Fundamentally flawed

"The fundamentals of the US economy are strong", thus spake John McCain in the midst of the Great Crash of 2008.

A very interesting video came across my newsfeed the other day and it made me think of this quote from John McCain. The video was of Senator Bernie Sanders talking about of income stagnation and erosion. According to the figures Senator Sanders offered, a man right in the middle of the workforce, the average male employee, in 2013 made $783 less than a comparably situated man would have made 41 years earlier ($ adjusted for inflation). A woman, on the other hand, made $1,337 less than she would have made in 1997. The erosion of women's earning capacity was significantly less than the erosion of men's. A 41 year setback for men, less than a decade's setback for women.

Now, it is probably true that men had further to fall, given wage inequities across this great land, but that's some fall! And so I asked myself what was happening socially about 41 years earlier. Were women perhaps starting to come into the workforce in ever greater numbers? Were Civil Rights and Affirmative Action perhaps on the rise? What about immigration?

My great epiphany was that White men might well have 'suffered' for equality, this was not Sen. Sanders point but go with me for a moment, and if they are enraged by the erosion of their economic (not to mention social) standing, perhaps their rage is to be expected? From their perspective, maybe it's even reasonable? The trouble is, the rest of us were suffering for their success. We were suffering under inequality even as they prospered, so you'll forgive us if our sympathy well has run a little dry. We may sympathize with their anxiety, but we do not empathize with it. We've lived with that particular anxiety rather long enough. We're ready to try something new. They will have to as well.

The candidacy of a certain Republican speaks to and stokes a rage which we have no trouble understanding though some of us may not understand fully its source. Thanks to Sen. Sanders, I now have the data that explains it all. Where the challenge remains is in comprehending crossover point between the rage and the racial animus. What is it that causes economic insecurity to morph into ugly racial bias? Perhaps the better question is does the animus simply exist but only in times of economic insecurity does it rise up? Perhaps the animus isn't specifically racial? As usual, these last three are the real questions that we continue to avoid like the pox on our house that they are. 

As I listened to Senator Sanders, what became quite clear is that perhaps opportunity has decreased for White males in part because of increasing competition from other groups: women, minorities and immigrants, but it wasn't the sharing of opportunity that caused a decline in wages. My suspicion is that opportunity and wage stagnation have been consequent upon the changed environment in which the fundamentals of the economy to which Senator McCain referred in 2008, must now operate. Which fundamental(s)? The ones that built this economy on exploitation. The fundamental of two or three generations of land grants; land and wage theft; the fundamental of human degradation, exploitation and suffering. Those. Those are the fundamentals I'm talking about. Add to those, the fundamental that gives better pay to men, than to women; to Whites over Blacks and other minorities; the fundamental that grants better access to quality housing and schooling to one group over all others. Those fundamentals. Those fundamentals are flawed, dangerously so and are suddenly meeting with resistance on a number of fronts. And now that those fundamentals are impacting folks outside the usual target groups, the natives are getting restless. Good. It's about damn time.

When Senator John McCain said in 2008 that the fundamentals of the US economy were strong, he was right, he just didn't know what the fundamentals were. The fundamentals are strong, real strong. Too bad that in 2016, they no longer fit huh? Now that the exploitation of weaker or outcast groups has passed out of favor; or rather, now that weaker groups aren't allowing themselves to be exploited, we're flapping around looking for somebody new to squeeze. All that's really left is the planet itself; strangers overseas and using right-to-work laws and a slew of other measures, a lot of very unlucky sots right here. 

No matter how many economic booms we've seen over the last 40 years, most of us have secured little from them beyond a job with a few good benefits. Maybe. Most of us - the 98% - are still teetering dangerously close to the financial abyss. One illness. One divorce. One crisis of any kind and the whole house of cards collapses. Is it any wonder that folks are in a rage? This is not the future we were promised!

We have allowed ourselves to believe the whole "rising tides lift all boats" foolishness because it tells us what we want to hear. It tells us that if we vote with the billionaires, our own circumstances will quickly eventually change. It tells us that if we vote with the other guys, at least SNAP and WIC won't be savaged (though no one tells you that you'll still need them). When you listen to Senator Sanders though, and you look at our financial and economic history, it is pretty clear that even if the tide should rise, its rise serves only to drown the majority.

There are those now who want to take their country back. When asked recently, one leading candidate finally admitted that the era for which he yearned was pre-Civil Rights. The 1950's. I'm grateful he didn't go back further, I won't say to where. Simply put, he and many others want to go back to the time before they had to share their toys. 

Unfortunately for them, there are two immutable facts with which they, and we, must contend. First, we're not going back. They will have to deal with it. Second, and far, far more importantly, the US business model that only seems to prosper when there's someone being exploited doesn't work in a more just society. But I draw your attention again to point number one. Here is where we are and we're not going back. We're just going to have to reconsider and radically remold the US business model into one that works for all of us. The rules of fair play apply to everyone. That's just how it is now. We'll have to find a way to generate profits in this Brave New World and no, the TPP is not it. The fundamentals are strong yes, but they continue to be fatally flawed. We're going to have to do something about it.

If all any political party has to offer is "rising tides lift all boats", they're going to have to do better and offer more than that. As one whose forebears survived the belly of a slave ship, I for one will say no thanks, that doesn't work for me. I 'fraid boats. Try again.

We all need to come to the realization that exploitation is a bad business model and stop lining up either to be exploited or worse still, to offer up our neighbors as the next victims. We can do better than that. It is past time to get off the plantation and try something new.