A shocking number of people in this country—nearly 44 million, one in seven—are now in poverty. One in five children is in poverty. These are the numbers if you use the ludicrously low official poverty rate of $22,000 for a family of four. In reality, there are millions more that are poor and barely scraping by, but are uncounted in the official statistics.
To make matters worse, the absolute number of insured people in the country has declined for the first time since the government began recording such data in 1987. Meanwhile, the ruling Democrats pat themselves on the back for their “historic” health insurance reform—most of which does not go into place for years, and will strengthen the power of for-profit insurers.
Of course, not everyone is suffering. Not only are the bailed out banks again making big profits, and doling out enormous bonuses, the largest non-financial corporations are practically drowning in money. By recent estimates, the top 500 non-financial corporations are sitting on a record $1.8 trillion dollars.
Since the recent crisis hit, the Federal Reserve has kept the “federal funds rate,” which sets the interest rate for banks to loan to one another, at nearly zero. In short, the Fed greased the wheels to funnel cheap credit—essentially free money—to the already rich banks and corporations.
They justified this policy as a way to stimulate job creation. If the banks and corporations saw that the money could come easy, the government claimed, they would hire more workers.
Instead Wall Street has just hoarded the money, using it to pad their assets. Some have even laid off more workers. All the while they say that they are just following the laws of supply and demand. If workers would go out and buy more and thereby “stimulate demand,” that would restore the corporations’ “confidence” in the market.
Quite clearly the resources are out there to put the economy into motion again and to deal with spreading unemployment and poverty. The problem is that the economic system is set up only to make a profit. Everything goes through the banks. The government funnels them money, but the system gives them the right to hoard it. That’s capitalism.
Poor and working people in fact have plenty of “demand.” There is plenty of demand for affordable housing, well-funded schools, lower tuitions, public hospitals, daycare centers, public transportation investment and secure retirement plans. The $1.8 trillion being hoarded by the corporations for non-productive use could go a long way towards addressing these needs. But because they would not generate private profits, they are deemed impossible and unwise investments.
This election season the two corporate parties are up to their typical games. They are arguing over whether the stimulus plan saved jobs or wasted tax dollars. They are arguing about whether their new banking regulations will reform Wall Street (they won’t.) The Democrats are again pretending to be champions of the people, hypocritically reminding us of how the Republicans defend the rich.
They want workers to focus on their shallow debates so that we accept that mass unemployment is inevitable, cutbacks are necessary and there is nothing we can do to change it. The Democrats want workers to be so afraid of the Tea Party that we will vote for their more moderate-sounding politicians. But the Tea Party—as outrageous as they are—just gives a name to the most conservative trend that has long existed in the Republican Party. Their bigoted and reactionary program must be fought, but we should not forget which party has been firmly in power for the last two years.
The rulers of this country want workers to feel helpless and demoralized, dealing with our economic problems individually, accepting the right-wing drift in politics. But this is not the only way. As a collective, the working class is a sleeping giant. We produce everything, and when we withhold our labor, everything grinds to a halt. That is where our power is felt the most — not primarily in the voting booths, but in the streets and in the workplace. The coming mass march on Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C. gives a glimpse of this power, and signals the need for a national revival of labor activity. Such working-class action would instantly alter the country’s political landscape, regardless of who wins in November.
(For those who are tired of the two Wall Street parties and want to cast a vote against the system, visit VotePSL.org and support a socialist candidate instead.)
