What’s wrong with America

Review my article, ghetto!

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As I was browsing facebook the other day, I decided to look
up some of the people I rowed with in high school. Initially, I planned on seeing
where life had taken them and reminiscing about the victories and the rewards we
shared through camaraderie. What I found was the reason behind our financial problems
in America.

I come from Fairfield County, an extremely wealthy suburb of
New York City, as did most of the people I grew up and competed with. Growing
up in this area skewed my view of the world. Big houses, expensive cars, high
fashion, and lots of parties defined the social scene of my youth. I was never
a part of the “in” crowd myself, but I lurked on the outskirts, observing the interactions
and behaviors of my peers. I went off to college in Washington D.C. and grew
up. I was exposed to a world I didn’t know existed; a world where people had to
work and pay for their own education! People came from all walks of life, had
all sorts of problems, and had countless stories that defined them.

However, the diversity was not all positive. Never had I
seen so much injustice in the world. Every neighborhood in the west of the city
was wealthy and white, while all those to the east of the city were poor and
black. Furthermore, everyone who worked on capitol hill and in the business districts
were well dressed white men; while the people who flipped burgers, cleaned up
trash, and maintained the metro system were poor and of ethnic origins. It didn’t
make sense. How could this distinction be so alarmingly present?

I had always assumed that the most successful people were
the ones that worked the hardest and were the most talented. This is certainly
true for most successful people;
however it is far from it for the most
successful people. The people that run our country, banks, corporations, and
big businesses are people like my old crewmate, Kyle, who now works for a
prestigious brokering firm in New York City. Kyle never grew up. He still lives
in a world of expected extravagance, oblivious to the suffering of those around
him. His facebook profile is filled with photos of gorgeous women, unimaginable
parties, limos, and bottles of wine that cost more than I make in a month. “How
is this possible?” I thought to myself, “This kid graduated the same year as
me, and he has landed a six digit salary despite having partied his entire way
through school!” Then it hit me. It isn’t
possible, at least, not for the majority of people.

According to esteemed economist and professor at New York
University, Edward Wolff, the top 20% of the richest people in America control 85%
of the nation’s wealth. If that is not alarming enough, nearly half of that is
controlled by the top 1%! These statistics reassured my suspicions. Most of the
people who control our nation’s money, haven’t worked to get where they are. For
surely, if hard work equaled success there would be a large middle class
controlling 80% of the wealth. Instead, these people are GIVEN everything.

I do not believe there is foul play at work. The radical
shift in wealth distribution is the result of a flawed system, not corrupt
individuals. It is the nature of capitalism to take wherever and whenever
possible, to pursue profit above all else. Now, anyone who has ever run a
business knows you need money to make money. Even a paper boy needs money to
buy a bike to deliver his papers! So imagine the money making capability of the
super-rich. They would be foolish to continue toiling for $30/hr as the rest of
us do. Instead, they use their money to make money, and the resulting monetary
growth is exponential.

The financial growth patterns of the super-rich work well in
a constantly expanding economy. Unfortunately, there are a limited amount of
resources and wealth in America and economic expansion has begun to slow. Is it
not obvious that this system isn’t sustainable? Over time, everything will end
up in one person’s hands, while everyone else is left with nothing. Wolff’s
wealth distribution statistics from 1983 – 2007 suggest that this exponential
trend has been happening all along, but the curve has not been noticeable until
now.

People like Kyle don’t just have a leg up in this world,
they have an elevator. No matter what they do during their ride to the top,
they will always get there. It should come as no surprise that when things turn
sour, people like Kyle will be the first to cut and run. Kyle has known nothing
but success his entire life. The threat of failure is not something he
understands, so how can we expect him to deal with it when it surfaces. People
were shocked when the CEO’s of the big banks took our taxpayer bail-out money and
sat on it, giving themselves bonuses instead of using it to stimulate the
economy. How naïve it is to think that anyone will do what is right for the
greater good in a system that stresses self preservation so highly.

Our legal system has been molded by the super-rich into a
perversion of what it once was. Constant lobbying and corporate political
influence over the past hundred years has made it easy for the super-rich to continue
to absorb the nation’s wealth. By using their political and financial power and
by exploiting the legal system to the fullest extent, they have ensured the
road to success for themselves and their offspring is a smooth one, while it
has only become rougher for the rest of us.

If Americans want a future where hard work and ingenuity
lead to success, we need to overhaul the system. We need to stop looking at the
Kyles, Trumps, and Bushs’ as role models and self-made men and see them for
what they really are: products of a system that has been designed to make their
lives easy. We need to put intelligent, responsible, and creative people in
charge and ensure the interests of the few never outweigh the many. America
needs to wake up, pave a new set of roads, and be diligent to ensure some roads
don’t get more attention than others.

-BJC

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Links:
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

http://markmaynard.com/?p=8210&cpage=1#comment-200601

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1227-06.htm

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