Opinion: Time to rectify imbalance of wealth, political power
By Robert Reich
The biggest question in America these days is how to revive the economy.
The biggest question among activists now occupying Wall Street and dozens of American cities is how to strike back against the nation’s almost unprecedented concentration of income, wealth and political power in the top 1 percent.
The two questions are related. With so much income and wealth concentrated at the top, the vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing. (People could pretend otherwise as long as they could treat their homes as ATMs, but the borrowing ended when the housing bubble burst in 2008.)
The result is prolonged stagnation and high unemployment as far as the eye can see. The Labor Department recently reported 80,000 new jobs in October. But more than 100,000 are needed just to keep up with the growth of the nation’s working-age population. And the wages of most people with jobs continue to drop.
Until we reverse the trend toward inequality, the economy can’t be revived.
Yet the biggest question in our nation’s capital right now has nothing to do with any of this. It’s whether Congress’ supercommittee – six Democrats and six Republicans charged with coming up with at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings – will reach agreement in time for the Congressional Budget Office to score its proposal, which then must be approved by Congress before Dec. 23 to avoid an automatic $1.2 trillion in budget savings requiring major across-the-board cuts starting in 2013.
Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and the author of “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future.”
It used to be that lawmakers in this country were paid little or nothing for their service. It was not a full time job. One held office to make a difference, not to make a living. As a result, we had lawmakers who cared deeply about what they were doing, and who had relatively pure reasons for seeking office. We had statesmen who knew the meaning of compromise, and who had to get up and go to their day jobs, giving ample motivation to reach agreement and move on.
Now that we have “career politicians”, coupled with career lobbyists, there is little incentive to act quickly or responsibly.
Further, the nation’s “one percent” are well insulated from the consequences of their greed, as are the people working for them on Capitol Hill. They don’t care because they don’t have to care. They have job security and the promise of a comfy retirement. Take that away and then see who you find on your ballot — and see whether elected representatives once again make a difference that’s meaningful to the rest of us.
I hope that we (the people) still wield enough power to turn this around, as this has become so entrenched in our government, and I believe a majority of our politicians are not carrying out the will of the people, whether by actually falsely believing they are doing right, or outright selfish greed.
Many of us are already annoyed with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and for those who have to cross paths with the protestors on a daily basis, I see their point, it would be especially hard if one lived next to an encampment, but I am thankful that they are speaking up for me, and though there may be some in the group that are just “Career Activists”, and maybe I’m not impressed with their lifestyle, I am still thankful for their numbers.
I hope the movement can grow, stay focused on what the majority wants, and not get pulled different directions by the fringe minority within the group.
If the movement can not stay on task then the masses will accept the extinction of the group, and we will continue on with our blinders and business as usual: The 99% in-fighting amongst ourselves about who has the most spoils, while the 1% breaths a sigh of relief.
Academic opinion pieces aside, the problem, IMO, is that there is entirely too much corporate influence in American politics and governance. Our political system has too many special interest groups and was never intended to have any. Equality is not given, it is a natural consequence of not having any special interest groups.
Although the ‘concept’ of tax is practiced in most cultures, the United States has now ‘bastardized’ its’ use to its’ own destruction. . .
The 16th Amendment established it for us, but it wasn’t until 1943 that we “withheld’ it automatically from each and every paycheck – it is this automatic revenue stream that is now the attraction.
“Public service” takes on a whole new meaning when tenure assures a generous pension for a few years of work at the same time the corporate community (which can aggregate funds from ever-increasing profits) uses their spoils to confound ‘service’ with “more” – and enjoy it. . .
With the same amount of work as someone who wears two or three hats to make ends meet, this unearned revenue stream is what influences the very real “out-of-touch” responses we now get. . .remember the terms from early-on: the great ‘unwashed’, while now the Wall Street Occupy folks get reviews of “being unsophisticated”, and the Law & Order crowd are acting as if ‘standing up’ is a terrorist act. . .
The message will not adequately resonate until the “powers-that-be” realize that “I have mine” is now way too much (only for them) . . . and accountability means more than a ‘profit & loss statement’…