January 17, 2011
Between 2003 and 2009, the income of poor Brazilians has grown seven times as much as the income of rich Brazilians. Poverty has fallen during that time from 22 percent of the population to 7 percent.
Contrast this with the United States, where from 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the increase in Americans’ income went to the top 1 percent of earners. (see this great series in Slate by Timothy Noah on American inequality) Productivity among low and middle-income American workers increased, but their incomes did not. If current trends continue, the United States may soon be more unequal than Brazil. NY Times, January 17, 2011
That is a very striking statistic.
The most remarkable political achievement in United States history has to be the way the Republicans took money from the rich to run negative campaigns to get elected to reduce the tax burden on the rich, eliminate regulations, increase opportunities for corporate profit, and even hand over money directly to them in the form of tax breaks and rebates and outright gifts (like the airwaves for cell phone signals)... and yet were able to convince Joe Six-pack to vote for them because they stand for traditional families, prayer in schools, a strong military, and guns. It was positively ingenious. It was brilliant. The coup de gras? Deliberately creating and enlarging deficits in order to convince their supporters that government cannot be entrusted with tax dollars. The penultimate expression of this achievement-- senior citizens yelling at "town hall" meetings that Obama better not touch Medicare because they don't want the government interfering in their lives.
The Democrats have not been able to match it. That's partly by choice. They just don't seem quite as willing to screw the entire country on behalf one constituency. And that constituency, rightly or wrongly, believes that government should help the lower classes.
There is a legitimate debate somewhere between those who feel our lives are better if the government stays out and those feel our lives are better if the government stays in. It's not unimaginable to me that the our nation might be more prosperous, in the long run, without government interference.
The trouble is, that's not what the Republicans do. What they do while claiming to stay out is to jump in with both feet and hip-waders, handing over goodie after goodie, whether in the form of tax breaks, lax regulations, extensions of copyright, and so on, to the rich. Private enterprise did not create the internet-- you and I did, brother, through our elected government. So where did Google's wealth come from? And eBay? And Amazon? Where did Exxon's wealth come from? Has Exxon ever actually paid a penny for the environmental damage they did in Alaska? Will BP ever actually pay? How much do the oil companies pay for the oil they extract from the earth? Who said the oil was theirs to extract in the first place? How do the banks get away with balloon payments and second mortgages and credit card rates in excess of 28%? Who allowed fructose into practically everything we eat, or advertising during children's programs on TV-- children's programs! Corporations demanded and received the right to try to brainwash your children by luring them to the tv with animated cartoons and them bombarding them with ads for junk food! They are allowed to do this? Are you people mad?
They also seem to think that the government intruding on your basic right to privacy in order to address crime or terrorism is a reasonable compromise, which seems to me to be rank hypocrisy-- if that's a "reasonable" compromise, why isn't "Social Security" a "reasonable" compromise on the idea of free enterprise?
I might, in fact, be willing to accept privatized social security if we dismantle the CIA and NSA and Homeland Security. I mean, completely dismantle them. What, you say? Crazy! There are real enemies out there! Absolutely. And some of the real enemies are old age and poverty. And you can have your CIA if I can have a vigorous, strong, and sustainable Social Security system and health care.
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© Bill Van Dyk
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