National Economy

We are in the midst of a failing Economy. Not failing due to the working class, we’re doing everything we can just to keep our heads above water, but failing because our financialized economy is dominated by a rentier class. Extracting vast sums of wealth from the working class through the ownership of assets, such as land, natural resources, and financial capital. These extraordinary gains continue to rise with the best congress money could buy.

As the costs of these assets continue to rise, we continue to do everything we can to ensure we are able to provide for our families with the most basic necessities. Meanwhile, the rentier class is enjoying the benefits of ever increasing costs of the aforementioned assets, and amassing great wealth on the backs of the American people.

Throughout this campaign cycle, we will hear the same old lines of “supporting small business, supporting the working class, and bringing jobs back to America”. These are mere platitudes in hopes of securing your vote. There is no plan of reviving the principles of productive capitalism, where income is generated from the creation of goods and services i.e. jobs. No, the political class, no matter how much they try to pander, that they understand our problems and have plans to ‘make things better’, continues to progress the failed economic agenda of propping up the very few at the expense of the many. 

According to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit research group tracking money in U.S. politics, in 2023 the Financial/Insurance/Real Estate (FIRE) sector contributed the second most ($596,734,389) in lobbying efforts, second only to the Health sector lobby ($745,396,217). Make no mistake, this money is not being spent to improve the lives or contribute to our economy in any way, rather it is to ensure the pockets of the elite donor class remain well padded, once again, at the expense, and the peril of this country.

So how do we get out of this? 

If we continue on as we are, nothing will change. We will continue to squabble over the meager bread crumbs of which we are supposed to be grateful. I will be a voice of change, always prioritizing the people. I recognize, I am one voice. But let me be very clear, if sent to congress as your representative, I will be one voice bound by the interests of the people, with unshakeable integrity, always in the pursuit of reversing the perversion of this failing economy.

In my view, the root of the problem is the outsized role Wall Street and large financial institutions play in the planning of our economy. When this happens, I think it is clear, the objective of these entities is not prioritizing the health and well-being of us or the greater good of our country. When private institutions take the reins of the economy, and the government takes a back seat, industrial capitalism is supplanted with finance capitalism. When this shift occurs, public investment in transportation infrastructure, communication, education, and healthcare are no longer the priority. 

Economist Michael Hudson summarizes this very succinctly below: 

“The finance capital strategy is exactly what it is in the United States today…Shift all of the money away from the profits of industrial capital that are reinvested in making new means of production. To expand capital into a shrinking economy where the financial sector intrudes more and more into the economy of production and consumption and shrinks the economy.”

In my view, in order to reclaim what is rightfully ours, we must break this cycle. Exclude investment banking from meddling in commercial banking by reinstating Glass-Steagall and return to investing in public infrastructure from which we all benefit.

Additionally, as we continue to attempt to compete within the construct of a globalized economy and free trade, our budget deficits continue to soar. Labor is exported where whole industries are able to enjoy the benefits of fewer environmental regulations and cheap, unskilled labor. 

As we continue this race to the bottom, attempting to stem the evaporation of labor; we institute tax cuts benefiting very few, loosen environmental policies intended to protect the clean water and air of which we all depend, and we continue to drive down wages to the point where many full time jobs fail to even provide the means to support a single person, much less a family.

This effort cannot be solved by the U.S. unilaterally. Instead, world economies must come together and cooperatively chart a sustainable path forward, as Economist Jeffrey Sachs summarizes below:

“Yet countries cannot act by themselves. As a starting point, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development should urgently convene a meeting of finance ministers to enunciate basic principles: that fiscal adjustments towards budget balance are needed for medium-term solvency but must be carried out fairly; that the basic needs of citizens need to be protected in this period of fiscal stringency; that trends towards unprecedented inequalities of wealth and income require increased, not decreased, taxation of higher incomes, including corporate profits; and that tax and regulatory co-ordination across countries are vital to prevent a ruinous fiscal race to the bottom.”

If we fail to make these meaningful changes, fiscal ruin will be inevitable. We have a $34 Trillion debt with an unsustainable amount of federal resources being diverted to paying interest, which in turn stifles public investment, reduces access to capital for small businesses, and significantly reduces the economic opportunities for individuals and families.

The time to break free of the current unsustainable economic strategy described above is upon us. 

Now is the time to rise above the rhetoric propagated by the very few enjoying the spoils extracted from us. 

Join me in seeking to institute changes to policies working against us for a better, more sustainable economic future.