Robert Reich, Sec. of Labor under Clinton and longtime advocate for the poor and working class, published a barnburner of an essay on Monday on his Substack. Read it. Seriously, read it.
He starts with YouTube phenom Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Man North of Richmond,” loops in a new report on wealth distribution from the Congressional Budget Office (newsflash: not good), recaps 30 years of policy-driven inequality, and ends with a burn for Dems.
Read it. Seriously, read it.
I was not among the 32 mil. viewers of Oliver Anthony’s woodland vocal performance until Reich led with it in his newsletter, but I’ve listened to it now. It’s powerful. Sort of a “Hillbilly Elegy” set to acoustic guitar. But we know how that ended, right? “Elegy” author J.D. Vance became a darling of the Left with his account of growing up in Appalachia with a drug-addicted mother. He went on to the marines, then Yale and became . . . wait for it. . . a venture capitalist and ultra-Trumpie U.S. Senator from Ohio. Naturally.
Anthony’s “Rich Man North of Richmond” — I don’t know if he had J.D. Vance in mind — evinces a similar paradox. He’s singing the wail of the downtrodden Common Man, but with some serious shades of Q and other right-wingy, fringy stuff. (Apparently, MTG is a fan.)
Reich grounds the singer’s wail in class resentment, which the Right uses to fuel its culture wars. But those culture war targets — immigrants, non-whites, LGBQT+ folks, etc. -- are a distraction from the underlying economic realities that are the real problem, realities that Biden and Dems are trying to address.
And what are those economic realities? Reich draws our attention to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), tracking trends in distribution of wealth from 1989 to 2019:
Families in the top 10 percent of the distribution now hold more than two-thirds of all wealth. Families in the bottom half of the distribution hold only 2 percent of total wealth. (Families in the bottom quarter have negative net wealth — they’re in debt. . . ) (emphasis mine)
and
Although total wealth is much greater now than it was then, the distribution of that wealth is far more unequal. The bottom 50 percent hasn’t budged. Wealth at the top has exploded. (emphasis not mine)
(Reich supplies the CBO graph, or find it here.)
How did this happen? Reich has answers. And remember: he’s been working in this space for a long time:
This change didn’t happen because of so-called “neutral market forces.” It happened because of policy decisions made over the last three decades.
What sort of decisions? To open the borders wide to imports from China. To deregulate Wall Street and allow it to make bets with other people’s money. To dramatically cut taxes on the rich. To let corporations bash unions and fire workers who try to organize. To encourage private equity to take over “underperforming” companies and then promptly fire workers and sell off assets. To allow big corporations to buy or merge with other big corporations. To bail out the biggest banks but not homeowners who get caught in the downdrafts. To encourage corporations to buy back their shares of stock rather than reinvest profits. To privatize higher education and push students into taking out massive college loans. And so on.
These were policy decisions made under both Rep. and Dem. administrations, but, either way, the beneficiaries are those at the top.
Reich is calling on Democrats to name the beast: the wealthy, who have the means to pour money into elections (and judges — lookin’ at you, Harlan Crow) and lobbying efforts for policies advantageous to them. He chides politicians on the Left for being reticent to call this out, for fear of taking a hit to their own campaign prospects.
If Democrats don’t tell the economic truth about what’s happened and place the blame squarely where it’s deserved, the lies of Republican cultural populists will fill the void — not just with faux-populist lyrics, but with bad laws.
Read Reich’s piece. Seriously, read it.