IT DOESN'T ADD UP

There's a lot of people with a little money right now. A lot of workers who don't have jobs. A lot of "outside-people" are staying inside. Homeowners are losing their homes. Senior citizens are seeing their long-term investments disappear. The fat are getting skinny because they have no food. We've definitely entered an era of change.

While many of us are drafting and implementing our own personal recovery plans, it's also important to understand how we fit into the larger plan for the economy. We are capital. If you are alive, you fall within one of the 17 definitions of the word. To not understand capital when living within Capitalism, is somewhat suicidal. In many cases people do take their lives. The majority, though, continue breathing at their economic peril.

W.E.B. DuBois said even before the The Federal Reserve's institution that “To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.” There's much to be learned from from the African Diaspora and more importantly the aftermath and progress that followed. Many believe that The Atlantic Slave Trade is ancient history. Many others forget when we put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps in 1942. The African struggle in particular has many teachers, but they seem to be systematically silenced and demonized. The same people that have historically oppressed the Blacks are still in power now. You can't have American history without African-American History.

At the top of the power structure are rich white men. That can't be denied. $250,000 is the marker the president is using for the upper class. As of August 2008, the real median income was $50,233 per year. 1 in 50(or 20% of earners) make $250K+. To give this some perspective, here are some key statistics for Lancaster, PA:

Based on 2 Adults, 2 children

LIVING WAGE = $28.18/hr
POVERTY WAGE = $9.83/hr
MINIMUM WAGE = $7.25/hr

Find your city here

The median income of Lancaster for 2008 was $44,600. This includes the likes of Armstrong CEO making $10M, while cutting jobs at or below the living wage.

The title of the Census' press release was "Household Income Rises, Poverty Rate Unchanged, Number's of Uninsured Down." Seems like a sandwich. Positive, Negative, Positive. The negative heart of this socio-sandwich seems to be ignored. I'm no economist(yet), but it should raise some sort of red flag when income rises and poverty doesn't change. It reflects the widening wealth gap. Higher salaries at the top distort averages and medians. Median is the numerical halfway point, e.g., 100 million earners, the median is @ 50 regardless of income. The average is adding all income and dividing by the number of earners.

The media, who are owned by the top 1% of earners, tell us that the rich pay the majority of taxes. That is true, numerically. What cannot be ignored when analyzing who pays taxes, is the huge gap between the actual incomes. In order to make the list of the 400 richest Americans, you would've had to make $1.3 BILLION last year. In 2007, the CEO's of bailed out financial institutions Merryll Lynch and Goldman Sachs earned $83M and $54M respectively. I'm all for rewarding achievement, but these banks failed.

We've arrived at this point by not being "in the know" and dismissing Politics as irrelevant. As a result, we have many laws and systems in place that are in direct conflict with our personal well-being and the common good. It's time to realize we can, and have to, make a difference. The middle class has disappeared, and many do not want to come to terms with this fact.

Any energy spent on arguing about differences amongst those who have so much in common is counter-productive and counter-REproductive. Race, Religion, Sex, Political Party, are just some of the divisive categories in which we're placed. Compartmentalization is a useful tool for those in power.

As Aesop tried to teach us in The Four Oxen and the Lions,

A LION used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.
“UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.”