Of course, economic well-being is only one component of a life well led. However, it feels like there’s a growing sense among large swaths of our population that we can no longer take the premise of economic growth and higher quality of life in the future for granted. There are well-documented statistics regarding the shrinking middle class, zero real wage growth over the past several decades, growing income inequality, jobs going overseas, etc. These all point to the broader meme that the American Dream while not dead does not have the same promise that it had yesteryear. Now, of course we as Americans live in a bubble where the worst off here have problems that the poor in other parts of the world would love to have. That being said, I do think that the political ramifications of zero (or even negative) economic growth would be damaging, and a realization of this state of the world would test the resilience of our social fabric.
To some extent, the aforementioned sentiment has been captured in the “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS) movement that has announced its presence over the past month or so. I have to admit that my initial reaction to seeing the protest was dismissive- not because I didn’t see validity in its premise, but because all protests seem futile in the long run. But more than a month in now, and with similar movements being spawned in other cities and nations, this seems to be more than just the 15 minutes allotted to some fringe of our country. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and thus I am generally hesitant to join in with any political movement. I spent some time talking with people at the main site last weekend, and the divergence in worldview between me and the crowd that I was speaking to was quite apparent. Yes- we all agree that the taxpayer-funded bailout of the banking industry was the single greatest heist in the history of mankind, but shouldn’t homeowners who took out mortgages beyond what they can reasonably afford bear some of the blame for their part in the housing crisis? I thought the blame was somewhere around 50-50, but the consensus among the crowd was that it was more like 99-1. And that was after I had “dropped some totally legit science” (their words, not mine) on their heads.
Despite this and a multitude of other differences, I think there is one thing that the protesters and I can definitely agree on: something is deeply wrong with our political regime and it’s not clear to anyone exactly what can be done about it. The problems seem so overwhelming, it’s hard to even know where to begin. One of the most common statements you hear from those who find this movement vapid is, “What do they want? Where are their lists of demands?” I think the very fact that no one can clearly define their discontent and reduce them to a set of policy prescriptions is part of what makes this movement so widespread. In my mind, trying to reduce OWS to a political action committee is similar to those who want Christianity defined as a set of beliefs and behaviors- it’s convenient for sound-bite media and when you get down to brass tax, of course there are things you want to get done. But at some level, it’s too broad and you’re not going to get any consensus on things at that level of granularity. As some protesters put it so eloquently on their placards, “Sh%! is F-ed Up and Bull-Sh%!”
In attempt to put some words to what is vexing the theoretical 99%- I offer the following. What is really bothersome about our system today is that there appears to be essentially a partnership between the State and a handful of industries/entities. The most obvious one is the banking sector- not only because of the bailouts from 2008-2009, but the ongoing free put option that debtholders in these banks have to the Taxpayer allows them to borrow at zero percent (i.e. below market) interest with the objective of having them rebuild their balance sheets. The gross lack of fairness of such a policy notwithstanding, the moral hazard implications for this are staggering. Unbelievably, this is just the tip of the iceberg on how regulation basically crowds out competition, and allows the biggest banks to get bigger, to the point where they are “too-big-to-fail”, which basically means they can hold the rest of the US economy hostage. Our current president (and his predecessor) folded like a wet noodle when the time came to “be the change we want to see”. Now, the average US citizen probably has little idea of what was stated above- all they know is that “Sh%! is F-ed Up and Bull-Sh%!”. Importantly, I don’t think this is a Right/Left or Red State/Blue State thing-maybe it’s not 99% but I would bet that well over 75% of the country identifies with the core sentiment of the movement. It seems silly to consider the average citizen of the United States as politically powerless since we are all taught that democracy is fundamentally about empowering the people. But I would argue that in any complex system, there are emergent phenomena that lead to properties that are far away from what you would expect when examining the initial design.
Trying to restore some measure of virtue to our politics sure seems like a pipe dream. I’ve largely thrown up my hands and decided that there is no point in expending limited time/resources to the political sphere. But then it would be correct to rebuke me and say that I and anyone else with this disposition is getting exactly the government we deserve. Fair point- so we are at sea. At some level, I think I just go back to my fundamental premise that the Gospel is about redeeming both individual lives as well as institutions, and the church really is America’s (and the world’s) last best hope. Specifically, I certainly don’t have anything to offer, other than perhaps more time on our knees. As Karl Barth wisely stated, “To Clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder in this world”. If we could only get the protesters at OWS to buy into that idea...
So on a lighter note....
