I know people who are diehard capitalists. They truly believe that capitalism has lifted millions of people out of poverty.
Capitalism is just the logical extension of the division of labor and mechanization that would have happened in any event, albeit more local and less damaging. Monopolization is currently the biggest problem we face as it favors the status quo over innovation and entrepreneurial effort. When you then allow those monopolies access to the government that is mandated to regulate commerce you are skating very close to the edge that defines fascism.
What I’m here to argue about is all the people that capitalism has left behind. Capitalism doesn’t take care of everyone.
The homeless and extremely poor are just the bottom that fell away from society's support systems. Those systems were once responsive to the need of the people, but the constant drive for "efficient" government, as if it were just an extension of business, has given us extreme austerity in both our fiscal policy and how we view our fellows who fell on hard times.
There is no real hard line that separates the homeless from those just above them economically. If one looks at those who are just a couple of missed paychecks or an emergency auto repair away from being homeless (close to 40% before the pandemic) we see how even slight variations in the business cycle could cause the homeless population to blow up into a generalized crisis.
These are the people now being targeted by our Fed's monetary policy in their blunt force and irresponsible effort to rein in inflation. If you think the homeless number is a problem now, just wait until the forced recession kicks in in earnest.
As the usual suspects in our government do their best to "punish" labor for having the audacity to demand a livable wage and tighten fiscal policy as well, removing even more support from the bottom tiers, expect to see death by exposure and hunger climb to levels not seen since the great depression.
That study confirms that Boomers are not sharing their standard of living with the younger generations. They’re hanging onto it and for good reason. Like their offspring, they see the corrupting influence of greed giving as little compensation as possible to everyone except the very tippy top.
This tendency to "blame" a broad section of the population for the failure of our government to properly regulate capitalism is not productive. We "boomers" are just as squeezed as any other demographic. Many of us were lucky to inherit a home or some small amount of money, but the vast majority of us were hard hit in the great recession before we were eligible to retire and receive Medicare coverage.
I lost my employment (and my insurance) in '08 just 2 months before my wife was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Living in a red state meant that my unemployment benefits, while barely being able to cover the COBRA for my policy, made me ineligible for Medicaid. It was a choice between keeping the house and some small savings accumulated from both of working most of our lives and paying for her chemo out of pocket.
I managed to refi the house to pay for her chemo, but $5k per month eats through that and savings pretty quickly. I filed for early retirement shortly after she died in '09 out of a lack of any choices. Losing her Social Security and taking a 25% hit on mine meant sending over half of my income to the bank that held my mortgage and having to share expenses with my daughter after she lost her husband to a heart attack.
I'm not trying to elicit pity for a string of unfortunate circumstances, but to show that being a boomer is no guarantee of success in this lopsided economy that is unnecessary and goes against the mandate on Congress to create the money "for the common welfare" in Article 1: Section 8 of our bill of rights.
My plight is anything but uncommon in my generation, despite a lot of rhetoric being forwarded to place blame on us for the lousy economy and lack of responsive action from our government.
I’m beginning to think that the homeless population is performative. I am starting to believe that the economy is engineered to maintain a homeless population as an incentive to make sure the rest of us work. Our homeless population is designed as a Puritan spectacle to show that if we don’t carry our weight, we will wind up on the street.
Our nation is extremely racist and misogynistic, but the overlords who control the economy don't care about our race or gender. They are only concerned that we remain productive and that they are the major beneficiaries of that productivity. Poverty in general is not difficult to remedy.
Our government is the monopoly currency issuer and can "afford" anything that is for sale priced in the denomination it creates at will, including any excess labor the private sector rejects. We could easily replace much of our safety net spending with a federally funded job guarantee to anyone who wants to work and use that as the point at which private business needs to begin negotiations for hiring or retaining employees.
With climate change barrelling down on us like a locomotive, there is certainly no shortage of productive jobs needing to be done. The program could be administered by state and local authorities as long as it is funded with new money creation from Congress and provides wages and benefits that offer dignity as a right to being humans and citizens. If we live through climate change we will have AI/robotics to deal with very soon, and it will be necessary to redefine the meaning of "job" anyway.
