The other day, at our local fresh fruit and veggie stand, I noticed that a young woman working there was requesting tips for her "college fund." I put $5.00 in the jar that she had and asked her where she was studying. Her mom, who runs the stand, said wearily: "I'm not so sure college is the right idea anymore. A college degree doesn't necessarily mean a job when you have so much debt." John Zogby, the noted pollster, calls such people CEWCGJ: "College Educated Who Cannot Get Jobs."
That experience was a wake-up call: a hardworking mom with few dreams for her daughter's future. Consider this statistic: "About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years."
Since when did America become a land of no opportunity? Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently declared that "the U.S. worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity. But today, that dream is a myth." Like many others, he focuses on the growing concentration of income in America. While I worry about it, too, I also fear that we've become obsessed with income inequality, to the point that our leadership beats up on hardworking people who chase their dreams and become successful as a result.
The America I'm proud of rewards education, ambition, and work. Why should someone be embarrassed about making a seven-figure salary? According to a GlobeScan poll, 58 percent of Americans "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree" that the rich deserve their wealth. And according to a recent Gallup poll, "three-quarters of registered voters say the fact that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is worth more than $200 million makes no difference to their likelihood of voting for him."
It has become too common to think that anyone who makes a lot of money must be greedy. In fact, some of the biggest philanthropists are some of the biggest business titans: think Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Indeed, the wealthy have played an indispensable role in making America into what it is today: think Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and John Rockefeller.
Rather than demonizing them and their success, we should be encouraging innovation and getting out of the way of entrepreneurs. It's thanks to the private sector that we've been able to tap huge reserves of tight oil and shale gas, discoveries that many people think will lead to American energy independence. It's also thanks to the private sector that we're tapping the potential of nanotechnology, big data, three-dimensional printing, and online education, among other things, all of which could reap huge economic dividends down the road.
Stoking class warfare may be good election-year politics, but it isn't the way to restore the American Dream. If it was, unemployment wouldn't be stuck at 8.2 percent, and young women like the one I met would be on their feet and hopeful for the future.
I do not know a single person that demonizes the wealthy. No one I know hates people for being rich. What people do have a problem with is the rich who have continued to rig the game by buying the office’s of our political leaders. It wasn’t the poor or mid class who wanted bank deregulation, it wasn’t the poor or mid class that created and invested in asset backed securities, it wasn’t at the request of the poor and middle class that we are in the place we are now.
No one hates Bill Gates because he is too rich. But they do hate Madoff because he stole. And this is what many of the rich are doing. Buying laws, changing the rules and moving the country backwards.
What does it say today on HP – The rich are hoarding 32 Billion in offshore tax havens? How many poor or middle class have money to hide from the tax man? None.
Give me a break. Can't wait to hear more from out of touch insiders.
There is an old adage that states "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." If the wealthy don't stop biting the hands of the workers that feed their greed, we will stop buying your products.
As a nation, I'd say we hold more contempt for the person that cleans toilets than for rich people. I mean the system is just set up for one at the expense of the other. Maybe you consider taxation a form of assault on character?