanors like trying to tax the rich
In 2011,
when Mr. Obama proposed a âmillionaire’s taxâ, he
was accused by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) of heading down the âclass
warfare path.â
In 2012, Mitt Romney blasted the president for encouraging âclass warfareâ by attacking entrepreneurial
success.
Tomdispatch
goes on to describe how usage of class warfare was co-opted recently by the 1%,
saying that for
at least a century, it was a commonplace in the American lexicon that:
were typical everyday words that were not used to indict those at the bottom,
but the rich of whatever gilded age we passing in or out of…only to resurface
with the Republican resurgence of the 1980s as a way to dismiss anyone
challenging those who controlled ever more of the wealth and power in America
MSNBCâs Tim Noah:
century ago the countryâs plutocrats, plagued by violent protest from
socialists and anarchists, feared that if economic inequality got too far out
of hand the angry masses might overthrow capitalism. That obliged them to at
least pay lip service to some vague notion of equality
But focus
on the epithet class warfare
distracts us from the true issues of inequality: Equality should be about equal
opportunities in education, employment, housing, health care, safe living
environment, secure pensions â these are the basic principles of equality.
However, the
greatest transfer of wealth in history continues, and no one in Washington can,
or will, do anything about it. We have been living under an oligarchy since
St. Ronnie introduced the country to âReaganomicsâ.
Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing
assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of
America.
The poor have
just three ways to band together and act to protect their interests:
#1. Government
#2. Unions
#3. Civil Disobedience
In the
early 21st Century, the first two options have been taken out of the
equation. That leaves #3. That’s the one the oligarchs want the poor to try, since
they expect the police will save their skins when the time comes. That is why the police have been
militarized, because that’s the option the plutocrats think they can
simply slap down. (Think about Occupy)
We have
all seen the hardware the police are stockpiling. It must be the real reason
for militarizing our police departments.
As long as
the 10% who sit on most of the assets don’t give a damn about their fellow
Americans dying of hunger, disease, destroyed living environments and crumbling
infrastructure, America does not have a chance of becoming a nation worthy of âAll
men are created equalâ in our Declaration of
Independence.
And as long as those
in Congress stay busy managing their careers instead
of shouldering their part of the responsibility to secure a humanely just society, we will never achieve the American dream.
“The
American Dream: You have to be asleep to believe it.” -George Carlin