Class Warfare?

Bernie Sanders is the independent US Senator from Vermont. He is 71 years old, served as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont (8 years), congressman for 16 years, and now senator since January 2007. He is a logical, sensible person dedicated to public service. 

Recently he said: “They talk about class warfare – the fact of the matter is there has been class warfare for the last thirty years. It’s a handful of billionaires taking on the entire middle-class and working-class of this country. And the result is you now have in America the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on Earth and the worst inequality in America since 1928. How could anybody defend the top 400 richest people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of America, 150 million people?” 

I’m not sure I agree with everything Senator Sanders stated, but I do agree that if there is class warfare being waged, it is done so at the risk of damaging our nation. A strong standard of living – a high quality of life – for all Americans is a good goal for us to aim for. Not everyone will benefit equally or at the same time. But the yearning should be encouraged, and the access to a healthy future should be maintained. That is the promise of America! 

The issue of class distinction comes into play when someone feels threatened. The rich may feel that someone wants to take something away from them. On the opposite end, the poor ask for help. Strictly speaking this is not class warfare. Not unless someone is being denied access to their dream. I don’t see that happening. The distribution of wealth is highly imbalanced currently, and the distribution of incomes is similarly out of balance. 

To support a family of 4 used to take $40,000 per year. Inflation and rising cost of education and housing ballooned that figure to nearly $100,000 annually. While housing and education expenses were rising, so too were health costs. Soaring health costs, in actual drug, doctor and hospital expenses out of pocket, as well as breath taking increases in health insurance premiums. Then, challenged employers began sharing their health insurance costs with their employees and the premiums escalated again. 

Clearly, supporting a family of 4 was exceeding $100,000 per year if the family was not going to rely heavily on public programs and subsidies. Thus two incomes became the necessity; mom and dad both worked. It was the new normal and that began 30 years ago. Still, mom could drop in and out of the employment market as family needs changed. But 7 or 10 years ago, that drop-in/drop-out pattern became a luxury; now long-term employment and career patterns are the norm and required if the family is to be self-sustaining.

Day care needs exploded. A whole new industry of early childhood education and child care sprang up. Subsidized where needed, but supported none the less by a society hell-bent on employing every man and woman capable of holding a job. Our economy was expanding and going global. More workers, more hours, more commuting, more cars, bigger houses, more home care workers (health, child care, adult care and cleaning/maintenance services) flooded the market. 

Then the housing market collapse. Too many people wanted it all too quickly, and the banks and investors were only too happy to oblige with mortgages and construction loans. Too much, too fast, on too shaky a foundation. And the whole house of cards collapsed. Four years later we are still picking up the pieces. No one wanted to take the blame. No one wanted to be denied access to the American Dream. No one wanted to pay for the repair job once it came crashing down. 

But fix it we must. You and I. And every government agency capable of lending a hand. With money, or words, or whatever. The fix has to be made. Now. Not later. 

The rich are still getting richer. This is Spring 2012. The recession began in 2007. The poor are getting poorer. The retirees are slumping toward poverty. National health costs continue to rise. The crisis of all citizens continues. 

Oh, things are improving. The economic crisis appears to be abating; major problems still exist, but they are lessening. We are making progress toward a return to employment, creation of new industries, the demise of old obsolete industries, a rebalancing of housing needs with housing dreams, a more realistic expectation of quality of life and income to support it.  

All in all we are back on the road to recovery. But what kind of society will emerge at the ‘end of this road’? Will we be a loving and caring nation willing to lend a hand to all of our neighbors? Or will we be a selfish, greedy nation only interested in what it means to me? The latter is what got us into this mess in the first place. Please, let us not continue that low denominator of human nature! 

Class warfare? I need a clean, stable home to live in.  I need a neighborhood with kind and considerate people living close by. I want to lend them a hand from time to time. I hope they can return that favor as needed. I want a community that has dynamic aspirations but a large heart as well. I hope for education and health outlets that keep us alert and healthy and involved with one another. 

That’s not class warfare. That’s building an America we long felt we had, long yearned to keep and yet to improve upon. Are we so morally bankrupt that we will make this a political war cry?

I don’t want what you have. I want what we can all prosper by. Happily so. As best we can. Not utopia. But possibility and self reliance and a community hunger for togetherness. That’s the America I was born into and raised in. I still yearn for this.

Class warfare or class act? Which will it be for America?

March 18, 2012