Sweet Land of Liberty
Preface
During the past several years I have written a lot about the injustices that flow from wealth and income inequality. In that time almost nothing has changed that could alter the trends in place, even though many others are now writing about this subject. A few very brave and dedicated individuals have made superhuman efforts to try to stem the tide and bring about needed changes. That fight will be long and hard, requiring youth and energy, two attributes that have both flown away from me. And so in my allotted time, whatever that may be, I have decided to reach for a few limited goals. They are to write on topics that have a bit of fun in them, or to set goals that do not take a lot of time and energy, and where the prospect of seeing results has a chance of surfacing within the next few years. This essay is one of those lower-energy projects.
I will begin with a brief summary of the topic that I will soon leave. Beginning in about 1980 a huge shift in wealth and income has taken place in America. The top 20 percent of Americans now hold 85 percent of all household wealth and receive 85 percent of all personal income. The bottom 50 percent of Americans hold no wealth at all, and receive about 8 percent of all personal income. This wealth skew is the worst in the industrialized world, and it is getting wider with each passing day. The income gap between rich and poor is among the worst in the world, and it is also getting worse daily. Concurrent with these trends a host of other very negative associations has emerged including our number one rankings in illiteracy rates, in murder rates, in mental health issues, in crime rates, imprisonment rates, obesity rates, suicide rates, in teen pregnancies, low interpersonal trust, and in social immobility. These are mere words. The reality behind them is a thousand times worse than are their verbal descriptions. Most of it arises from economic inequality.
An economy is much like an internal combustion engine. When it is performing well, you cannot take a part from one section, move it to another, and expect it to run efficiently, if at all. Nor can you throw sand in it, or cut its fuel supply. Similarly, you cannot take wealth and income from the many and give it to the few without negative consequences. That is the sum and substance of the changes that have taken place in our tax policy and inheritance laws in the past 30 years or so. To add to the upward flow of money and wealth, workers’ pensions have been eliminated, unions and collective bargaining have been diminished, health care costs have shifted to employees, and their incomes have stagnated while executive perks and bonuses have ballooned, stock options have skyrocketed, and wealth accumulation is now beyond the reach of one-half our population.
As an example of the extent of the new greed that has engulfed and enslaved many, a hedge fund manager can be—and is—paid $2 million dollars per hour, and $4 billion dollars per year to keep the money flows going from the bottom to the top. The changes have been insidious and behind the scenes. “Too big to fail” is an apt description of how citizens now bail out ineptitude at the corporate level, with no reciprocal backflows to them. To the contrary, spending cuts in their programs are the norm and are likely to remain so for many decades into the future. Meanwhile, the wealthy have a new accumulation total of $56 trillion that is doubling in value every 10 years.
Most troubling of all is the fact that there is now in-place the most formidable opposition to changing any of these trends. Indeed, the opponents are intent by motive, means, and opportunity to making them worse. Who are the obstructionists? The wealthy. More specifically, they are the vast majority of America’s 63,000 CEOs of our public corporations; the 3700 hedge fund managers, most bankers, gun manufacturers, and oil company executives; and individuals such as the Koch brothers of oil fame, Abel Adamson, the gambling casino owner, Thomas Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and others. Collectively, their wealth and political power are virtually impenetrable and unstoppable. In terms of legislation they own the Republican Party apparatus and upwards of 95 percent of its legislators. Their contempt for the 150 million Americans they have exploited was voiced most poignantly by Mitt Romney when he was caught telling his wealthy benefactors these beliefs:
there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. And he'll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. [Mother Jones]
What Romney did not say, and probably did not know, is that same 47 percent are paid an average of just $15,000 per year in earnings, and they pay $5,000 of that in state income taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, property taxes, a variety of hidden taxes, and are hit the hardest by the most vicious tax of all—inflation. Moreover, every piece of legislation that would stimulate the economy and create jobs so that the poor might rise above their status was thwarted by his Republican cohorts in Congress.
Looking ahead is where even bigger problems await you. In the next 50 years, if present trends continue, a revolution of major proportions will take place the likes of which we have never before experienced. It is just too difficult to imagine 400 million or more Americans who are willing to roll over and submit to the will of the rich and accept a life of poverty and servitude without putting up one hell of a fight. To avoid that fight, the tide must turn, and that is the daunting task of those who are young, strong, and with backbone. You may accept my description of a potential outcome ending in disaster as the words of a scare-monger or crackpot if that makes you feel better. I am comfortable knowing I am a careful analyst who gets most issues right most of the time.
Here is my final contribution and advice to those between ages 20 and 40. You are the young, the brave, and the few (to call up an old slogan). Your task will be to stay and fight, or to leave. Both choices require honor and courage. Dying in the cause of liberty is the patriot’s pledge. Refusing to engage in a bloodbath against your fellow countrymen is humane. The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence ended that document with these words: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” They did not anticipate the need to fight each other.
Turning the tide means reversing the flow of new wealth and income that is now flowing from the bottom and the middle classes to the top. It’s the direction of that flow that determines if the American Dream is still possible. Today, that dream is dead. Tomorrow it will be deader in the sense that it will become harder to resurrect. That clashing of interests will remain the dominant battle in America until it is resolved. The seriousness of such a collision cannot be overstated. The industrialized world will be pulled into it, and neither the magnitude nor the duration of the ensuing conflict can be predicted except to say it will be incalculably bad for everyone.
If I expected I'd be alive in the next 30 or 40 years, I would stay and fight against extreme inequality to the death. Leaving is for the old, the impaired, and the physically weak. If I were among them I would find my own safe haven where I could move my meager assets, and ultimately move there, retire, and die. It would be in a relatively safe place, politically stable, reasonably independent, offering an acceptable degree of comfort, where most inhabitants speak English. My first choice would be New Zealand, and my second choice would be Ireland.
Leaving would be the ultimate sadness. It would be the antithesis of the words in the New Colossus emblazoned at the foot of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” I think of the dishonor the greedy have heaped upon those words and I weep. Not for me, but for my country, and the cause of freedom. I think of the signers of our Declaration of Independence, and of all those who fought to establish freedom as the founding principle for America. I recall the vision of Thomas Jefferson, who penned the immortal words in our founding document that have captured the hopes and dreams of every human yearning to breathe free who has ever lived:
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Before leaving I would sign a new Declaration of Independence so that posterity might know I was here, that my country was taken over by a gang of misfits and ne’re-do-wells, consumed by greed, with charity toward none, and with malice for all those who love freedom:
A New Declaration of Independence
Today, I leave my country with sadness and in tears. I entered by birth, with no assets, and I leave with only meager holdings to sustain me until death. I take with me only my honor and the sacred trust I have kept with all my forebears. I have not broken faith with them. I hold the self-evident truths of equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as my calling and my guiding light. I cannot, I will not, dishonor those principles or that vision. I also cannot and will not live under the heels of those who have chosen greed as their banner, and dishonor as their cloak. But if the arc of history bends toward justice, their days are numbered. There is nothing in the soul of justice that respects and elevates tyranny. I will not be back, but liberty and justice for the many cannot be stopped for long by the few. To all who remain, fight on. To all future generations, keep the faith. I was too old to fight on, but I loved liberty too much to die in chains. May your battle be short and your victory decisive.
I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your writing- although I can't stand it.
You clearly articulate what I could only somehow feel, but I've been feeling it all my life.
I'm 55 years old. I am extremely blessed to have a son, but I honestly did not want one because I knew I could not provide the childhood for him that my parents provided for me. I actually married a woman who was not supposed to have children due to epilepsy.
But her condition cleared up, and I did wish to please her. When that baby was put in my hands it became life for me. He is now 22 and I hope he can be precocious enough to survive a life time.
I'm divorced now for 9 years. My son has been with me through it all.
I guess it was 2010 when I read the Sam Harris article "A New Year's Resolution For The Rich."
Sam is a good force to have for the cause- I hope it becomes more focused.
I can really appreciate that you have said what you have to say on the doomsday economic realities.
I know I feel tired at my age from the battles I have fought, and I intend to lighten up.
But economic realites live on.
I wonder if you are familiar with the work of Sam Harris.
It does seem remarkable to me it is this Christian nation where the hoarding of wealth takes place at such a level.
The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and must go away sad.
Kindness and sharing seem so obvious to me your words put the wake up call in focus. It makes kindness and sharing seem just like my own personal quirks, and a reason I don't really get "ahead."
All these people hoarding "Treasures upon Earth" but still so unsatisfied as to just watch as others can't afford their daily bread.
Thank you for calling it like you see it. I'll be sharing your words all around because I could never hope to say it better.
John
I like the comparison of the economy to an engine, nice analogy. It's not just the Declaration of Independence that needs rewriting. I think the Constitution could benefit from some amendments that would weaken the hold the rich have on the country by holding onto constitutional ideas 250 years old that are no longer relevant.
Ron