If a just society is defined by the relationship between the well off and the very poor, we have big trouble. US Census data for 2010 show the widest rich-poor income gap on record. In 1968, the top 20 percent of Americans had about 7 times the income of those living below the poverty line. By 2008, that disparity had grown to about 13. By 2010, it had grown even further, to more than 14. The poverty level in 2010 was put at $21,954 for a family of four. In 2010, the percentage of Americans living below half of the poverty line (or about $11,000) had grown from 5.7 percent in 2008 to 6.3 percent. That the rich get richer while the poor get poorer can seem a timeless cliché, yet something is steadily corroding America. The mythic land of equality has the largest income disparity of any Western nation. How can that be?
That is the key paragraph from a column in today's Boston Globe by James Carroll, with the title Now the rich get rich quicker. Read it. I won't quote more.
I want to quickly focus on the content of this one paragraph, the heart of the column
Carroll makes the point that what is propping up what economic growth we are seeing, what he calls the twin pillars of our economy, is spending on wars, and consumer spending. Neither is ultimately sustainable and we should have moral issues with both.
But those are matters for another time.
Carroll offers stark figures from the Census. That ratio of the top 20% to those below the poverty level shows a troubling pattern that has not been addressed for decades. Consider that ratio over time
1968 7x
2008 13X
2010 14X
Or consider again that percentage of American families living below HALF of the poverty level
2008 5.7%
2010 6.3%
That is more than a 10% increase in only 2 years.
We saw a front page story that the number of medically uninsured continues to increase.
We know that percentage falling below the poverty line has continued to increase.
The slowness of decrease in unemployment even thought we are technically in a recovery makes it clear that we are not going to come out of the economic bad times merely by more consumer spending - the jobs simply are not there.
Our Secretary of Education has an op ed bragging about how education is helping overcome poverty, only he is wrong, as a piece Valerie Strauss posted from Stephen Krashen makes clear.
Local governments and state governments are seeing their revenue streams drying up, and because they must have balanced budgets are slashing services.
The Federal government refuses to properly tax the wealthy who continue to get rich in order to fund the necessary assistance to states and local governments to prevent much of what has made America a land of opportunity and a functioning democracy without communism from being destroyed.
We got here in part by too little oversight of business, especially the financial sector. The new Republican majority in the House will prevent any new regulations from being passes and will attempt to prevent enforcement of existing regulations by refusing to provide the funds necessary for enforcement.
And we will continue to throw money down the sinkhole of Afghanistan, which is not and will not be a functioning democracy in what is left of my lifetime, even if I should live into my 100th year, which will be in 2046.
Meanwhile the inequity increases, as does the concentration of wealth and the concomitant concentration of power into hands that will then further distort our government, our economy, and thus diminish the lives of many, those now alive and those yet to be born.
At what point will those who can make a difference - which includes those in the White House and administration, those in the media who can explain what is happening, even those in the business world who understand that in anything under the shortest of terms the current course is not only not sustainable, it will destroy their futures as well?
I don't know.
I am beyond being concerned about future crises.
We are in the midst of a catastrophe right now.
The only question may be when our economy finally craters how much of the economy of the rest of the world it takes with it.
It is that bad.
I am not an economist.
I have slightly above average economic literacy.
One does not need to be a Nobel Laureate in economics like Stiglitz or Krugman to understand what is already happening.
As bad as it is, it will soon be a whole hell of lot worse.
But don't worry.
We can say of America, "We're #1!"
The mythic land of equality has the largest income disparity of any Western nation.
If that is what American Exceptionalism and American arrogance is bringing us, I'm not so sure I want to continue to be an American.
What about you?