Everywhere you look, America is creating different sets of rules for differing classes of people. Politicians shamelessly offer solutions to social benefits policies by proposing changes in long-standing rules: we won’t change your Medicare or Social Security benefits if you’re over 55, but for the rest of you…. Unions are agreeing to collective bargaining agreements with two levels of compensation, one for incumbents and another much lower level of pay for newbies. Law firms have created second class partners these days – equity partners for the superstars and “name only” partnership for the rest… where partnership is even possible.
We even see completely different tax rates depending on how you earn your money. For those categories where the rich dwell, you have capital gains rates (less than half the max federal rates on regular earning) for investors and their fund managers. If you make your living managing a fund of rich people, under the “carried interest” rule, you can share the wealthy’s vastly reduced capital gains rates even if you don’t put a dime of your existing capital at risk… just because you are in that job description. 42% of this nation’s wealth is controlled by 1% of the population, the greatest disparity in the concentration of wealth in the Western world.
The growth of gated communities, particularly among enclaves of upper and upper middle class residents, has been explosive in the last decade. “The prevalence of gated communities has steadily risen across the United States and the world since the 1960s. Firm numbers are hard to come by, but [Edward Blakely, author of Fortress America] cites [U.S.] census figures showing that between 6 and 9 million Americans live behind gates.”TheAtlanticCities.com, April 11th. Us vs. them. The rich are running, and private security services are raking in the profits. If they weren’t truly scared of their privilege amidst the increasing squalor of an increasing number of their fellow citizens, would they really be flocking to such secured communities?
If you are rich, our Supreme Court (under Citizens United) has pretty much told folks that there is no way to put anything like a reasonable cap on your use of your money to make political statements or support candidates… as long as the candidates themselves don’t control the funds. And there are lawsuits wending their way up the appellate ladder to eliminate even that latter restriction.
It’s gotten so bad that employers are circulating voting guidelines to their workers, letting employees know very clearly what is expected of them in the voting booth. Companies as diverse as Cintas, Georgia-Pacific and Wynn Resorts (hotels and casinos) have sent rather clear written “recommendations” to their workers as to what issues and candidates merit support… sometimes even threatening that if the wrong candidate wins, there will be deep financial consequences to the company and its employees. Needless to say, employees in such companies quickly learn to keep any contrary political feelings to themselves, making sure there are no obvious bumper stickers to the contrary.
“In these letters, the executives complain about the costs of overregulation, the health care overhaul and possible tax increases. Some letters warn that if President Obama is re-elected, the company could be harmed, potentially jeopardizing jobs… David A. Siegel, 77, chief executive of Westgate Resorts, a major time-share company, wrote to his 7,000 employees, saying that if Mr. Obama won, the prospect of higher taxes could hurt the company’s future.
“‘The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job, however, is another four years of the same presidential administration,’ Mr. Siegel wrote. ‘If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current president plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.’” New York Times, October 26th. No, these companies are not doing anything illegal under the prevailing view of the application of Citizens United. But that’s not the point. The word, simply, is polarization.
We have a severely deadlocked and polarized Congress. Urban school districts are increasingly witnessing the flight of middle class-and-up students into private schools, which undermines the willingness of their parents to support higher taxes to pay for school systems they have no intention of using. Upward mobility is now just a distant, historical memory for most Americans, and the quality of publicly accessible education has fallen to well below mediocre, as our nation’s plummeting test scores in math, science and reading so clearly reflect.
The United States is looking more like India than a modern Western democracy. Tiers of social strata living over, above and among each other. Huge divides in relative well-being. Angry have-nots, bitter and often hopeless, look out at the enclaves of wealth and privilege with fire and hatred in their eyes. But unlike India, many of America’s current have-nots… once actually had. Their retirement incomes and home values were crushed by the antics of rich-folks-controlled Wall Street and an irresponsible government, their children are being educated in dangerous third rate public schools, and their income reduced as rapidly at the concentration of wealth at the top has increased.
In the end, nations fall apart with excessive polarization. “Let them eat cake” syndrome. When enough people have nothing left to lose, governments fall. Add cataclysmic environmental disasters – drought, massive uncontrolled sea level rises and water shortages to the mix – and you can see an accelerant for political change. Except for that nastiness called the Civil War – and note the word “war” – we’ve always been able to find compromises to make this democracy work. But unless we learn to talk to each other, achieve compromise, find a way to embellish the middle class (down to 51% from the 61% in the 1970s) and reallocate wealth, those at the top of the food chain may have done nothing more than clarify the targets they have painted on the faces. Surely, someone at that elevated social stratum has read a few history books… but then, maybe not.
I’m Peter Dekom, and freedom without equality is nothing more than a slogan.
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