I want to devote some thought to how we address grievances here in America. I wanted to start, first, with the follow up to some of the issues I've posted about before. In Flint, Michigan a couple of lawsuits are in progress as we speak, the Governor has issues a public apology and vowed to drink the water himself. It's still an ongoing topic, not something I would say is done by any means, but things are being done to address the grievance.
In Ferguson, Missouri even though the specific officer involved was not indicted the federal Dept of Justice investigated the police department and determined that it had engaged in misconduct against the citizens of Ferguson. Again, this is still an ongoing issue...and there are people who think not enough was done (and others who think too much was done). I'm not trying to judge how it was addressed, so much as pointing out that various groups are trying to address it.
So it sounds good, right? We have grievances, they're being addressed, nothing to worry about?
Except that these specific instances are also examples of deeper underlying grievances. Racial differences. Class tension. Elitism. Leadership that fails to address a problem before it blows up into a full-blown crisis. (This last one is not the best point, since who knows how many situations were addressed before they became a crisis?)
Note that I said "racial differences" instead of "racism". That's because the different opinions about incidents like this reflect different cultures as well as actual racism. "Law-abiding" primarily white citizens who support and respect law enforcement (and I count myself and most everyone I know in this category) have a hard time understanding why people - people who used to get arrested for loitering and other minor offenses in order to force them to work on various projects; who saw law enforcement bring out dogs and hoses against men, women and children - don't trust the police. Are some of these incidents truly about criminal behavior? Or is some of it because an officer doesn't feel they are given the respect due as a representative of the law?
Yet I actually want to focus more on class grievances - in part because that is what Trump appears to be tapping into. I've seen article after article over the last decade that has talked about the shrinking of the middle class. Stagnant wages. Greater disparity in income. We know this is happening. You have to be living under a rock to be unaware of this...
And yet nothing serious is being done. During the Great Depression we had the Public Works Administration, during the Great Recession we had austerity. We have respected economists saying we actually should have had even more stimulus, we have article after article talking about our aging infrastructure...and none of it seems to translate into actual policy changes.
I read economic articles talking about 'recovery', how the companies who were bailed out during the financial crisis were able to pay everything back, how things are better...yet none of it seems to trickle down to the average person. Getting by is just as much of a struggle now than it was 8 years ago. (and then we get articles saying "we need consumer spending to grow the economy", and I have to laugh. Where do you think the consumers get the money to spend? They're tapped out...they're going to keep being tapped out until debts are paid off or wages grow.)
I can get into nitty gritty details more at a later time, I kind of wanted to point out a few other things first.
A few years ago a study showed that the collective preferences of ordinary citizens has almost no effect on policy, whereas the collective preferences of our wealthiest citizens have a much greater impact.
In other words - the wealthy don't seem to care about the struggles of the everyone else, and they're the ones who actually make policy.
This is a pretty massive and difficult topic, so I'll probably post some more later.
In Ferguson, Missouri even though the specific officer involved was not indicted the federal Dept of Justice investigated the police department and determined that it had engaged in misconduct against the citizens of Ferguson. Again, this is still an ongoing issue...and there are people who think not enough was done (and others who think too much was done). I'm not trying to judge how it was addressed, so much as pointing out that various groups are trying to address it.
So it sounds good, right? We have grievances, they're being addressed, nothing to worry about?
Except that these specific instances are also examples of deeper underlying grievances. Racial differences. Class tension. Elitism. Leadership that fails to address a problem before it blows up into a full-blown crisis. (This last one is not the best point, since who knows how many situations were addressed before they became a crisis?)
Note that I said "racial differences" instead of "racism". That's because the different opinions about incidents like this reflect different cultures as well as actual racism. "Law-abiding" primarily white citizens who support and respect law enforcement (and I count myself and most everyone I know in this category) have a hard time understanding why people - people who used to get arrested for loitering and other minor offenses in order to force them to work on various projects; who saw law enforcement bring out dogs and hoses against men, women and children - don't trust the police. Are some of these incidents truly about criminal behavior? Or is some of it because an officer doesn't feel they are given the respect due as a representative of the law?
Yet I actually want to focus more on class grievances - in part because that is what Trump appears to be tapping into. I've seen article after article over the last decade that has talked about the shrinking of the middle class. Stagnant wages. Greater disparity in income. We know this is happening. You have to be living under a rock to be unaware of this...
And yet nothing serious is being done. During the Great Depression we had the Public Works Administration, during the Great Recession we had austerity. We have respected economists saying we actually should have had even more stimulus, we have article after article talking about our aging infrastructure...and none of it seems to translate into actual policy changes.
I read economic articles talking about 'recovery', how the companies who were bailed out during the financial crisis were able to pay everything back, how things are better...yet none of it seems to trickle down to the average person. Getting by is just as much of a struggle now than it was 8 years ago. (and then we get articles saying "we need consumer spending to grow the economy", and I have to laugh. Where do you think the consumers get the money to spend? They're tapped out...they're going to keep being tapped out until debts are paid off or wages grow.)
I can get into nitty gritty details more at a later time, I kind of wanted to point out a few other things first.
A few years ago a study showed that the collective preferences of ordinary citizens has almost no effect on policy, whereas the collective preferences of our wealthiest citizens have a much greater impact.
In other words - the wealthy don't seem to care about the struggles of the everyone else, and they're the ones who actually make policy.
This is a pretty massive and difficult topic, so I'll probably post some more later.
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