altarflame | Entries tagged with economy

I just wanted to say that this comment I just received is THE REASON I post about politics; it's a lazy way for me to get educated across a broad spectrum of opinions without doing any legwork myself ;) Really though, I hear this and I go "Oh! Well yeah I'm totally with that!"

Don't believe the hype.
I think the media has given you all the wrong idea. I'm here in New York and I've been down to OWS and follow it regularly.
The media is trying to paint this as a bunch of people complaining that they don't have enough but that's not the point, it's just a symptom of the problem.
The problem is that our government no longer serves the people. They serve corporate interests.
There's a Princeton study done by Larry Bartels and Martin Gilens that shows that policies that are supported by an overwhelming majority of common people are generally not passed whereas policies supported by the top 3% of Americans almost always are voted in. These are the people that are elected to represent the majority and the data shows that they aren't doing that.
In 1981 the capitol gains tax was 48% then it was cut in HALF with one bill to 28% and today it's only 15%!
The majority of the top 1% make most of their money on capital gains, not earned income. Therefore, most of the top 1% are only being taxed 15% on MOST of their income.
And we're worried about the deficit? Politicians are cutting social programs, education funding, regulatory cost, etc. Those cuts directly affect you and I and the rest of the 99%.
Furthermore, today's CEOs are making so much more than the average worker that it's actually hurting our economy. Not only were the banks entirely responsible for the economic crash (and were never penalized for it) but when the middle class shrinks as greatly as it has, that stagnates growth overall. Our economy can't get better if the middle class keeps shrinking the way it's shrinking.
In 1965 the average CEO of a large us corporation made around 24 times the earnings of a typical worker. By 2007 average CEO pay was accelerating toward 300 times typical earnings! In 2007 the average CEO of the 350 largest publicly traded companies made $12million PER YEAR!
America CEOs are paid more than twice as much as ANY other country in the world! The disparity between the wealthy and the rest of us is far higher than any other developed country in the world. We are more along the lines third world countries like Nicaragua in terms of disparity of wealth in this country. In fact, Nicaragua and other third world nations like it are quickly become less stratified than us.
With the amount of ridiculous wealth in the country there is no reason why 75% of the wealth in our country should be controlled by 1% of the population.
THAT is what this movement is about. There are some people who are asking for some unreasonable things (like forgiving all school loan debt) but the vast majority of us here on the ground in New York (and I'm assuming in the other participating cities) we're not asking for hand outs. We're not sitting on the sidewalk whining about how much we don't have. We're fed up with having no influence over our own government despite being 99% of the people in this country.

The only thing about this comment that REALLY makes me wonder if I agree with her or not (as someone who knows little about economics, really, and is not bothering to try to prove or rebut or cite sources) is the last paragraph....I'm torn between the feeling that "sitting on the sidewalks" is not gonna accomplish very much, and something another commenter said to me:

The point is that it doesn't matter who you vote for if they've all got GE in their pocket, that money is what shapes the policy. Not the voice of the voters, which is what a democracy is.

That line really made me stop and go, oh wait what is there but protest at such a point? Even though, as I recently told a friend I'm afraid I've riled on fb, I still have the knee-jerk reaction that it's ludicrous when I see people inviting people to come hear live bands play at the "Occupy Miami Arts and Music festival" so they can "Get their voice heard". Maybe this is one of those things (of which there are many) that I'm gonna gradually work my way around about until I've come full circle.

I still feel like the only way protest movements could possible work in the US to enact the kind of change these people are going for is if it is on the scale it's been in Israel....and like I'm really not sure that's possible here. Or desirable. Revolution. Basically overthrowing the government unless they surrender and reshape everything. I suppose it's a possible alternative to the fall of the empire, which has seemed imminent for quite some time.

As always, feel free to discuss. I am really just thinking out loud.

Or, "One American Crying Out in ~~Cyberspace~~ The Wilderness".

Someone on my friends' page has shared that they resent being lumped in with "the 99%", because they don't feel that their personal financial situation or that of their family meshes with the picture that people are painting of what it means to be in the 99% (which they are) - at all. And, they don't agree with the attitude or actions people are taking as representatives of that 99%. Honestly? I agree. Completely. We are not even close to the upper crust of the 99% (making under $75,000 per year in a household of 8), and YET....

Grant lost his job in January - it sucked - but he had another one (in his industry and not minimum wage) within 3 weeks of looking. A few months later, he resigned from that job because he had a much better offer land in his lap. I'm going to college for free on the government. Elise is in a wonderful preschool for free because Florida pays for that for all 4 year olds. My four older kids are receiving weekly music lessons with loaned instruments for free through a program funded by The Children's Trust, and we go to those lessons on a free trolley system that my city's received grants for. We're going to a huge free costume-contest Halloween symphony for the second time in a row, on Sunday, also put on by The Children's Trust. I went to a freakin' yard sale a couple of weekends ago and got us a like-new King sized mattress, a bunch of pillar candles, a plant stand for the library, baskets for my closet shelves, and an adjustable top of the line music stand for the kids - ALL for $60. This was the same week Grant and I enjoyed a resort stay that was paid by his company O_O We have health insurance and life insurance and car and homeowner's insurance and are able to provide great birthday parties to our kids and carry fancy smart phones around.

I could quantify all this very differently. I could say, "Grant was out of work for 3 weeks in January and we had to sell our second car to survive, and then he was underemployed for months before he found a job that pays well enough - but it's SO FAR AWAY that he's driving two hours each way now, and we're digging out of a pit of being behind on our bills! We laid on a horribly fucked up mattress that contributed to back pain for over a year because we could never afford a nice new one! We have to rely on my rusty bicycle and a trolley that rides through the worst ghettos, and we're horribly underinsured!"

I could write that on a sign, ignoring all I said before it, get righteous, and say "I am the 99%!" Because it's also all true! But...it's not the whole truth.

I feel like part of what the protesters are missing, is that being in the "bottom 99%" of AMERICAN CITIZENS still puts you in a pretty freaking high percentile privilege rank as a human being. Average out the BILLIONS of starving Africans; media-censored, factory working and child-rationed Chinese; and homeless, poverty stricken Indian populations and then tell me what percent you fall under, here on this planet we all call home. This is to speak nothing of the crime riddled 3rd world country just south of us, where thousands of people are trying desperately to get in here and have it better every week, or the tsunami-ravaged Japanese that we've already forgotten are suffering... We can't ALL be the very richest of the rich, you know? Modern first world nations are so wildly, decadently spoiled that there is just no objectivity whatsoever - how did we get to a point where everyone feels it's an inalienable right to be guaranteed wild, immediate prosperity by their degree or to have stockpiled university tuition and unlimited orthodontics available for all their kids? And that they should be able to block traffic and sleep outside until somebody finally yells "Uncle!" and gives them everything they think they deserve?

Sometimes I think the problem is not that "we" (the 99%) are being denied so many wonderful things (on demand completely free high quality healthcare; rigorous yet fun free public education for all kids in every area, that parents don't have to do anything to facilitate; significant amounts of very enjoyable leisure time for every person) - the problem is that we - the American people - have bought into this totally bogus idea that Hollywood and advertisers are selling, that those things are even possible for whole societies to enjoy. Moreover - they tell us other people are already enjoying them. YOU SHOULD, TOO. If you aren't, something is WRONG and you shouldn't stand for it!

If it is possible - and I am not an economist here, obviously - for whole societies to reach those utopian levels of fair distribution and universal swag, well, it's NEVER been done before in all of history and so it's gonna take awhile to iron out the kinks as we figure out how to make it happen...we're all just fallible mortals here each with a different set of goals in mind, gradually staggering this species forward. When I read or watch anything historical I'm overwhelmed by how there has always been a LESS than 1% (royalty, nobility, whatever) who controlled everything - a castle for 5 surrounded by hundreds of shacks where all the people who work in the castle live. It's unprecedented and amazing that we've reached a point where everyone is entitled to sit around and have a break pretty regularly and even poor people expect to get to retire. How is anyone surprised that there is an elite class that's richer than everybody else, and where are they getting the idea that they deserve to take some of those elite individuals' stuff for themselves just to "be fair"?

Don't get me wrong. There are shady dealings and misguided uses of funds in our governnment that need to be addressed (bailouts, big banks, corporations running the govt, big pharma controlling things like birth practices and medical marijuana staying illegal) and doing things to make a difference in areas you care about is ALWAYS a good thing....

But how does camping out in parks and tweeting about it make a difference?

I want to see a PERCENTAGE of how many of these "Occupy" people bother to VOTE in their local, state and presidential elections, or bother to participate in sending letters to congressmen or writing editorials for newspapers or even putting their money where their mouths are - in small banks or local credit unions, not in unethical companies, etc. Because when enough people do them...those things matter. And, in the spirit of Capitalism (which I do think I am still a fan of overall), they're examples of earning something, rather than this totally entitled hoohaw where people believe they can rush home to edit and upload more protest video every few hours before heading back to the "protest", where city officials are cleaning up their trash, local businesses are allowing them to use their restrooms, and the ultimate martyrdom comes if you get arrested and held in a clean jail that provides regular meals and a free attorney, for a few hours - maybe even a WHOLE NIGHT with a bed and air conditioning before you go back to the tent with the food trucks and news vans O_o I mean...this is not hardcore! I find it embarrassing when people try to draw comparisons with the protests in Tel Aviv - Israelis are coming out in radically stronger numbers with much more unified, specific goals, and they are putting aside religious and political bickering to achieve them. They're obviously responding en masse and in unison to much more serious oppression. I understand how inspiring and beautiful this is, but it's not the same thing that's happening in Boston, or California.

That would be pretty amazing. Maybe it's really the dream some people in this country have in mind. I'm sorry if sincere protesters are reading this and hurt by anything I have to say; as always, I am ready to listen to comments.

Here in my corner of the world, though, I've asked multiple participating individuals who are doing "Occupy (insert Florida city)" and they can't even give me a clear view of what they hope to accomplish - they say things like "you can read about it online" and "this country started after a snowball effect from people protesting in a similar way in England" . These are EXTREMELY privileged people who don't normally express much sympathy for, say, single moms, or those with menial jobs. The best guess I can venture based on their posting is that they reads things online that get them riled up in a validating way. It seems to me that it's more about being a part of something. Something, in this case, being YouTube.

I wonder why more people aren't talking about the privilege necessary to Occupy anything. If I miss class to protest, I end up back on academic probation, lose my financial aid, and can't afford school anymore. But I know that leaves me light years ahead of the women who barely know what's going on because they work two jobs and can't miss a shift because every dollar is accounted for. There are adults in my college classes who do not have internet access in any form, or gas money to get up into Miami. This may be part of my irritation with the Occupiers; they seem to me to be overwhelmingly white, healthy, able-bodied, middle class people with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. They get to feel like they're downtrodden because they're using the MASSIVE grouping "NINETY NINE PERCENT" that means "the A-list movie stars and really big time CEOs are ruining it for the rest of us common folks!!" and nevermind that they have no idea what it's like to be in a public assistance line or would be mortified to get their debit card declined at the checkout. I have a strong feeling that people with tents and iPads at these protests are almost never in the bottom 30+% - you need some kind of safety net and/or support system to be able to go live in a park for a month without your kids starving or your landlord kicking you out of your place, you know? It makes me want to go slap stickers on their foreheads that say their individual global rank, with their more specific US number factored in - "I'm in the top 8%". Ideally without them knowing, because it would make the videos so much more ironic.

*sigh*

There are major problems with our economy, and I see huge and steadily escalating financial trouble in the future of the United States. I just wanted, I suppose, to point out that for my little circle of loved ones, for now - life is pretty good. And for most people I know, online and off - their lives are pretty good, too. I don't feel represented by 99%-ers. And I don't think anybody is going about making changes that need to happen, happen, by "occupying". I'ts kind of like breast cancer "awareness" - you know, where you just buy pink things and reblog stuff that makes people "aware" that breast cancer is, like, totally a thing, and nevermind any true information or policy change that could lessen actual rates.

I suppose I should be grateful that "slactivism" is movin' on up and becoming more action-oriented than this, at least, which is all my generation has seemed capable of previously:

How the flagging economy has effected me and people I know personally, so far:

-Starbucks stopped selling decaf frappuccinos, because such fewer numbers of people are going in for $4 drinks...meaning I can only justify having one rarely while nursing

-an independantly owned, somewhat pricey store we loved and knew the owners of - full of things like handmade quilts, old fashioned furniture and Yankee Candles - went out of business after 13 years of profits. Owner lady had sent me gifts while I was in the hospital, and we got our dining table there, and it was the only "class" in the plaza it was in

-our local paper, where my mother in law works, cut back to one new issue per week...soon after, my mother in law's job duties changed, and now she only works 4 days a week rather than 5, with her position in constant jeopardy

-we were able to purchase a $315k home for $220k, after it went into foreclosure

-we had an unreasonably hard time getting a home equity loan because lenders have enough foreclosed homes that won't sell and so collateral is not what it used to be

-8 months later, with $60k spent on home renovations (bamboo floors, granite countertops, privacy fencing, brand new roof, ETC) it is now appraised at $200k

-Grant's previously stable job talks constantly about downsizing and even losing their funding completely (they're a non-profit corp)

-when my newly-single mother moved back to Jacksonville recently she spent a couple of MONTHS putting in job applications everyday...and never got hired. She moved in with her brother in a neighboring town, finally, and is now having a hard time finding a job there. My mother's never been out of work this long in my remembered life, and Jacksonville is usually a REALLY easy place to get work in

-local bookstore we try to support feels like they're part of a struggling nation now, and in it for the long haul, rather than like they're teetering on the brink and the only ones who can't cut it - even though their numbers haven't changed. It's weird.

-My sister was able to buy a house in an upper middle class neighborhood where all the cops and firefighters live, with a good sized yard, across the street from mini-mansions...for $110k. Upon moving in, they found one of the old bills from the previous owners in a kitchen drawer stating they still owed $260k and were going to go into foreclosure soon.

-I have a sense of obligation and duty attached to hiring independant contractors, paying my therapist and nanny, donating to charities, etc, because I feel like those people in those positions and those organizations are in more precarious situations than they would normally be

I often look around and think, "Yeah, right" when I hear about "this economy!" because, well, we're all still spoiled consumer Americans, right? Nobody I know is exactly starving to death and the malls are still packed when I go to them. Of course, I also have a warped perspective, having achieved financial security just as the rest of the country was seeming to lose theirs...But when I tally it up like I did above, there is something to it. Even for us. When I watch things like The Story of Stuff, I think maybe this economy NEEDS some serious deflating. Maybe it's positive in a way. Frappuccino isn't good for me anyway, and it's not like we're looking to sell this place anytime soon. Of course, that is not the whole story or the big picture...

So what about you? Is there a difference in your own personal life? Do you see yourself in the stock market plunges? Or are you still paying $2.50 for a single chocolate dipped strawberry at Godiva when you walk by (hey, that stuff is good)? I'm interested in hearing from others on this.