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Further Into the Hole

Numbers by themselves dont prove anything, but when statistics start piling up in one direction, its hard to deny reality. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in late September that three million more Americans are living in poverty over the last three years, and that household incomes have fallen to the lowest levels in six years. Manufacturing jobs have continued to disappear for 37 straight months. Unemployment is still over 6 percent. And the income gap between the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans and the rest of us continues to grow-and not in our favor.

Working people are sliding deeper into the hole, and its hard to see a way out right now. Before we can dig out, weve got to see how we got there in the first place.

History shows that between 1948 and 1973, Americans generally believed that the economy of the country was for the benefit of the people, that people should help each other when they could, and demand that the government help those less fortunate.

Starting in about 1973 and speeding up considerably in the early 1980s a small group of multinational corporations, using unlimited funds, bankrolled politicians who would do their bidding (Ronald Reagan was a creature of General Electric), gradually bought up media companies, and began to slowly change our attitudes. They took advantage of some of the failures of the great social programs of the 1960s and started to make us believe that we needed only ourselves, that those less fortunate should simply work harder, that the unfettered market would always be fair to those of us worthy of it, and that the government could best serve us all by insuring that the creators of wealth get free rein. Their wealth would trickle down to the workers by allowing these same creators of wealth, to create jobs for them, at wages suitable to their abilities.

They have convinced us that if all is not well it is because some among us are the problem, and thus the enemy. If the government wasnt coddling the people not working, the market could do its miracles, so the poor and unemployed are the enemy. If companies didnt have to hire minorities, the markets could do its miracles, so minorities were the enemy. If you have a gun, those who want to "take away my gun" are the enemy. If youre deeply religious, those who dont believe as you do are the enemy. And if you are stuck in a low-paying dead end nonunion job, those people in unions making more money are the enemy. It was classic divide and conquer.

So now too many in North America waste our energies on hating and fighting each other while the creators (and owners) of wealth ship good jobs overseas, lower all of our wages, and bombard us with their party line. And because we are so busy hating each other, we pay no attention.

And so the creators of wealth control more of the wealth and more and more of our lives. Well, I serve only one Creator, not the corporate masters. And I believe that if the American people would just pay attention, and realize that we are all one people and all in this together, then we might change things. If we would just wake up and see that 5 percent of the American people own 95 percent of the wealth, in this country, and the top 1 percent owns 95 percent of that, then maybe we could change things.

The real Creator warned about worshiping false gods and the corporate creators of wealth have done what the Founding Fathers sought to avoid-created a national religion, and money is its name. If we just realize that we the people are not each others enemies, then we have a shot at getting out of the hole we find ourselves in. After all, 95 percent can outvote 5 percent every time.

Jeremiah J. OConnor

International Secretary-Treasurer