A Father's Thoughts

Enough is Enough

David Frum has a blog entry attempting to understand the people who might support Donald Trump. He describes the feelings of a mythical 62 year old white guy who has been battered by recent events. I clearly don't fit that description but I am a bit riled up.

I'm a 75-year-old white guy who worked for a company for 28 years before it went bankrupt in 1991. The bankruptcy was a mess and a significant part of my retirement resources went down the drain. At 55 I had skills that were not marketable. My wife went back to work and I returned to college finishing my Bachelor's degree and earning a Masters and post-Masters while training for a new late life career. We survived the .com bust and the housing bust, but we both still work in our own small business.

Throughout this time, we were demeaned and stigmatized by the radio talk show hosts who made millions making liberal a dirty word. And now we have a Republican party home to the advocates of war (two of my grandsons are in the military), advocates of guns in every home, believers in the mantra that government is the problem, defenders of the resources of the wealthy, and generally macho guys and gals who with a few exceptions dare not challenge the inanities of the faux conservative talk show millionaires who feed the Tea Party patriots’ anger.

Now along comes the Republican Party passing the Ryan budget. Should I feel grateful that the Social Security and health care my wife and I benefit from is protected at a significant cost to younger generations? Pray tell, what do I say to my adult offspring, my 14 grandchildren and my two great-grandchildren? “Sorry, I’ve got mine you’ll have to fend for yourselves.” How could I justify supporting a program that does away with Medicare without any serious attempt to reduce health care costs, putting in jeopardy their senior years?

As importantly, what do I say to myself, nearing the end of my life as I wrestle with what Erik Erikson identified as the eight crises? Do I look back and believe that I lived a life of integrity or do I despair because my generation and I squandered the money that has been borrowed for the last 30 or more years as we selfishly took care of ourselves with little regard for the future of our progeny?

Or, do I continue raising at least one small voice supporting policies that may help create a better future for those that I love?

 

Two Americas

Two stories caught my eye in this morning's local paper. The AP reported that the budget bill recently signed by the president cut the Department of Labor's Senior Community Service Employment Program by 45 percent from $825 million to $450 million. Advocates of the program say it could mean as many as 58,000 fewer jobs for seniors. The loss of these jobs will impact those over 55 earning less than $13,600 a year. 

Another AP report on the opposite page titled "Super rich paying less in fed taxes" noted that according to the Internal Revenue Service the average income of the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes during 2007 was nearly $345 million. Their average income tax rate was 17 percent down from 26 percent in 1992. During that time period the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined from 9.9 percent to 9.3 percent. The report goes on to describe the complexity of our tax code and the $1.1 trillion credits, deductions, and exemptions that enable taxpayers to reduce their tax liability. 

 

A Cancer in Our National Soul

I am by nature an optimist and an idealist, but in recent months I have been questioning the rationality of my attitude. The current events in Washington do little to engender hope. Our Congress is approaching levels of incompetence and political pettiness that are worse than I have witnessed in my seven decades of life. Its dysfunction feeds and is fed by the increasingly superficial media. We are now in our second or third countdown to a possible government shutdown with all of the drama that 24/7 cable news can promote. All of this over an important issue? Of course not. We are still arguing about a few billion dollars in a multi trillion-dollar budget, and this year's budget to boot, half way through the year. 

This drama distracts us from the reality that growing income and wealth inequality is a cancer that is silently eating our national soul. 

Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz has an essay in the May issue of Vanity Fair titled Of the 1%, by the 1%, and for the 1%. He writes of the growing inequality of income and wealth in our nation and the potential consequences for the future. He notes that the top 1% of the people are taking in nearly 25 percent of the nation's income and control 40 percent of our wealth. The inequality has been exacerbated in the last decade. We now rank with nations such as Russia and Iran.

As inequality increases, opportunity for the 99 percent decreases and the efficiency of our economy is undermined. He cites the inequality as contributing to our unwillingness to invest in our infrastructure because the wealthy are less inclined to spend money on common needs.

The reasons for our predicament are many but they include our tax policy, the financial industry, and the fact that at the national level many legislators are in the top 1 percent and are motivated to serve the interests of their group.

Stiglitz provides more details. I recommend that you read his entire essay.