The phrase, "redistribution of wealth," is radioactive in American political discourse. It's about as popular to the right wing as a crucifix is to a vampire. But the problem isn't - as right wingers would have us believe - taking from the rich and giving to the middle class and poor. For decades it's clearly been the other way around. America's collective wealth has already been extracted and redistributed from the many to the few. And we, the many, demand it back.
Right wingers love to belittle the rest of us by crowing that the uber-wealthy got that way because they "deserved" it. "They worked harder than everyone else." They are the "smartest," "most clever," "most innovative," "most industrious"...(should I add "prettiest" and "sexiest" too?) What the superrich do in life - even if it's nothing more than lounging around a pool barking orders at the help - is worth soooo much more than those useless teachers, firefighters, nurses, social workers, laborers, etc. In other words, right wingers truly believe that the superrich got rich because they are naturally better than the rest of us (see Adam Carolla). But we know his kind of narcissistic and supremacist attitude is just garbage.
So really, how do a few people in this country live like kings and queens while the rest of us turn into paupers? How did the many fall so low? Progressives usually point to the U.S. tax code as the main culprit, and that's certainly a big part of the problem. Stagnant wages and the decline of unions are also frequently cited. Race and class privilege is often cited. But its the skyrocketing cost of living in the United States for the vast majority of people that's sending us over the edge. The 99% are being gouged by those who run their companies by cheating. Nickel and diming the majority of the population - that's how the greedy are grabbing most of the income and wealth.
Certain executives seem to believe that what they do contributes soooo much more to society than the workers who actually do the grunt work that makes the company profitable, and they pay themselves outrageous sums. They take home the lion's share of company profits, while workers take home crumbs.
So this kind of lopsided (and undeserved) pay CEOs get has contributed to the fact that the average American worker's wages have stalled in the last 30 years. Many Americans can barely afford the basic services needed to attain and maintain a middle class lifestyle, let alone climb up the ladder. As the Census Department reported last month, nearly half of all Americans now are either poor or nearly poor. Contrary to what propagandists like the Heritage Foundation claim, the presence of material goods don't necessarily make one middle class. Read now-Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's excellent book, The Two-Income Trap, where she and co-author/daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi lay out how the cost of material goods - clothing, electronics, appliances, food - have actually gone down in the last 40 years (that's because most consumer goods are now cheaply made in China). It's the cost of housing, higher education and health care that are driving Americans into debt. And it takes at least two incomes - and the added expense of an extra car - to pay for services one income paid for a generation ago, Warren and Warren-Tyagi write. The skyrocketing cost of housing, education and health care can be traced to the greed of the economic elite. Deregulation enabled banks to dole out cheap credit, leading to a buying frenzy, overvalued home prices, and a housing bubble that resulted in a crash. The privatization of higher education has made even public universities unaffordable for the average student, and made gazillionaires out of the crooks that run the for-profit college racket. And of course, the barons of the health insurance industry continue to wring higher premiums out of their customers.
Americans are getting ripped off on three major necessities of daily life: housing, education and health care. But other expenses of American modern life also take a bite out of our ever-diminishing wallets. And America's modern day robber barons are profiting handsomely. Wall Street speculators needlessly jack up the price of gasoline. For people who live in public transit poor cities, an automobile is a necessity, and high gas prices truly hurt. The cost of basic utilities - electricity, water, sewage - are going up, from either privatization schemes or general mismanagement. Access to information on the Internet is increasingly viewed as a necessity. Yet, telecommunications companies sell Americans over-priced cell phone and broadband plans that provide second-rate service compared with other developed countries. While Americans suffer through dropped phone calls and sluggish Web streams, telecom executives are laughing all the way to the bank. Banksters nickel and dime their middle-class customers with fees, while legalized loan sharks prey on the poor with usurious pay day loans. Wall Street crooks pillage our pensions and gamble with our 401(k)s, gutting any chance at a comfortable retirement. And finally, the economic elite have gamed the tax system in such a way that while they use up most of the country's infrastructure, they pay less and less money to help maintain it. The rest of us have to pick up the tab, even though we don't have to resources to bear such a burden.
None of this ill-gotten financial gain comes from innovative thinking and industriousness. Much of the wealth of today's "economic royalists" - to borrow a phrase from FDR - came simply from lying, cheating and stealing. So how should our collective wealth be re-redistributed? Democratize the corporate form. Affordable housing. Free (or inexpensive) higher education. Improved Medicare for all. Competitive or publicly funded broadband. State banks. Robust pensions. Living wages for the TRULY hardworking. A more progressive tax code. End usurious lending practices. End the privatization of public services. So, yeah, redistribute the wealth.