~a column by Colleen O’Brien
I just read online that if I mention in public that we are becoming a two-tiered society (rich and poor), the rich will accuse me of being classist. Will I ever learn to be Politically Correct?
This word classist means to them that I’m fomenting dissatisfaction with the status quo, but who wouldn’t? Look at this status quo! One percent of the population owns half the wealth of the country (our total national wealth is around $82 trillion); the rest of us 99 percent get to split the other half. So, 1 percent of 314 million (U.S. population) is 3 million rich people who get about $14 million apiece, and the rest of us 311 million get $131,832.80. (These are computer-generated figures.)
These very rich people who might accuse me of being classist if I complain about the lopsided distribution of wealth might be, also, the ones who disbelieve the facts of climate change because it is a known fact among the extremely rich that if the polar ice caps melt, it won’t affect them.
In other words, if it doesn’t fit inside their box of belief, it is not true — not happening — not to worry; they’re rich and can buy their way to safety and okayness. And I better not mention it because it is very non-PC (in other words, I’m not being kind).
According to a documentary titled “Inequality for All” by economist Robert Reich, the tipping point is approaching, and the top-heavy wealth is not thinking they need to do anything to save the world.
“It’s that serious?” you ask.
Well, yes, I think so. Everything is serious right now – climate change, fracking, wars, terrorists, plutocrats (too much and too many of all of these entities); and infrastructure, jobs, education, health care (too little of these). And then there are our representative democracy employees, also known as members of Congress, who are (multiple choice): A. in the pockets of the very wealthy; B. in bed with the corporations; C. heartless; D. duplicitous; E. can’t read; E. brain dead.
But, things have always been serious. And, since the time of the Greeks, with their brilliant writers and poets and playwrights complaining about politicians, humankind has known that complaining about politicians is a living. Will Rogers and Mark Twain contributed to the genre in America with such wit that a century later we continue to quote them . . . and what they had to say fits our politicos as if those two men were still observing the antics on the Potomac. “It’s getting so if a man wants to stand well socially, he can’t afford to be seen with either the Democrats or the Republicans,” said Will Rogers. “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress,” said Mark Twain.
A hundred years ago when these two wits were writing, the era was called the Gilded Age, and they had a heyday with the wealthy. The amount of wealth in the hands of a few had created so many working poor that finally strong and capable leaders diverted the inhumaneness of this warp by allowing unions to exist – collective bargaining that benefitted the single working person; and instituting income taxes – figuring that if everyone pays, the country flourishes. Will and Mark helped to ridicule the leaders into acting like humans.
Over the decades, despite two world wars and a global depression, a middle class emerged from the unions and the equitable tax rates that made the United States the place for all kinds of people of all financial strata to live good lives. Infrastructure was built, business flourished, ordinary folks bought homes and cars and sent their kids to college. Let’s hear it for the funny writers who wrote their thoughtfulness into the psyche of the country.
We became to the world what Ronald Reagan quoted Puritan JohnWinthrop as saying: the “shining city upon a hill.” Ironically, it was Reagan who exacerbated the slippery slope decline of the middle class when he came out against the air traffic controllers’ strike in the mid-‘80s, but that’s another history lesson, one that I think didn’t get enough press from the witty.
Most of us in the middle class and lower middle class are getting by with credit and cutting back so that we don’t really feel we have to consider revolution – or even marching with the 99 percent. We have houses, heat, AC, running water, TVs, potato chips, beer, steak and quinoa. Our air’s polluted, our water’s impure, our food is tasteless, TV is pretty stupid; but all in all, we have so much stuff and are so fat that the thought of revolution does not interrupt supper in front of the tube.
The plutocrats have already won.
But, their downfall will come. Greed will out. They want it all, and when they push a little more, we’ll sit up . . . perhaps do many sit-ups . . . take to the streets if not with force at least with the idea of chiding the inept and greedy, force corporations to pay a living wage – their CEOs certainly get one – find people to stand up for us in Congress instead of fronting for the rich. We will once again resemble the idea of the shining city on the hill.
In the meantime, to maintain our sanity as we possibly slim down in order to revolt, we can make fun. We still have the First Amendment. So I’m taking advantage of it while I can. If I can’t make it up, I can quote: “The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.” Mark Twain.
