Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Traitors Within Us

We have a problem in this country. There is a group of people with so much hate in their hearts that they are willing to accept injury to themselves if it will deprive the target of their hatred of enjoyment of life.

No, it isn't Occupy Wall Street and the top 1%. It is those who oppose doing anything to help the unemployed because they view people who haven't been able to find work as not deserving of help. Polls suggest that this group consists of a significant portion of our society, but their willful dishonesty and distortion of facts has lead to an even larger influence such that unemployment is still high nearly four years after the financial crisis and recession that caused the loss of millions of jobs here in the United States.

It is our responsibility to the unemployed and those whose careers have been delayed by the recession to identify these harmful elements of society and end their influence. Their selfish attitudes may be the result of malice or just stupidity, but we cannot allow them to poison our democracy any longer.

Surprisingly, it is not the super rich who are responsible for our economic problems. Most entrepreneurs come from the middle class, and the rich generally do not invent new product types or services that lead to more employment nor do they need to—the rich create jobs simply by spending money. As a historical trend the top 1% have been gaining a greater share of income without an equal increase in spending, but this is entirely the fault of us as consumers for making spending choices that result in high corporate profits that go to the rich.

Then who are the harmful elements in society who oppose creating jobs for the unemployed? The answer is simple. It is the middle class who benefit from high levels of inequality and unemployment and those elements of the poor they can delude into helping them. Polls show that, with unemployment still high and inequality at a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930's, almost three fifths of the US population think that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed but less than half support government spending as the way to address the problems facing our society. Unemployment hurts all workers, yet these people allow it to continue.

As a nation we could easily create enough jobs for everyone by working less and compensating for the drop in income by buying fewer status symbols. This would allow those with advanced education or skills to find appropriate work while lowering the profits of corporations that depend on selling overpriced items and services to the affluent. But it is precisely the reduction in inequality this would cause that makes it understandable that some people would oppose this plan. Lower unemployment would mean higher wages for the poor which is of no concern to the super rich who can pay for anything, but it would cause problems for businesses that depend on exploiting low-wage workers to make a profit or that provide certain services to the rich that would see lower demand, such as Wall Street and the financial sector. Even corporations that do not sell to the rich might be forced to lower their prices to maintain the same volume of sales, which could lead to a reduction of income for the more well-paid members of an organization.

So it is important to understand that some people in the middle class have a very real interest in maintaining current levels of inequality. Some people might be deluded into thinking that the economic crisis has hurt the rich when the truth is just the opposite, but the continued efforts of those on the progressive portion of the political spectrum and the limited impact of the protests of Occupy Wall Street have shown that misperception is only part of the problem. Some people like how unequal the United States has become and think they can get away with ignoring our nation's problems, or worse, actively trying to make them worse by further reducing government spending in a time of economic need.

It's time to show them that they're wrong. We cannot allow those who work for large corporations to suffer with the knowledge of the profits they help to create while society refuses to help the unemployed by providing a source of income. Whether it is through [work conservation](http://jobcreationplan.blogspot.com/) or any of the myriad of solutions that involve more government spending and taxation, we will not allow this state of affairs to continue any longer. Whether it is a third or even a majority of the population who support oppression of the underprivileged members of society, our victory is already assured since creatures of darkness are not known to thrive in sunlight.

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