It may seem harsh to say the there is a class war in the US that we battle every day. It is between the rich and the vast majority of people. If you are rich, the system is working well for you. It is set up that way. As the rich control the economy, the corporate world, the government and the media, they command it all and explain that everything is just fine (or we’d like to deal with that but can’t right now–believes us).
Professor Chomsky points out that,
“Household debt is out of sight, but corporate debt is very low. In fact, corporations are making huge profits. That’s part of the shift in the way economic planning is carried out, to benefit the superrich and the corporations and to harm the general population. In fact, the ratio of taxed income to gross domestic product is close to an all-time low, and it is skewed toward the general population, much more so than before.”
For example, corporations hardly pay or do not even pay taxes due to sophisticated, complicated techniques–tax havens and protected investments. So the corporations and rich people barely pay any taxes. And as long as they are doing fine there is no problem. Except for the ones too many are actually experiencing but which are not redressed.
It’s not just Wall Street or Walmarts that benefit from the rich man’s loopholes. The larger the corporations the more benefits they receive. For example, having been an enthusiastic football player in college and a fan of professional football all my life I also marveled in my youth at the possibility that individuals could own professional teams in the NFL. Now as an adult I am shocked by the fact that the NFL does not pay any taxes. A mega-rich organization exempted from taxes! The general population is in financial crisis, low minimum wages, underemployment, stagnation or decline in real wages, working longer hours with fewer benefits. But at least we can turn on the TV and between the manipulative commercials, watch the ball games.
We certainly can say that the US is a very rich country. “It’s got enormous advantages, of scale, resources, anything you can think of. But it is being subjected to domestic policies that are frightening,” noted Chomsky. What we see today is short term gains and disregard for long term impact. Wall Street and the government is essentially transferring costs to the general public, including future generations–our kids and their kids. This greatly serves the rich and powerful today and costs the general public now and then.
One example is health care. Not a problem for the rich who can afford excellent coverage. The health care insurance industry, the pharmaceutical corporations and health maintenance organizations are doing quite well. Yes the rich are doing fine. If the general population is struggling with health care, that’s not the problem of the wealthy (or the representatives in Congress they paid to elect). Astronomical health care costs for the population, too bad. Cutting back Medicaid or any health services for the masses becomes the policy because it only harms the poor people. Not the concern of the rich. Or what about social security. It’s not for the rich, so it should be shelved.
In short always ask the question, “does it help the rich or does it help the general population?” From that you can usually predict what is going to happen.
One unfortunate aspect of all this is that too many of us are mislead, misinformed and misdirected into thinking that is just the way it is or has to be. The privileged created the privileges. Really? Think again and deeply into the causes and effects. Does it have to be this way?
“Many of the basic institutions of our society are totally illegitimate. Do corporations have to be controlled by management and owners and dedicated to the welfare of the shareholders instead of being controlled by the people who work in them and dedicated to the community and the workers? It’s not a law of nature. –Chomsky.
These set-ups reflect made-made laws that can and should be altered to embrace human values, values more meaningful that the immediate profits. We really did not have to spend trillions of dollars to bail out those self-proclaimed “too big to fail” businesses. They were not too big to fail (or too big to jail). We must stop looking the other way and accepting what is deeply wrong for the people collectively. With all fundamental changes that have ever taken place, it is when the masses of people awaken to the fact of their own power that a revolution of real human (and humane) progress begins.