Americans’ form of suffering may be the reason why politicians and corporations take advantage of them. Americans seem content to suffer in silence, and the number of activists stirring the pot pales in comparison to the actual suffering that’s going on.
Anyone doubting the financial plight of the majority of Americans should read Robert Reich's article in The Guardian titled “Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here's why.”
The official rate of unemployment in America has plunged to a remarkably low 3.8%. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of the year.
But the official rate hides more troubling realities: legions of college grads overqualified for their jobs, a growing number of contract workers with no job security, and an army of part-time workers desperate for full-time jobs. Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.
The article goes on to state some inconvenient truths.
- American worker wages have been flat for 40 years.
- American workers lost their bargaining power due to the destruction of unions and the ability of corporations to form monopolies.
Robert Reich is right for the most part. But many of his solutions are incomplete and will further erode over time if we do not change the basic tenets of our economic system. We have a fundamentally flawed system that remains simply because most of us have become indoctrinated to it.
Specifically, if one gives priority to capital over wages and other forms of income, then those who hold most of the capital will continue to be parasites. There is absolutely no justification for the government taxing capital gains at a lower rate than the working person’s wages. There is no reason for depletion deductions, which further shortchange the American treasury of income even as corporations extract and profit from resources that should belong to us all.
There is no reason to allow an unlimited accumulation of wealth, as most of the time it is the product of the excess labor and unpaid services and intellect of the workers. Does having an idea implemented by many, using the accumulated knowledge of generations of humans, justify Jeff Bezos being the richest person on the planet? The answer is a categorical no. If we were not indoctrinated with the belief that any single individual’s idea is necessarily and solely his own, we would be free to create policies that are more egalitarian.
The above-mentioned realities and many others allow a select few’s wealth to grow at a faster pace than the economy at large. The mathematical fact is that such form of growth is unsustainable and parasitic. In America, the wealthy—many of them unknowingly—are sucking their unfair share. And just like whenever parasites infect, the host ultimately withers and dies if left unchecked.
A recent caller to Politics Done Right should give many of us hope. She understood that our economic system is to be blamed for the plight of most Americans, and that most Americans are neither worthless or lazy
The woman refers to herself as the working poor. She said since 2005, she has received two raises: one for 25 cents and the other for 15 cents. Many would say she should improve her skills or even change jobs. The point is if her position only warranted a 40-cent increase in 13 years, during a period when the economy grew by 50 percent, it speaks volumes about the extractive nature of the current economic system.
The current economic system transfers profits from efficiencies to the wealthy, i.e. the corporate investors. We will force the government to change policies when enough Americans are deprogrammed from the false belief that the risk of one’s capital is more important than risking actual life and limb; that one person’s idea implemented by others justifies unlimited wealth extraction; and that our land’s natural resources belong to those with the capital to extract it.
Give every American access to success and watch a more equitable and sustainable growth. That means equal access to health care (single-payer Medicare for all); pay-it-forward free education from kindergarten through college; a living wage that guarantees food, clothing, and shelter; giving citizens the same right that corporations have to declare bankruptcy on any debt; and childcare for working parents. We can afford it all if we do not allow an economy with built-in inequality.