Much time has passed since my last post. In the interim many thoughts have passed through, paragraphs have been drafted, but no substance has emerged. The world has seen a devastating earthquake in Japan, tornadoes that stay on the ground, relentless flooding, and Jeter’s 3000th hit since I last ejaculated my opinions in this format. While my absence has been a product of many things, laziness not the least of them, I pen this blog only when I feel I have something important and well versed to contribute. Certainly there are many who spew every thought that enters their minds onto the computer screen loving the sound of their own key strokes, opinion after opinion flowing freely into the never-ending internet space, their position on the Kardashians being just as viable as their interpretation of the global marketplace. I try to keep the self-love at a relative minimum, so I will not speak on every topic that hits the news. But I digress, having more pressing matters on my mind.
There is a general malaise amongst the American people during this economic recovery. People are bored with the idea of bringing back the economy and have become more involved in their own comfort than in contributing to the whole. Of course there are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the lack of leadership by our President, but the most of which is the lack of real opportunity or upward mobility. The years since Bush have ticked by. Many people have returned to work or come to the realization that they will not find the kind of work they once had. The country has settled into the idea that 8% unemployment is a goal and the norm has shifted from the 5-6% we had experienced previously. Taxes have not been changed in any real way, and spending has come down dramatically for non-defense discretionary projects, which is the real measure of how much the government is investing in the people. Of course, the Limbaughs of the world say that as more and more people have entered the food stamp roles and unemployment benefits have been extended, we are closer to socialism than ever before. I tend to agree.
The United States operates as a controlled capitalist economy. There are certain rules and regulations that halter the progress of pure capitalism, but we are among the most liberal of countries in that regard. Much of the genius of the system is that we have relatively low tax rates as compared to the rest of the world. This freedom of cash that we as citizens enjoy makes for a heavy consumer based economy. The main reason we use 25% of the world’s resources with only 5% of the world’s population is that we consume at a rate the world has never seen before. Heck, we buy so much stuff we can build the economies of China and India simultaneously by exporting production of the goods we desire. If there are any doubts in your mind about how much Americans consume, just go to any Wal-Mart at 3am and bear witness. This New World where the streets are paved with gold has been attracting people far and wide for centuries with the promise that through hard work, dedication, and creativity anyone can have whatever their heart desires. That dream has been dead for some time now. We fill bubbles to remind us of what it was supposed to be. Savings and Loan bubbles, tech bubbles, dot com and real estate bubbles, to name a few, are how we have fabricated previously non-existent capital so we could find a way to get all those things we wanted, but had not earned. No way would the United States ever stop growing, bigger, fatter, more consumption constantly. Even if we have to fudge the numbers, we will find a way to eat the whole pie. Having all you could ever need and most of everything you ever want is, after all, what makes this country great. But our consumption has shifted dramatically and is the biggest indicator of our decline.
For the past 30 years the theory has been to give money to the “job producers” at the top and resist at all costs government interference in the marketplace. The theory being, as we all know, if the people at the top have lots of money, they will build things that create jobs for all the little people. This has not worked in our country since we entered the Global Marketplace. Businesses have found cheaper labor than the American people can provide, and corporations always move to the most economically effective position. What we have seen instead is the shift of wealth almost entirely to the top echelons of society and businesses adapting to the new model. No longer are stores geared to accommodating as many people as they can and moving the most units. Instead they are designed specifically to entice that certain cadre of people, be they from the US, Russia, or Dubai, to buy their products even though they are grossly overpriced for their utility. Of course, there have always been high and low quality items and all those in between, but they used to be obtainable by a much larger percentage of the population, depending on how they chose to spend their money. While it is true that not everyone could ever go to a 3 star restaurant every night, there was a time when they could save up and go for a special occasion, just once. Now, for too many, there is no hope of that.
The issue has become, most importantly, that while the price of goods has skyrocketed, wages have not moved. Jobs have changed from long term careers into performance based races to the biggest money grab before being dismissed. People have been making so little for so long they are complaining that teachers make more than them. Unions have been totally decimated as well because corporations do not have the public good as a priority. One look at the NFL and NBA lockouts will show that. Truly, the owners do not mind if there is no season, their profits will go up and they know eventually the guy with the biggest bank roll can last the longest. Screw what is right or what is better for the sport or society, the main objective is to have more money. How much? More. And the bottom line is the bottom line. The decisions in a capitalist society are always made by the bottom line. No heart, no emotion, just numbers. Business is business.
The main driver of our economy is consumerism. The only way to recover a capitalist society is to encourage more people to consume more products. Quite simply, the richest people cannot alone consume enough to support the entire system. With the cost of commodities continuing to rise, people’s consumption of leisure goods is way down. Too many people are only able to afford food clothing and shelter for us to continue to consume the non-essentials which keep our economy going. An individual corporation is never going to see increasing wages as a benefit to its bottom line, unless there are tax incentives for employee pay, and disincentives for disproportionate profits. If we do not create a platform where the great majority of the people are keeping, spending, and recirculating the wealth of this country, people will become disinterested in working, learning, and dreaming. The nation will continue spiraling into an abyss of servitude to those top echelon people from around the world, which will result in malaise, revolt, crime, and eventually, socialist policies, assuming democracy remains intact. In order to avoid that fate, corporations need to see themselves as intertwined entities, reliant upon each other for their survival. Reliant, that is, on the employees of one corporation being paid enough to buy the products of another, and visa versa. It is incumbent upon us now to encourage this co-dependent mentality amongst ourselves and promote it from within. The idea that people are protesting teachers wages while their own bosses make billions is absurd. Instead, we need to form more unions with reasonable demands for job stability and wage increases, eliminate policies that target consumerism such as sales tax and taxes on specific products, eliminate deductions on income tax which only top earners can utilize anyway, target directly the profits and dividends of businesses to encourage them to recirculate their money by increasing wages and reinvesting capital, and double the minimum wage.
We live in the richest country in the history of the planet. We got there by looking at the neighbors and striving to have a bigger TV, boat, car, or what have you. Not enough of us live next to the Kardashians to be able to envy them. Our neighbors have been Foreclosed.
