Professor Warren Blumenfeld believes we aren’t challenging inequity nearly enough. Here’s his call for us to do so.
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“[A]s long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.” –Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 2013
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While economic disparities plague all of the nations across the planet, nowhere are these disparities more extreme than in the United States (Weeks, 2007), and so I ask, when is enough, enough?
When the income inequality between the upper one percent of earners in the U.S. and the lower 99% has been the widest since the great depression of the late 1920s (Wiseman, 2013), when is enough, enough?
When the compensation of corporate CEOs have risen an astounding 725% between 1978 and 2011 while the average workers’ salaries have increased a mere 5.7% over the same period, and when today’s official minimum wage of $7.25 per hour equals $3.00 less accounting for inflation compared to the minimum wage in 1968, when is enough, enough? (http://thinkprogress.org/
When the top financial rewards went to only 400 people increasing their income between 1992 and 2007 by 392% while their average tax rate fell by 37% (Gibson & Perot, 2011), when these same 400 people accumulated more wealth than the lower 50% of the U.S. population combined (Kertscher & Borowski, 2011), and when corporate profits have reached unprecedented heights, though the wages and benefits of the vast majority of workers either stagnated or diminished when accounting for inflation (Mishel & Shierholz, 2013), then when is enough, enough?
“When a family purchases two, or three, or four, or five, or even six homes that they occasionally visit depending on their current mood like the rest of us choose which pair of underwear to don for the day…”
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When a few individual families own 20, or 30, or 40, or more fast food franchises while paying their workers less than a living wage, as 26% of fast food employees are parents raising children, and 68% are the major wage earners for their families, and many of our people go hungry as Congress fights to eliminate the food stamp safety net, when is enough, enough? (http://laborcenter.berkeley.
When a McDonald’s employee must work the equivalent of 930 years to match the salary that the CEO makes in a single year, when is enough, enough? (http://blogs.reuters.com/
When a family purchases two, or three, or four, or five, or even six homes that they occasionally visit depending on their current mood like the rest of us choose which pair of underwear to don for the day, and many of our people, including youth, go homeless, when is enough, enough?
When our elected officials in Washington, DC respond merely to the demands of the upper income groups and discount lower socioeconomic income brackets (Gentilviso, 2013), then when is enough, enough?
When the mammoth economic inequities rooted in a pervasive corporate culture place profits over people and revenues over the environment, then when is enough, enough?
As the corporate sector increasingly dictates economic policy through the purchasing and ownership of politicians at the expense of the people of our country, a corporate culture that eliminates workers’ health care and collective bargaining rights, one that promotes and maintains workplace inequalities based on race, nationality, age, sex, sexual identity, gender identity and expression, and disability, one that forecloses our homes through scurrilous business practices, and one that holds students hostage to loan structures that jeopardizes their futures, then when is enough, enough?
When the military industrial complex marches to the beat of industry, when an educational system based on standardization and allegiance to corporate needs, and a prison industrial complex that perpetuates the racial and socioeconomic class inequities pervasive throughout the society, then when is enough, enough?
When corporations grab government bailouts with impunity while doling out exorbitant bonuses for executives, and when these same executives pay lower tax rates than their secretaries, then when is enough, enough?
When in 2011, U.S. “Representative” Paul Ryan spoke at The American Spectator’s Robert L. Bartley Gala Dinner in which he referenced to the “30 percent” who desire the welfare state to take care of them and continued that, “Before too long we could become a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers,” we must all ask, when is enough of this demonization of the working poor enough?
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So, what I advocate to narrow the gaps is a governmental single-payer quality universal health care system, which includes safe and reasonably-priced prescription and over-the-counter drug therapies.
I advocate for our country to protect and enhance our Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid safety nets.
I advocate for a system of parental leave, and tax credits and governmental supplements for quality child day care services.
I advocate for the further nationalization of our parks, forests, mountains, rivers, streams, shores, and off-shore waters, rather than allocating increased corporate mining, drilling, and timber rights.
I advocate for free and quality education, not only through grade 12, but throughout higher education and after for everyone who desires and works to achieve their fullest potential.
I advocate for a government-sponsored program that guarantees our seniors a retirement system that ensures a high quality of life free from economic burdens.
I advocate for the rights of workers to organize and to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.
I advocate for the elimination of workplace and larger societal inequalities based on race, nationality, citizenship status, age, sex, sexual identity, gender identity and expression, disability, socioeconomic standing, religion, and other social identities.
I advocate for everyone a guaranteed comfortable and secure place to live, and governmental policies that actually prevent a banking system that forecloses people’s homes through scurrilous business practices.
I advocate for severe restrictions on the political process to prevent mammoth contributions by individuals and corporations to buy and own politicians and to influence public policy, while locking out individuals and groups unable to amass large political funds.
I challenge a military industrial complex that marches to the beat of industry, and a prison industrial complex that perpetuates the racial and socioeconomic class inequities pervasive throughout the society.
I advocate for a true progressive tax structure where everyone pays their fair share, one that inhibits massive inequities in the overwhelming accumulation of wealth by the top income brackets.
Most basically, I advocate for effective restrictions on the so-called “free market” economic system that enables the creation and enhancement of mega monopolies, outsourcing of jobs, manufacture of defective products, and inhibition in the development of clean renewable energy technologies.
“Maybe if more of us challenged the widening and inhumane inequities…then enough would definitely and finally be enough!”
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Even before the Cold War and the so-called “McCarthy Period” (named after Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy), individuals and groups on the political and theocratic Right have flung the term “Socialist” from their metaphoric sling shots into the faces of their political opponents to discredit their characters and dismiss their political ideas and policies, and to sway the electorate toward a Conservative agenda. This continues to this very day as evidenced by the Tea Party’s representations of President Obama, various other Democratic politicians, and even against the great Nelson Mandela.
As destructive and as freedom-killing as the Right would have us believe, according to the World English Dictionary, Socialism involves “a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole,” where each of us has a stake and advances in the success of our collective economy.
Maybe if more of us challenged the widening and inhumane inequities, where each of us understood that we all have a stake and advance in the success of our collective economy, then enough would definitely and finally be enough!
References:
Gentilviso, C. (2013). Senate represents the wealthy first: Study. The Huffington Post, August 21.
Gilson, D., & Perot, C. (2011). It’s the inequality, stupid. In Mother Jones, March/April.
Kertscher, T, & Borowski, G. (2011). The truth-o-meter says: True – Michael Moore says 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined. PolitiFact, March 10.
Mishel, L, & Shierholz, H. (2013). A decade of flat wages. Economic Policy Institute. August 21.
Weeks, J. (2007). Inequality trends in some developed OECD countries. In J. K. S. & J. Baudot (Eds.), Flat world, big gaps. New York: ZED Books, pp. 159-174).
Wiseman, P. (2013). Richest 1 percent earn biggest share since ‘20s. Associated Press, September 10.
Warren, thank you for posting what I originally wrote. Your bio doesn’t show that you’re an adjunct instructor, so what they say about assume is sometimes accurate. And you have my apologies. Came That being said, my move to “you” came when this was stated “ I’m sure your income is substantial, probably much greater than my own. You are obviously a highly educated and erudite man who is no doubt paid paid handsomely by the Good Men Project for your insightfull essays,” followed with your summation of your financial state. In so far as the “messenger” opposed to the… Read more »
Check the trashed posts, you’ll see what I mean
Tom, you are totally missing the point. IF I earned a great deal of money, I would have MORE credibility for espousing my views about the unfair economic disparity in this country. Look at Warren Buffet, for example, who has criticized the disparity. I, however, do not make much. I am 66-years old, I have a house with a $3400 a year tax rate, my publishing royalties last year equaled around $4000 total, I am an adjunct instructor making on the average of $3400 per course, and I haven’t earned enough in my life to be able to retire. But… Read more »
My apologies for originally mentioning your personal income. Seems to have created quite a controversy.
But back to your ideas. Why don’t you respond to CW’s question about what in numerical terms do you consider a fair share?
Hey RG, wasn’t that big of a stir. The truth is many of us voice our views based upon our own life and what we’ve had to deal with. I remember in HS, when I was at an awards day for achievers (still can’t figure out how I got there) we were broken up into groups/tracts. One guy, an attorney was facilitating a group where the discussion was 18 year old right to vote. Keep in mind, we could be drafted but not vote. He was speaking to Chicago schools seniors. I will never forget what he said. (paraphrasing of… Read more »
Funny that my last post was …. ummmm removed. To recap it, checked the validity of the author regarding income.
As a far as I am aware, any society that has instituted the “collectivism” that you advocate has created more economic misery than it has releived.
Although I do not doubt your good intentions, with all due respect, you are completely wrong!!!
“…the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.”
Milton Freidman
I am so sorry to hear of your financial condition. It is an outrage that you have received bubkis for your editorial blogs. With all the ads I’m seeing on the GMP you would think they’d cut you in on the revenue. Tell me where the picket line is forming and I’ll join you in solidarity.
Thanks RG. However, unfortunately great blog sites like The Good Men Project simply don’t have the funds to pay their writers, and, besides, let’s get back to why I felt compelled to write “Economic Disparity: When Is Enough, Enough?,” which was to expose the conditions surrounding economic inequality in the United States — conditions that if we do not challenge and reverse, have consequences not only for individuals, but for the very existence of our nation. No other issues threaten our national security as does the large and continually growing economic chasms within the Capitalist system as currently constituted in… Read more »
There is little that Milton Freidman has said that I disagree with. His defense of free market capitalism makes perfect sense to me (as does Bono’s). The stats that you quote regarding income inequality may very well be true, but I don’t see them necessarily as an indication of injustice. if the money was earned honestly, i don’t see the problem. I’m sure your income is substantial, probably much greater than my own. You are obviously a highly educated and erudite man who is no doubt paid paid handsomely by the Good Men Project for your insightfull essays. I ,however,… Read more »
Hi RG, I know I really don’t have to reply to your statement that ” I’m sure your income is substantial, probably much greater than my own. You are obviously a highly educated and erudite man who is no doubt paid paid handsomely by the Good Men Project for your insightfull essays,” but I hate to burst your balloon about your idea of the salaries of professors and authors. First, since I did not earn my doctorate degree until relatively late in my life at the age of 54, I never could earn at the higher rates for my profession,… Read more »
Warren, you said ” In addition, with all of my many publications including books, journal articles, and book chapters, I have earned barely enough combined royalties over the years to pay my property taxes.” You must be paying a lot in property taxes? But this is obviously not your main source of income? According to a quick search I did, the average income of Assistant Professors at University of Mass is over $70K, Associate Professors is over $80K, that’s if you work in Boston, the numbers at Lowell are even higher. The median income in the US is slightly over… Read more »
I have rarely agreed with the economic policies of Milton Freidman, but I do respect and follow former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “Of all the advanced economies, we are the most unequal and we are surging forward greater inequality at the fastest rate,” Reich tells The Daily Ticker. “The 400 richest Americans own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together.” According to “Inequality for All,” a new film that Reich narrates, the wealth gap in the U.S. is as wide as it was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. The richest 1% of Americans own… Read more »
Warren, While I am a conservative in economic philosophy, I think we need to make a HUGE distinction between wealth and income. A reduction in income to the bottom 25% along with stagnant wages for the middle class has been devastating. Whether you use either, it shows the same growing disparities. But, what is or are the source(s) of these disparities? Why do they exist? Are they ‘market’ based or are they based on political motivations and plain greed? This where Milton Friedman comes into play. I believe most of the issues we see with income disparities is because of… Read more »
“Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest? . . . And just tell me where in the world you find these angels who are going to organize society for us?”
Milton Freidman
Apparently, Milton Freidman never met Warren Blumenfeld.
That’s certainly Milton Freidman’s loss.
As much as I would like to see some of the changes you put forth, I don’t have much faith that change is imminent. Occupy Wall Street came closest,in recent times, to articulating your concerns,but was attacked from without and within.The people who need it the most are not being served politically by those who should be speaking for them.
Curious- I often hear how people need to pay their “fair share.” Obviously you desire a progressive income tax system. What is your opinion of a “fair share” for a family of 4 (2 married adults & 2 minor children) at the following income levels?
A. $25’000
B. $50’000
C. $100’000
D. $150’000
E. $200’000
F. $1’000’000
I’d be interested in seeing what people actually mean when they say “fair share.”
Too bad no response to this. It would have been interesting to get into how the rhetoric would actually apply in a practical manner.
CW You should travel to some countries that is organized a not different from the American society. When you ask want is a fair share taxes to pay you have to look at what you get back from society from the day a person is born and until his last day on earth. The total picture will tell you what you get back from the tax you pay. Maybe Ayn Rands philosophy will form America. The story say she herself depended on economic help the last part of her life. Her novels are good read, but are her philosophy and… Read more »
Typo
Travel to societies that is organized a lot different from the American.
@Iben, Hello Iben! “During the elections in America it becomes evident that American politicians lack knowledge about other countries when they bash Europe and call it socialistic , they have NO idea what socialism is. I wonder where they got their degrees….” Yes, you are so correct! And these people are our elites from Harvard, Yale,….Look how shameful it is that so few of them even speak a foreign language. Btw, I was watching Aljazeera America TV this morning. They did a segment on Norway and the popularity of ‘Slow TV’ I even saw a little bit of “Minutt For… Read more »
You assume I haven’t traveled. Regardless- I prefer to deal in measureable data.
CV
Norway has progressive tax system and we are doing just fine.
Norway also has a population of a little over 5 million which is equal to the Chicago metro area alone. We aren’t only battling the federal government but also state and local.
Back to what CW was asking …. So what is a “fair share?”
I started to go through all the “I advocate” but became too frustrated.
Hi Tom You are right . With only six million inhabitants it is easier to run a country than when you have 350-360 million ++ One of the members of our government and parliament said once ” it is easy to administrate this country. What is difficult is to create change “. Then imagine how hard it must be to creat change in a huge country like America, that is not an easy task. But social change does happen, and if we don’t try to direct it in a positive direction lots of unwanted developent can emerge. American society tolerate… Read more »
Iben, Thank you and a Merry Christmas to you as well.
Here is the thing…. No one will put ANY numbers on it. Just like the ACA- get it through on lies and platitudes. When it drops the hammer on those who voted it in? Oh well. This all reminds me of the old show Dukes of Hazzard- no motivation or driving force other than to “git them Duke boys!!!”
Iben- the US has a progressive tax system as well.
@CW, On paper the US has a progressive tax system. With all the tax ‘loopholes’, tax credit, and tax subsidies I am not sure. One thing I will say is that if you are US citizen, regardless of your income you MUST pay something into the system. After all, we all derive some benefits from this system. Unfortunately, we have a nation today that has been run into the ground by the worst generation ever. We have racked up $17 bil so my 16 yr old son and his generation can repay it. Did he get any benefits? Hell NO!… Read more »
Those 80% marginal rates we’rent actual effective tax rates.
Nor are the current marginal rates as wee saw with the financial disclosures of President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney. If I am not mistaken both had effective income tax rates less than 20%.