Won’t Get Fooled Again

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

            Everyone is familiar with the term “the one percent,” our name for the ultra-rich of American society. These are the ones who control nearly fifty percent of the wealth in this country, a figure that has been consistently and perniciously growing. Some projections suggest this elite club will control almost two-thirds of American wealth by 2030. 

            The existence and continually expanding wealth of this group is common knowledge and a source of growing anger in our society. The Occupy movement of the early part of this decade defined its political targets specifically as the one percent and the inequity of the American economic system. But the protests seemed to fall on deaf ears. The rich still get richer; everyone else is still getting screwed. Most Americans are not happy with this system; very few consider it fair, and yet it continues to be tolerated. We piss and moan but ultimately shrug our shoulders and say, “Oh, well…” 

Of course, this elitism hardly a new phenomenon. There’s always been an upper class in America, although its existence has been counterbalanced by the hope (the myth) that through ambition and hard work, anyone could find their fortune in America: “you too can become one of us if you try hard enough!” Not impossible, but not likely, either. Especially in today’s economic world, entrepreneurs and small-business people—those most likely to get rich from innovations—are hamstrung by tax codes and health insurance costs. 

            The average one-percenter is worth seventy times more in net wealth than the typical American. The average worker’s income in this country is $51,000, while the garden variety one-percenter earns over $700,000, or nearly fourteen times that. Recent changes in the federal tax code have exacerbated these differences. And these inequities are not limited to people. Many major corporations, including Amazon, General Electric, and Walmart, pay little to no federal taxes. Foreign corporations like FoxConn, get sweetheart deals from state governments—funded by the taxpayers—for simply doing business with them. A majority of Americans, nearly 60%, think this sort of elitist capitalism is an unfair economic system. 

            This dissatisfaction is only the tip of the iceberg; apparently, there’s plenty to be angry about. According to polling data, nearly two-thirds of all Americans favor some sort of stricter gun control laws; fifty-seven percent think that abortion should be legal in all cases. Nearly seventy-percent of those polled are very concerned about climate change. Another majority, nearly sixty percent, believes that our government should ensure health care access for all. 

            And all of this data, of course, begs the question: with a prohibitive majority of the electorate wanting change in these governmental policies (and having wanted it for years) why has nothing been done? Why is nothing being done? Why does the political establishment seem to be actively working against the interests and the desires of their electorate? 

            So this nation seems to be divided into two separate worlds. One is the stratospheric world where exotic travel, fine dining, and luxurious living are the norm. Money is not an issue; in fact, there’s nothing at all to worry about. Things keep getting better and better. The future couldn’t be brighter.

            The other, more mud-bound, world is a more desperate place where families live from paycheck to paycheck with inadequate or non-existent health insurance.  Some people put going to the doctor or put off buying necessities like insulin because of the prohibitive expense. In order to even go to college, young people and their parents must sometimes—literally—mortgage their future. Many in this world can barely survive week-to-week, much less save for the future, but even then, representatives in some political quarters are proposing major cuts in Social Security and Medicare, the last two threadbare safety nets we have.

            In other words, the middle-class benefits we took for granted years ago have been slowly nibbled away by the greedy predators of the American upper class and the political minions that serve them. Where will it end? 

            This is not news. We all know about it. It’s been written about, protested against, and talked about endlessly during the ubiquitous—and mostly useless—television talk shows. I’ve written about it myself in the past. Right here. We know it’s a problem. We know why it’s a problem, and we know who’s causing the problem. So why can’t we solve the problem? 

            When does knowledge finally became action? When does frustration spill over into violence? When does inequity in a society, ours or any other, reach a final tipping point? What sparked the French Revolution? The Russian Revolution? This inequity is recognized from both sides of the fence (of the walled community) but is willfully ignored by both. It—again—begs the question: have we learned absolutely nothing from history? 

            In a 2014 article in Forbes, Nick Hanauer, a self-acknowledged entrepreneur and member of the .01%, delivers this grim forecast:

“If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us… You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.”

            Nick Hanauer is an entrepreneur, a visionary. This is what he sees for the future if things don’t change. The when and the why are something of a mystery. What puts people over the edge? What sparked the Arab Spring protests? In our own recent history, we’ve seen significant shifts in social paradigms. Attitudes about gay marriage—somewhat suddenly—shifted from regressive intolerance to mainstream acceptance. The advent of racially mixed couples in television advertising campaigns has stirred some controversy, but seems to have been generally accepted by the American viewing public. (See “Give the People What They Want” by clicking the link below.)

            Our adversary in this battle for equity seems to be us, the middle-class—or what’s left of it. We have the tools to change our society. Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris, Tony Evers, and many others can and will change the status quo if we let them.

            The problem is the American electorate allows itself to be completely and consistently duped by the hollow campaign promises, fear-mongering, and demonizing by the powers that be. We have to learn from history, we have to think, and we have to vote our own interests. This is the only way to peaceful change. 

            If we do these things, if we look past the demagoguery and our petty prejudices, we won’t get fooled again.