Which Side Are You Really On?

“The 99 versus the 1” - this is both a convenient rounding and a misnomer about just who is battling who. The mainstream media and the Tea Party have been minimizing the Occupy movements as the actions of a few professional agitators with a handful of hippie soldiers. I was watching CNBC the other day, and while they did conduct an interview with Michael Moore, he was not allowed in the building. After the interview ended, one of the conservative on air personalities said, “I agree with one thing that Michael Moore just said; 2 years on and no one has been punished for the financial crisis.” He continued, “But I agree with absolutely NOTHING else."

There is some serious cognitive dissonance at work when someone can agree with the root of the problem polarizing America, and the world, but yet claim to completely disagree with the problem’s obvious origin, that there are any steps needed to resolve it, or acknowledge the devastating effects it has had on innocent people. This attitude is all too common, especially among the aspirational middle and upper classes (what few of them are left). What is the source of this massive disconnect? I believe the answer can be found in our class system; rarely is it discussed, but it plays a pivotal role in keeping different groups from seeing that they are all in the same boat. Here is the modern class system as I see it.

1. The Underclass

This class is easy to define and describe: they will be found working at minimum wage or low-paying jobs, or are just plain out of work. This class has members who were always poor but are increasingly being joined by the underemployed (those working as Walmart greeters who ‘left’ their careers as comfortable middle managers), the newly unemployed, and those working whose wages have not kept up with inflation and who dropped into the category of ‘poor’ by all known definitions.

There are now about 6 unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. To put the jobs issue into perspective, Harvard University accepts roughly 7% of applicants. At a national “Hiring Day” in May, the apparently even more prestigious fast-food chain McDonalds only accepted 6.2% of applicants. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone, and the poorest class is joined in alarming numbers on a daily basis.

2. The Middle Class

The middle class is less tangible: definitions vary, and the estimated size ranges from 25% to 65% of the population. A popular definition describes a comfortable standard of living, economic security, and work autonomy, but few of these seem to apply to anyone in America’s new reality. Certainly not to those making between $25K and $100K per year, the range for “middle class” income suggested by the Drum Major Institute. One thing is certain, however; despite this group's aspirations, their ranks are rapidly dwindling. The nebulous nature of its definition can only temporarily hide this fact.

Even a few of this article’s 22 statistics showing the destruction of this class are unnerving – for example, that from 2001-2007, 61% of all income growth in the US went to the top 1%, and most of that to the highest fraction. Similarly, the top 1% now own twice as much wealth as they did 15 years ago. Our polarization of wealth is now worse than during the Great Depression. Taken as a whole, the statistics are terrifying. It is now unequivocal that this vast part of the population is being rapidly eroded, yet there is a general refusal to face this fact. This pig-headed avoidance of the deep problems within the American economic system is exemplified by Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, who recently told the unemployed and poor, “Blame yourself!”

3. The Indentured Elite

I began this post with questioning the math of 99% vs. 1%. The reason I thought that this was oversimplified was because I, and a number of my peers, are considered ‘rich’ –this is a flawed perception, so I decided to break down the numbers even further. What I call the ‘indentured elite’ is a class that is rarely, if ever, talked about: so infrequently, in fact, that I may be coining the name here. They are lumped in with the ultra-rich but with an entry point of just $250K to the top 1.5%, their interests could not be more different. A nice house and car, the occasional luxury holiday, and access to credit may visibly differentiate them from other classes, but these are basically meaningless.

Their status is just as insecure as the other groups – perhaps more so, due to their ability to over-leverage – and they are just as powerless. Trapped, they do the bidding of the true corporate and banking elites, either by resigning or deluding themselves to it. If the other classes who side with the oligarchs are their foot soldiers, these are their sergeants and generals. Indentured elites, unlike the true rich, did not benefit from the financial crisis. Much like the middle class, while this group’s ranks have shrunk since 2008, those that remained actually became poorer in relative terms than the real rich, who made an absolute killing during the recent calamity.

4. The Top 0.01%

These are the money masters – the (often hereditary) uber-elites who make markets, give orders to politicians, and have been engaged in a decades-long campaign to actively siphon off wealth from all of the other classes. You have nothing in common with them. I have nothing in common with them. Most CEOs or multi-millionaires have nothing in common with them - even Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, people who made their wealth in one generation, have been pushing vigorously to redistribute for the greater good.

The top fraction are the people who have rigged the game hopelessly in their favor, grabbed everything within reach, and then used the media to convince the average person that America is a meritocracy and people who fall behind have no one to blame but themselves. They hide their theft by creating a system that benefits only them, all the while claiming that the whims of the markets and economy are inevitable, like a force of nature. They will not stop until someone stops them.

People need to stop deluding themselves about where they stand on the economic food chain and face the harsh reality. Americans are led to believe their country has the wealth equality of Sweden. It’s actually more like Nigeria, Uganda or the Philippines. If all of the underclasses – from the poor to the indentured elite – can’t unite on that common ground, then no one will be able to stop this runaway train.

It's Time for Unity - We're All Greeks Now

Two years ago, when the world’s ails were all being placed squarely on the shoulders of the lazy, deadbeat Greeks, we wrote that the plight of the common Greek was not dissimilar to the plight of the average person anywhere else in the world. We drew many parallels to other Western countries, in particular my beloved Canada. While some commenters were appalled that I dared to compare Canada to Greece, even in the best of the G7 nations the similarities are becoming discernable. With all that has changed in the world, I encourage the reader to go back to the post and see if it has a stronger resonance for you than it may have had last year.

It definitely does for me. Although the media continues to attempt to trumpet the ‘Blame Greece’ theme, it no longer rings as true for many people. For those Greeks that I encounter here in Canada who have adopted a timid and apologetic tone, I invite you to read the wonderful article published here:Link. In it, the author details the money flow and that those being both blamed and charged for the indiscretions of a profligate society, are not the culprits. Every Greek should read that article to be able to educate all those who continue to remain blind and who parrot the negative bull.

Hold your head high, as it is the Greeks that have been leading the charge, and whose Olympian torch is now sparking the ‘Occupy’ movement. In a previous post, we listed the benefactors of the Greek National debt and proffered the list of those who were being asked to pay for it, in order. The injustice of who made the money and who was left to pay was as obvious then as it is now, yet we still encounter the mass ignorance of the Tea Party, their followers, and those who rely on headlines and media sound bites to understand the world we live in.

It was just over two years ago that the fear started raging about Greece’s economy. A country whose GDP was just 2% of Europe’s was going to singlehandedly take down the E.U., and with it the world, if draconian austerity measures were not immediately adopted. All Prime Minister Papandreou could offer was, “If we do not adopt these changes it will be catastrophic”. They were forcibly adopted and the results have been catastrophic. Greece’s GDP grew in 2008, all be it modestly, at a rate of 2%. Since the magical cure-all of austerity was rammed down the throats of the Greek commoner, the Greek economy has shrunk at an increasingly alarming rate (2009/-3% 2010/-4%) and unemployment has reached the absurd (2011/14.85% 2011 est.).

Remember that austerity was preached as the solution to Greece’s economic ills, and that the financial spin doctors had forecasted that growth would inevitably follow austerity. Combined with lowered spending and the sale of state assets, this strict fiscal diet was the cure-all that would bring Greece back from the brink and save the modern world. It’s also not a coincidence that it was these same financial wizards who cooked the books to allow Greece entry into the Euro in the first place, and who stood to lose the most from the logical path of a structured default. Austerity was never going to work, as we had already learned from Argentina’s case and so many others. Austerity was always going to lead to further ruin, but the banks would be able to collect their due for a little while longer.

Just over a month ago, a small group of the disenfranchised – aka the ‘99%’- began a peaceful protest that was quickly dubbed “Occupy Wall Street”. While it is primarily a U.S. movement, its roots can be traced back to the fight that the Greek people have been waging for over two years, the same anger and frustration at an unjust global system that inspired the Arab Spring. The Greek protests were dismissed by the media and European elites as anger from a lazy people being deprived of their cushy welfare state – never mind that the indolent Greeks work more hours per year than the Germans. In the Arab world, the protests were spun as a simple plea for Western-supported democracy. Neither explanation was correct – the roots of the protests were about something much larger, and deeper.

When you ask people what Occupy Wall Street is all about, you get few concrete answers in return. Who are their leaders and what are their demands? It seems to be about nothing, the media complains, perplexed at how to explain the movement. Is it about political corruption and lobbying? Is it about greedy bankers and their golden parachutes? Is it about unemployment, and the growing inequality and income disparity in America? Is it about the iron grips of Big Oil and Big Pharma? It is about the loss of civil liberties and the multi-billion dollar surveillance state?

There are no easy answers. The movement has no one single leader and no single demand. But it would be a dangerous mistake to dismiss the protests as ‘about nothing’, especially as they have found a deep resonance, and spread like wildfire throughout the globe. If it was truly about nothing, would more and more people be joining daily, pitching tents, sending money, and, at least in New York, even ordering pizzas for the campers? The answer is simple yet wholly intangible; it is the global collective consciousness finally being awakened from slumber, throwing off the torpor induced by fear and lies and the distractions of the media. And as it awakens, it begins to see the world with crystal clarity, like a child who simply knows right from wrong.

In 2008, the whole world nearly collapsed and the prescribed tonic was just more of the same with a sprinkling of tax on the poor (directly or through increased deficits). Good people lost their jobs, the world’s youth has been robbed of its hope and all the while the rich just seem to get richer and continue to be rewarded for the carnage they have created. The movement is like a child that does not know what is wrong; it just knows that something is very wrong. It will cry until it gets what it wants, though it does not necessarily know what that is. Now picture a child that is 300 feet tall and weighs 500 tons…what happens when that child doesn’t get what it wants? Anger is usually not far behind the crying, so someone better figure out what the pacifier is, fast. It is everywhere and in front of us and it surely isn’t the same old thing.

And so, just as the Greeks, as the pioneers of this movement, have been screaming enough for over two years, the world is now saying it as well. ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!