When you drive down Charlotte streets you see restaurants waiting for = customers, car lots loaded with cars, empty houses for sale, = supermarkets with=20 ample food products, department stores stuffed to the ceilings, and = sales all=20 over town to attract consumers. We're obviously a very wealthy = community.
So, why do we need new investment in car dealerships, supermarkets,=20 department stores, and so on, in order to =93create jobs=94? Don't we = already have=20 enough stuff to provide all our citizens with a decent standard of = living?=20 Obviously, that's not the problem.
We're in a declining economy, not because bankers don't have enough = money,=20 but because consumers have run out of money to buy everything from = health care=20 to a meal in fast-food outlet. We're not wealthy; the wealthy are = wealthy.
In other words, we've duplicated what happened in the 1920s: the top = 1=20 percent of Americans owned 44 percent of the total wealth in the U.S., = and=20 middle- and low-income Americans ran out of money to buy even the very = products=20 they were making in their factories. In 2000, the last year reliable = statistics=20 were available, the top 1 percent owned 40 percent of all the total = wealth. Can=20 you say d=E9j=E0 vu?
As award-winning historian T.H. Watkins wrote in his book, The Great=20 Depression: =93=85most of the personal wealth in the country resided in = the pockets,=20 bank accounts, and stock portfolios of a tiny percentage of the = population [in=20 1929]. But goods had been produced for the millions, not for the = thousands, and=20 the millions, in the end, simply could not afford them=85 The banks, one = banker=20 remembered, had =91provided everything for their customers but a = roulette=20 wheel.'=94
And what got us out of the depression? Roosevelt's New Deal. His = progressive=20 fiscal policies, and a host of constructive governmental policies, = changed the=20 nature of our economy in ways that ensured that our capitalist system = benefited=20 workers as well as investors. Previously, it had been managed in such a = way that=20 it benefited investors at the direct expense of workers.
Those who say that WWII got us out of the depression have it all = wrong. The=20 fact that we built millions of tanks, planes, shipping vessels, jeeps, = etc., and=20 sent them overseas to get blown up and to blow into smithereens other = nations'=20 tanks, planes, etc., had nothing to do with it. Different fiscal = policies did=20 it.
To finance the war, our liberal President and a liberal Congress = raised the=20 top income tax rate to 88 percent (where it remained for the next 20 = years),=20 implemented an excess profits tax on the war profiteers, taxed dividends = and=20 capital gains, and raised the corporate income tax. According to = conservative=20 economists and politicians, these actions should have destroyed our = economy.=20 Investors wouldn't have enough money to create new jobs.
Instead, the U.S. entered its most prosperous period and developed = the=20 healthiest middle class in history. Of course, since wealth is a = zero-sum=20 situation, it came at the expense of the very wealthy. As of 1976, the = top 1=20 percent owned only 19.9 percent of America's total wealth.
Increases in middle- and low-income Americans' wages had produced = huge=20 consumer demand, and investors came out of the woodwork to satisfy it.=20 =93Demand-side=94 economic principles (you create jobs by getting more = money into=20 the hands of consumers) were so successful that =93liberal=94 was a good = word, until=20 conservative economists revised history. Through stealth, selective = statistics,=20 and outright deception, they were able to convince voters that = =93supply-side=94=20 economics (to create jobs make sure the rich get richer) created a = better=20 economy for everyone.
Our nation is still in the supply-side mode. So far, all government = actions=20 are designed to get money into the banking system and into the hands of=20 investors. Because of our incredibly dire situation, that, indeed, may = be what's=20 necessary. But if the next step doesn't get more money into the hands of = middle-=20 and low-income Americans =96 even at the direct expense to those who = have profited=20 mightily from this lopsided economy during the past 30 years =96 we're = not about=20 to get out of this mess.
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