Biden used some tried and true policies to guide us through the pandemic and the subsequent expansion. The data is clear and it is amazing.
But, households do not feel the data. So, we ask questions: “How do we get great economic fundamentals with no polling bounce? How can we translate our performance into better polling?’
Here’s why that happens: At the kitchen table, Moms and Dads do not perceive the benefits of an improved economy because the benefits spread unequally across all sectors of the United States. More benefits accrue to rich people than benefits accrue to working people. Corporate profits are rising but Moms’ and Dads’ wages are not keeping up with the price increases that contribute to those profits and contribute to inflation at the same time. Perhaps wages will increase to compensate households more fairly in the long run, but as Keynes said in the Great Depression ‘In the long run we are all dead.’
Wages kept up with prices in the 20th Century until about 1976. Then wages stopped growing but CEO profits and Billionaires took all the benefits of an expanding economy. Not only that, but they also captured the government and blocked public actions to benefit working people. They are still doing that today.
We have a simple solution toward improving Democrat polling numbers on economic questions. First, acknowledge the situation in public forums. Then, explain how you will challenge CEO and Billionaire market power to restore economic fairness. Moms and Dads need some hope now.
It doesn’t matter that you have not completed the actions yet. We want to hear you say that you understand our reality and will try to remedy that.
Economists use a measurement called the GINI coefficient to measure the levels of inequality between classes in a country. Our GINI score is bad - we are too unequal. Scores as bad as our score raise questions about national security. High GINI scores denote higher levels of inequality, which data suggest that higher than average GINI scores may threaten our future social stability. The United States will be more secure when our scores approach lower levels as in several European countries. Our United States average GINI score of 48 is well above countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Selected Country GINI
[Higher bad]
USA 48.0
SWEDEN 30.1
DENMARK 28.2
CANADA 33.3
NORWAY 27.6
RUSSIA 37.5
Many writers recognize the importance of inequality: Bertrand Russell said this about rich and unscrupulous financiers:
“A modern community is not likely to be
prosperous if its financial affairs are conducted solely with a view to the
interests of rich and unscrupulous financiers, without regard to the effect
upon the rest of the population. Needless to say, it is unwise to leave these
financiers to the unfettered pursuit of their private profit. One might as well
run an art museum for the sole profit of the curator, leaving him at liberty
and whim to sell the contents whenever he happened to be offered a good price.“
[i]
[i] Bertrand
Russell, In Praise of Idleness: And Other Essays (1935), Ch: IV, The Modern
Midas (1932), p. 77
