Should the Rich Rule?

Various sources number the millionaires in our country at either 10.8 million, or 6.8 million or 4.8 million.  Regardless, the number of people who control liquid assets in excess of $1 million dollars has risen dramatically.  They represent either 8.6% of American households, or 5.4% or 3.8% depending on the number of millionaires you choose to go with.  Another way to look at our wealth is to recognize the top 1% wealthiest folks control 24% of our nation’s liquid assets, and the top 5% control 59% of our nation’s assets.  That is a small number of people controlling a huge amount of resources.  The opposite is also true, the bottom 70% of American households control less than 10% of our wealth.  And the gap between the top and the bottom is growing.

The Urban Institute considers anyone with an income of $100,000 or more to be in the upper class.  The Census Bureau notes that the median income is $24,600 and the average income is $32,000.  Poor households earn less than $24,000.  So just for the sake of clarity, let’s call the upper class the people who make more than $100,000; the middle class are the people who make between $24,000 and $100,000 and the lower class those folks who earn less than $24,000 per year.

Given those numbers I wonder if we believe majority votes rule, or do we believe majority assets rule?  Do we believe in democracy or plutocracy?

It must be great to be a millionaire or a billionaire.  They get all the secular stuff they want: houses, cars, jets, clothes, vacation trips, etc.  More than that, they do not worry about the things most of us do.  They are not worried about setting enough money aside for retirement because they have so much money.  They are not worried about health care costs or health insurance because they either buy the best or just write a check when needed.  They surely do not worry about their kids having health care protection.  Nor do they worry about the kind of education their kids will get because they can buy the best education available.  

Evidently, what they do worry about is paying taxes so that other folks get health care, or other folks get food subsidies, or other folks get social security, or other folks get Medicare or Medicaid, or other folks get quality housing, or other folks get quality education.  The rich do not want to pay for the things they can provide for themselves.  They do tend to support paying taxes for military expenditures because they know being protected from aggression is a good thing.

Welcome to the new budget.  It cuts taxes for the wealthy and cuts services for everyone else.  The wealthy benefit the most.  The middle and lower classes benefit the least.  Teachers can no longer deduct expenses for their classrooms, but rich folks can deduct tuition for private schools.  And on and on it goes.

And as if that is not enough, the wealthy have enough disposable cash to contribute heavily to political candidates and shape media coverage.  There are wealthy folks in this country who spend millions of dollars supporting candidates that follow a philosophy that protects the plutocracy (a.k.a. rich folks).  They do not spend those dollars just in the races where they live, they spend those dollars across the entire nation so they can influence the election of conservative candidates everywhere.  They support candidates that support a trickle down economic theory though such a theory has never worked.  They own media outlets like Fox, a network that candidly admits they support the conservative agenda more than they support the reporting of facts.  They advertise on the programs the likes of Limbaugh keeping him in business.  The US Supreme Court even ruled in Citizens United that corporations can give big bucks to political candidates.  Big bucks buys a lot of ads and a lot of yard signs.  Most amazing to me is that the wealthy have spent big bucks to convince the middle and lower classes to support their agenda.  Why people making less than $100,000 a year would support the conservative agenda can only be explained as a product of the expenditure of big bucks on dubious claims.  Thinking people see through it.  Many do not. 

Big bucks promulgates the myth that middle and lower class people will benefit from supporting the conservative agenda.  The most bizarre data in the US is that middle class, working people support Republicans when the Republican agenda is designed to protect the plutocracy and make sure that the rich do not suffer, but allow the middle and lower class to suffer.  That can only be explained by looking at the propaganda spewed by the plutocracy and the fact that so many folks are buying it.  So many have bought it, in fact, that the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our government are now controlled by pro-wealth party members.  By spending money the minority have bought the majority at the polls.  We have moved from a democracy to a plutocracy and not even noticed.

But the outcome in the Alabama senate election gives me hope.  Perhaps if enough people vote the tide can change and democracy will again rule over plutocracy, as it should.  I am not anti-rich people.  I am anti rich people convincing poor people that the agenda of the rich helps the poor when it does not.  The rich are able to do that convincing by spending money.

So, what needs to happen now?  Several things.  The current proposed tax bill should be scraped and totally redone.  The wealthy and corporations do not need tax relief.  They need to get on board supporting social services for the least fortunate.  Children should not lose heath care.  Health insurance should be the right of every American.  Public schools must be funded and end charter schools and voucher programs.  Social Security and Medicare should not be touched by a Congress seeking more money to spend on other things.  Net neutrality must be preserved.  Environmental protections must be re-instated.  We must join the rest of the world by supporting the Paris Accord.  We must overturn Citizens United.  We must take female reproductive decision making out of the hands of old White guys and religious zealots and put it in the hands of women.  We must stop empowering so-called Christians to discriminate based on their faith.  And we must make the purchase of a weapon much more restrictive.  And on and on. 

Only in a nation where the vast majority shows up to vote and they cast their votes with knowledge and understanding of the differences between candidates will we in fact have a representative democracy.  How can we do that?  Make election “day” a week and include Saturday.  Allow on-line voting.  Automatically register a voter via income tax or driver’s license issuance.  Perhaps even establishing a penalty fee for those who do not vote.

Radical?  I don’t think so when we look at how far down the road we have drifted from democracy to plutocracy.  Our history as a nation, as an international model, has been to protect minorities, expand civil liberties and provide safety nets for our citizens.  Every time we abandon that to protect the wealthy and business interests we have chaos as in 1929 and 2008.  We seem to be very slow learners.

Another major concern for me is to find a way to limit those who would prefer this nation to be a theocracy rather than a democracy.  Those folks are even scarier than the plutocrats because they believe God is on their side.  But that merits a separate post.

When you have the opportunity, please vote.  It matters.