We spoke yesterday (Brother, can you spare a dime?) about the sad situation that pertains in the US economy.  That even though the economy is supposedly limping along, businesses are husbanding cash and not investing in new technology and machines.  And, then complain that productivity is not increasing.

Did these giants of industry (most of whom are overpaid) not recognize that productivity requires tools to achieve the gains?   And, if you don’t buy the tools, don’t train the staff to use them, you have no one to blame but yourself?

But, there’s another reason these business don’t invest in their future.  Because they can use that cash to buy back stock, which raises its price- and by some deranged thinking, we are supposed to believe that makes their companies worth more.  What it does is simply increase the pay of the executives, since they often receive the bulk of their compensation from changes in the stock value.  So, these executives- instead of improving the value of their companies, the offerings to consumers and businesses- are busy lining their own pockets.

Right now, state and local government spending on services (schools, police, parks) is experiencing the slowest recovery since World War II.  Which means that our infrastructure is becoming obsolete, our security is eroding, and our children’s ability to learn skills and acquire knowledge is impaired.

Couple that with business failing to invest in better systems, it is clear that we are stripping the capability of America to offer a future to most of its residents.  To make it harder to deliver products from the few manufacturers left to our citizens and the world.

Pretax income now flows to the 1%, not to the middle class.  From 1975 to 2014, the share of those moneys going to the elite has reached 18%- up from 8%.   Don’t tell me that it’s not related to the destruction of our unions, whose membership has dropped from 30% to barely 10%.   Don’t tell me it’s not related to the overpayment of executives (stripping the cash available to employees), as mentioned above.

And, I am going to be politically incorrect here now, too.  By continuing the use of Affirmative Action in job selection and in education slots at our universities (instead of fixing all our schools so they are truly equal), we develop an “us versus they” attitude that splits the middle and lower class.  Instead, we make group-based policy, which by its very nature means that we are not all equal.

I know that Blacks have been discriminated against in this country for decades, but when does affirmative action stop?  After 25 years?  After 50 years?  Never?   If we make it never, then we must admit that we are not equal before the law.

Given these facts, it is not surprising that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have amassed followers.  That despite the fact that Bernie is basically a one-issue candidate and Donald promotes hatred, xenophobia, and simplistic (non)answers to complex questions.

It’s because the American citizenry is simply pissed off that corporate executives are allowed to line their own pockets, not required to promote the businesses they are expected to lead, and don’t reward those employees who make their company’s products and services.  It’s because the Republican Party has been using the dog-whistles to promote these beliefs, to amass followers.  It’s because the Democratic Party sold out to big business and hedge funds at the expense of the workers and the New Deal policies that made it a strong force in America.

We have lost the American Way.  We have destroyed the American creed- the one that stands for egalitarianism, liberty, and freedom.  We all used to believe that we are equal- but now we now that some are far more “equal” than others.  We believed that there was a chance for all of us to grab the brass ring- but now we know that the ring is magnetized, and those at the top of the ladder are the ones who can attract those rings, keeping them from the rest of our grasps.  That our freedom of speech is now usurped by those with plenty of money, who can buy elections and TV time, by the 1% who use their funds to shut down a free press.  (Yes, Peter Theil, that means you.   No, I am not forgetting about Fox and their “balanced” news, which really means after their hands lean on the scales.)

America- more than any other developed nation (but they are all guilty of this to some degree) has forgotten that the stability of a nation comes from a burgeoning middle class. Until recently, America was the least class-conscious nation on earth.  (Israel was the other.)   But, that disappeared almost a generation ago.

Because the middle class holds fast against the extremes, it is by nature a conservative force that maintains a country and its economy.  When you whittle down the middle class, it’s inevitable that extremes gain the upper hand.  It didn’t hurt that most of the Republicans running for President before Trump trumped them expounded primarily extreme views, not much different from those spewed out by ‘The Donald”.   So, by comparison, he could look almost “normal”.

We reap what we sow.  We need a new “farm” policy.  One that reverts to the true American ideals and the American Dream.

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