It didn't help.
This graph, constructed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) using Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data tells a startling tale. I know that all of us here can intelligently consider the implications of this data, but I'd like to lay it out in plain terms just to drive home the point.
- While the wealthiest fifth have (successfully) thrown their money behind anti-taxation messages they've also successfully secured enormous gains in income (aided in the Bush presidency, no doubt, by deregulation and financial speculation).
- At the same time, they've managed to consistently squash the idea of "class warfare" (when brought up in the context of poor vs. rich) without the general public questioning where the topic even came from.
- Finally, they've managed to provide 80% of Americans enough token economic benefit to keep them satiate, leaving them ignorant to their continually diminishing piece of a much larger pie.
Well and truly, the Marxian system is bearing itself out. The emergence of a Bourgeoisie and a Proletariat through means of state and economic control is being realized.
As a young American trying to break into the world, I've noted on several occasions just how difficult it is to obtain property, prosperity, and means of production. While Kristen and I struggle to keep food on the table, millionaires (and beyond) have seen a 51% increase in their income! It is as if they need not make any attempt to hide the iniquity because the collective distraction of the American public is enough to hide the truth.
Call it a conspiracy. Criticize me for evoking Communist rhetoric. If you do, ask yourself: is it really so far-fetched to consider that, in a country that conveniently covers up all flaws under makeup, lights, and grandeur, that what appears to be casually may not be so under the surface?
2 comments:
Hmmm, a little heavy on the Marxism this morning, methinks. Actually it isn't necessary to go any farther than the natural outcome of unregulated capitalism. It's the nature in that system for those who have the most to use that leverage in order to get what they need for ever less and amass ever greater fortunes for themselves. Witness Dickensian England, the Robber Baron era in America, or modern Far Eastern factory realities.
The Genius of American capitalism has always been to marry the legitimate motivational aspects of Capitalism to a a social bargain. This social bargain has been to allow the Captains of Industry to do more or less as they wish AS LONG AS they share enough to support a healthy middle class. For several generations we recognized that it was a symbiotic relationship, with middle class consumers priming the pump and prosperity spreading steadily.
Unfortunately the last generation has broken with that tradition. Capitalists have been allowed to forget the fairness requirement. Worse yet, they've convinced the vast majority of Americans that they'll eventually join that top fifth of the economy--a statistical impossibility--and therefore it's critical to protect the advantages of the wealthy SO I CAN ENJOY ALL OF THOSE ADVANTAGES WHEN I JOIN THEM. That's simply perverse. It's like the Kansas City Royals being against a salary cap because maybe some day they'll have money like the Yankees. The very act of protecting the already fortunate decreases the chance that others will improve their lot.
You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but for now it's enough to fool some of them.
I understand that evoking Marx is generally the craft of Utopian philosophers and political radicals, but in this case I think its a scenario that's accurate. I'm not trying to paint a picture of the poor in stocking caps begging for food from men in monocles driving cars made of money, but I am trying to suggest that while the powerful become more powerful, they are working harder to secure that power. Again, not suddenly becoming a Communist, just thought the metaphor was relevant.
In my opinion, the economic ladder has become like a fraternity. The powerful form cliques that no one else can enter and the FNG's accept their beatings because someday they'll get to give them (like you mentioned).
Obama may have promised change, but situations like these are going to take more than one presidency to fix. Until our national consciousness matures (like it has in some older European nations) I think the abandonment of that traditional social bargain will continue.
Wow, did that sound overly pessimistic?
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