Don't Worry, the Ultra-Rich Are Doing All Right

By Rob Larson, AlterNet. Posted November 26, 2008.

Besides art, the most over-the-top ruling-class toy is of course the super-yacht. These massive, state-of-the-art private islands run into tens of millions of dollars, plus about a tenth of the purchase price in maintenance and fuel cost annually. No mere recession is going to put the yacht brokers out of business, "an elite group who match make the super-rich with what is regarded as the ultimate luxury." But it’s not all easy being the ruling class: When your yacht is 300 feet long, "One thing money cannot always buy is space at the marina." Grab the tissues, the suffering goes on. The shortage is aggravated by the lack of suitable new harbor locations, which must have "all the infrastructure needed to attract the big boats, including easy access by air, possibly a nearby airstrip that can handle private jets or helicopters and the potential to become a chic destination in its own right," as the elite press laments.

But for the lower 90 percent of us, things aren’t so damn chic. August 2008 was "the 10th consecutive month that the weekly average salary had failed to keep pace with inflation" according to the Labor Department. This fits with the longer trend over the last several decades, where America’s low inflation rate has kept up with our weak wage growth. This has become a minor news issue of late, with the New York Times reporting that since about 1973 "inflation-adjusted wages stagnated or rose glacially" in the American economy. The large majority of Americans have been working more hours and borrowing more money over recent decades just to maintain constant purchasing power. The recent chapters of the story of America have been about making do with less.

Much less. The infant mortality rate of the United States is very high, tied with Poland and worse than 28 other nations, including Cuba and Hungary, as well as Western Europe and industrialized Asia. This is despite the fact that "the United States devotes a far greater share of its national wealth to health care than other countries." Twice as much, in fact. The giant chasm in our American fortunes shapes our lives to a significant extent -- including whether or not we get to live them.

The wealth gap, unsurprisingly, is unpopular. "Public opinion across Europe, Asia and the U.S. is strikingly consistent in considering that the gap between rich and poor is too wide and that the wealthy should pay more taxes. Income inequality has emerged as a highly contentious political issue in many countries as the latest wave of globalization has created a ‘superclass’ of rich people." This is from the Financial Times, the world’s most prominent business newspaper, and not exactly communist. The Financial Times’ survey found large majorities around the world thought inequality had gone too far -- 87 percent in Germany, 80 percent in China and even 78 percent in the United States, "traditionally seen as more tolerant of income inequality." In spite of McCain’s railing against "redistribution," Americans may be more interested in moves toward equalizing wealth than is currently realized.

With the opening presented by a new Democratic administration, expectations are high. But this is a moment to remind ourselves that equality and justice don’t usually come from the generosity of the powerful, no matter who they may be. Only public pressure, usually in the form of a real popular movement, has dragged rights out of the American power structure. The movements for abolitionism, women’s equality, labor organization, civil rights and environmentalism have gotten some results over the years by demanding rights and equality from the rich and powerful, not by hoping for them.

It will take a large movement among the public to bring enough force to the Democrats to move the country back toward the progressive taxation that was modest even before Bush took an ax to it. And it will take a revived labor movement to win back bargaining power from the great firms mainly owned by the rich and to win some desperately needed wage increases. But more than political reform and wage increases, American citizens ought to ask why our economic system is driven to create the unequal class society we live in, and if we could find a better way of running things.

This means each of us standing up from our comfy, rent-to-own couches and getting informed and getting together. This kind of organizing work is hard, especially for an overworked and underpaid people like ourselves, but it could be motivated by keeping an thoughtful watch on the "superclass" and its "rude health" in our sick times.

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