Wealth and Democracy
THE MIDDLE CLASS SQUEEZE REACHES THE TOP OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Between 1979 and 1989 the portion of the nation's wealth held by the top 1% nearly doubled from 22% to 39%. By the mid-nineties, some econimists estimated that the top 1% had captured 70 percent of all earnings growth since the mid-seventies.
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No one, then, should regard the $90,000-a-year accountant or the $125,000-a-year lawyer -- members of the top 5 or 10 percent -- as fellow riders on the same glittering escalator as the investment banker making $1.5 milion or the corporate CEO collecting $40 million in annual compensation. Many, many households in the top 5 percent of the population have seen their own status and access to luxuries shrink in the backwash of these new top wealth levels.

Daily Rant
In my mind, the choice in this election comes down to this:

When John Kerry was tested, and other people's lives were on the line, he turned his boat into the ambush, grabbed a weapon and personally went after the attacker.

When George W. Bush was tested, and other people's lives were on the line, he sat there reading My Pet Goat.

WHO WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?!

Kerry's plans
I thought I would change course slightly and intersperse some of John Kerry's economic plan with my selected quotations from Wealth and Democracy. It seems to me that Kerry has some excellent ideas about how government can aid the economy, ideas that need more exposure.

From his website, some ideas about broadband:

"Over the past four years, the United States has dropped from 4th to 10th in broadband use. Countries such as South Korea and Japan are now deploying networks that are 20 to 50 times faster than what is available in the United States. ....
Government research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) led to the creation of the Internet and the government has an important but temporary role to play in catalyzing the extension of broadband to our entire nation.
It is especially important in creating new opportunities in areas of America -- especially rural areas and some of our inner cities -- that are now all but cut off from the economy of tomorrow. The same Internet technologies that makes it possible to export technology and services jobs to India can make it possible to create similar jobs in rural areas here in America, which often enjoy a combination of low business costs and high quality of life.
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Expanding high-speed broadband is the information-age equivalent of the rural electrification initiatives of the Roosevelt years: a strategic public investment that could pay off a thousand time over in creating new economic opportunities,,,,"

More from Wealth and Democracy -- W's Ownership Society
This entry deals with statistics from the late 20th Century, but the trend can only be worse over the past four years. Think about this when W. talks about the "Ownership Society" at the convention:

"For all the talk of mutual funds and 401(k)'s for the masses, the stock market has remained the privilege of a relatively elite group" observed the Wall Street Journal in 1999. "Nearly 90% of all shares were held by the wealthiest 10% of households. The bottom line: that top 10% held 73.2% of the country's net worth in 1997, up from 68.2% in 1983. Stock options have pushed the ratio of executive pay to factory worker pay to 419 to 1 in 1998, from 42 to 1 in 1980.
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Given the stagnation of median family net worth, talk about the United States becoming a Republic of Shareholders hardly applied to a family whose miniscule stock "portfolio" or pension fund interest had grown by $2,600 or even $6,100 while its debt load for college, health insurance, day care and credit cards had jumped by $12,000.
Page 142.

MIDDLE CLASS SQUEEZE
From Wealth and Democracy, by Kevin Phillips. So this is what John Kerry is talking about?

Currency nuances notwithstanding, the evidence illustrates the transformation of the United States from its high-wage and best-working-conditions status during the quarter century after 1945 to a society that, for the bulk of its workforce, was increasingly middling in wages, harsh in hours worked, and more stinting in benefits (pg 164)

For the middle class there were other costs as the huge money flows to the rich increased the price tags of affluent forms of consumption enough -- not just first-class airline seats, but the cost of health clubs, sports admissions, symphony tickets, museum admissions, good restaurants, private schools, banking services, and big-city automobile maintenance -- that many in the eightieth and even ninetieth percentiles could no longer afford what their similarly situated parents in the 1950s and 1960s had often managed. (pg 167)

So, the real questions are, is it easier to enter and stay in the middle class today than in the 50s and 60s? And does the middle class enjoy the same relative lifestyle today as it did back then?

Please comment

Crony Capitalism
Crony capitalism is, of course, the brand of "free markets" that the Bush family belives in. This is the opposite of a true opportunity society, which is, I believe, what we should be striving for.

Since I love to point out examples of crony capitalism, take a look at today's Wiskey Bar by Bilmon - http://billmon.org/

The Radical Right
First of all, thank you for everyone who has stuck with me through a hiatus of about two months. We are in the middle of a home renovation project, which I heartily recommend to anyone who is looking for a character-builiding experience similar to, oh, lets say a thousand mile march through the desert with no shoes.

Anyway, I am re-reading The Radical Right, a collection of essays on the extreme right in American politics. I first read this book in college in the 1970s. It was originally written in the 1950s and updated in the 1960. It addressed such extreme right wing activity as McCartyism and the John Birch Society. The remarkable thing is how apt some of the comments are regarding the current administration and its supporters. Is it too much to compare Tom DeLay to Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society? I don't think so. As I work my way through the book, I will post selected exerpts. But I urge you all to read it.

This first exerpt is from Daniel Bell's 1962 essay on the rise of and prospects for the radical right.

"Few countries in the world have been able to maintain a social system that allows political power to pass peacefuly from one social group to another without the threat of hostilities or even civil war. In the mid-twentieth century we see ... historical centers of civilization ...torn apart by ideological groups that will not accept a consensual system of politics. The politics of civility ... has been the achievement of only a small group of countries.... Today, the ideology of the right wing in America threatens the politics of American civility. Its commitment and its methds threaten to disrupt the "fragile consensus" that underlies the American political system." [page 2]

Miscellaneous
Sorry for the hiatus, I have been travelling.

Just a couple of random thoughts:

During the months of May and June, if you had told me that John Kerry and his running mate would be on the cover of Newsweek with a caption reading "The Sunshine Boys" I would have said you were smoking something. It may be that the biggest positive that John Edwards brings to the ticket is the ability to lighten Kerry up and humanize him. This may be the best campaign Newsweek cover since "Young Guns."

"Dick Cheney could be President" Wow, see what happens when you let Shrub talk without a script? Tell me where I can sign up for one of those bumper stickers!

Lots of good pieces out this week about Bush's responsibility for the CIA fiasco. The crux of the argument is that Bush, who is famous for reading only the summary of staff reports and not looking into the details (i.e. of not thinking for himself) was particularly prone to allow this type of fiasco to occur. He relied solely on the executive summary of the intelligence reports, not bothering to read the details that contradicted the summaries. Take a look at http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/oliphant/

More coming, and another article soon.

CALL FOR BUSH TO RESIGN
The incredibly vapid Kerry Healey, Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, called for John Kerry to resign from the Senate yesterday, because he has been missing too many roll call votes.

The more appropriate move would be to call for George W. Bush to resign. Remember, he has been "too busy" attending $2,000 a plate fund raisers to attend the funerals of people killed in THE WAR TO PROVE HE IS A BETTER MAN THAN DADDY.

Maybe Healey should resign too, so she can accompany him. If you would like to suggest that to her, she can be contacted through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts web portal at http://www.mass.gov/portal/index.jsp?pageID=gov2utility&sid=Agov2&U=contactus

By the way, Salon has a great article today, reviewing three books that present a scary but accurate portrait of W.'s mental make-up. If you do not subscribe, it is pretty painless to sit through an ad in order to get a day pass.

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