Mr. Gore crafted a powerful allegory: the Occupy Wall Street movement as a “primal scream of democracy”. Allegory so powerful, that Mr. Kristof decided to use it in a title. Quite worthy a man who charges $175,000 to speak. So let’s finally examine the concrete grievances of the 99ners as presented by Mr. Kristof, and endorsed by Mr. Gore.
“The critical issue is economic inequity”, “the 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million”, “the top 1% of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90%”, “from 2002 to 2007 65% of economic gains went to the richest 1%”.
What is exactly wrong with that picture? Would we be better off if those people were making 1% less, 10% less, or 50% less? Would you or I make more as a consequence? Would we be any happier? Would we have more jobs? Would our country fare better because of that? And how do the 99ners plan to address issues of income gap? Nationally mandated salaries? Closing the gap by stripping rich out of what they earned rather than raise poor out of poverty.According to Mr. Kristof the very mention of a high salary, such as $361,330 in the securities industry, should be enough for us to gnash our teeth. Following this logic hearing about CEOs making millions should take us to streets. But what does it all have to do with democracy? The more I think about it, and the more I hear from the 99ners, the more the primal screams of democracy, as dubbed by Mr. Gore, sound rather like echoing roars of Marx.
With all due respect, Mr. Kristof, I will not gnash my teeth because rich are greedy. They don’t have monopoly on greed –it is universal (more about it in the next posst). What makes me gnash my teeth, however, is how generous our politicians are with our tax dollars; how they mismanage and bankrupt our states and our cities without any consequences; how they sell out our parks, highways, and parking meters. How different would that be if they ran private corporations? What kind of investors and shareholders are we in our democracy if we keep on choosing the same people/ same parties? Also, should we really care whether people inherit fortunes - or should we rather care that people inherit political offices. Maybe we should start gnashing our teeth more reminded about rampant nepotism that makes our democracy look ... dynastic at best (Daleys, Strogers, Jacksons, Bushes, Clintons, the list goes on and on).
The Reason Foundation: “most recent Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic, as of December 2009, state and local government employees earned 44% more per hour compared to private industry workers, 35% higher wages and nearly 69% greater benefits.” http://reason.org/news/show/public-sector-private-sector-salary
Wasteful spending by Chicago Transit Authority (DUI offenders on payroll, overtime manipulation, chauffeuring craftsmen, rail operators not allowed to drive the train into the maintenance barn, absenteeism 2.5 times higher than private sector):
Daily Herald, August 31, 2011 “Family Connections in Rosemont net $2 million in pay”. http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110831/news/708319920/
Hired Truck Program Scandal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hired_Truck_Program#Chicago_Sun-Times_Investigation_of_the_program
“Illinois prison barber making $72,000 a year” (http://www.correctionsone.com/products/training/gear/articles/1996292-Ill-prison-barbers-make-almost-72-000-a-year/)
If we don’t’ like the corporation (or corporations) we have a choice of not buying their products. If you don’t like the fact that corporations like GE don’t pay taxes (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?pagewanted=all) don’t occupy Wall Street. If you don’t like the fact that rich don’t pay the fair share … don’t occupy Wall Street. If you don’t like the fact that politicians are in the pockets of the corporations and rich … don’t even come close to Wall Street. If you demand real change, maybe you should occupy your public servants who should be accountable to you. Some politicians, like Mr. Gore, apparently try to manipulate the protesters against the other rich for their own benefit. However, Al Gores of the world beware – if you incite a socialist revolution, they will go after your wallets – but if you really awaken the spirit of democracy and its primal scream, they may come for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment