Why Not Trickle-Up?

Why NOT Trickle-Up?

As usual, the comedians among us speak the most sensible words. I’m told that it has always been so, that only the jesters in the king’s court were able to speak the truth to power, under the protective wings of “comedy.”

What is so ridiculous about Jon Stewart’s idea, offered in his January 27th interview of Gwen Ifill: that our government use bailout money to pay off the debt of all Americans? GIVE the money to the banks, to AIG, to those bastions of wealth and corruption. But let it settle then the debts of the people. Require these financial institutions to wipe clean the slates. Two parties are then placed in a position to thrive once again—the creditor and the debtor. This is a win-win and a true stimulus for the entire country.

Earlier this week, a man in Los Angeles killed his five children, his wife, and then himself in order to spare them all the misery that was lurking after both he and his wife lost their jobs at a hospital. That is horrific enough. Worse is that this is becoming commonplace. This is the fifth mass family murder/suicide in California in the past year. Authorities urge families to “get help” when economic disaster strikes. Really? From where? The banks? The government?

The only ones eligible for financial rescue are those who already have money. Consider men like the ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, who a few months ago completed a $1.2 million renovation of his office and then in December disbursed $4 billion in bonus money to his colleagues. Four-frickin’ billion dollars! All of this while the company was being “rescued” with tax dollars.

Where can the disappearing middle-class turn: the unemployed father and mother who cannot tomorrow feed their children; the college student burdened with thousands of dollars in loans; the “new poor,” strapped by credit card debt? Who will speak for these?

The unlikely answer seems to be Jon Stewart. It’s a sad day, indeed, when only the jester speaks a word of sense.

The Up Side of the Downslide

This is my first economic depression, and I must admit to finding a little secret joy in it. My 93 year-old granny has been here before and remembers the bad days with a bit of fondness: people working together, folks showing generosity with what little they had, a free market that was really about creating new jobs and financially secure employees. In my almost-half-a-decade, I have seldom witnessed such things. My generation has been mostly devoted to the almighty “me”-- to an individualistic spirit of competition for a rich reward and out-of-control spending as a form of worship.

We weren’t going to change for any altruistic reasons, though there are plenty to choose: our country has the second-highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world, 47 million of our workers are uninsured, and our country’s children are threatened not only with poor educations but also poor physical and emotional health. The growing number of homeless families was not enough to move us until our own homes were threatened by foreclosure. And there’s the rub: now we are becoming a growing part of the statistics we hear bantered on CNN. Now those sorrowful numbers are devouring us and our proud families.

The upside is that when pushed to the brink of poverty, we do change. We revolt. We refuse to purchase gasoline at $4/gallon. We are done with CEO’s who maneuver around the country on private jets. We are sick of bailing out the rich. What may be around the corner, then, is a return of the middle class. The pendulum swings, and if you’ve been living high on the hog, you may be about to suck hind tit. At least that’s my little dream. I’m fine living through this depression, as long as we share the consequences with our brothers and sisters up in the big house.