The Reformation Will Come In The Twilight Of The Elites

The reformation of income inequality in the U.S. will come from the loving elites who will finally escape from their illusion of self and extend their transformed hands/hearts to the brothers and sisters of this broken land and the body of life will swim in this new sea of interdependence, with beautiful equality in every stroke. They will come down from the mountains to the the valleys where no longer will the impoverish seek refuge in cheap beer,drugs and food pantries.

In "Twilight of the Elites" by Chris Hayes,the reformation will come in the redistribution of wealth from the top ten percent income earners who will accept tax rate increases(was 70% under Carter,now 35% and falling) but will also increase the minimum wage by 50% and pension payouts(Social Security).The legislatures will give cash subsidies to the lower 10% income earners as long as parents send their kids to school and go for regular checkups at free clinics throughout our country.According to Hayes this will stimulate the economy and bring a 11% income increase to the top 10% and an additional 72% increase to the lower 10%.

Hayes was really writing about Brazil's statistics that was a reality from 2003 to 2008 due to the Lula government that made this transformation possible.The Bolsa Familia progressive tax did change the social outcomes for many of it's citizens by being rational and having common sense compassion, so lacking in our own country today.Every Keynesian approach to our various recessions have been successful because spending is always greater for the poor because they need every cent to survive and maintain their meager standard of living. By placing money in the hands of the poor and the upper lower class, it generates demand that leads to increase profits and expansion for companies. The rich continue to increase their earnings while the lower classes bring stability to their lives and the health of the country. From 1947 to 1979, our employment statistics show that 34% of the workforce were in unions. Unions, like the increase in the minimum wage,  influences rates of pay in all sectors of the workforce. During that time period(Great Compression), family income grew by 20% for the poorest income earners. As we know today, 10% of the top income earners captured all of the income gains while the bottom 90% declined.Wages,benefits and work opportunities have been diminished considerably since 1979. Government spending creates an environment of consumption and demand that increases incomes of businesses that will promote expansion and the creation of more quality jobs with incomes to spend on more goods and services.Austerity slows this process down and  hinders the expansion of business because the aggregate demand declines and incomes are depressed.

In our present political environment,Hayes feels the only hope for a transformation of this kind will come if the left(Wall St.insurrectionists) and the right(Tea Party) come together against the special interests that distort the priorities of our citizens and control our politics with money and influence.Both groups united against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because they cost too much in money and lives. If our economy declines more and the upper middle class starts to really feel the effects through the eyes of their children ,with denied access to appropriate work with their educational background , political combat might be waged at the polling stations and in the halls of congress. Selfishness will lose in the end because Americans want equal opportunity and outcomes.

Alvin Lee,Charles Mingus and the Twilight of the Elites

I'm listening to Charles Mingus"Blues and Roots" playing Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and thinking about income inequality,Vermont Castings wood stoves and the blues of Alvin Lee. If I followed my Buddhist teachings more closely,I would be sitting silently on my red sofa watching my breath and practicing insight meditation(which I've done for 15 months months) and appreciate the snow that falls from heaven.I'm really doing all of the above and starting my insurrectionist playlist because that is where it's at today and I'm flowing with, instead of restricting,my reality in any way. I'm very open, free and in a zone like Amare carrying the Knicks. I wish the elites that made important decisions for the untouchables(lower 90% income level) were open and engulfed in empathy, awareness and compassion but they are socially vertical distant and blinded like Stevie Wonder at the Met.

Chris Hayes in his book "Twilight of the Elites" writes a lot about social vertical distance and the dire effects on the poor in our country. I saw it firsthand, in my own educational system, where administrators were too distant from the students and relied on secondhand information(from other administrators) to make decisions that were injurious to both the staff and students.They did so because they thought they were smarter than the average teacher or parent who interacted with the students on a daily basis.This viewpoint of being "smarter" than non-elites,according to Hayes, is a key component in the meritocratic perspective that has come to dominate the upper class in America today.Hayes writes about this perspective in his" Iron Law of Meritocracy" that states that eventually the inequality produced by the meritocratic system will grow large enough to subvert the mechanisms of mobility.Unequal outcomes(47% don't have to pay Fed. taxes due to low income levels) make equal opportunities impossible. The principle of difference will come to overwhelm the principle of mobility(only 6% of lowest quintile made it to the top quintile). Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them,or to selectively lower it down(admission policies) to allow their friends,allies and kin to scramble up. Whoever says meritocracy say oligarchy( even 60% of our representatives are millionaires).Germany is 1.5 times more mobile,Canada 2.5,Denmark 3 times more mobile than the U.S and it has 48.2% total tax rate of GNP( the U.S has a 24.8 rate)

Between 1979-2007, 88% of the entire economy's income gains went to the top 1%. The top .01% had a nine-fold increase in income from $4 million to $35 million. 400 of our richest taxpayers had an average income more than ten thousand times the average income of the bottom 90% of the taxpayers.The top 10% captured all the income gains while the bottom 90% declined.

One of the eight-fold pathway in Buddhism is right viewpoint.This viewpoint has others(body of life as equals) as the focus of our actions and decisions.If suffering is occurring,it is our obligation to help and alleviate it.This is the focus of every religion or humanistic perspective man has developed.Hayes has proposed that we listen to Mingus and move toward Wednesday Night Prayer Meetings in the halls our our elite institutions that are out of touch with the misery income inequality has created.Isolation,segregation and continuous self concern rewards nobody in the end.

More from this book soon.

Insurrection on High Street

I just completed reading "Twilight of the Elites" by Chris Hayes,an insurrectionist, who stands up to  institutional elites like a doe protecting a fawn from a coyote.He starts the book by reviewing America's lack of trust in our institutions.Twelve percent trust Congress,twenty-five percent for the banks and corporations,thirty-one percent for news media were some examples that were provided to illustrate the crisis in authority.The country's median income fell 7% from 1990 to 2010 while CEO's  incomes as a ratio are 185 times larger than the average worker(was 25 times larger in the 70's).He states that institutionalists,our meritocratic elites, live in fear of a society without central responsibilities of authority,one that could collapse into mob rule (the majority of Americans without advanced degrees from elite education institutes)at any time.Meritocracy,according to Hayes, has accelerated extreme economic inequality and lead to corruption and malfeasance in MLB, Enron, Iraq, Great Depression of 2008 and in many other institutions.Meritocracy has replaced the WASP establishment and has been trying to equalize opportunity, in theory, but has no compassion or expectation for the equality of economic outcomes that is the cornerstone of an enlightened society(71% of  American families combined income is less than $50,000).

Hayes went to Hunter H.S in Manhattan which is an elite public school that has an entrance exam in the seventh grade for anyone in NYC to gain admission.He claims that this merit admission policy is flawed because there is no such thing as a level playing field(equal opportunity).Since 1995, the school's Black and Latino population has declined considerably over the past fourteen years(12% to  3%  for Black students and 6% to 3% for Latino students). Currently,the Black population in NYC is 25% and the Latino population is 27.5%. Moreover, income levels of parents play a tremendous part in the success of students applying to Hunter.It also is a great predictor of SAT scores.High income households can pay for elite academies that prepare for the Hunter test($2,550 for fourteen weekends or $90/hr for one on one tutoring).This data is contrasted by the fact that 75% of the NYC students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Today,America's primary and secondary educational systems have been used to expiate the sins of our society. Institutionalists,as a whole, have ignored economic outcomes and believe that if only we could improve our educational systems,our society would once again return to economic greatness.Hayes argues that even the children of the  upper middle class,with degrees from the world's finest colleges, are having trouble finding jobs in their field of study.He states that elite universities and Wall St. have fused into a sort of educational industrial complex where 40% of the students from Harvard and Princeton seek and find their leadership roles in the growing world of finance.

More to come from this book.