David Harvey: The Crisis Today: Marxism 2009

Tripping Over The Wealthy In The Hamptons

I'm reading "The Myth Of The Rational Market" by Justin Fox.It is a history of risk,reward and delusion on Wall Street.It is a story of free-market capitalism's war with itself.Fox brings the reader a history of the perils and possibilities of risk from the formative years of Wall Street through the Great Depression to the financial calamities of today.It is a tale featuring professors who battled fiercely over ideas and played  major roles on the world stage.This intellectual warfare exists today and is guiding decisions for the rich and the poor in America.The disenfranchised poor are only  hapless bench warmers in this game that has built the houses in the Hamptons and lavish apartments in NYC.Riding around the Hamptons,one can see firsthand where the statistics for income inequality is generated.The Hamptons,wealthy NYC neighborhoods remind me of "The Tale Of Two Cities" I recently watched on TMC.As I rode around Montauk, East Hampton, Shelter Island and Southampton,it is obvious what the savings from long-term capital gains and dividend taxes can render.Numerous economic professors,with an assortment of theories, have tried to tame the marketplace through the use of mathematical formulas that reduce risk.It is a world unknown to most of the American population.International fiance has complicated the risks for American investors as we can see today in the financing of the debt of European countries under financial pressure since the Great Recession of 2008.The volatility of stocks,uncertainty in the markets, eventually will bring hardship for the poor and lower-middle class in our society.They can only wait and pray that their jobs remain secure in an ever changing economic paradigm.

I did visit a wonderful low-income housing developer in East Hampton that is providing a very valuable model for the wealthy communities on Long Island.He is a childhood friend who has been working in East Hampton for twenty-three years improving the lives of thousands of individuals that need low cost,subsidized housing in the community.He has developed,with grants from state and federal agencies,two communities for adults and one for families who live and work in the community.A fourth is in the development stages and will eventually help more young families survive in a high priced housing community.Many service workers have to travel long distances to work in these wealthy neighborhoods because of the lack of affordable housing.This travel time not only reduces paychecks but is adding to the traffic congestion in these communities.

As one looks around our society,it is obvious our academia has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to promoting rational discourse in eradicating American economic injustice and creating an admired model for the world where equality is pervasive and valued.Many socialists today feel there should be a limit on income earnings in a given year.I believe they set that limit at one million a year for a family.A million a year would buy a wonderful house or even a few glorious houses.I stayed in a Hampton community where many service workers live and that township was more than I and the majority of Americans would be fully satisfied to live in.The one million limit would spread the wealth and create the aggregate demand for the products America consumers want and need.As of today,our wealth isn't being invested but saved in stocks,bonds,treasury notes and securities.The wealthy don't consume like the bottom 80% because they have everything and more than they need.It isn't Un-American to think of a cap on income.For many,many years,our tax structure took 70% of the wealth away from high earners in taxes.They hid and evaded the system,but the laws were in place to create a more just society.The country had the greatest prosperity from 1947-1974 when the tax rates prevailed and union membership was at its highest.Lets start this renewal process before it's too late and bring economic democracy to our shores and to those around the world.

Rick Wolff on the Economic Crisis and Socialist Strategy (3)