My apologies for disturbing the Holiday tradition of peace and good will, but NYC Eve's diary got me writing a comment that got out of control, so I'm turning it into a diary.
The U.S. staggered out of the Great Depression into World War II, and thanks to the New Deal programs, massive government spending for the war, the G.I. Bill, and strong unions, rebuilt itself with a strong industrial base and and expanding middle class.
Millions of Americans got good educations, got a chance to become homeowners, and set up their children to go even farther. Ever since then the forces that led us into the Great Depression have been at work trying to roll all of that back. Think about it.
For years unions have been discredited, scapegoated for job losses and killing industries. There's not been so much about the financiers and the politicians they bought who worked to ship those jobs to places without employee unions or protections for workers, first to the south and then overseas. They rewrote trade policies to allow the economy to grow on the backs of exploited workers overseas, trashing their resources and polluting their environment so they could fill stores here with container loads of cheap goods. By externalizing the true costs of those products, they were able to persuade people that this was good thing "Because who wants to pay more?"
Union membership dropped as the sons and daughters of blue collar workers moved into sectors of the economy where unions had never been strong, and their children never knew where they had come up from - they certainly weren't taught in the schools. But, they did hear about crippling labor strikes, corrupt unions - and the communist underpinnings of Labor.
Conservative think tanks rose up to push policies that favored their wealthy founders, and to destroy the policies that had lifted so many into the middle class. They pushed for ever larger tax cuts for the rich even as they fought to kill the social programs that allowed so many to get a chance at a decent life. They're still doing it.
For the last 40 years, they have been cannibalizing the middle class, sucking away wealth from them and concentrating it in the hands of a few who answer to no one. It's been a bipartisan effort, wherever money speaks louder than principle or political belief. The most exclusive country club in the world is the U.S. Senate - and the House of Representatives is not far behind. Here's some numbers from 2005. Think things are changing? Look at thesenumbers from 2008. As the McClatchy article reports,
Only 1 percent of all Americans are considered millionaires.
"With a median net worth of $746,000, most members of Congress have a comfortable financial cushion to ride out any recession," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which conducted the study.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., ranks No. 1, with $397 million, followed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., with $343 million. Rep Robin Hayes, R-N.C., ranks third, with $173.4 million. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., ranks sixth, with $62 million.
In the Senate, the two Democrats from Massachusetts claimed two of the top three spots.
Sen. John Kerry led the pack, with $336 million, while Sen. Edward M. Kennedy ranked third, with $104 million. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., ranked second, with $241.5 million. Overall, senators had a median net worth estimated at $1.7 million.
The 535 members of Congress, who earn average annual salaries of $169,000 and receive cost-of-living pay increases, had a total net worth of $3.7 billion last year. Although some are likely to take a hit from Wall Street's woes, their average net worth soared by 61 percent from 2004 to 2007.
Is it any wonder the economy is not working well for most people today? The operative phrase is "wealth transfer" - and the direction for the past 40 years has been from the many to the few.
Every time workers somewhere get a raise, it's automatically labeled inflationary and anti-competitive. Every time the big money boys screw up, it's the workers who are asked to take up the slack. We're seeing it now, with layoffs, closings, benefits being dropped, etc. Mergers and buyouts were always the way to go - even as they cost jobs. Stockholders and financiers got the benefits - even as the employees took it in the neck.
When times were good, was there ever a call for that wealth to be shared, for salaries and benefits to go up? Nope - there's never been a good time for that in the last 4 decades. With times getting tough, the 'sacrifices' are even greater - and they're damn well not getting shared.
Why is it so important not to drive the rich and super rich away? What good are they to the vast majority of people? Who would miss them? They distort our politics and they have done their best to make government a wholly owned subsidiary, instead of an instrument for the common good. They refuse to address the common good because they don't believe in it,
If we are in trouble now, it is because America has been systematically weakened for decades for the benefit of a few. The strong middle class that could have weathered the financial stress has been sucked dry by declining shares in the GDP. The transfer of wealth has been camouflaged by a flood of cheap goods from overseas and massive borrowing. That transferred wealth, instead of building a strong modern industrial base and corresponding jobs, has been lost in a maze of Ponzi style money games that promised huge returns with smoke and mirrors.
If you want to see the poster boys for American capitalism in action, forget the Horatio Alger Jr. model. It's Bernard Maddow. It's Ken Lay at Enron. And, let's not forget the guy they hand-picked to carry out their agenda.
Will Obama ask the rich to give back to the country at a time of great need, when increasing their taxes just a few percent could fund an investment in real America? They've never had more, yet the 40 years of demonizing all taxation as unjust has made the idea of raising taxes unspeakable in Washington. The rest of us are going to be asked to foot the bill while the rich watch from the sidelines. It's like trying to run a blood drive by calling on people with anemia to donate. It's insane.
My apologies for disturbing the holiday spirit - but this is the strangest Christmas I've seen in a long time. There is so much hope being placed on the incoming administration - yet so much fear for the damage done by the current administration, and more fear for the damage yet to come. We're reaping the harvest of 40 years worth of institutionalizing the virtues of selfishness. This holiday season above all others we all need to come together and share the task of remaking the country with whatever assets we can bring to the table. Hope is a wonderful thing - but it is meaningless without commitment and effort. Here's to a New Year where these words will translate into action.
That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans – that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.
That is the spirit that will guide my Administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.