Class War

¡Hola! Everybody...
Trying to get some things done, like getting a haircut, etc. Then it’s off to see moms!
First, some Nuyorican music (played by a combination of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Panamanians, whites... etc):

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-=[ Excavating the Future: Class War ]=-

The only thing worse than a knee-jerk liberal is a knee-pad conservative.

-- Edward Paul Abbey (1927-1989)

Knee-pad conservatives love to spew the fave talking point that “liberals want to take money from some people and give it to others.” What they fails to understand is that the “some people” they’re referring to are the richest 1% who now own about 70% of the wealth (I’ll have to check for the exact number, but trust me, it’s not that far off).

This kind of wealth gap hasn’t been seen since the great Depression. Is it no wonder that we’re all struggling today? As billionaire, Warren Buffet has stated, there is a class war and the rich are winning it.

Let me roll back a little right now...

When I was a young child, my class went on a class trip to New York’s World’s Fair. What I saw there was the promise of a future in which technology would make our lives easier and the increase of leisure time would free all of us to pursue the lofty goals of the further reaches of human development. There were moving sidewalks, automated homes, skyways, and trams. There was modern architecture and a moonwalk on a roof. At that time, young president stood up and proclaimed to the entire world that we would set foot on the moon before the end of the decade. As a young child, I remember thinking this would be the world I would inherit.

It was a different time, a time of hope and optimism.

And why shouldn’t it have been so? Our country had overcome a major depression, won (and paid for) a global war, created the finest educational structure the world had ever seen, financed an advanced education for millions of GIs, and built a large number of innovative and effective corporations.

People then still remembered the sadistic excesses of the wealthy and powerful of earlier times and, through visionary politicians and legislation, created an economic system that was fair to both investors and workers. Not only did investors become wealthier and more numerous, but a typical working-class American -- working a 40-hour week -- could support a family of four.

The huge income gaps of the 1920s had been slightly reversed in the 40s and 50s, and were largely held at bay in the 60s and 70s. Except for people of color, this can be rightfully considered the greatest Golden Age for the middle class ever.

But that wasn’t all. In those days, corporations were more progressive in their thinking -- there was a moral force helping build a climate of fairness and openness. People took pride in and saw their organizations as part of their community. They saw closeness between their own interests and the interests of their companies. The implied promise of the corporate executive or business owner then was, “Work hard with me, grow with me, and you will share in my prosperity.”

Then in the 1980s, a new kind of political life form arrived with a vengeance. Apologists for the wealthy and the powerful sold a new set of values to the public that allowed pro-business, anti-worker politicians to get elected. They, in turn, changed our economy from one that benefitted both the investor and worker classes, to one that today benefits investors at the expense of workers.

Today, investors regularly plunder the workers, the professionals, and low-level managers that have produced over the decades and they invest those stolen assets outside our country -- purely for their own benefit -- with no regard for those who work hard or for our society.

It gets worse. No matter how much time and effort workers expend in improving equipment or increasing efficiency, they don’t share in the benefits. As a group becomes more effective, it increases the chances that some of the other workers will be fired, and those who remain will have to work harder than they did before, with incomes that don’t keep pace with inflation. The middle class is told that “competition demands it” -- despite record corporate profits and astronomical incomes for investors and golden parachutes for corporate executives.

Of course, the executives and stockholders exempt themselves from the cost-cutting competition and get filthy rich in the process. As a result, between 1979 and 2000, the stock market rose over 1,100%, but real wages for the middle class didn’t keep up with inflation. In terms of opportunity, the U.S. no longer leads in terms of upward mobility. Several advanced nations leave us in the dust (France being one).

This increase in the disparity in wealth and income between the ultra-rich and the poor-and-middle-class is not, as knee-pad conservatives and lower life forms will tell you, because the wealthy work harder or are more successful on a level playing field. It’s because corporations now have all the power, and they have conveniently shifted their values from fairness to survival of the fittest.

Love,

Eddie

Conning Kansas

¡Hola! Everybody…
Today is a sad day, a family member, a mere girl of 24, tragically passed away early this morning. She was too young, had too much life left… Her name was Renit (pronounced ray-NEET). Her flame flared brightly if too briefly…

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-=[ Conning Kansas ]=-

I’m sure we’ve all awakened to the dire news of a financial meltdown happening on Wall St. it will continue: we still have yet to face the debt collapse. The chickens have come home to roost and this is only the beginning. As I look at this mess, I wonder how we have allowed a small group of ideological right-wing extremists hijack the economy. For over thirty years, a radical faction of discredited economic players have tricked the masses – that’s you and I – into voting on the basis of social issues, and in that way ignoring our economic self interest.

Check this out: in 1979, the highest-earning one-tenth of 1 percent of all taxpayers – the richest of the rich – took home only 3 percent of the national income. Today they take home 10 percent – that’s more than three times. Over that same span, their average tax rate has dropped from 32 to 23 percent. The minimum wage has lost nearly half its purchasing power. Income inequality has reached proportions not seen in any other advanced democracy.

The weird thing is that during this time the Kansas of my title, meant to evoke mainstream America, has grown less conservative, not more. How can I say this, you ask? Well, for one thing, the National Election Survey has been asking voters for years whether they would prefer a larger government with more services or a smaller government with fewer services. In 1982, the first year of the poll, 32 percent favored smaller government, and 24 percent favored larger government (with the remainder flat in the middle or having no opinion). By 2004, it had completely reversed itself, with 43 percent preferring bigger government and just 20 percent wanting a smaller one. Other polls have shown that the public has turned away from the conservative movement’s anti-government stance and favor a more active government and more progressive taxes.

The same holds true for social issues. Since 1977, for example, the proportion of Americans believing gays should be allowed to teach in elementary school has doubled, from 27 to 54 percent. Those favoring gay adoption has risen from 11 to 49 percent (Bowman, 2006). Since 1976, the proportion of Americans who believe women deserve an equal role in business and political life has almost doubled, from 30 to 57 percent. The proportion who believes that a woman’s place is in the home has collapsed from 10 to 2 percent. ^[1]

The question remains then, if the public isn’t moving to the right on economic issues and if it is even moving right on social issues, then how can we explain the rise of right-wing economics? The only way we can understand it is by noting that right wing economics (once called “voodoo economics” by none other than Bush the Elder) has been embraced by the economic elites.

Beginning with the 1970s there was a rise of a cult of pseudo-economists known as supply-siders – a fanatical sect of tax cutters. Simply put, the thrust f their idea is that cutting taxes for the very rich is the best response to any and every circumstance. Additionally, they believe that it is perfectly appropriate to turn the most rapacious and greediest elements of the business lobbyists into essentially an arm of the federal government (Chait, 2007).

Despite having been proven wrong repeatedly, they have gained an iron grip on the ideological machinery of the conservative movement. Contrary to myth, the supply-siders were not maverick conservative economists; they were amateurs and cranks, convinced that they were able to reach conclusions that had escaped the analysis of professional economists. The supply-siders quickly teamed up with cynical corporate lobbyists, who far from being zany, were smart, cynical businessmen (and some like Jack Abramoff, downright crooks) who knew that this was a chance to rape, pillage, and plunder.

All cults have their founding myths. The supply-side cult got its start, in part, from a little-known economic consultant, Arthur Laffer, an editorial page writer for the wall Street Journal, Jude Wanniski, and, yes, Dick Cheney, then chief of staff to President Ford. Wanniski had no training in economics at all, but was tutored by Laffer, who had been an economics professor t the University of Chicago. Laffer’s first came to Washington to work in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He quickly gained infamy when he made a wildly unconventional calculation about the size of the 1971 Gross Domestic Product. President Nixon, astutely observing that Laffer’s number was very optimistic, seized on it because it caused the appearance of an economic boom. When it was discovered that Laffer had used just four variables to arrive at his figure (most economists used hundreds if no thousands of inputs) he became the laughingstock of Washington. In fact, he turned out to be horribly wrong. Laffer left government in disgrace and the scorn of his peers (Blumenthal, 1988).

There’s more to all this and I hope to shed some light because many of you have swallowed much of the supply-side Kool-Aid. Today’s Wall Street meltdown has its origins in supply-side “theory” and the dismantling of government.

Love,

Eddie

References

Blumenthal, S. (1988). The rise of the counter-establishment. New York: Harper & Row.

Bowman, K. (2006, Sunday, June 11). Gay pride and prejudice. Washington Post, p. B02.

Chait, J. (2007). The big con: The true story of how Washington got hoodwinked and hijacked by crackpot economics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.