|
Stagnation of Everyone Else
My father's weekly column.
THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE II--THE FURTHER ENRICHING OF THE RICH, AND THE ECONOMIC STAGNATION OF EVERYONE ELSE (1/12)
This is the second column in my post-election series concerning the decline of the American empire. This week I will look at the implications of the growing disparity between America’s rich and poor.
While the super-rich get substantially richer, the vast majority of Americans find their share of the pie stagnated. If the pie were getting significantly larger the positive results might well be spread throughout the population. But that is not the case. The recent modest rising tide has not lifted all boats--just all yachts. I do not need to cite the widely authenticated statistics detailing the enormous financial gains by the top 10 percent of the American people, while almost every other group has either modestly held their own or has experienced a serious decline.
I am not here vilifying wealth, or the brains and hard work it takes to accumulate it. We all applaud those who do very well. But when the rules they and their friends construct assure the mal-distribution of economic resources, the simple demands of fairness must come into play. It is America’s vast resources that have allowed these multimillionaires and billionaires to do very well. Enlightened entrepreneurs including Bill Gates and Warren Buffet know it. Having taken honest advantage of our common resources, they realize that justice demands they return to the country a share of what they have been given. Theodore Roosevelt opined, “The man of great wealth has a particular obligation to the state, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of the government.”
Moreover, not all great wealth is the result of hard work. Some honest man said, “I got money the old-fashioned way, I inherited it?” Of course families have the right to pass on to their heirs a significant portion of what they have accumulated. But that may not be an absolute right. The recently passed law granting the first ten million dollars tax free, with a 35% tax on every dollar over that, essentially avoids any tax for all except 6,600 estates, thus exacerbating the rich/poor divide.
The continuation of the Bush tax cuts to the top 1% of American earners under the guise that the wealthy are all small business people and are therefore the ones who make the economy go, is a red herring. The most productive money is always in the hands of middle-class people who will spend it, not in the hands of the already wealthy. Banks and major businesses now hoard over two trillion dollars they will not spend until the demand for new goods and services becomes obvious. And that involves increased spending power in the hands of the people.
Beyond the matter of economic justice, the enormous disparity between rich and poor threatens our nation’s survival. The more the poor are kept down the more police, courts and jails it takes to control them. If the imbalance becomes great enough there will be a stirring down below that may threaten the existence of the whole body. Nowhere in history can you find massive economic disparity that has not led to the slow decay of the society—even to revolution. When eight families in El Salvador managed to control 80% of the land, the people finally rose up.
While revolution will probably not become a threat to this democratic society, sooner or later the vast majority on the bottom of the pile will realize their plight, and we will experience a popular electoral revolt. Even if today significant numbers of our citizens have bought the line that the rich need more because their wealth will trickle down, sooner or later the American people will realize they have been hoodwinked.
Until that tipping point is reached, we will likely experience a gradual decline in America’s grandeur. Whatever empire we prize will gradually wither, not by some external threat, but by the gradual disillusion of the popular will. In his “house divided” speech, Abraham Lincoln declared that we could not exist as a nation, “half slave and half free.” Neither can our genius be maintained if fewer than 10% of the people control almost half the wealth. No great power has survived for long that way. Our unwillingness to understand the danger compounds the problem. Whether we will discover that reality in time will determine, at least in part, the future of this great experiment in democracy. We are not a collection of individuals each only concerned with his or her own welfare, but a great nation in which we are bound to one another.
Charles Bayer
harles Bayer is a somewhat retired theological professor and congregational pastor. He and his wife live at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, Calif., where he is still involved in writing a newspaper column and a variety of other jobs, boards and activities.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
