Law of the Jungle
Brent Budowsky had a good post yesterday on the Hill:
These are tough times for the wealthy.
What has happened during the Bush years, with the Bush ethic of “grab all you can” greed, is the stench of a new Gilded Age that is morally disgraceful, economically unsustainable and politically deadly for Republicans if the Democrats speak clearly against this.
Hillary would probably argue that the wealthy, like special-interest lobbyists, are just plan old Americans who never influence government with their money. Some in Congress will have to interrupt their fundraisers and offend their campaign contributors. For most Democrats, this is the issue of a lifetime, the stuff of which landslides are made of.
Is it right that American troops are told we can’t afford to give them body armor and protected vehicles, so they die preventable deaths, while the highest-income 1 percent receive huge tax cuts?
Is it right that the new racket on Wall Street is that banks make bad loans, sell them to hedge funds and private equity firms, many of whom are virtually unregulated and untaxed, who then complain about their pain after they foreclose on average Americans for falling a little behind their payments?
It is good that today the Fed cut the prime by 50 points, but it is bad, and terribly wrong and unjust, that in the last week the Fed has essentially used Americans’ money to bail out the wealthy who made the profits, while doing zero for the foreclosed and homeless.
When the banks, hedge funds and private equity firms make bad deals, they keep the personal profits, while the corporate profits are protected by bailouts. Meanwhile, when the average Americans in the middle class, or the poor, fall a little behind, they get the boot, they lose their jobs, they are thrown into the street without homes and often without food.
What has happened during the Bush years, with the Bush ethic of “grab all you can” greed, is the stench of a new Gilded Age that is morally disgraceful, economically unsustainable and politically deadly for Republicans if the Democrats speak clearly against this.
Hillary would probably argue that the wealthy, like special-interest lobbyists, are just plan old Americans who never influence government with their money. Some in Congress will have to interrupt their fundraisers and offend their campaign contributors. For most Democrats, this is the issue of a lifetime, the stuff of which landslides are made of.
Is it right that American troops are told we can’t afford to give them body armor and protected vehicles, so they die preventable deaths, while the highest-income 1 percent receive huge tax cuts?
Is it right that the new racket on Wall Street is that banks make bad loans, sell them to hedge funds and private equity firms, many of whom are virtually unregulated and untaxed, who then complain about their pain after they foreclose on average Americans for falling a little behind their payments?
It is good that today the Fed cut the prime by 50 points, but it is bad, and terribly wrong and unjust, that in the last week the Fed has essentially used Americans’ money to bail out the wealthy who made the profits, while doing zero for the foreclosed and homeless.
When the banks, hedge funds and private equity firms make bad deals, they keep the personal profits, while the corporate profits are protected by bailouts. Meanwhile, when the average Americans in the middle class, or the poor, fall a little behind, they get the boot, they lose their jobs, they are thrown into the street without homes and often without food.
Yet those of us who are not wealthy must avoid the trap of thinking that the greedy and heartless behavior of some arrogant plutocrats, pundits, or politicians is the real problem. The basic injustice is the same all over the world. The 1% who control most of the world's capital have learned from generations of experience how to rig the system in their favor against the rest of us. They own the market, we try to rent space from them to hawk our wares. In most cases we desperately try to undercut our rivals and sell our goods or services for the lowest price possible. We "win" this competition by allowing the market owners to derive the highest possible surplus value from our labors.
Whole states in our nation have adopted this race-to-the-bottom approach. South Carolina eagerly adopts a slew of anti-union laws and policies, and "wins" a bunch of non-union Honda or Toyota factory jobs that pay far less than the same jobs in Michigan. Talent, hard-work and adaptability will help some blue-collar and white collar workers advance to the top of their respective heaps. Nonetheless, even decades of superb service and the production of huge profits for the owner won't always result in economic security. Plants, call-centers, software design centers are abruptly closed, papers are shuffled, companies move offshore. A small handful of insiders rake in billions, while highly-skilled workers are cast adrift without pensions, healthcare, or the likelihood of finding another decent job in their field.
Most of us are too busy trying to scrape by in this "land of opportunity" to reflect on why things are the way they are. The privileged few academics, artists, and writers with the free time to dream up constructive criticisms of this harsh reality are prevented by their own success from being taken seriously. And this is only natural. How can a nurse, who saves up three years to take her family to DisneyWorld for a week, not view a prominent scholar at an Ivy League school, who spends a full year of paid time off in London or Rome, as elitist?
I grew up in an academic family in a small college town. My parents, and many of their friends, continue to impress me as the most selfless, compassionate, curious and useful members of society that I know. Indeed the whole Ulyssean theme of this blog is a tribute to the undying love and loyalty I feel to the haven of sanity that is Ithaca, NY. Yet the tremendous good energy that abounds in centers of learning is not easily translated into important real-world actions. Actions that would really improve the lot of those in less favored surroundings.
So listen up, Ithaca, Madison, Cambridge, Ann Arbor, and Palo Alto! Ulysses asks you (at least those of you with tenure) to write one less book review and one more letter to the editor. We have nothing to lose but our chains!
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