The following is the story [part of it] of most likely the biggest, most damaging, and most enduring CRIME in American history. Much of this CRIME has been done in plain sight. Much else has been done quietly, not known to most people [partly by intent]. It has been done in the states and in the federal system. It has been done by legislatures, by executives, by courts. Essentially – it is very simple: just rewrite the rules.
What is this major damaging and enduring CRIME? It has been, and unfortunately, still is, the ECONOMIC APARTHEID of America. Better known as: “ECONOMIC INEQUALITY.
Background: from 1947 – 1973, the United States created the model of economic democracy. The wealth of America was shared; shared on a fairly equal basis – from the poorest to the richest. This period still is the statistical high point of America. For the top 1% and corporations, this was “too good a deal.” They wanted a bigger share.
Background, II: so, beginning in the late 1970s, massively accelerating in the 1980s, the top 1% and corporations began their revolt. They organized, they “lobbied,” they increased political campaign contributions, they worked to get “business friendly’ legislatures, executives, and courts. It was VERY successful. The result is 2021 America.
BOTTOM LINE: the consensus is the “average” American employee is getting ROBBED of about $10,000 per year of his/her income compared to 1947-1979 UNSPUN I.R.S. data in the 1989 – 202x era – ONE cost.
The loss of all this income, for 40 years, has created a host of other societal problems. Some of YOUR sources are listed below. BUT if YOU want to find the truth beyond this – you must go to other SERIOUS and TRUTHFUL sources. This will require research – in serious works. Some will be located in the footnotes of books listed below.
CAUTION: YOU are getting into an area the top 1% and corporations most definitely do NOT want you to enter. They have, and will continue to use the “tobacco defense” of denial and muddying the water. They have already attempted to deny the work of one of the following books, so much so, the authors set up a web site to counter the attack. The perps of this CRIME have created a massive network of “think tanks” to supply media and friendly government with much “scholarship” denying what they’ve done.
Much of the damage is irreversible – the stolen money is gone, the damage to workers and their families can’t be undone. The damage to AMERICA has been significant and traumatic – we are a weaker, more divided country because of this CRIME; our total governmental system has been CORRUPTED. We are a far less democratic nation in 2021 than we were in 1979. AMERICA is significantly advanced toward plutocracy. In many ways, it is like the political and economic reforms of 1901 – 1975 never happened, so completely have they been neutered.
“Economic Apartheid in America” by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel with United for a Fair Economy and Class Action [2005] asks you one basic question:about the purpose of economic activity: “Is the economy to serve the people who make it up, or is their labor for the sake of lining the pockets of the rich and powerful?”
This is a very readable book. The highlights are the various graphs that clearly spell out what has happened. If you do nothing else, turn to pages 41 and 42. Page 4l ‘s graph is: “1979 to 2003 – real family income growth by quintile and for the top 5%, We Grew Apart.” The richer one was, the more money they made. Page 42’ graph is: “1947 to 1979 – real family income growth by quintile and for top 5%, WE Grew Together.” The four “bottom” quintiles all grew FASTER than than the top 20%. The group with the most growth – was the poorest. The top 5% grew the least. “Obviously” this could not be allowed to continue – “too good a deal” for Joe Sixpack. And, it didn’t continue.
Collins and Yeskel discuss the causes of economic inequality and the consequences. They also give you things YOU can do to make AMERICA whole again. #1 – who YOU vote for makes a big difference. One of the two major parties has been behind much of this CRIME, the other is guilty of not resisting harder.
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s “The Spirit Level Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger” [2009] is one of the books EVERY American should read. There are many reasons why it was an international bestseller – the dame reasons why it was attacked. It told the TRUTH about economic inequality. In response to the attacks, they set up a web site. The original content has been changed – which is unfortunate because one can’t read the attacks and the defense, which came from multiple sources. http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk
Using these metrics, they evaluated the 22 rich nations and the 50 American states: level of trust; mental illness [including addiction]; life expectancy and infant mortality; obesity; children’s educational performance; teenage births; homicides; imprisonment rates; social mobility [not in U.S.states].
On page 29: “It is clear that greater equality, as well as improving the well-being of the whole population, is also the key to national standards of achievement and how countries perform in lots of different fields.” Page 53: “People trust each other most in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands.” Page 155: “More unequal societies are harsher, tougher places.” Page 176: “..the vast majority is harmed by greater inequality,” Pages 2l0-212 detail the damage to young children from living in more unequal societies – some of which they NEVER outgrow. Page 244: “The ending of that consensus [the post-WW ii prosperity] was very clearly related to a rightward shift n political opinion.”
Page 264: “THe truth is that modern inequality exists because democracy is excluded from the economic sphere.” Page 277: “It is now almost universally accepted amongst scholars and practitioners of public health that the most important determinants of health are social and economic circumstances.” Page 295: “There are few things more corrosive of a properly functioning democracy and of the market than corruption and unbridled GREED.”
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz wrote the New York Times bestseller, “The Price of Inequality How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future [2012]. On page 334, he states: “This book is not about the politics of envy….This book is instead about the politics of efficiency and fairness. The central argument is that the model that best describes income determination at the top is not one based on individual’s contributions to society [the “marginal productivity theory..”], even though, of course, some at the top have made enormous contributions. Much of the income at the top is what we have called rents. these rents have moved dollars from the bottom and middle to the top, and distorted the market to the advantage of some and to the disadvantage of others.”
“A central theme..is that there has been a battle of ideas – over what kinds of society, what kinds of policies, are best for MOST citizens – and that this battle has seen an attempt to persuade everyone that what’s good for the 1 percent, what the top cares about and wants, is good for everyone: lower tax rates at the top, reduce the deficit, downsize the government.” [321]
“A central theme..is that much of the inequality in our society arises because private rewards differ from social returns, and that the high level of inequality that now characterizes the United States and the WIDESPREAD ACCEPTANCE of that level of inequality…makes it difficult in the United States to adopt good policies.” [127]
“…clearly the election of President Ronald Reagan represented a turning point in the United States. Among the precipitating event were the beginning of the deregulation of the financial sector and the reduction in the progressivity of the tax system.” [xxxi} The results: 2008 crash, excessive Wall Street profits and financialization of the economy, excessive tax rate cuts t the top [70% to 35%], excessive capital gains tax cuts – the very rich pay at tax rates below ordinary people.
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson wrote “Winner – Take – All – Politics How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class” [2010) They state: “..in the majority of rich nations for which we have evidence, income redistribution over the past few decades has either held steady or actually risen….inequality created by the market has been significantly softened by a greater government role.” [52] “American CEOs are paid more than twice the average for other rich nations….it also takes different forms..” [63]
Adam Smith, a limited government-free-market icon, stated in “The Wealth of Nations:” “Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality….Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality, instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or those who have some property against those who have none at all.” [82] Smith was a “resolute skeptic” about the rationality of unfettered financial markets!!!
On pages 110-112, “Unrepresentative Democracy,” analysis shows that U.S. Senators largely pay consideration for what the top 1/3 of voters want done. There is also [2007] a huge public misunderstanding of what CEO incomes are. The public thought CEOs made about $500,000. They actually were averaging $14 million at S&P 500 companies!!!!!!! [154-55]They speculated this might contribute to lack of concern what CEOs were making.
Business saw financing Republicans as an investment. Financing Democrats was insurance. [179-80] The goal was to minimize “distasteful legislation” – keep some issues off limits, add critical loopholes. Financing both sides provided bipartisan cover for the Republican “business friendly initiatives.”
Pulitzer Prize winner
david Cay Johnston”s “Divided… The Perils of Our Growing Inequality” [2014] is a collection of the thinking of many people on “Inequality.” It includes this from Pope Francis I: “…today we..have to say “thou shalt not to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills….Today everything comes under the laws of competition and survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless…..Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded.” [xv] Plutarch: “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” [xix] Theodore Roosevelt: “The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.” [xx] Joseph Stiglitz: “American inequality didn’t just happen,. It was created.” [xxi]
Sean Reardon: “Family income is now a better predictor of children’s success in school than race…..children from rich and poor families score very differently on school readiness test when they enter kindergarten.” [124-26]
Robert Kuttner: “We could have had a brand of globalization in which the ability to sell products to the United States depended on meeting certain social minimums, involving wages, organizing rights, environmental standards, treatment of children, and so on. But because that was not the globalization that corporate America sought, it is not what has evolved.” [248]
The good side of ordinary people is revealed in “the prom dress’ story, pages 309-311.
For shorter, magazine style pieces, turn to these:
– November, 2018 “Scientific American – “The Science of Inequality” – discussing “Rigged economy;” “automating bias,” ‘the health-wealth gap,” “the environmental cost of inequality”
– June, 2018 “The Atlantic” – “The Birth of A New American Aristocracy” – “The class divide is already toxic, and is fast becoming unbridgeable. You’re probably part of the problem.”
– April/March, 2011 “Mother Jones – “Plutocracy now” – especially page 25’s 3 graphs detailing inequality, and page 63’s “Your Loss, Their Gain” chart showing how much money YOU’VE given the top 1% !!!!!!!!
– September/October, 2014 “Mother Jones “Survival of the Richest” graphics on how the “Trickle Up” dynamics work in real life; “working more, earning less”
– December l, 2013 “Washington Spectator” provides a review of the DVD “Inequality for All” starring Robert Reich. Directed by Jacob Kornbluth. See inequality.org for a sampling
– not short, but very good: Thomas Picketty 2020 “Capital and Ideology. Lots of very good graphs. Page 28: “the 1980-2018 large fortunes grew at 3-4 times the global economy growth rate – this CANNOT continue indefinitely, unless all global wealth falls into the hands of the billionaires.********** Page 30: the American top 10% 2010-2020 share of 50% of wealth exceeded the 1900-1910 amount!!!****** Page 3l: the American 1932-1980 top marginal income tax rate AVERAGED 81% – this obviously did NOT destroy capitalism in America!!!******* Page 33: productivity was HIGHER in 1950-1990 than it was in 1990-2020!!!******
So – friends, what would a “reasonable person think” about the American Economic Apartheid?” Was it “accidental” – as in “it couldn’t be avoided?” Was it a result of 1789-2021 economic American trends? Was it something that was an “unfortunate result of good intentions?”
NO!!! Only if you are really uniformed, trusting “patriotic” – But most of all because you’re really, really
STUPID. Sorry – but ALL evidence, world-wide points to the only
conceivable conclusion: this was/is the biggest, most damaging, most enduring
CRIME. The top 1% and corporations set out to destroy 1947-73 America, and they did.
With Justice For All 