Evidence of delusional thinking is that so many Americans, especially the unemployed, refuse to accept the fact that upward economic mobility has largely disappeared. by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Friday, November 4, 2011
When Americans who are the most victimized by our cruel economy still believe in something that is demonstrably no longer true, they are deeply delusional. They desperately want to believe in something once great about American society. The reality is that upward economic mobility has been destroyed, replaced by widely observable downward mobility. Some of the mostly younger jobless that have embraced the Occupy Wall Street and related Occupy efforts know the truth.
Consider the results of a new survey of unemployed adults this month:
“More than half of those polled said that they had experienced emotional or mental health problems like anxiety or depression because of their lack of work, and nearly half said that they had felt embarrassed or ashamed not to have jobs.”
“More than a third said that they had had more conflicts or arguments with family and friends because of being jobless.”
“Threats of foreclosure or eviction were reported by a fifth of the unemployed, and one in eight said that they had moved in with relatives or friends.”
“More than half said that they lacked health insurance.”
“A fifth said that they had received food from a nonprofit organization.”
“Nearly two-thirds said they would probably not have enough money to live comfortably during retirement. More than half said that they had taken money out of savings or retirement accounts.”
“7 in 10 of those receiving unemployment benefits said that they feared their benefits would run out before they could find new jobs.”
So far, all those results paint an unsurprising profile of unemployed, suffering Americans.
Now, consider the result that blew my mind, the reason I am writing this, because more people need to understand something critical about delusional thinking that ultimately makes getting deep, sorely needed reforms of our government and political system extremely difficult. Without that our economy will stay awful, unfair, promoting even more economic inequality.
“Two-thirds of those surveyed said that they still believed it was possible to start out poor in this country, work hard and become rich — only a little lower than the three-quarters of all Americans” not in the unemployed category who held the same view and were surveyed at the same time. In fact, considerable research in recent years has consistently found that upward mobility in the US is no longer a hallmark of the society. Indeed, there is more upward mobility in Canada and a number of European countries than in the US. Moreover, the jobless more than most should be able to comprehend the ugly reality that downward economic mobility is now a large part of American society.
No surprise that the cover story on the new Time magazine is What Ever Happened To Upward Mobility? The basic theme of the article is that the US is no longer an “opportunity society.” In other words, our country is no longer a place where everyone, if he or she works hard enough, can get ahead. But despite this reality, conservatives and Republicans love to publicly proclaim that the US still offers everyone upward economic mobility.
Those two-thirds of the unemployed will probably pay a steep price for their false optimism about their country. They are likely to fall prey to the political propaganda of either Democrats or Republicans. If they are delusional about the American Dream, are they also delusional about other things that may stand in the way of them getting a job? Rather than feel ashamed or embarrassed about being jobless they should get some feedback from others so they can fix their thinking.
As Ezra Klein noted: “Americans are in the odd position of fervently believing in upward mobility while not actually having very much of it. Europeans, conversely, don't really believe in economic mobility but have plenty of it.”
Those jobless with this delusional thinking, refusing to think critically, judge the facts and come to a hurtful conclusion, are not the ones I expect to be participating in or supporting the Occupy Wall Street protesters, about three-quarters of whom now disapprove of Mr. Obama’s performance as president. Though the Occupy protesters speak of the rich 1 percent, that is a big underestimate. As Anne Applebaum correctly noted “Despite all the loud talk of the ‘1 per cent’ of Americans who, according to a recent study, receive about 17 per cent of the income, a percentage which has more than doubled since 1979, the existence of a very small group of very rich people has never bothered Americans. But the fact that some 20 per cent of Americans now receive some 53 per cent of the income is devastating.” Becoming part of even that larger group of rich Americans is now more difficult than ever.
Do unemployed have the right kind of jobs to aspire to the top one percent of income earners? Consider the jobs that account for the top one percent; the top four categories account for nearly 70 percent: corporate and business management not in the financial sector, medical, financial industry executives, and lawyers. This also shows how difficult it is to somehow negatively impact the one percent by protests by the Occupy movement.
In our delusional democracy with its delusional prosperity thinking that hard work, great ideas and superior performance will get you into the top one percent is self-delusion, even getting into the top 20 percent is a long shot. The economic system is too rigged against economic justice. Sure, every once in awhile someone starting out poor or average becomes superrich, but that is like winning a super lottery. Best to stop believing in the rags-to-riches myth, unless the system is reformed.
A new report by a German foundation examined the nation members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, essentially the world’s democracies. The US ranked terribly low for poverty and poverty prevention as well as income inequality. Only Chile, Mexico and Turkey were ranked lower than the US. What a story.
The US two-party plutocracy has allowed the rich and powerful to buy the political system. Except for the rich, the results are dreadful. This is why 89 percent do not trust that government will do the right thing. The best solution is what you find at the getmoneyout.com website, a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics.
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Posted By: Roy Ellis
Date: November 4, 2011 11:51:00 PM
Couldn’t agree with you more, Joel. Your mantra of ‘delusional’ America is right on target relative to the economy, jobless recovery, etc.
One can walk it right back to the ending of the Carter admin and giving away the Panama Canal followed immediately by the Regan admin and ‘greed is good’. Regan moved the corporations offshore and gave amnesty to 3-4 million illegal immigrants in starting us down the road to globalisation.
And how did the delusionals respond? Most sat on their hands, some went back to school, others took lesser jobs if they could find one. All have continued to vote for the Corpocracy or, the best gov’t money can buy.
In the interim corporate wages have gone up 450% while worker wages are stagnant and/or declining. Another 12-20M illegal immigrants are hanging in for citizenship and the Corpocracy is holding out for another amnesty. Past and current admins have given, pissed away trillions to foreign entities, wall street banksters, Solyndra’s, anywhere they could divest taxpayer dollars, giving us the housing bust, $15T federal debt, and some 25M un-underemployed.
Not hard to understand that there won’t be any ‘new’ jobs so long as the Corpocracy maintains their monopolies/conglomerates afar and effectively control the gateways to any new business development within this country.
In brief, the world has a new business model that includes the top 20%. Others just need to consume occasionally and/or go on the gov’t dole if need be. How many ‘regular’ folks do you think is playing in the stock market these days?
To understand our plight we should know how we got here. In the beginning there was the congress, executive, the courts and the people. Today we have the congress, executive, the courts and corporations. Get it!! Not delusional, just factual.
You would think people would have had enough of the MF Holdings and Solyndras. Actually, I’m surprised at the moderate turnout for Occupy Wallstreet but seems like the blind leading the blind.
But, be assured, the Corpocracy will continue to wrap their tentacles around gov’t and suck blood from the workers until there is nothing left to give and the system implodes on itself. How many years of your life do you want to volunteer for that great happening to take place?
Enough tautology? How long can we exist re our sovereignty, the Republic and our democratic principles we once lived by? Should we not be working to remove the money influence from gov’t/politics? Can we not work to implement REAL campaign finance reform. Obama, one person, is expected to collect a billion dollars for his upcoming election campaign.
There are some positive moves afoot. Reclaim Democracy and Move To Amend are at the forefront of a movement to abolish corporate personhood (CP) law through a constitutional amendment. I urge readers to take the time to visit their websites and learn how CP was put into law under a cloud and how we can support the movement to abolish CP.
Another approach to abolishing CP and implementing REAL campaign finance reform is through a new 3rd party. Not just any 3rd party but, a party with a few rules to prevent co-option by special interest and authorize membership to serve as oversight for members who are elected to political office. Check out the Republic Sentry Party’s for details.
