Maybe I stayed in the news business for too long after my radiation badge turned red. Maybe I'm suffering from Post-traumatic, Restless News Syndrome, or something. But I have this notion stuck in my head lately. It's kind of like when I get an annoying tune stuck in my head, this notion pops up and up again, especially after I read the news.
Okay so, at the risk of exposing myself as the nut I have always secretly suspected I would someday be proven to be, here it is – my notion:
How long before before they get it? It can't be far off. So when will day arrive when America's once vibrant and hyper-patriotic working class wakes up and realizes they're at the receiving end of one of the greatest screwings in human history? And then, rather than reaching for their car keys to rush off to their second low-paying job of the day, they reach instead for one of their many guns.”
A number of things got me thinking about that. Like this story which ran earlier this week:
Okay so, at the risk of exposing myself as the nut I have always secretly suspected I would someday be proven to be, here it is – my notion:
How long before before they get it? It can't be far off. So when will day arrive when America's once vibrant and hyper-patriotic working class wakes up and realizes they're at the receiving end of one of the greatest screwings in human history? And then, rather than reaching for their car keys to rush off to their second low-paying job of the day, they reach instead for one of their many guns.”
US Most Armed Country With 90 Guns Per 100 People
Reuters--Tuesday 28 August 2007: The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said. U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies. About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said. "There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.
Reuters--Tuesday 28 August 2007: The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said. U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies. About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said. "There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.
Yikes. Al-Qaeda, eat your heart out. Americans have more firepower than you do. Which begs the question: when should the US movers and shakers stop worrying about al-Qaeda and start worring about al-Smith? When will all those WallMart shoppers morph into a mob of angry, well-armed Wallmartatistas?
Or is that just crazy – and me too for even considering such a thing happening in America? Maybe I am just crazy, or at least heading to Crazyland. But before you pass that judgement on me, let's run through a few of the news threads that led me down this dark and troubling path.
Item 1:
A Sobering Census Report: Americans' Meager Income Gains
The New York Times--29 August 2007: The economic party is winding down and most working Americans never even got near the punch bowl. The Census Bureau reported yesterday that median household income rose 0.7 percent last year ... (Yet) the median household income last year was still about $1,000 less than in 2000, before the onset of the last recession...And what is perhaps most disturbing is that it appears this is as good as it's going to get. (Full)
A Sobering Census Report: Americans' Meager Income Gains
The New York Times--29 August 2007: The economic party is winding down and most working Americans never even got near the punch bowl. The Census Bureau reported yesterday that median household income rose 0.7 percent last year ... (Yet) the median household income last year was still about $1,000 less than in 2000, before the onset of the last recession...And what is perhaps most disturbing is that it appears this is as good as it's going to get. (Full)
Item 2:
Wealth gap widens
Chasm between wealthiest households and everyone else has grown more than 50% since the early 1960s.
CNNMoney.com--August 29 2006: Over the past 40 years, those at the top of the money food chain have seen their wealth grow at a rate far outpacing everyone else, according to a new analysis released by the Economic Policy Institute...In the early 1960s, the top 1 percent of households in terms of net worth held 125 times the median wealth in the United States. Today, that gap has grown to 190 times.The top 20 percent of wealth-holding households, meanwhile, held 15 times the overall median wealth in the early 1960s. By 2004, that gap had grown to 23 times. "In 21st century America, wealth begets wealth, and those without wealth find it farther out of reach," the report's authors write.
Item 3:
The U.S. today - an oligarchy with inequality growing worse
The top 10% of income earners in the United States now owns 70% of the wealth, and the wealthiest 1% owns more than the bottom 95%, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2005, the top 300,000 Americans enjoyed about the same share of the nation's income — 21.8% — as the bottom 150 million...New York is an especially bleak case study. The top fifth of earners in Manhattan now makes 52 times what the lowest fifth makes — $365,826 annually compared with $7,047 — roughly comparable to income disparity in Namibia.Meanwhile, the ratio of average CEO to worker pay in the U.S. shot up from 301-to-1 to 431-to-1 in 2004. The average CEO now earns substantially more in one day than the average worker earns all year. Adding insult to injury, taxpayers actually give tax breaks to corporations for those salaries, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. (Full)
Wealth gap widens
Chasm between wealthiest households and everyone else has grown more than 50% since the early 1960s.
CNNMoney.com--August 29 2006: Over the past 40 years, those at the top of the money food chain have seen their wealth grow at a rate far outpacing everyone else, according to a new analysis released by the Economic Policy Institute...In the early 1960s, the top 1 percent of households in terms of net worth held 125 times the median wealth in the United States. Today, that gap has grown to 190 times.The top 20 percent of wealth-holding households, meanwhile, held 15 times the overall median wealth in the early 1960s. By 2004, that gap had grown to 23 times. "In 21st century America, wealth begets wealth, and those without wealth find it farther out of reach," the report's authors write.
Item 3:
The U.S. today - an oligarchy with inequality growing worse
The top 10% of income earners in the United States now owns 70% of the wealth, and the wealthiest 1% owns more than the bottom 95%, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2005, the top 300,000 Americans enjoyed about the same share of the nation's income — 21.8% — as the bottom 150 million...New York is an especially bleak case study. The top fifth of earners in Manhattan now makes 52 times what the lowest fifth makes — $365,826 annually compared with $7,047 — roughly comparable to income disparity in Namibia.Meanwhile, the ratio of average CEO to worker pay in the U.S. shot up from 301-to-1 to 431-to-1 in 2004. The average CEO now earns substantially more in one day than the average worker earns all year. Adding insult to injury, taxpayers actually give tax breaks to corporations for those salaries, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. (Full)
Personally, I have nothing against the rich, per se. I just have this nagging belief that money in a financial system is like blood in a body. The stuff has to be fairly evenly distributed throughout the body otherwise bad things start to happen. Let the concentration get too far out of hand and the body convulses. After that all kinds of bad things can happen unless the stuff is redistributed more evenly.
One has to wonder whether the new super-rich understand that. I believe they do. Here's at least some evidence that they are getting worried the body is about to convulse.
One has to wonder whether the new super-rich understand that. I believe they do. Here's at least some evidence that they are getting worried the body is about to convulse.
Item 4:
Most Expensive Gated Communities 2005
NEW YORK -Exclusive gated communities that shield mansions with walls, hedges and uniformed security guards may seem like a modern phenomenon. But the notion of rich people living in protected areas is not a recent idea. "It was the line between civilization and chaos, between order and disorder," says Evan McKenzie, associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government...Today, the wealthy and well-known are still drawn to private, protected neighborhoods, and are willing to pay millions of dollars--plus expensive association fees--to live in them. "The affluent always start their shopping in gated communities," says John McMonigle, a broker for Coldwell Banker International Previews in Newport Beach, Calif. "Security is more and more of a concern, especially for people moving from L.A. to Orange County. They almost always insist on gated communities. I don't think they realize what a safe little bubble it is." (Full)
Most Expensive Gated Communities 2005
NEW YORK -Exclusive gated communities that shield mansions with walls, hedges and uniformed security guards may seem like a modern phenomenon. But the notion of rich people living in protected areas is not a recent idea. "It was the line between civilization and chaos, between order and disorder," says Evan McKenzie, associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government...Today, the wealthy and well-known are still drawn to private, protected neighborhoods, and are willing to pay millions of dollars--plus expensive association fees--to live in them. "The affluent always start their shopping in gated communities," says John McMonigle, a broker for Coldwell Banker International Previews in Newport Beach, Calif. "Security is more and more of a concern, especially for people moving from L.A. to Orange County. They almost always insist on gated communities. I don't think they realize what a safe little bubble it is." (Full)
Item 5:
Fortress America : Gated Communities in the United States
Brookings Institution: Americans are electing to live behind walls with active security mechanisms to prevent intrusion into their private domains. Americans of all classes are forting up, attempting to secure the value of their houses, reduce or escape from the impact of crime, and find neighbors who share their sense of the good life. The new fortress developments are predominantly suburban, with a growing number of urban inner-city counterparts. They are, however, more than walled-off areas and refuges from urban violence and a rapidly changing society....We estimate that more than 3 million American households have already sought out this new refuge from the problems of urbanization. (Full)
Fortress America : Gated Communities in the United States
Brookings Institution: Americans are electing to live behind walls with active security mechanisms to prevent intrusion into their private domains. Americans of all classes are forting up, attempting to secure the value of their houses, reduce or escape from the impact of crime, and find neighbors who share their sense of the good life. The new fortress developments are predominantly suburban, with a growing number of urban inner-city counterparts. They are, however, more than walled-off areas and refuges from urban violence and a rapidly changing society....We estimate that more than 3 million American households have already sought out this new refuge from the problems of urbanization. (Full)
So, the rich do seem to understand that at some point in process of serf-afying the American working class, that some of those newly minted serfs are likely to get a tad cranky about their diminished circumstances.
"But, the saddest part of moving to a (gated) neighborhood segregated by wealth is that your children won't have the sense of security you enjoyed growing up in a less affluent community. They won't be required to interact with young and old, rich and poor, with town drunks and with little old ladies in tennis shoes. So, they'll never feel comfortable with those who are different." (Bill Wineke Wisconsin State Journal)
Which brings me back to that first story.. the one about how many guns are out there. Who do you figure holds most of those privately owned firearms? I'd wager that 99.9% of them are owned by working stiffs. Ironic, isn't it? For decades conservative politicians have stroked working class voters into a trance with Second Amendment chants. After all, they insinuated, when the commies came, who will fight them off? Well all those patriotic, semi-automatic toting Joe and Jane Sixpacks out there, of course.
I wonder if those right wingers might be having second thoughts about that strategy? After all, millions of those now-well armed Joe and Jane Sixpack are suddenly struggling with entirely non-commie-generated problems.
Millions face foreclosure.
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