In my mind, there are a handful of facts that everyone ought to know. Taking them in chronological order, the first is that agriculture and civilization were "invented" about
10,000 years ago. The second is that the American post-war baby boom last from 1946-1964, with the midpoint then being 1955. (You remember those good old days, don't you? That was the only year that the Brooklyn Dodgers won a world series. That also was when Ray Kroc opened a MacDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois--we drove by it just the other day. That was when "
rock around the clock" was a smash hit, opening the door for a lot of other rock music). Back then, we were young, innocent, and hopeful. At least I was.
The third great and important fact is that, from the point of view of the participation of regular folks in the American economy, 1973 was the last good year. Here's why:
Throughout the post WWII period, an American working man could (on average) expect to get ahead financially as he got more job experience, aging and rising in seniority. However, the sad fact is that those wage gains ended (according to the best statistics available) in 1973. After that, family incomes did continue to rise--but only because so many households had two wage-earners. Wives had left the home for the office or factory. The graph on the left above tells that story.
This description is one of the most important facts of modern times, but it doesn't address a different but not unrelated trend--that most of the income growth of the last couple decades has been concentrated among the wealthiest Americans, and not the average Joe's and Jane's. The American Dream (short of winning the lottery) is, for most, really dead. Even with two incomes, which tend to be taken as a necessity. Getting an education, working hard, being responsible--those are no longer a route to "prosperity," or even to reasonable financial security.
If you want to read the article from which I clipped these graphs, see
American Without a Middle Class, by Elizabeth Warren, who is the chair of the Congressional Panel that is trying to oversee the banking bailouts and a Professor of Law at Harvard. Her commentary is worth reading. Actually, it is worth sending to your friends. It might be worth memorizing.
"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer"--that's an old saying, but it wasn't especially applicable to the 1950s and 1960s, when not only was the American middle class advancing, but there also was a concerted effort to aid the most economically disadvantaged--especially the elderly, Appalachian whites, Deep Southern blacks, and inner city neighborhoods. That all changed around the time of the election of Ronald Reagan in late 1980: the goal of public policy came to be helping the very richest become richer still, and to let the middle class get suffer. That was when "
homelessness" began to be a major national issue. Not hunger; that happened much sooner. Homelessness, not only of the mentally ill, but homelessness among families.
Some people are critical of governmental efforts--actually, I am certainly critical of the 40+-year failure to eliminate billboards, which was promised in 1965--but in this case the aim of public policy was in fact fully realized. The rich got richer. And, most interestingly, the Republican/Wall Street elite was able to figure out ways to get those who were most economically injured by their policies to vote in support of them on election day. And that is true still. Nice trick!
Of what was it said that there is one "born every minute?" Oh, I remember: a sucker. That's right: a sucker. If you are working class, or lower or middle middle class, and you are voting Republican, and opposing health care reform, or going to the "tea parties" to disrupt democratic discourse; if you are getting your perspective on the world from Fox News, if you think Sarah Palin might make a fine president--then you (sadly) are numbered among those very very numerous suckers.
And, partly because of you, you aren't likely to see a "good year" again for a very long time. Deservedly so. The country did itself tremendous disservice by supporting the Geo W. Bush administration through two whole terms. That, on top of what went on before, did damage that perhaps we can never recover from.
Barack Obama is black; he is your; his experience is definitely limited, and he is very moderate--not at all a radical, but predisposed to listening, to compromise, to bi-partisanship. Some may see these characteristics as weaknesses, as hesitancy, as over-cautiousness. But he is smart, and he is wise, and he really is our last best hope. And the people who got us into this multi-faceted mess lacked all reasonable caution and care.
Abe Lincoln said it: "My dream is of a place and time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."
Anyhow, it is time for all of us to step up to the plate. It isn't just the time for patriotic spirit, for good followership of good leadership. It may well be the only time we have left.
Sorry to be so non-PC. Just telling it like it is. Was, and is.
And--next time you walk by someone on the street who is really, really obscenely wall-off, be sure to ask him to thank you. The money he or she is spending is money that, at one time in the past, would have deservedly been yours, your savings and your wages.
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