There Are Reasons Americans Are Contemplating Socialism
It was inevitable that when the global financial sector refused to learn the deeper lessons of the Great Recession in 2008 that opposition would mount. The sight of wealth continuing to drift ever upward following the crisis instead of moving into communities meant that the subject of socialism would enter the everyday vocabulary of Americans once more. As Time magazine’s cover shows, socialism is in the process of being refashioned in the United States.
Naturally, many financial leaders and conservative politicians express horror at the thought of the influence of a Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on public policy. But the surge in popularity of these progressives is just as much due to the Right, as the Left. Just consider what the average American is facing, as laid out by former U. S. Labour Secretary Robert Reich in American Prospect.
The average American household possessed a net worth 14% lower in 2016 than in 1984. Presently, the riches one-tenth of one percent in America own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90% put together.
And how are the workers faring? Between 1972 and the present, the American who is working dropped 2% in pay, adjusted for inflation. During that same period, the U. S. economy actually doubled in size. The vast majority of gained from that rapid growth went directly to the top percentile once more.
The annual bonus pool on Wall Street is larger than the annual earnings of the 3.3 Americans struggling to get by while working full-time at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Given the struggle among the working class, it’s no wonder that there has been a dramatic increase in employed people succumbing to opioids. Death rates have been consistently rising for those with high school degrees or less, mostly due to suicides, cirrhosis of the liver and drug overdoses.
Reich’s insights are gaining more traction. While Americans are being informed every day that the economy is white hot and that unemployment is down, there is little on the ground where people live that would give any indication of such a bounty.
The American elites, for all their intelligence, wealth, access and opportunity, did hardly anything the change the lot of average citizens for the better – all this while benefitting themselves. That’s just the reality of it and it confirms the hunch that little was learned from the financial crisis of 2008. It was inevitable that there would be a reckoning, an accounting, for its use of generated wealth. People would inevitably begin looking for alternatives, finding ideas for social democracy in places like Canada.
Corporate socialism has been good to the financial elite. When confronted with the absolute destruction caused by their mismanagement of the financial crisis of 2008, it was the public taxpayers that bailed them out. Rather than demonstrating humility and a sense of obligation to pay back average citizens, the financial elites simply picked up where they left off, leaving numerous businesses in trouble. Average citizens understand that and will never forget it.
All that wealth could have built a new working-class society – well trained, adaptable, rewarded and secure, but that didn’t happen. More wealth has been created than ever before, but it’s not landing in communities or even institutions, and citizens are sensing that their good days are now behind them. The truth is that the economy – their economy – is not booming; only the elite economy is.
At some point – perhaps even now – Americans will begin pushing back even harder. If they are angry, it is because they provoked by elite financial policies.
Again, these are just realities. They are open to debate and counterpoints, but it’s now too late for that. Wealth lost its way the moment it lost its accountability. The point isn’t whether capitalism can renew itself; of course, it can. The issue is willit? The longer the financial order delays that reformation, the sooner citizens will grow more turbulent and insist on something different.