A LIBERAL VIEW OF THINGS: Getting ready for the next bubble — poverty

Remember when Ross Perot made that famous comment about that “giant sucking sound…”?  He was talking about American jobs heading south of the border. His prediction was a little early, but he was right. Corporate America, encouraged and rewarded by the North American Free Trade Agreement, has sent more than 6 million good-paying jobs to Mexico, Asia and Europe.

This is their gift to the American worker so they can be more “competitive."

Those of us who read things other than our iPads have seen the graphs that show how the distribution of wealth has skyrocketed toward the top over the last 20-30 years.  We’ve seen how American CEOs now earn 10 times more than their European counterparts and keep trying to increase that margin. Why? They do it because they are compelled to do it. That is pure capitalism at work. Competition in business is doing whatever it takes to outdo the other guy competing for market share. Without regulation by government, this basic operating system becomes a vicious, cruel and inhuman practice.

Our own industrial history is full of evidence that supports that statement.

There is much complaining from the “conservatives” about overburdening regulation of business. Maybe they’re right, but there are reasons for those regulations. Most of them exist to protect PEOPLE from being abused, exploited, placed in danger or unfairly treated all in the name of profit. The other regulations not directly used to protect people are used to protect the environments in which they live. Pure capitalism, you see, is not people friendly. Its only philosophy is:  If something increases profits it is good.

From Gordon Gecko in the first "Wall Street" movie:  “Greed is good!”

When the housing and loan bubble burst, even the banks admitted they let greed run amok. How was this allowed to happen? The banks/Wall Street spent the last 30 years trying to get deregulated so they could do just what they did. The few who were in on the ground floor literally made billions while the working classes lost their homes, jobs and health care.

The next bubble, poverty, is now growing as a result.

How well do we understand poverty? I’ve seen it, but haven’t lived it. I’ve known people who are very poor and I know some who have worked their way out of it.  Those who escaped poverty in the U.S. had help. Yes, they put forth the majority of the effort, but somebody or something threw them a rope from which they could pull themselves up.

Government statistics today tell us that 15 percent of our population lives in poverty.  Those 47 million people receive new members every day as the middle class continue to lose their jobs, homes and wealth. The downward spiraling middle class is entering the poverty vortex. The only social group not experiencing economic decay is the wealthy. The gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to grow. That fuels the bubble’s growth.

The seemingly disorganized movement around the nation that began with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations is the public display of that bubble. The vast majority of demonstrators are poor or unemployed, but not all of them. They have stories to tell about how their hopes and dreams have been destroyed by the economic failures of the last 10 years, brought about by greed. All the major capitalistic countries in the world share culpability in this great unregulated grab for unseemly wealth, and we now see how vulnerable the global economy is to a few irresponsible merchants of greed.

I recently learned the words “poverty” or “the poor” were never mentioned in the presidential debates in 2008 by any of the candidates. So, who is the voice of the poor in this country? Why aren’t those who claim to be such good Christians not heeding Christ’s words from the Book of Matthew?

Jesus attempted to look after the poor; he was their champion. Are any of today’s politicians talking about the poor and poverty? I haven’t heard anyone speak of the poor. So, who among them, who keep telling us how we are founded on Christian principles, is going to step up and shed the mantle of hypocrisy before the poverty bubble bursts?

Turner is a retired teacher and industrial engineer who lives near Marble Falls. He is an independent columnist, not a staff member, and his views do not necessarily reflect those of The Tribune or its parent company. "The Voter’s Guide to National Salvation" is a newly published e-book from Turner. You can find it at www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks. He can be reached by email at vtgolf@zeecon.com.