I have recently had conversations with people in my life about what money and class mean to them, and what an individual’s relationship to and perception of money and class means for an individual’s spending habits, philanthropic giving, etc.. To say the responses have been varied would be a understatement. These conversations have me thinking about a very complex topic: economics.
Disclaimer: Although I did achieve an “A” in both micro- and macroeconomics, I am fully aware that I have a limited understanding of the things I will discuss next and am no way an expert on the topic. Bear with me.
Back to economics. We all know that unemployment is “high” in comparison to, say, 15 years ago. I hope we all know that unemployment is always higher for minority groups. If you didn’t know that check this link. It turns out society and mainstream media don't really give a shit until the unemployment affects the “average white male.” Anyway, I digress.
Econ. Lately we’ve been fed this fallacy that the rich are job creators, and if we tax them they will stop creating jobs. As it turns out our economic system is designed so that the only thing to create jobs is demand, and the rich don’t consume 60% more just because their incomes are 60% higher. Don't believe that? Ask Stephen King. If I were a business owner (rich or not) I wouldn’t hire because my taxes were cut; I would hire when demand reached a point that made an additional employee necessary to maintain a level of customer satisfaction that would ensure continued consumption of my good or service. The way to increase demand is to empower the middle class to consume, but consumption requires money. When wages are stagnant and inflation is anything but the middle class consumes at a slower rate. All of that to make a few points: 1) The rich are not job creators just because they have more money or pay a lower tax rate and 2) We as a society teach and are taught that we will be happy when we consume. This desire to consume (and be “happy”) is what keeps our economic system alive, creates jobs, creates an upper class and middle class, and so much more.
We as humans are happy when we consume. The more that we consume the more jobs there are for the ‘middle class.’ When there are more jobs for the ‘middle class’ said class has more money. When the ‘middle class' has more money it desires to consume more.
Does consumption really make us happy? If not, how do we go about creating sustainable jobs? Hoarding money isn’t the answer, but buying a bunch of shit has never made me truly happy either. Philanthropic giving can only create so many jobs. We must be more than mice in a wheel, right?
Good thoughts Kayla....and right on. Though consuming doesn't always make me "happy", it does make for some fun times on occasion. The problem with our economy now, as I see it (and any economics courses I may have had happened a long, long time ago!) is that the middle class are so afraid for the future that they are not spending, the wealthy are hoarding and the low income have no money to spend. The price of EVERYTHING has increased and wages have not so most people don't have extra cash to consume. If the wealthy aka business owners would pay living wages that would help the economy. With prices as they are now a minimum wage of $12 an hour is still is not enough to cover rent, utilities, food, vehicle, insurance mandated by law, high priced groceries, high priced gas and outrageously priced health care. People have gotten just plain greedy! They shut their eyes or place blame on low income people, claiming it's our "choices" that put us there. For example the current push to drug test recipients of welfare and food stamps because low income people are all addicts...instead of thinking maybe drug or alcohol use results because people are trying to deal with such a cruel and unfair world where they have become invisible slaves working 8, 16 or even 20 hours a day to make just enough to squeeze by. My suggestions, off the top of my head with no research, (1) Increase minimum wage (the people with money will NOT let this happen!); (2) Cap profits for "helping" professions (medical, insurance, treatment, etc.), cap pay for EVERYONE so CEO's are not making 400 times the average employee wage; (3) Forgive federally guaranteed student loans (there are few jobs that pay a new college graduate enough to live AND pay $400 a month on student loans AND leave enough left over for anything else, and college is NOT resulting in the good paying jobs as promised....well, maybe for a few people but not for those with just a Bachelor's degree)and (4) Pre-set fair price ranges for products, services and rentals AND make it a law that, if we don't receive the product and/or service we expected, we don't pay. Haha...that one will go over real well. But I for one am tired of paying $200 to see a doctor and getting NOTHING out of that but a referral to a more expensive doctor. When we don't get what we paid for in others businesses, we can get our money back. When we don't get what we paid for in the medical profession, we just keep paying more. I hope I explained that the way I was hoping too - it's early and I have to run. Have a great day!
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