Our current economic meltdown has been the hot topic at my office. One silver lining is the unique opportunity to engage many non-political friends on the deeper issues of community and country. After numerous conversations I've found effective ways to distill complex financial issues down to simple truths which resonate with everyone.
In this first entry I'll explain the most powerful of the Water Cooler Concepts: the polarization of wealth. (more after the fold.....)
The polarization of wealth concept is easily explained visually and thus the most devastating. Anyone can look at a pie chart where 1% of the population gets half the pie and conclude that there is a problem. As they look further and realize that 80% of our people fight over the last tenth of the pie, their stomach starts to rumble. Once they are sufficiently shocked by reality, I launch into talking points:
"The gap between rich and poor in America is the largest since 1929. We know that this is a problem. When you have a consumer economy, a strong middle class is required to keep the engine moving. That wealthy 1% is just not going to buy 80 ipods to offset the loss in purchasing power of the poor and middle class. Trickle down economics has always been a false promise."
At this point the responses tend to be either "Those bastards!" or "Are you proposing wealth re-distribution?". At this point I remind them that these numbers are from 2001, before the Bush tax cuts created an even larger disparity. All I'm advocating is returning the tax code to Clinton era levels.
If our conversation has lasted this long, I'll try to leave them with food for thought: "Wealth re-distribution would be wrong...But imagine what would happen if that top 1% unanimously decided to give 10% of their wealth to the middle and lower classes. They could double the wealth of every person making less than 200K....Pretty crazy huh?"
Sources and additional reading:
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/...
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/...
http://robertdfeinman.com/...
http://www.census.gov/...
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/