(This column has been modified to reflect that the author is a 19-year resident of Fairbanks.)
The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread rapidly across the country and Alaska by energizing a middle class that is struggling to survive in an economy that is increasingly rigged against them. For the last 30 years, working Americans and small business owners have fallen further behind as the multinational corporations and billionaires that buy influence within our government received no-bid contracts, bailouts, and immunity from many laws, taxes, and regulations.
Forty years ago, a single full-time job was enough to keep most families firmly in the middle class with a nice home, a good education, and a comfortable retirement. As wages stagnated and the costs of education, energy, and health care rose, families had to have two working parents, work more hours, and take on debt to stay in the middle class. Now, even these coping mechanisms are not enough. Median household income hasn’t increased over the last 15 years, half of all mortgages are underwater, and 20 percent of children live in poverty.
The decline of the middle class did not occur because we became a poorer country, it occurred because our economy stopped working for the middle class. GDP has continued to grow, productivity has climbed, and corporate profits and CEO pay are near all-time highs, but the share of income going to labor has plummeted because most of the gains of a growing economy have gone to make the top 1 percent even richer.
The root cause of our problems is that we have an electoral system that is fundamentally corrupted by powerful lobbyists and rich campaign contributors. Government decisions now consistently favor multinational corporations over small businesses, agribusiness over family farms, and the rich over the middle class.
Wall Street is the poster child of this system of crony capitalism.
The financial sector used complex derivatives, predatory lending, and hordes of lobbyists pushing deregulation to skim off 40 percent of all corporate profits in the U.S. without producing anything of value.
After their reckless gambling nearly destroyed the global economy, Wall Street was bailed out by the taxpayers, executives received multimillion dollar bonuses, and the middle class lost their house, job, and/or retirement savings. There still has been no accountability and no serious reform because as Senator Durbin said of congress, the banks “own the place.”
Globalization is another clear example. Economists claim that globalization is good for the U.S. economy because the loss of manufacturing jobs is offset by cheap consumer goods and increased corporate profits. In theory, it should make us all richer, but the people who lose their jobs are not the same people making the increased profits. So, working Americans are forced to accept jobs with low wages and no benefits in order to compete with foreign sweatshops while corporate CEO’s and large shareholders are taking, and keeping, the profits. These CEO’s get immensely rich by laying off American workers, moving jobs overseas, and evading taxes but politicians of both parties still push trade pacts without fair labor rules and refuse to close loopholes that allow offshore tax havens.
Everybody agrees that people who work hard and follow the rules on a level playing field should be rewarded, but too many people and corporations are getting rich by using lobbyists to privatize profits while socializing the costs. The result is that the 400 richest families have more wealth than 155 million Americans combined and yet hedge fund managers that make over $1 billion a year, over 2,200 times more than the president of the United States, get a special tax loophole that allows them to pay a lower tax rate than a teacher.
The problems in our country are systemic and bipartisan. We keep electing different politicians and parties, but the same people remain in charge. Our corrupt government has caused many Americans to become cynical and give up on representative democracy altogether. The occupy Wall Street protesters, to their credit, are not giving up. They are betting that the voices of the 99 percent can drown out the money of the richest 1 percent to make government work for us again. It is a long shot, but it is also the last hope for the American middle class.
• Prichard is a 19-year resident of Fairbanks
Comments (21)
Add commentThree years too late
The Wall Street bailouts were three years ago. What were you smoking that you only now realized that?
Well written piece
The OWS'ers far exceeded everyone's expectations in getting the attention of the world. Now what?
I recommend you 'occupy the ballot box'. Attend political events of all flavors. Make sure candidates understand and respond to your demands. Field your own candidates. Start your own party, or take over another party.
And think local. Yeah, national politics are a corrupt, smelly mess. But so are state and local politics. You stand a much greater chance of changing your local government, then expanding from there.
Go for it. And ignore the small-minded mouthpieces of the status quo. They have let their brains be shriveled and sold their souls for pocket change.
Heck, at least go vote. That
Heck, at least go vote. That would help.
And expand your reading list
And expand your reading list - you didn't miss one talking point of the progressives.
Your homework assignment is to go back through your letter and dispute every point you made. And we want sources!
How much is enough?
I found this My Turn article informative.
I live a comfortable life, but it is, like Prichard writes, a combination of careful financial management (mortgage, bills, travel choices, and hobbies) and two much-needed incomes. That is fine, but there are MANY out there who work just as hard as us, but don't have benefits, decent salary, or a way to live well. And they, too, have college degrees and sensible money management.
Our financial situation in this country is the result of a skewed political system that has rewarded greed and forced many to justify things that should bring disgust and embarrassment.
America has changed a great deal, and it's becoming very clear that for most, it is not for the better. As an American, it makes me sad. I think lobbyists, PACs and greed have taken us in a downturn.
I will continue to work hard, vote and do what I can, and hope that the inevitable crash of our country's current system (and the crash will happen, of course) does not rob my children of a good, American life.
Reading List
Calypso,
I would start with Barry Ritholtz's book Bailout Nation that outlines the causes and consequences of the financial crisis and bailout.
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class by Pierson and Hacker and Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston outline the many ways government policies have been distorted to concentrate wealth.
Griftopia by Matt Taibbi is essential reading to see all the scams that have been destroying the middle class.
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful by Glenn Greenwald outlines the two-tiered justice system we have in this country.
Figures - more great editing
Figures - more great editing from the Empire. Prichard happens to be a 19 year resident of Fairbanks. Sheesh...
Don't bother this guy with different views, his mind is made up!
It's good Mr. Prichard reads the Juneau Empire so he can find some placed that will publish his liberal drivel.
"Reuters’ David Cay Johnston:
"Reuters’ David Cay Johnston: The Premise Of My Debut Column On News Corp’s Taxes Was ’100 Percent Dead Wrong’"
And the other authors on your reading list, of course, preach the progressive line.
I was suggesting that YOU branch out with your reading list because the authors you choose to follow are one trick ponies.
Maybe Thomas Sowell or Victor Davis Hanson would be a good start.
Nicely worded opinion piece,
Nicely worded opinion piece, but a few notes
-> Middle class dismantling is our own fault. We demand lower prices, which resulted in people buying foreign products over domestic. This had a catastrophic result as entire industries got wiped out (show me one mass-product textile factory in the US). Look at the auto industry, prime example.
-> OWS was started by Working Families (shell of Acorn, such a "lovely" and "corrupt free" organization) and the SEIU. There are videos on the web with SEIU strategists talking about how to "take down the system and crush the world economy". So unions, good, corporations evil? Where would unions be without corporations? Corporate donations are balanced out by union donations. I just read my ASEA newsletter and it looked like something fresh out of the Democratic National Committee.
-> Greed, in all forms, is why things have changed. People want nice homes. They want nice cars. They want a 54" tv. They want things they can't afford, and that's how we got where we are. This wasn't caused by government, this was caused by society.
Ditto nate
Where was Mr. Pritchard 40 years ago? That was pretty much the apex of he "American Dream". 99 percenters working at one family income jobs for a garage to put his car in so it would last long enough to get the kids off to college. Needing more money for a pool, they leaned on their arbitrators to secure wage increases and bump up benefits (we ain't getting' no younger) until profitable businesses found it possible to survive by moving manufacturing jobs to countries where workers are more concerned about the next meal than they are about a new color tv. So the greed of the 99 priced themselves out of the job market as the 1% found greater profits as a result. Of course the one percenters are greedy. Just as greedy as the other ninety nine. We did it to ourselves. The only innocents are the kids, the Alex Pritchards that inherit the sins of so many fathers. But to believe that occupiers are the last chance is fatalistic and lazy. Make a difference. Look to the future. Vote. Petition. Involve yourself in the process while there still is one. Work for it. A tantrum in front of Wall Street ain't gonna cut it. Took a half a century to get here. We can get back. But crows will become extinct from all the crow that will have to be eaten. Want change? Better be hungry. You've got a long row to hoe.
Reading
I'm in the middle of Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It, by Lawrence Lessig, and am finding it outstanding. Recommended reading for all political stripes.
You commenters are idiots
Every law written to protect us from the risk of the financial sector has been usurped by the influence of corporate lobby.
No one demanded cheap products, in fact Reagan imposed a 100% tariff on CPU's in the 80's to "protect free trade from dumping" Where is this kind of political leadership?
Reagan also imposed tariff on imported cars unless they built their factories here and employed the people who consume their product.
I want ONE of you to tell me that your GRANDFATHER would have bought anything foreign, let alone advocated shipping entire economies to those countries who were considered our enemies? We didnt trade with countries who ignore ILO standards for a reason. We stood for human rights, now we stand for cheap iPads made by 12 year olds so we can BORROW half a trillion a year from the Chinese.
Wow we sure have lost our way and look at all you who support this crap so you can have your $400 iPad that is worth $1,000 in a truly FREE market.
Excellent opinion piece
I find it rather annoying that when someone posts a well written opinion piece (and 19 at that) that some people write it off as “liberal drivel” -when in reality they are truly ignorant about the facts. It is not over consumerism that is the blame for the state of the economy. It is blind ignorance and propaganda – from the conservative right/corporations that PAYS handsomely to preserve the status quo and protect the 1%. That is NOT a Republic. It is not democracy.
David Gergen, a respected senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four president, commented, on the new book, “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress -- and a Plan to Stop It," by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig;
“The cost of getting elected to Congress has exploded: from 1974 to 2008, Lessig notes, the average cost of a re-election campaign ballooned from $56,000 to more than $1.3 million, a more than twentyfold increase that far outpaces inflation.
-- Fundraising is a constant concern: Candidates have to spend between 30% and 70% of their time raising money. (Lobbyists, however can ease this pressure through many kinds of what Lessig calls "legislative subsidies" -- advice, research, support, and most of all, campaign cash.)
-- The revolving door between Congress and lobbyists is spinning faster: In the 1970s, just 3% of retiring members of Congress went into lobbying. But by 2004, in the previous seven years more than half of all senators and 42 percent of House members had made the switch.
-- The incentives for lobbying are clear. A 2009 paper found, for example, that firms get between $6 and $20 back for every $1 they invest in lobbying for tax benefits.”
David Gergen’s opinion piece in CNN on the topic is excellent and echoes the opinion of the
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/opinion/gergen-zuckerman-politics-money/in...
Moderated again?
Please
@AKDON
Where does that leave you? You appear to be a frequent reader of the Empire also
Uh oh, travelnate has
Uh oh, travelnate has happened upon our evil plot, along with Calypso and donn. Now that they know Acorn is behind this whole thing, which is particularly nefarious because they've convinced the world they no longer exist (much like the devil), the only thing left for them to do is to air these revelations on Fox News. But that won't happen because Fox News is part of the liberal media. Yes, that's right--Rupert Murdoch is on the payroll. He only hires people who say horrible and often untrue things as a ploy.
As soon as you leave your houses, some union thugs will pick you up, bring you to our HQ in San Francisco, and force-feed you hummus and wheatgrass juice until you're thoroughly detoxed.
And I'm sure you know what happens next, given the depth of your knowledge regarding this vast, improbable, and thoroughly ridiculous-sounding conspiracy.
I quit sending "My Turn/Letters" to the Empire a long time ago
I get paid for what I write, except when I comment here. Alaskans in other places in the state need to let Juneau know how far out of touch that community is, and this is a good place to do that. Besides, a little part of me is still in Juneau although I haven't lived there since 2003...
@akDON
We don't miss you at all! You were a disgrace to the JSD and most of Juneau
@Persnickety
wow, assuming I watch Fox News.. that's quite brave.
No, I am part of the educated 30 somethings that realizes one sole news source = bad news. I listed to a variety of talk shows on SiriusXM, read about 5 different newspapers a day, and of course, follow what congress is doing by reading the bills.
And I have EVERY right to judge the OWS protesters... I've had the unfortunate circumstance to bump into TWO of them.. and trust me, they scare me. They don't want little change, they want capitalism to be dismantled and communism installed. They didn't want to listen to reason when I asked how they expect to change companies when they were nowhere NEAR them (in terms of protest), they weren't writing or visiting their congressmen, they weren't running for office, they didn't volunteer for a board/group or do charity work.
And it irks me that corporations are posted as "BAD", when the last time I checked, corporations employ most people, and yet the unions are "GOOD", yet I've watched as unions destroyed companies. I'll bet you for every dollar a corporation sends towards a politician, there's a matching union dollar going towards another.
@travelnate: unions exercise
@travelnate: unions exercise every American's right to freely associate, and you have the gall to call them bad? That's pretty hypocritical right there. Also hypocritical is the notion that corporations are allowed to look out for their own interests but individuals aren't.
Furthermore, meeting TWO OWS protestors allows you to judge exactly TWO of the OWS protestors. What a ridiculous notion you have that you can judge an entire movement on two people.
And finally, I've posted statistics on this before. Corporate influence is far greater than union influence in terms of dollars. Republicans receive essentially no union money, and Democrats receive more corporate donations than union. Considering unions subsist off of dues paid to them by employees, while corporations tend to produce products and have fewer obligations with their funds, I don't understand how any intelligent human being could reason they are relatively equal in financial influence.