The 53% Solution

          I ran into something I find fascinating, an opposition movement forming against OWS. More on that in a sec, but first a slam on Rick Perry (he thought he got away with saying the American Revolution occurred in the 16th Century). Apparently, one child got left behind. Are we realistically going to field a national candidate who is unaware that 1776 occurred in the 1700s? After joining the ranks of the historically challenged (Bachman, Palin), Perry took a 22 point nosedive in the polls, doing his impression of the “not quite dead yet” parrot from Monty Python. Perry’s wife spoke out in his defense, demonstrating she is a better orator.

          Since I’m bitching about Republicans, while the House refused to debate Obama’s Job Bill, they found time to pass two restrictions on the EPA to keep them from enforcing cement plant pollution levels. Since 2010, House Republicans have taken 160 votes to dismantle the EPA. I remind them the EPA was founded by a Republican. Republicans have long duped working class voters into support against their economic self-interests. Now they’re going after the self-interests of the breathing class. Cement plants are the number three sources of mercury poisoning and lung cancer. See, more jobs in health care. For a Party that “cares” about our money, it would certainly be cheaper to prevent disease than to subsidize it. But I repress.   

          A little background on OWS. This movement started out about a year ago as on campus youth protests. I guess that’s where they wrote their platform. What were these youth protesting? A youth unemployment rate of 18%, 5 candidates on average for every job, tuition rate increases of 600% since 1980, and 85% of all graduates are forced to move back home for financial reasons. The average graduate has $24,000 of debt when entering the workforce. That provides a bit of context when you hear the next student whine about loans.

          Oh yes, the counter movement. They call themselves the 53 Percenters. The media cartoon comparison is hippie vs. hard hat. Their name is derived from opposing the 47% of Americans who pay NO income tax. Perhaps they were uninformed that you had to make less than $22,000 a year for a family of four not to have to pay any income tax (or avail yourself of the bijillions of loopholes in the tax code). Newsflash, our economy is broken, hard hats. YOUR OWN statistics and name make clear that 47% of our national population is below the line of poverty (or is a foul loophole user).

          It is extraordinary to listen to the 53%-ers. They start all their statements with a diverse litany of woe and suffering (such as my house is being repossessed and I can’t afford to pay my bills, etc…insert your horrendous economic circumstances here) and then they end with the phrase “But I’m not blaming Wall Street”, as though this is a saintly virtue. Might I ask WHY aren’t you blaming Wall Street for causing an economic collapse and getting off scott free (is that derogatory to Scottish people?). The last of the too-big-to fail crowd quietly paid a bijillion dollars to the Government recently to avoid any further “legal unpleasantness”. Wow, glad that’s settled. So what IS the rallying cry of the 53%-ers…..”We’re bending over?”

          I observe that 53% + 47% = 100%. 53%-ers I PROMISE you the top 6% of our population does not share your sufferings or sentiments. I discern that your movement’s name was not coined by math majors.

          So how virulent is this 53% opposition? In my view, it’s phony culture war framing engineered by major media outlets. This week, a  hard-hat wearing crowd cheered the Occupy protestors in D.C. Why is this a phony framing? Because the culture wars have been fought and the Right has lost. There are no more hippies, unless you live in the past, like the last holdout Japanese soldier on the island. The Right is counting on “the establishment” to fight “the counter-culture” on the streets. Newsflash, the people on the streets are just “culture”. As Bill Maher observed, they don’t want free love, just a paying job. They don’t hate capitalism, just what has been done to it.

          Ostensibly, the 53%-ers, and certainly the partisan media, object to the “dirty hippies in the streets”. I point out that demonstrations are not designed to make you love the demonstrators. Demonstrations challenge the conventional, what is comfortable. Demonstrations demonstrate resolve and depth of commitment. Demonstrations are one of the few tools left when the opposition has the money, the lobbyists and the suits.

          Ok, middle class, listen up. You’re getting screwed, whether you pay taxes or not. The OWS people do get some things correct that you might agree with. They are mad as hell at a decade of stagnant wages, rising basic costs, hollowing of the workforce (jobs created at the top & bottom), rising executive compensation, and unprecedented economic redistribution upwards. They are also correct that Wall Street triggered our current economic mess. $6 trillion of YOUR money came out of your pocket and ended up bailing out banks, insurance companies, investment houses, and real estate corporations. That is a fact. So SHOULD the poor/ middle class (which is what is really being distinguished by these two movements) be pissed off at Wall Street? Yes and no….

          Yes, banks coupled with investment houses flooded the world with worthless toxic assets (6 times the GLOBAL economy). Not that’s an motivated sales force. First world economies tanked. Wall Streets fault…but they’re too-big-to-jail. Did the Government pour money into the banks like several drunken branches of the Armed Services? You betcha. However, the banks paid the money back….with interest. The Government made a PROFIT off  Wall Street bailouts….fact. So be mad they crashed the system and got away with it, but not that they got bailed out (the no part). But there are much better reasons to STILL be mad at

Wall Street-

two agencies that have NOT paid their money back, and these reflect the larger message of OWS.

          AIG had a multi-billion dollar profit before literally a dozen people rigged it so they lost everything in a few weeks. Repercussions?….AIG changed their name. Big mess with these guys…tons more money than the bank bailouts….still haven’t paid it back….don’t get me started. Where’s my pills?

          The other agency is Freddie and Fannie, quasi-Government corporations that we’re STILL paying a ton of money to. These guys are a pit of bad mortgages, “guaranteed” by the Federal Government because 20th Century political social engineers believed that “home ownership” was the keystone to Middle Class stability. For some families, home ownership is great. For many others, not so much. They want to wake up from that particular “American Dream”.

          The larger message of the OWS is not “Bitch at Wall Street”. Listen up hard hats. The larger message is opposition to the Government-Industrial complex. Can I get an Eisenhower out there? THIS corporate hijacking of Government is what is sucking money out of Middle Class pockets and into corporate coffers.

          What changed to give corporations so much power? The psychological contract between business and workers changed in the 1980s so that ownership, not hard work or loyalty, was rewarded. This contract has now caught up with our collective pocketbook. This is now an OWNERSHIP society. If you ain’t an OWNER of the corporation, you’re on the wrong side of the fence…the milking side.

          So hard hats and hippies, if either of you put your trust in political Parties to save you and make things right, you’re petting a two headed beast. NEITHER Party will speak or act (the Parties are more inclined to speak than to act) in your Middle Class interests, whether you’re a “good” taxpayer or not. So your siding with one or the other Party is “counterproductive” to self-interest.

          Let me be clear that I think highly of the average American and believe they are intelligent, honest, hard-working people who are being taken advantage of. However….the internet graciously provides a definition for someone acting against their own self-interest and I will render it here….

An idiot, dolt, or dullard is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. An idiot is said to be idiotic, and to suffer from idiocy. A dunce is an idiot who is specifically incapable of learning. An idiot differs from a fool (who is unwise) and an ignoramus (who is uneducated/an ignorant), neither of which refers to someone with low intelligence.

            Thank you, Internet. It is interesting to note that the above definitions do not involve capacity of intelligence, merely the application of such. I recommend that both movements stop vying for the high ground of righteous poverty.

          So what movement should YOU get on board (assuming your not in the top 6%)? Here’s a chart. You may place an arrow as to your income and percentage. See, you did use that math you learned.

          If you are curious about the last two dots, they are .5 and .1 percent of our population accordingly. Unlike any time in our history, this chart represents the tipping of our national resources towards a handful of Americans. Is this the America that you want?

          The real issue here is less about income and more about quality of life. The “little people” behind the 94% spike face sharply rising education and health care costs, in addition to the perils of a recessed economy. Is this how Americans should live?

          The 94% movement (both movements combined) needs to clearly discern the real threats to our freedom and figure out how to get our nation/ Government/ future out of the hands of professional politicians and corporations while we are still able to do so.

The Occupation Wil Be Televised (Occasionally)

          Before we plunge into the murky waters of civil protest, let’s update the Republican Presidential race. Herman Cain is the front runner. If you look at his infrastructure, you see that he’s strolling rather than running for President. George Will of ABC News likened the Republicans to an Andy Warhol race, where everyone gets to be front runner for 15 minutes. The only candidate who’s numbers never budge is Mitt, who is the actual front runner. Will’s thoughts on Romney’s unpopularity “He’s assumed a certain versatility of conviction over the years.” Defense rests.

          As to the People in the Park, they now have a name. I really liked the name Manhattan Spring, but it may be confused as an urban hygiene product. These Folks wish to be called OWS (Occupy Wall Street). I guess flashier names such as The Jets and The Purple Gang were taken. OWS rallies have been conducted in more than 250 cities over the last few weeks. Apparently in-fashion, OWS rallies have also occurred in London, Sydney, Tokyo, Taipei, Frankfurt, Rome, Hong Kong and Toronto. Dang furriners, stealin’ our protests.

          Any demands from OWS yet? Yep, there are four:

1. Government subsidized health care for all Americans.
2. $20 an hour minimum wage
3. A guaranteed living income for all Americans
4. Debt forgiveness for student loans, credit cards, and mortgages

          That sophomore dorm room must have spent half an hour working up these demands. While none of these are realistic policy positions, they do reflect two things, a broad undertone within society and the potential seeds of OWS destruction.

          A good symbolic act of injustice can help galvanize public sentiment around your cause, like the Rosa Parks bus ride/ water fountain. I’m sure she did other things to piss off The Man, but those got popular attention. To date, OWS has no such galvanizing symbols.

          Lacking a charismatic spokesperson or compelling symbolic act, the key to any civil protest movement success and longevity is how much of their sentiment is shared by the middle class and independent voters. Alienating these will doom your movement.

          Protest against the Vietnam War was owned by anti-patriotic hippies, radicals and socialists (hi Hanoi Jane) and other ne’er-do-wells until the middle class jumped on board and it became patriotic to question war. How quickly we forget.

          OWS is at this point a fringe movement of the Left as the Tea Party is a fringe movement of the Right. Unless moderated, OWS will alienate “the majority” and be marginalized. However, both of these aforementioned movements tap into popular civil frustration and discontent and could become a major force for change if common ground messages were uncovered and politically leveraged. I see common ground between OWS, the Tea Party and mainstream America. It is up to the “Invisible Hand” to illuminate such democratic direction within our ongoing experiment in self-governance. That is, if the “Hand” is not too busy making a buck on Wall Street.    

Is Cain Able?

            Herman Cain energized his Presidential race with a simple, elegant proposition: eliminate current individual and corporate tax codes/ payroll taxes/ estate taxes/ capital gains taxes/ any other Federal taxes you can think of and replace them with his formula of 9-9-9. What does this formula mean? Personal tax will be lowered to 9% and everyone will pay it. Corporate/ business taxes will be lowered to 9% and loopholes will be closed……and there’s a 9% Federal sales tax too.

            Let’s look at the personal/ corporate tax portion of the plan, since most people think in terms of income taxes.  A 9% personal/ business tax seems very low compared to our current marginal brackets of income tax. Heck, Jesus only wants 10%, and here the Government is asking for less. Might have enough in the wallet left over for Jesus. 50% of people pay NO income tax. Under Cain’s plan, everybody pays their “fair share” including corporations. Seems a politician is finally getting some sense and simplifying 11 million pages of tax code into a short story.

            But wait…if this was just a flat income tax proposal, it would be one thing. Cain’s plan adds a 9% VAT. What is a VAT? It is called a value added tax. It’s also called a sales tax. Americans are unfamiliar with VAT taxes because we never had one. The rest of the industrial world runs their governments on them. Most other VAT taxes are modified, since an unmodified VAT apples 9% tax (in this case) to EVERY STEP ALONG THE PRODUCTION CHAIN. VATs have been proposed before, and debate held about modifying a VAT to not hurt business. Cain’s VAT is unmodified (at this point). It WOULD apply a 9% tax to EVERY STAGE OF A PRODUCT’S PRODUCTION.

            In addition, State and local governments run off of property and sales taxes. State and local taxes, including sales tax, is unaffected by Cain’s plan. So if your State has, say, a 6% sales tax, Cain’s 9% will be added on top of that.

            So……there may be a serpent loose in the Garden. Opponents of 999 are flipping the numbers over. A few days ago, the first comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Cain’s plan was conducted by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, a branch of the Brookings Institute. What did their analysis show? Cain continues to make a few claims:

1. Under Cain’s plan, the same amount of revenue will be raised.
2. People who pay the least will not pay more.

            Ok, simple enough to check, right? Claim number 1 is absolutely correct. The numbers add up. Claim number 2, not so much.

            84% of the population will pay MUCH higher taxes (estimated 34%) while the top 16% of the population will receive a windfall. That’s what the numbers show. Other analyses over the past few weeks arrive at this conclusion and the rigorous Brookings study confirmed their findings. 999 will make the rich MUCH richer.

            I muse that the mark of the Beast in the Book of Revelation directly applies to commerce and finances, limiting buying and selling. Is it possible that the Antichrist is a plain talking black man? But I kid the Antichrist.

            Consider this, every economic analysis “disagrees” with Cain’s assertions. What if Cain knows full well how the numbers really shake down. After all, he is a “businessman”. What if it is his actual intention to make the rich MUCH richer and shift wealth upward. Cain, after all, is rich and it is in his interest to do so. 

            It is evident to me that the Republican Party is the overt Party of rich people. I say overt because all of the Government, in my opinion, is under corporate ownership. Democrats spin a populist yarn and provide few substantial policies promoting the common good. Republicans clearly are not interested in pretending to work for the common good…in my view. And the average American is caught in the middle, herded into illusory political arenas, supporting ideologies and Parties that PROVE they work counter to Middle Class self-interests.

            In the next several months, there will be increasing fixation on who will be President. I don’t care who the President will be. Congress makes the laws and spends the money. We can always “fire” a President. Congress is broken. How do we fix a broken Congress? How do we turn the course of a Congress working counter to the interests of the American People?

            So….I’m seeing Herman Cain in a new light. He apparently doesn’t speak for me or for the average guy’s interests. Unless his plan is severely modified, in my book Cain is NOT Able.

Here Comes the Sun?

          Little darlings, it’s been a long cold lonely winter….for solar power. With the emergence of theSolyndra scandal, the future of “green” industry in the US is called into question.

          It is clear that Solyndra’s business model sucked and the company was an Administration pet project. However, Solyndra also demonstrated the fate of companies which can’t innovate to “smaller, faster, cheaper”. Bad books didn’t kill Solyndra, Market forces killed Solyndra.

          Green opponents speak as though Solyndra was the only solar company in the US, gorging itself on wasted taxpayer dollars. In fact, there are more than 800 solar R&D companies attempting to produce products which will globally compete. These companies have pushed electrical generation costs to under 10 cents per KWH. Coal is $0.01 per KWH. When any green energy crosses this threshold, traditional energy sources will become obsolete.

          Green energy and green jobs are being used as a political football by Administration opponents. Let’s not “do” this green energy thing. Green industry, environmentalists, and labor unions are terms which spew out in one breath. Let’s cut funding for Green research….but keep the subsidies for oil companies. By the way, we need to drill for more yummy oil, which helps keep our Congressional jobs.

          Bottom line for opponents: Let’s not try to compete globally with Green technology research. Green is an ideology of the enemy. Green is a lie to cheat Americans out of their tax dollars….and we don’t much want to “do” this globalization thing anyway.

          While politicians argue in a vacuum, they (and us) are getting their asses kicked by foreign competition, who is quite content to “do” the globalization thing and make the globalization bucks. Our politicians introspective squabbling never seems to get at the real cause for Solyndra’s demise. Their demise didn’t stem from incompetence, shady books, or shadier politicians. Solyndra couldn’t compete with the cost of Chinese flat panel solar panels. Solyndra was killed by global competition.

          While the politicians argue back and forth on the merits of actually “doing” Green tech, the rest of the world has turned Green tech into a $3 trillion industry. This is not a “future” industry, but a “we’re currently kicking your ass but you’re looking in the wrong direction to know it” industry. The rest of the world is kicking our ass NOW.

          We can continue to buy dead dinosaurs from our actual enemies, or we can ask what is best for the country and for our competitive future. Bear in mind that I’m not a tree hugger. I advocate use of natural gas & 4th gen nuclear as well (look it up if you don’t know what it is). We have GOT to get over this “I don’t like globalization” mindset and come up with a national strategy and policies to make the rest of the world stop kicking our asses…..or one could simply take up permanent residence in the State of Denial.

The Revolution will be Twittered

          The Revolution will be televised, and camera camed, and twittered, and so on. Pundits are punditing comparing the Manhattan movement with the Tea Party. Very little comparison there. The Tea Party was a political reform movement from the get go and immediately sought to place candidates. I’m not really sure what actions the Manhattan movement is advocating yet.

          The Republicans are less than sympathetic to the protestors. Canter (Tea Party guy) calls them a “mob”. Mitt calls them “dangerous”. It’s simply a populist movement. Why wasn’t the Tea Party a mob and dangerous guys. I think they kind of are politically anyway.

          The Republicans frame the protests as class warfare. Well, Republicans are the Party of rich people and corporations, and non-rich people too stupid to know that Republicans are the Party of rich people and corporations. (I note that quite a few rich people desire greater social justice. Some of my best friends are rich people.) I don’t think non-rich people demand a redistribution of wealth. They just want their kids to have a better shot at life than they had. That’s called the American Dream. It may only happen when you’re asleep, but I repress.

          The message (which I agree with) of the Manhattan movement is that BOTH political Parties are owned by Wall Street and BOTH work full time to shill money to keep their jobs. Two heads, same critter.

          I think we should have a 95% Party. We need somebody to speak for the 95% of us who aren’t rich and aren’t likely to get rich. So the framing should be the Middle Class which is eroding and struggling every month versus the “a big F.U. to everybody else” few that aren’t. Is that a class thing or a F.U. thing? Aren’t we all Americans here? Where is our sense of citizenship and social responsibility?

          Ok, solution space: There are some innovative solutions that can create win-win solutions. In addition to building infrastructure, which is beneficial to current and future economic prosperity, incentive programs could be quickly created that put people to work immediately. Rather than pay a person unemployment, give the money to a business to hire that person. A private/public partnership could be formed that helps corporations/ business train and retrain our workforce to do the specific jobs that are needed. There are thousands of manufacturing jobs unfilled in this country because people don’t have the “knowledge” or “qualifications” to do them. That may be true, but Americans have the brains and they have the desire to work and learn. Our nation needs investment for the future, in both human and physical resources.

          Well, my solutions and $27.45 is a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Here’s the bijillion dollar question in order to rebuild and sustain the Middle Class: How can we (re)connect business profit with employee mobility? Labor unions, public protests, laws & regulations, the goodness of corporate hearts….what? I you come up with the answer I will rush it to contacts in Congress who will sit on the answers and debate the price of Tea in China. No, I think there’s a trade war on concerning the price of tea from China. Why don’t we just fire these guys?

A Winnable Fight?

          The central thesis is that Business owns Washington. Is it possible to change this? Doubtful. Why? I would simply point out that the means are determined by the outcome. What is a clear picture of the end result? With suffrage you had granny standing in the voting booth. With abolitionism, the slave was free. What does this movement outcome look like? Without a clearly envisioned outcome, popular support is unlikely. Like all emotions, simply being frustrated and pissed off can dissipate over time or be hijacked by the powers that be.

          In addition, the fight must be waged on three fronts simultaneously….corporate policy, Washington reform and changing the Law. This is a daunting but not unprecedented task. A combination of Federal and State incentives, as well as wide-spread public ire, could coerce or entice corporations to change policies. The core problem with corporations is they are forced BY LAW to maximize profit for their shareholders. The Free Market is not the Savior the Republicans worship because the Market’s objectives are not to produce what is in the interest of the public good or even their customers good. You would have to enact major changes to Articles of Incorporation and corporate mandates to change this. The Free Market just pursues making a buck, wherever that buck may be found. Our country is broke and people aren’t buying. So the Fortune 500, which employs 1/5 of our population, cut 2.9 million jobs in the US last year and created 2.4 million jobs elsewhere. What will it take to get their profits and jobs back on our shores and their hands off the levers of Government? Please insert this answer in the Comment section below.

          Congress spends over ¾ of their waking moments struggling to stay employed. Like Cain’s message, these cats are insulated and out of touch with reality. Career politicians are not likely to make any changes to the System (term limits; campaign finance reform, etc) when they spend most of their time trying to sustain their career.

          Listen up! This is their greatest weakness. They have a job and the People hired them. If the People adopted the view that Congress works for them, what kind of behavior would you need to see in an employee? If you want innovative thinking and solutions and they trot out business as usual, fire them and hire somebody else. Impress on the new hires that clear mandate. If you need Congress to work together rather than pouting like a kindergarten class, fire them and hire people that will work together. If you need policy makers to craft policies for the public good rather than for their “Party” which empowers and enriches themselves and their buddies, fire their butts and hire people who will work for the good of the People.

          This is the key and path forward for the Manhattan movement, the soft underbelly of the System. The central thesis of the movement is that authentic choice is out of our hands, that the game is rigged, and corporate pulls the strings. Bullshit. It’s true that they do, but by default. The People have abdicated their social responsibility as employers and subcontracted running the country to corporations, just as Government has contracted national security and running prisons to corporations.

          Legal precedent going back hundreds of years supports corporate control of the System. But the People could stand up on their hind legs, get behind one or two clear messages and objectives, and change the the rules of the Game.

          How do you change the system? Corporations chase the dollar. Politicians chase the vote. Deny dollars to all business that doesn’t comply with “the message” of the movement. Form co-ops and do for yourself if you have to. Deny those dollars.

          Deny those votes. Fire whoever opposes “the message”. Keep firing them. Tell them what you want. Dude, you have the telephone, Internet and televised town hall meetings. Send “the message” for free.

          People will work to change the system only when changing the System becomes more important than maintaining personal business as usual. Otherwise, people will be in thrall to the tyranny of the immediate, the pleasurable, and the convenient. People will change the System if the System will take a check. Sorry, until the pain is so great that the average Joe and Jane take to the street, change to the System is unlikely. The good news is that change to the system is possible. Even the Death Star on Star Wars had that one stupid little hole into the reactor core that could destroy it. Worse contracting shortcut ever.

Needed: One Single Compelling Message

          Transitioning from principles to practice, does the Manhattan movement have what it takes to make major changes. Yes and no. It taps into many major sources of existential frustration. However, their gripes are all over the road. What is the single clear outcome sought?

          A single clear message was heard during a protest at our State capitol….“No corporate money in politics”. Underlying messages, Government is owned by Wall Street and Big Business…..best Government money can buy…..put the “power” back in the hands of the People.

          Ok, clear message. Now resonant compelling language has to be crafted which provides alignment, impetus and support. Our gentle readers are encouraged to ponder and post such language, which shall be forwarded on.

          All successful movements need symbolic heroes and events which galvanize popular attention and affections. Rosa Parks and the death of a nameless Tunisian merchant (he has a name, I just forgot it) both sparked civil conflagrations as public sentiment converged with zeitgeist.  

          Currently, national protesters have many gripes, which may well be valid. Pick one, people. If this “one thing” was solved a bunch of other stuff would get solved. What might that be?

          The media portrays movement members as fragmented in their messages, and are thus marginalizing protestors as extremists. It’s easy for mainstream America to not “get it”. Republican front-runner (at least this week) Herman Cain told protestors in Manhattan that “if you don’t have a job or you aren’t rich it’s your own fault”. See, it’s easy not to “get it”. In my opinion, that comment doesn’t sound very Presidential. With 25 million unemployed and 5 people literally applying for every job, it’s hard to make the case that protestors are the “lazy” folks. No, they’re the pissed off folks.

          To their credit, I have not seen this movement snuggle up to power (political or corporate). If your core message is in fact that politics is owned by the corporate, that might be a bit detrimental to do so.

          Ok, we may be narrowing down a message. The next question is if you go up against Big Business, the Government, and legal precedent, is that fight realistic or winnable?

Lessons from Ken Burns

          In my previous musings, I questioned whether the Manhattan Spring movement could ascend to the status of an actual social movement, the sort which changes the course of history. The documentary wizard Ken Burns has a new offering on Prohibition. It brings out a lot of truths of social movements. I recommend watching it.

          Social movements take a long time to produce tangible products. Social movements run in cycles. Social movements are based on conviction and values, rather than power or money. Social movements are impelled by a few charismatic figureheads or communicators. Most social movements have their roots in the Church. If Christians don’t feel a moral imperative or impetus for greater social justice or change, one might ask why? Such “religious” outpourings often reflect mainstream, rural convictions (i.e. most of the country) and are a good gauge of popular support and movement success. If most of the country doesn’t resonate with a movements objectives, that movement can easily be framed and spun by opponents as extremist and anti-American.

          Other lessons…social movements are a confluence of many gripes. While there are MANY outrages out there in the big world to bitch about, successful movements have a single clear, compelling objective. This is huge, so……successful social movements settle on a clear, compelling objective and envisioned outcome.

          Social movements need political translation to be transformative. Civil rights took about over 200 years (Jefferson submitted emancipation bills while in the Virginia Senate before the Revolution) and required multiple Amendments to the Constitution to be woven into our national fabric. It is very easy for political movements to be hijacked (looking at you Tea Party) or dilute themselves with multiple objectives. All political movements will be leveraged by the powerful for their own ends.

          Successful social movements always have unforeseen societal outcomes and consequences.

          Ok, so those are some major lessons we can learn from history about social movements. One other I would add, all successful social movements advance civil rights, liberty or freedom. Moevements inhibiting liberty and freedom (example: anti-gay rights) stand on the wrong side of history. Just an observation, not an advocacy.

          Another two cents observation: the language used within the movement must reflect societal mores and galvanize action and participation. For example, the abolitionist movement was linked with women voting and was diluted for many years. At the time, it was unseemly and distasteful among women to participate in politics or the public arena. Only when a reformer recrafted the message as “Home Defenders” did women flock to the cause across the nation. A clear compelling outcome requires simple, resonant language.

The next blog will shift from principle to practice.

Why the Tea Party Failed

The new jobs numbers were released today reflecting lackluster growth. It struck me that the reported job losses were all in the public sector…from education. I find it ironic that the people who caused our collective misery, Wall Street, were and are not in the slightest adversely impacted but their losses and failures were and are borne by teachers, janitors, firefighters, nurses and factory workers.

  

        Since our national economic recovery has stalled, the news shows again trot out the economists and their blackboards predicting the “shape” of our economic future. All these guys got our growth curves wrong in 2009, so I’m not rushing to my tv screen any more when one drifts by.

          I am struck, however, not by the shape of our economic recovery when compared to all previous recessions this century. I am startled by the curves of employment after each recession when compared with our current curve. After every recession, employment has rebounded within four years. Our current unemployment curve dips towards a historic low and then stays nailed to the floor, a prolonged bargain basement of suffering. We are in uncharted waters, keep your hands inside the ship at all times. Ours is the same shape as seen during the Great Depression. The difference is that our current unemployment affects around 6% of the population, while the Great Depression affected over 20%, from all walks of life. I point out that after the economy began to recover in 1934 spurred on by the stimulus of Government spending, by 1937 it mired again due to policies of cutting spending and raising taxes (i.e. balancing the budget, which is counterproductive to economic stimulus). Does this pattern sound familiar?

          How are all these ramblings tied together? After the Collapse, there were two headwaters of public outrage: Wall Street and the Federal Government. A populist movement formed in an attempt to protest and reform the Federal Government. They protested a Government whose lack of oversight produced financial collapse and massive unemployment, yet refused to right these wrongs or even listen to the hurting average Joe and Jane. The Tea Party prescription…cut spending and balance budgets. The Tea Party never laid a glove on Wall Street.

          The Tea Party began as a convergence of spontaneous social protests. It was then shaped and spun into a political force in boardrooms and politico confabs. Defanged and redirected, the Tea Party would empower and enrich economic and political powers that be. The Tea Party has lost any revolutionary or even reformist momentum and has become a shrill joke, an extremist narrow shallow cartoon. The Tea Party has failed.

          The protestors of the Manhattan Spring (I’m copyrighting this phrase) and their ilk springing up across the country may prove to be an actual vehicle of social transformation since this movement taps into the rage against both Washington and Wall Street. Their underlying message is that Washington is Wall Street. This movement does need to have a few clear and compelling goals, however, for such transformation to occur. They should not become a political movement, since these are hijacked by professionals. They should become a social movement.

          Leveraging part of our nation’s collective existential rage can produce a tool for plutocrats. Harnessing all the major sources of collective frustration and focusing them on a single goal can be revolutionary….as in abolitionism….as in Civil War. It can change our national identity. We can redefine ourselves.

          While media outlets, spin doctors and Madison Avenue continue their attempts to define us while enriching themselves, we as Americans have the power to proclaim who we are as a People. We have the power to change the rules of the game. But…will we have the courage and resolve to do so?  

Manhattan Spring?

A new youth movement appears to be organizing and calling for freedom from oppression. While we might immediately attempt to identify what new Middle Eastern nation is in the throes of jubilant turmoil, this youth movement is closer to home. It’s in Manhattan.

          Young people, and some not so young, are converging on major cities such as New York and Washington DC to protest economic and social inequality and an unheeding government they feel is hijacked by corporate interests. Hundreds are being arrested in these protests daily, but are usually released in a few days. The movement has been organizing for about a year but now seems to be spilling out into the streets.

          The movement has no leaders and makes no demands, but seeks to inclusively tap into the general sense of frustration permeating our nation. Those in the movement (not sure if it has a name) voice diverse objections to the status quo. Some major themes which emerge are:

• working people need to benefit from corporate profits
• working people need a voice and need politicians to listen
• the jobs Congress is most concerned about keeping is their own
• corporate money keeps Congresspeople in their jobs and runs the show
• more and more people are in poverty and nothing is being done to improve our national situation (it is true that nothing will be done until next November as Congress tries to get one guy fired)
• Wall Street and corporations are greedy (duh) hence the current Manhattan/ Wall Street protests

          It appears to me that people are finally connecting the dots beyond the illusory political realities crafted by media outlets, spin doctors and thought police (if you join the movement, you’re up on Glenn’s board). Apparently people across the country are making the connection that the rich are getting much richer and the rest of us are increasingly struggling. The protestors are voicing opposition to a government hijacked by Wall Street. For them we have become a nation of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation.

          These sentiments reflect much economic and political reality in my opinion. Within the last three weeks several socioeconomic analyses of census data were released, as well as reports on 2010 corporate profits. Here’s how a picture is shaping up from a number of studies compiled over the last two months:

·         80% of Fortune 500 profits are made overseas (These are no longer American companies in my opinion).

·         Fortune 500 companies are making lots of profit (the most since such records were kept- over $3 trillion) and are creating lots of jobs…overseas [Now to be fair, corporations HAVE to go overseas and do anything for a buck. It’s the LAW. It’s written into their articles of incorporation they HAVE to MAXIMIZE profits for shareholders. This means that the mighty engine of free market capitalism is socially constructive IF there is a connection between corporate profits and the upward mobility of the people who work for those companies. One goes up, the other should go up. This connection created the Middle Class and the American Dream. Is there still a connection between business profit and social mobility?

·         Nope. The US continues to slip in terms of social mobility. This means if you’re born into poverty you’re likely to stay in poverty. The smart ass UN study concluded that if you want to economically and socially advance yourself, move to Denmark or Finland. Hmmm….but there aren’t that many Americans living in poverty, right?

·         Sorry…highest rates of poverty among Americans since these records began to be kept (DOH!). BTW poverty in government speak is $12k for an individual and $22k for a family of 4. It breaks down like this: Top 1/5 of the population owns 83% of the wealth (financial assets & real estate). Bottom 40% of the entire population owns .3% of the wealth. It used to be 11% 30 years ago (some of the “conclusions” of studies are debatable opinions….these census data numbers are not…they are simply math). Sounds like a redistribution of wealth to me. If redistribution from the top down is called “socialism” what is it called when done in the opposite direction (please submit your answers and the best will be published).

·         Every month more and more families slip below the line of poverty and many others don’t make enough income to pay their monthly bills, so are in functional poverty and in thrall to the tyranny of the credit industry.

·         Wages have long been flat (for over a decade)….while costs for things like health care premiums and education have increased literally over 1000% since 2000. Wages are now falling. A Brookings study showed incomes down in 83 out of 105 major metropolitan areas. Lower incomes mean lower State income tax revenues. Lower property values mean lower local property tax revenues. 2/3 of cities report plans to suspend infrastructure projects and spend less on public safety (while making accountant happy, this is counterproductive to stimulating the economy & getting people back to work).

·         People are making less but working harder. Hours on average are longer and paid vacation days are shorter. The US ranks at the bottom of industrial nations with 13 days annually of paid vacation….and 59% of workers don’t take all these days. I point out that increased work hours and demands means increased stress…and increased sickness….and lower productivity (not as productive at 8pm as at 8am).

·         Data show that the socioeconomic erosion of the Middle Class has been slowly progressing for the last decade. This trend has accelerated since the financial collapse. Why, one may ask?

·         Why is this recession different from all other recessions (a very Jewish economic question)? Our current recession is unlike any in our history because of the convergence of a failed economy, a failed credit market, along with a failed housing market (never happened before). All of this is embedded and mired in debt…personal debt, corporate debt, and government debt. This debt generates strong downward pressure against efforts to stimulate and grow our economy. Foreclosures push down and keep down housing prices, which are the single largest assets most Americans own. Foreclosures also impede economic growh. This corrosion of debt is seen throughout the Western industrialized nations (although not in emerging nations or Asia/ South America. Japan remains the naughty exception with a debt to GDP ratio of over 200%). It is not surprising that global companies go elsewhere to pursue their buck making.

·         Minorities are most impacted by socioeconomic erosion since their personal wealth tended to be tied up in their home rather than a diverse investment portfolio. A Pugh study just released shows 36 million Hispanic children living in poverty, up 36% from 2007. This is contrasted with 4 million black children and 5 million white children.

·         Well, that’s the cheery studies emerging in the last couple of weeks. Just for the hell of it, I’ll throw in the findings of a 3 year bipartisan study on contractor spending during our foreign adventures. This is notable as there are more contractors than soldiers in the Middle East. Findings- One out of four dollars given to contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan was shown to be “misspent”, which means theft, waste and criminal fraud to the rest of us. It used to be called war profiteering and was a capital offense in the military. Now it’s business as usual. The report stated that because of a lack of Congressional and corporate oversight and accountability, quite a bit of the “misspent” money found its way into enemy hands. We’re paying people to kill our kids. There ought to be some sort of protest movement in the streets…….

          I advocate making a buck. Is our government really hijacked by corporations? It’s true that the health insurance companies wrote the health care bill, the banks wrote the credit card and banking bills (and publicly bragged about it,  only to be thwarted by the caped crusader Elizabeth Warren), and ….ok, the corporations write our bills…..and elect our Congress. BTW for gentle readers in the thrall of the credit industry, look for monthly debit/credit card utility fees now that Warren’s reforms reduced bank’s “swipe” transaction from 1000% profit to 500% profit. The new card charges is expected to ADD $1 billion to bank’s profits. Their momma didn’t raise no dummies.

          So what does all this corporate greed have to do with the direction of our country, God, mom and apple pie? Weren’t corporations always greedy? Although I am a fiscal conservative (balance those books dammit), I am a social progressive on moral rather than legal or political grounds, the whole “do unto the least of these” thing. But just as we discovered a few weeks ago that the recession was TWICE as bad as we believed it was for the last two years, the picture of socioeconomic inequality is for me getting WAY out of hand and is spilling over into the political arena. Eroding the Middle Class is nothing less than a threat to national security. Our greatest international leverage as a nation is upward mobility and a vibrant economy. We’re not likely to win hearts and minds with a broken political system, a few very rich folks lolling about, and the rest of us struggling to get by. Sounds like the third world to me. Maybe making the US a third world country is a strategy to stop immigration.

          Creating an economic underclass of disenfranchised Americans is not the “right direction” for America as I see it. We need to reconnect business profit to social mobility, to benefiting people as well as shareholders. We need policies and an economic climate which benefits “we the people”, not “we the corporation.” We the People need a voice, and this movement in Manhattan may be providing one. Now if only SOMEONE would listen. God knows the people responsible for listening appear asleep at the switch or squabbling over nonsense. Who will speak for the average American? It’s clear to me that the powers that be in Washington (both Parties) advocate for someone or something else. I’m not one to join movements, but this new one forming might be one I can get behind. Who knows, freedom might just sweep over the land of the free, IF we become the home of the brave.