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In Search Of Robin Hood

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Robin Hood Tax Flickr Photo
Photo: Robin Hood/Flickr

Only 80 people

Today, we stand at a dangerous precipice. About 80 people have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion people combined — $1.9 trillion.

That’s a staggering gap in equity.

Unlike the myth of “job creators” and “hard work,” these 80 people can never match the productivity and ingenuity of 3.5 billion. Unfortunately, the system of global income and wealth inequality doesn’t allow for more social distribution.

We need a Robin Hood

There’s a legendary hero who attempted to change these economic circumstances: Robin Hood. Whether man or myth, he was a rebel. The character is famous for taking from the rich to give to the poor.

He forcefully redistributed wealth through illegal, anarchic action in a folklore landscape that was divided and unequal. Simply put, he noticed injustices and took individual action to change the system of wealth inequality.

Levying a global wealth tax? Nearly impossible.

In Thomas Piketty’s 700-page tome, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, he acknowledges deep economic patterns of global wealth inequality. In no uncertain terms, Piketty suggests we are approaching another Gilded Age.

His major proposal is a global net worth tax to reassert some amount of economic equality (among other suggestions). In a way, this could be a heroic Robin Hood-like effort to help the planet’s people — not just a select few.

A global net worth tax might not be possible. Too many countries, wealthy people, and corrupt states would prevent it from happening. But there’s something else that’s growing in popular support: the Robin Hood tax.

The Robin Hood Tax could work

This cleverly named tax is supported by around over 350 economists and 50 charities including Greenpeace, Christian Aid, Comic Relief, Oxfam, One, Save the Children, The Salvation Army, and Unicef. Ultimately, this tax would be levied on banking and financial transactions that are traditionally made by the wealthiest 1%: those in the financial industry.

Potentially, taxes on financial instruments and industry in general could raise billions of dollars in revenue. The “Financial Transaction Tax (FFT)” at the heart of the Robin Hood tax could raise about 380 billion dollars per year.

These taxes would be sorely received by the wealthiest classes, but it would create a base and middle class for the majority. This could change lives.

Now, we just need to find a politician that’ll put on some green tights.

American College Students: In Debt, Distracted, And Doomed

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College Classroom Distracted With Macs

Being a teacher and instructor in college is more challenging than ever. Nervous eyes take glances at iPhones, quickly minimize Facebook apps, and craft rapid text messages. Students are unbridled in their distraction. They look uncomfortable sitting still.

As a college instructor for about 4 years, I’ve become increasingly aware of fellow educators expressing frustration over “lazy” students that multitask. Some educators ban smartphones and iPads during classes. Others call out students that text in class, and ridicule them in front of peers — aiming towards social conformity.

Unfortunately, technology is serving as a scapegoat for something worse. Teachers want to limit these technological forms of distraction to heighten learning for everyone, but this classroom management strategy misses a fundamental problem. Today’s students aredistracted, but their attention problem results from atmospheric student loan debt and poverty.

The American Dream and business of higher education

Built in to our ailing economy and concrete erections is a fundamental dream: hope for a better life. It’s why many emigrate here.

While achieving that success is attained through various methods, college still serves as the number one predictor of middle class life. High school graduates make a median salary of $651. By attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher, individuals make a median salary of $1,108.

BLS Educational Attainment Statistics

For decades, the message has universally been towards greater higher educational attainment. Generations of students, employees, employers have followed this rule — requiring college educations and encouraging people to get at least a bachelor’s degree. Now, about 32% of Americans have college degrees.

Guidance counselors ask high school and college-aged students to envision anything they want to accomplish. Fundamentally, they ask, “What do you desire?” and “What would you like to do if money were no object?”

But money is an object, and we are controlled by its properties — through empowerment or restriction. These questions of freedom tease students with a reality that doesn’t exist.

Student loans restrict, constrict, and destroy choice

Many will graduate with nauseating student loan debt. Heck, there’s $1.2 trillion right now! For class of 2013 college graduates, the average student loan debt was nearly $30,000. With that amount of debt and interest rates that vary from 3.86% to 7.21%, today’s graduates don’t have the freedom that’s espoused and propagated by higher education and mainstream media.

The problem gets compounded as “student tuition now outweighs state funding at public colleges.” Now, state taxes and revenue sources are contributing to even less of the total cost for students. This all flies in the face of socialistic policies in many European countries that have highly progressive, free (tax-supported) higher education.

Americans place the burden on students as young as 17 to make educated decisions that could affect the rest of their lives. Faltering in payments and failing to swiftly pay off the debt can lead to forbearance, default, skyrocketing interest rates on credit cards, and more. Credit scores and future livelihood are at risk.

Educating the desperate, sleep-deprived, and in debt

The interest is already ticking for many before graduation. Students can feel eager to get a job, get paid, and pay off debt. But even before they graduate, they must ask themselves some serious questions:

  • Should I work during college?
  • Should I take more than a normal credit load each semester to finish faster?
  • Should I skip study abroad opportunities that cost more and may extend my time?

Previous generations had the incredible luxury of minuscule tuition rates. Between 1978 and 2013, college tuition and fees grew by an overwhelming 1,225%. Simply put, college cannot be paid for with summer jobs and temporary work.

To the financially disenfranchised, student loans fill the gap for access. But there are still students that work during college. I had two jobs while also a full-time student, and there are many like me.

Then, there are students with disabilities, children, and veterans of foreign wars (to name a few). They are challenged to keep paying utilities, attain an education, and somehow keep a roof over their children’s heads. Again, student loans often serve as a mediator to accessing education — a temporary source of funding to attain a better income and vocational future. But real dreams can subtly disappear from view as financial aid bills take precedent.

Student loans magically appear, as do depressed dreams

Like many of my readers, I’ve worked hard to turn around my financial future. When I was in debt, I felt horrible. I spent money without concern and bought things I couldn’t afford. My debt was the illusion of success.

When I finally stopped to breathe in May 2013, I realized I had dug a hole nearly $40,000 deep. I was embarrassed with what I had done, and who I’d become. I wondered what I could do to reverse this dangerous course. Trust me when I say this is a common problem for many students.

Financial aid usually was deposited into negative balances at universities and then extra amounts were distributed to the individual student’s bank account. Suddenly, bank accounts were flush with thousands of dollars — budgets seemed irrelevant.

Everyone from the in debt to the creditors to general public confuses these loan instruments for real cash. Yes, you can spend student loans however you see fit, but the consequences are punishing. Every dollar is taxed by the current loan interest rate, and is a dollar in the wrong direction: towards poverty.

The problem of poverty in college-age students

Unlike the clarion calls that suggest America is number one, we seem to have created a master plan for educational failure. Research suggests that “poverty, itself, hurts our ability to make decisions about school, finances, and life, imposing a mental burden similar to losing 13 IQ points.”

By saddling our future graduates with nearly $30,000 in average student loan debt and a future of near poverty for many, we are hurting their ability to learn in the process. Lower-income and impoverished populations constantly report lower amounts of sleep, vocational uncertainty, higher stress, and show evidence of hindered decision-making capabilities.

These are the students of today. They are trying to succeed in a cultural landscape that begged them to get educated, punished them for getting that college degree with years of debt payments, and then limited their employment options.

As the dreams fade due to financial concerns, anxiety and distractedness likely increase. The dream of “What’s your purpose?” can quickly be replaced with “Who will hire me?”

We want bright, capable graduates, but we “victim blame” them instead

America is eager to have the best workforce in the world. We are a nation that aims to be a beacon of hope and role model to developing states. And yet, we are breeding and cultivating some of the most in debt, distracted, and impoverished students.

It’s not in the interest of this country, the world, and future progeny to continue this wicked cycle of educational attainment and poverty. It’s not in the interest of creating a bright, educated populace to have them cowering in poverty for doing so. It’s not in the interest of America to impair decision making in finances and education in the process.

As teachers express frustration for their distracted students, they need to fundamentally understand the complex, systemic interplay of student loan debt. This financial instrument is inherently complex and can psychologically impair the most capable students. They might not be able to pay attention because they’re burdened by a future of poverty, student loan debt, and restricted opportunities.

Something needs to change. This system isn’t sustainable. Fortunately, a small light of hope might be on the horizon.

Post by The White House.

President Barack Obama recently announced a massive initiative to empower those from diverse financial backgrounds to receive a “free” education. His plan includes funding community college educations for those working part-time and maintaining certain educational requirements. Over the coming months this will be hotly contested and debated. But this is the first step, in what needs to be many, for those in need of an education that’s truly accessible and affordable.

Students cannot continue to shoulder most of the burden. There are powerful inequalities in income and wealth — educational opportunities shouldn’t be one of them. If we can muster the courage and wherewithal to increase taxes towards education, we may see what America is truly made of.

How Income Inequality Created The Vilest Empathy Gap

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Mansion The New Rich Middle Class War
Photo: jorge lascar/flickr

Trickle-down economics worked — for the wealthy

Over the last few decades, incomes have become disproportionately unequal. Large amounts of wealth are hoarded by the 1%, with trickle-down economics failing to provide shared gains we were promised. The average employee makes a small fraction of their executive counterparts.

We know America has terrible income and oligarchic-level wealth inequities. We know that Citizen’s United and other lobbying efforts make the wealthier voices louder.

As the rich get richer and poor get poorer (or stay poor), a rigidity formed. Lower income populations largely stay in lower income towns, jobs, and levels of education. Meanwhile, higher-income populations largely stay in gated neighborhoods, choose what education options are available via economic and geographic means, and enter higher-income vocational networks (i.e., “Hey, your dad helped me get this job!”).

But honestly, we already knew this information. What we fail to grasp is how income inequality shapes us psychologically — the wealthy and impoverished, alike. This level of economic stratification is decades in the making, but we are just beginning to see how this affects well-being and treatment of others. With huge differences in wealth and declining social-class mobility, an income-empathy gap has developed.

Income and wealthy inequality led to an empathy gap

Empathy is defined as the “ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” This feeling can occur with pets, family members, and even fictional characters from favorite novels. Empathy is built, maintained, and formed by our experiences in life. These feelings motivate us to volunteer at soup kitchens, donate to charities, and serve each other. The least empathic among us are traditionally called violent and/or antisocial, as they do not exhibit or understand the pain they cause to another (i.e., terrorists).

As incomes diverged and wealth generation stagnated for lower-income populations, this income-empathy gap widened. People in higher incomes now struggle to empathize and provide for lower-income groups. Propagated on every medium, statements by the fortunate few and privileged sound like this:

Poor people are poor because:

  • “…they buy iPhones and eat out too much.”
  • “…have too many children.”
  • “…make terrible life choices.”
  • “…they are lazy.”

Trust me, the list goes on, but it’s the same mythical vitriol — over and over again. I needn’t perpetuate and propagate these economic mad libs any further. While some may be lazy, frequent iPhone buyers, these messages typecast and discriminate — they’re only used to harm. The voices are judgmental and painful to those in lower-income populations. They’re pejorative and denigrating, and exemplify a true lack of empathy for someone suffering economically.

Poverty shaming doesn’t solve the problem

We know that negative voices can harm others, and yet we keep doing it. For instance, individuals with obesity and weight concerns frequently hear similar messages, which are fail to provide empathy:

  • “Lose the weight fatty!”
  • “Have you thought about putting down the Cokes?!”
  • “You’re so fat!”
  • “Thought about going on a diet any time soon?!”

The research suggests that when you fat shame, individuals don’t suddenly lose weight. In fact, they may gain more. Potentially, income and wealth shaming may do the same thing; thus, making it more difficult for an economically disenfranchised individual from making better choices.

Okay, so shaming doesn’t work, and yet privileged people are using these same tactics with lower-income populations. Why then must a well-off person denigrate, disable, hurt, harm, and verbally accost another? What motivates someone to yell flagrant economic “advice” to someone already struggling to make ends meet? How could they actually help another in need?

Unfortunately, these answers all trace back to the income-empathy gap. After decades of growing social-class stratification, income inequality, and wealth gaps, we are a country in need. But ironically we don’t need more wealth. Instead, America needs more empathy.

To steal and modify a line from Uncle Ben of Spiderman, “With great wealth comes great responsibility.” The economically well-off and privileged have a tremendous opportunity to help those disenfranchised — even beyond charitable giving. It starts with being able to reach out your hand to support another.

How to truly help impoverished and disenfranchised

If you’re wealthy, you may be upset that there are homeless people sitting outside your favorite restaurant. Just know that yelling at that individual to “get a job” won’t ever help as much as providing tax revenue for mental health services, job training and placement offices, and drug and alcohol treatment centers. Just know that typecasting a “ghetto” or “lower-income neighborhood” as a bunch of hoodlums will never help as much as serving that community’s churches, food banks, and schools.

Potentially (and hopefully), if our income-empathy gap closes, so to will the income and wealth gaps. We have a terrific opportunity to change the status quo and shed these antiquated ideals for something better.

We live in a great, prosperous nation that was created for us all — the present person and future immigrant. By closing these gaps, we will all benefit.

One Nation… Poor, Divided, And Unequal

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Statue of LIberty Inequality
Photo: Statue of Liberty. Credit: Juanedc/Flickr.

We’re in economic trouble. As the deficit wages on and the country continues to spend billions of dollars on wars that make no sense to average citizens, it’s easy to say that we need austerity and tax relief. That’s what this country voted for in the mid-term elections, as a slew of new Republicans were elected to Congress. Unfortunately, that action is shortsighted and relief will not last.

The elected Republicans are responding to a warranted distrust and unease with our current administration, but this new direction could corrupt our chances of lasting economic recovery. It may sound tragic, but we need greater taxation more than ever. In these economically troubled times, we are digging ourselves deeper by talking about cuts to budgets and public programs.

About 30 years ago, President Reagan began a long series of cuts to federal agencies and public funding — ushering in the first era of big time tax cuts for the wealthiest elite. And this trend only continued. The tax breaks hurt the most disenfranchised first. Cuts to funding generally suck necessary funds from education and welfare — programs that keep clothes on children, employees healthy, and roofs over heads. These are all in high demand.

It’s no accident that as cuts to important budgets continued, income and wealth inequality skyrocketed. We now live in a new Gilded Age. The average CEO gets about 204 times the salary of traditional employees. That’s immoral and outrageous. Are they doing 204 times more work? No. Are they doing 204 times more jobs? No. Some people point to the pressures of being a leader — the taxing life that they lead. To those supporters of income inequality for upper management versus average employees, I urge you to develop some empathy for the person that is on food stamps, working full-time, and dealing with children — all on poverty-inducing wages. Isn’t that stressful, too? I think the impoverished person would gladly take on CEO-level stress to pay their bills each month, reliably feed their children, and possibly (holy crap!) take a vacation from time to time.

Walmart is a perfect, nightmarish example, where CEOs and upper management make it big, and their precious employees wear blue uniforms and need food stamps to make ends meet (even when working full-time). It’s then that those outfits look more like prison uniforms.

Even more alarming is the growing wealth inequality. The Economist recently highlighted new research from two of the leading wealth economists. What they found was shocking. There are 16,000 families — 0.01% of the population — that have an average net worth of $371 million each. Staggering hardly describes this level of “average” wealth. The research suggests that this represents 11.2% of total wealth. To be clear, 0.01% of the population has 11.2% of the total wealth! How do we accept this inequality and disparity? How do we accept this assault on true family values? How do we accept this inequality that causes massive funding gaps?

We’ve reached astonishing levels of wealth inequality — approaching records from 1916. This disparate wealth disrupts middle-class opportunities, wealth generation, and social class mobility. All opportunities are stifled for the masses, as a select few profit. Those who’ve suffered most have the least. I cannot help but reflect on our values as a country. Could this corrupt — post-Citizens United world — truly be what our Founding Fathers set out for America?

Today more than ever, we are one nation, poor, divided, and unequal.

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