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ENVY

Let me start things off by taking my own whack at the now well-thrashed piñata of Mitt Romney’s latest pronouncement, that complaints of widening inequality are simply “envy.” I think that to some extent, in the current political climate, this attempt by Romney to claim the crown for “most out-of-touch presidential candidate since George Bush, Sr.” needs no real rebuttal; by all means let him self-destruct. Those taking the occasion to make or repeat useful points about inequality, meanwhile, have already done a fine job.

But I thought of one more point, yesterday, which I think is interesting enough to record here; I think this might be a good response if one were in a debate with Romney (and actually wished to contest his dismissal of inequality). A bit long for a genuinely good sound-bite, probably, but oh well. Here goes:

Think about it this way, Mitt. Imagine you have a friend who plans to start a company. He’s going to need a lot of start-up capital for this enterprise, say $200 million. So you and, say, 98 other friends all go in as investors; not necessarily in equal shares but all 100 people have contributed something to this project. The $200M total is reached, the company is launched, and huzzah! your investments produce a success. Or, that is, they produce growth, but not for 99% of those who made that growth possible, you included. Certainly, the amount of initial contributions varied so one would likewise expect investors’ shares of the growth to vary, but everyone should receive something. Except that 99% are receiving absolutely nothing, with all of the growth going to the enrichment of just 1 in 100, the CEO having through some chicanery or other arranged to keep all the company’s growth to himself. This is entirely contrary to how things were supposed to work, themes of “a rising tide lifts all boats” and “everyone in this together” having been constantly repeated when money was being collected. And so, naturally, you and the rest of the 99% intend to protest this outcome, vocally and aggressively. Asked to respond to your charges, the CEO shrugs disdainfully, waves his hand and pronounces them “just envy.”

And undoubtedly, Romney’s warped corporations-are-people perspective would find various reasons why this is an invalid parallel. He still insists that Romneycare and Obamacare are completely different, after all. But I’m not sure he convinces anyone else. (more…)

Before anything else, a brief note: for a while now I’ve been mulling various thoughts about fairness, debt, bailouts, etc., and thinking about maybe organizing them into a post. Mary Ann Sieghart hasn’t written exactly what I would have, but it’s probably close enough and well worth the read if this is an itch that you, too, have wanted to scratch.

That out of the way, yes, at last, Election Day. I’m not entirely sure what’s at stake outside of Ohio; San Francisco apparently has some sort of 18-way mayoral race which will test the concept of ranked voting pretty dramatically, and I think the recall election against Walker is proceeding in Wisconsin. The latter will probably be of some interest, though I don’t know what to expect, preoccupied as I’ve been with the Ohio race.

Most novel 2011 campaign memory? Probably this weekend, when I got a robocall promoting Issue 2 and denouncing the “lies” which “special interests” were using to “scare voters” (oh, Republicans, truly you must know no shame whatsoever). I’ve gotten a few of these, but this one was different. This one was recorded by Pat Boone.

Yeah. Desperate? Maybe; I found it just plain random and weird. (more…)

Is it just me, or do working relationships seem to be getting slowly but steadily worse for the rest of you lately, too? Mostly in little ways yet, without any clear reason thus leaving one asking “why?” Why now? It seems like, if it isn’t just my imagination, it probably has something to do with economic conditions. I know I’m reluctant to put my foot down, even after many incremental moves towards “suck,” given the daunting prospect of trying to find replacement income. Multiply this millions of times over, and you’ve probably got means, motive and opportunity, as they say. Reported trends for “productivity” probably back this up too, to the extent that “productivity gains” are in many cases a matter of squeezing anxious workers to do more work for the same compensation.

What doesn’t seem to be getting slowly but steadily worse, though? Anthem jacked up my premiums by “only” 12% this year; I guess I’m just going to put up with that, too, for the time being. I’ve tried shopping around in recent years, and just ended up raising my deductible a couple of times. I don’t feel like I want to do so yet again, so I suppose I’ll just eat the extra expense and hope that maybe, somehow, something will offer relief in another year, or another year after that. Arguments over what, if any, cost-control effects will result from “Obamacare” or were even intended to result from it, as well as the long timeline for implementation, keep my expectations low.

Some things get cheaper, of course, particularly information technology products and services, though this is partly offset by the fact that we end up needing more and better versions of them to maintain their utility in a networked world. Meanwhile it’s just those few outlier categories of things one actually needs which keep going up, up, up in cost; The Atlantic had an item about this a while back. Health care, education, food (even if most Americans are still rich enough to take little notice), fuel (rather more obvious). How long can this go on?

Small wonder that a protest movement has finally erupted in America, with the great majority of us getting relentlessly squeazed from the direction of both income and expenses, for, oh, most of my life, give-or-take? (more…)