While in the supermarket freezer section today, I overheard a twenty-something’s conversation with a couple old enough to be his grandparents. In this season of college graduations, he was relating how lucky he was to have gone to work right after high school rather than continuing his education. Seems he had risen up the ranks from clerk to a relatively secure position on the management team, his current salary to rivaling any corporate middle manager. And unlike many of his friends who are now graduating college, he’s been spared the tuition debt and shaky job prospects. Since I’m in education, I listened a bit enviously, as I had spent a good portion of my income paying off college loans, as well as now witnessing firsthand what my students and former students are suffering through. But he had a valid point, as he’d made a good call four years ago, at the beginning of an economic downturn which seems to have longer legs than any NBA player. And knowing there’s just no good reason why it has lasted so long and even worse, how some thrived because of it, makes me even angrier than I can possibly vent on this page.
Here in New Jersey, especially in the northern towns closer to New York City, thousands of workers were affected and continue to be affected by layoffs in the banking and finance industries. As of April, the unemployment rate is a full percentage point above the national average at 9.1%, and even worse for the long-term unemployed and those just graduating. But JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon can still gamble away $2 billion, even after his company was bailed out in 2008 for $12 billion for their part in one of the worse financial meltdowns since The Great Depression. And he can still expect to garner deference from an Obama ”surrogate” like Cory Booker. Some would argue that as Newark, NJ’s mayor, a city right across the river from NYC, Booker, who has not only statewide but national aspirations, it’s only logical that he wouldn’t want to alienate the powerful financial sector. But as New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, put in his editorial “Egos and Immorality” today: “… it has been especially sad to see some Democratic politicians with ties to Wall Street, like Newark’s mayor, Cory Booker, dutifully rise to the defense of their friends’ surprisingly fragile egos. As I said at the beginning, in a way Wall Street’s self-centered, self-absorbed behavior has been kind of funny. But while this behavior may be funny, it is also deeply immoral. Think about where we are right now, in the fifth year of a slump brought on by irresponsible bankers. The bankers themselves have been bailed out, but the rest of the nation continues to suffer terribly, with long-term unemployment still at levels not seen since the Great Depression, with a whole cohort of young Americans graduating into an abysmal job market.”
Yet the 1% wants more. With similarly dutiful surrogates like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell crying misleading talking points such as “crippling government regulations” and “job-killing taxes,” logic and common sense get lost in the din. The thing is, it’s not that anyone is stopping them from becoming billionaires, and it’s not that anyone’s jealous. And it’s not that anyone would care if they make a pot of money. It’s only when that pot of money is created by closing down a factory, raiding a pension fund or outsourcing overseas, and calling it “class warfare” when someone complains about it.
Look, we’re all Americans. We live in a democracy, and that means everyone gets a say in the government, not only those who can afford to buy a voice. It’s not true that every American’s driving force is to become a millionaire. Sure, it would be nice, but the most all really want is to be healthy, pay the bills, feed the family, send the kids to college, have a sense of security, retire with dignity. And to do that, most will need a decent-paying job. It’s not too much to ask. What’s a shame is we even have to.
Trudy
