Over 70 years ago, as a primary school child in Sydney, I enjoyed sticking transfers — what we in the United States call a temporary tattoo — to the back of my hand. These were usually comic book characters or animals. We’d show them to friends and go “Oooh” and Aahhh”. As children, these transfers magically transformed us.
Transfers
The pandemic unveiled how another type of transfer magically transforms adults. During the lockdown, while lower-income adults were hit with job losses and financial stress, cash transfers to American billionaires leaped by $1.62 trillion.
Where does all this cash come from? Do the wealthy have a magic printing machine? Well, it’s not exactly a printing machine, but it operates similarly. It’s a self-designed mechanism that (almost) magically transfers cash from the many to the few. We each participate. Most of us lose while a tiny few benefits.
I’ve been a volunteer in the local school system for nine years. There I’ve experienced intimately the misery and pain of children and parents suffering in our system that transfers cash from the many to the few.
The cash transfer is massive. With strongly self-interested encouragement from the wealthy in rewriting laws and regulations, we have watched a stunning jump in inequality since World War II. In case you haven’t already heard these numbers ad-nauseam, a reminder:
- Since 1950 corporate tax payments have dropped from 7% (of national income) to under 1% while our payroll tax payments rose from 2% to 8%. In that same period, union membership dropped by two-thirds.
- For most, real incomes have plummeted. Up until around 1974, real incomes grew close to the rate of per capita economic growth across all income levels. Since then, the top 1% has captured almost all income growth. In other words, most Americans have been treading water for 50 years. (It’s no wonder the right is enraged.)
- Since 1950 the income of America’s top 0.1% as a multiple of the bottom 90% rose over three times, from 61 to 196.
Essential Workers
Were you as stunned as I was at the irony of the conversations in mid-2020 around “essential workers?” Our much-touted essential workers (the real super-heroes) comprise the bottom of the financial heap, the people we depend on for food and health.
By definition, our unessential workers —people whose absence we’d hardly notice — turned out to be those who reaped the financial rewards, those we often despise for skimming the cream and rigging the system. This includes many in the “financial industry”, who unlike “essential workers”, contribute little but take much.
In the early pandemic days, I was sickened seeing large signs thanking essential workers in the windows of large corporate offices and financial institutions. These are the very creators of the greed leading to the pandemic. These are the beneficiaries of inequity and inequality. It’s slightly gratifying today to see these large companies raising base pay by a few dollars to fill pandemic-induced vacancies, though executives still pocket hundreds of times more.
My first superhero memory was The Phantom. If you mailed in the comic book coupon and a postage stamp, they mailed back The Phantom skull ring. That gave real superpower. It strikes me now that corporate and other wealthy interests are The Phantom’s evil twin; super-powered, and largely invisible.
I’m personally not suffering, but just as I disliked the class system in Australia — and left partly because of it — I don’t like the growing inequity here. I left Australia by boat across the Indian Ocean. I’m leaving the US by boat across the river Styx.
Revolting
But before I leave the land of the living, I hope we will see some national discussion of this inequity — and its roots. How bad can it get before there is a national revolt? Perhaps a revolt is what we have now with the increasing support of authoritarian leaders. A democracy controlled by a tiny few is a sham. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, unlimited political contributions, and endless special interest lobbying, all maintain the current system. And the current system does not serve 90% of the people.
Do you win or lose in the current system? Are you OK with how it is? Please pass along your thoughts.
PS: My whole family — three children, significant others, three grandchildren, and I — were just here together for three full days. We hiked Dawn Falls Trail in Larkspur, cooked an early Thanksgiving dinner in Sebastopol, and strolled together on Doran Beach at Bodega Bay. For me, being with my family is as good as life gets. The last time we were all together was at my 80th, two full years ago. I’m looking forward to more.
Thank you for reading.
Me,
Barry
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