Colonize Space? What About the Kids in Rhode Island?
by Kenneth Uva
The recent announcement by Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person by many counts, that his company, Blue Origin, unveiled a moon lander that will lead to space colonies, has, once again, put into perspective an inequality so massive that it must be a large part of the political dialogue during this election cycle.
Abigail Disney, an heir to the Disney empire and one who receives income from that company, has voiced concerns that a company that paid its CEO, Robert Iger, $64 million in 2018 should pay its employees enough so they don't have to ration insulin and sleep in their cars.
To provide some perspective, look at a few items recently in the news:
- In 1965, CEO's of the largest companies were paid 20 times that of their typical worker. Now, they are paid 300 times that of the typical worker and some even 1000 times, according to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
- The 2018 tax law clearly provided the largest savings to wealthy individuals and large corporations. Much of the corporation savings were spent on stock buybacks, not new investment or increases in salaries and benefits.
- Forty percent (40%) of households do not have $400 in hand to cover emergencies.
- A condo in New York City has recently sold for $238 million.
- School children in Rhode Island were given cold sandwiches for lunch while their classmates ate hot lunches, because they owed small amounts on their lunch fees.
- At a recent gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, celebrities were pictured wearing dresses that cost $100,000 and up.
There will always be income inequality. There will always be people who will spend on ostentatious displays of wealth. But the current situation is beyond any reasonable wealth distribution and threatens the foundations of a democratic society. The gap between the top and the bottom of the income ladder has not been this great since before the Great Depression. There are many studies about how and why this has happened. What happened to the rise in living standards after World War II when working for a large company was a two-way street, when worker loyalty was paid back by steady employment, salary increases, and good benefits? There is not enough space here to analyze the forces that led to where we are now, but we need to face the consequences and plan for a future.
It should be noted that Jeff Bezos is CEO of Amazon, a company that paid no taxes. When there was local opposition to a new Amazon HQ in the Long Island City section of New York City, he peevishly pulled out of the arrangement without any attempt to explain how this would be a good deal for the people of the city. After months of negotiations where the city and state promised all sorts of tax breaks and infrastructure improvements, Bezos saw no need to make his case. This is in keeping with a level of wealth that is so great that Amazon need not be accountable to any entity, much less the people of New York City. Such arrogance is reflected in his plans for space travel. His plan is not for joy rides for those who would fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars for a trip. The plan is for the establishment of space colonies for a trillion people to live outside our planet.
No human has visited land outside Earth since the last visit to the moon in 1972, despite vast sums spent on space programs by many nations since that time. Bezos has to see himself as far more than a CEO in order to be the godlike personage who will lead humanity off this small blue planet.
In the run up to the 2020 election, candidates are beginning to talk about the dangers of this record, and growing, economic inequality. Bernie Sanders talks about this and Elizabeth Warren has proposed specific plans to tax the most extreme wealth and use the proceeds to benefit most people. The consequences of not doing so are enormous. The wealth of the oligarchy has allowed serious roll backs of environment regulations that will truly affect life on earth. Severe economic inequality endangers the future well being of the society as a whole, as rising deficits due to unfair tax laws are used as an excuse to attempt to reduce health care and earned benefits such as Medicare and Social Security.
While the guillotine is not the answer, the intensification of this trend since the 2016 election shows that MAGA hats are not the answer either.
