Fighting for Economic Equality

Inspired by a Franklin Roosevelt “State of the Union” speech in 1941, enshrined in the UN Charter on Human Rights, and given shape and face by Norman Rockwell in a classic painting of a family sitting around a Thanksgiving table, Freedom from Want symbolizes the promise of an abundant life for all Americans. At heart, it’s about equality of opportunity in attaining a job, a home, and a safe place for family to live and grow in.

A good job – Freedom from Want requires the dignity of a being paid a living wage for an honest day’s work.  Yet, the stagnation of wages even as productivity has grown at a steady pace is a simple fact for the past 30 years or more.  Flat wages are the reality for any working person outside of the top 10% in wealth who is struggling to meet expenses every month. Salaried positions are becoming harder to get, and raises minimal in our “gig economy” which promotes the idea that gig workers have the freedom to choose to work as much as they want.

An affordable place to work and live – The affordability of a home near one’s place of work was once a cornerstone of the American dream. No longer. The Great Recession of 2008 (which should be called the Great Fraud) put a permanent dent in home ownership as well as depressing wages for a younger generation. As housing prices and rents have “recovered,” owning a home gets further out of reach for most Americans.

A community to grow in – Communities, especially in rural areas of the country, have been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs, the opioid epidemic and the decline of locally owned businesses. Identifiable neighborhoods in our major cities have also suffered from skyrocketing retail rents, and outside investors driving out residents to turn housing into more lucrative short-term rentals.

Risks have shifted to the individual

More than ever since the Great Depression in the 1930s, the risks which we fear most: losing a job, losing our house to foreclosure, losing our health to a chronic illness have become common place for the majority of Americans. At the same time, the backstop to all of these risks, the social safety net managed by government: local, state and federal continues to falter.  Record foreclosures on homes, soaring credit card debt, student loans, dramatically rising healthcare co-pays and premiums are all signs of how risks have shifted to individuals. Those without direct extended family support are the most vulnerable. The COVID 19 pandemic and its catastrophic consequences for working families across the U.S. lays bare this shift of risk from society to the individual.

Why equality is the foundation of our freedom from want

Political scientist Danielle Allen captures how Americans typically look at freedom and equality in this short video. We can readily talk about our “freedoms” but it’s much more difficult to express how equality is tied to those freedoms and goes far beyond simply civil rights or voting rights.  It’s an introduction to her book: Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality.

Concentration of Extreme Wealth is the Enemy of Democracy

Anand Giridharadas, Time magazine editor-at-large and author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” provides a very clear explanation of the emergence of a billionaire class that perpetuates a myth that values freedom of the individual above the community or the common good of society. Underpinning it all is what he calls a 40-year ideological battle that maintains government is always bad, and that worshiping the unrestrained individual is the best way to run our society.