For years, people have known there is a large disconnect between the lives of the vast majority and those who represent us in Washington, DC. In today's climate, this can be easily seen by the fact that MOST Americans are concerned about jobs and the overall economy, while our representatives are consumed with the issues of taxes and deficit reduction!
Why is it that our elected leaders constantly focus on issues that matter the least to everyday working people?
Sadly, the answer can be found in strict economic terms.
A person whose wealth falls between $765,010 - $2.38 million simply can't fathom what it's like to live on $50,000, $30,000 or $12,000 per year. All of their ideas are based on theory and speculation. And these theories and speculations are distorted in a severe sense because the lives of our representatives are divorced from the varying realities that their constituents live.
By the same token, the average working man or woman in American has no clue what it would be like to eke out a subsistence living in a third world nation. When even many poor Americans have cell phones and cable TV, it's next too impossible to imagine what it would be like to live in a thatched-roof hut and to scrounge for a meager one meal per day.
As much as people try to run away from the idea that our world is involved in class struggle, that's where we find ourselves in situation after situation.
The way things are going in the US right now, many Americans may be forced into circumstances in which we will come to understand third world life far better than we ever wanted and we can "thank" our rich representatives for that!
Why is it that our elected leaders constantly focus on issues that matter the least to everyday working people?
Sadly, the answer can be found in strict economic terms.
In 2009, the median wealth of a U.S. House member stood at $765,010, up from $645,503 in 2008. The median wealth of a U.S. senator was nearly $2.38 million, up from $2.27 million in 2008...To put it bluntly, the people who serve the public live in a world ten arm's length AWAY from the public they supposedly "serve".
A person whose wealth falls between $765,010 - $2.38 million simply can't fathom what it's like to live on $50,000, $30,000 or $12,000 per year. All of their ideas are based on theory and speculation. And these theories and speculations are distorted in a severe sense because the lives of our representatives are divorced from the varying realities that their constituents live.
By the same token, the average working man or woman in American has no clue what it would be like to eke out a subsistence living in a third world nation. When even many poor Americans have cell phones and cable TV, it's next too impossible to imagine what it would be like to live in a thatched-roof hut and to scrounge for a meager one meal per day.
As much as people try to run away from the idea that our world is involved in class struggle, that's where we find ourselves in situation after situation.
The way things are going in the US right now, many Americans may be forced into circumstances in which we will come to understand third world life far better than we ever wanted and we can "thank" our rich representatives for that!
And the rich don't even consider themselves rich. I was listening to something on NPR some time ago, about how even a multimillionaire will say, in seriousness, "no, I'm not rich. Let me tell you about this other guy i know, HE'S rich..." The guest on the show, who'd written a book on all this, said he actually had a billionaire say he wasn't rich. And then you get numb nuts like Rand Paul, who the night he got elected said "there are no rich, there are no poor."
ReplyDeleteIt's because they live in an insulated world, and don't have contact with the poor (that's us). They literally don't get it.
Also mentioned on the show was the way Americans always "look up" the chain of wealth, trying to go up a level. In Europe, they look down on the rich, and generally "look across" to within their own communities. Less competition.
Yet, Europeans have a (slightly) better chance than Americans of actually moving up the ladder!