Economic Disparity, Anyone?

I thought I would post this, considering some decent, two-sided political conversation is being generated now in the OGB (Old Gold & Black, the Wake Student Newspaper) which, from what I hear, isn't the case very often. The conversation (or, mostly, my response to the op-ed piece linked below) is over a broad range of topics, but mostly what I would label as religion, ethics and economics. The first link is to the original op-ed piece by an undergrad girl that writes for the OGB, and my response which was published in the OGB the following week is posted below.

"Democrats doomed to fail?"(B. Smith, OGB)


"Both Parties Out of Touch with America"

There is a sobering reality present in our world today, which many politically-minded Americans – specifically those holding public office in Washington, D.C., and the people who blindly support them and wish to become them someday—have yet to fully comprehend:

There should be more to politics than focusing on how to win elections.
There should be more to politics than spin.
There should be more to politics than statistically misrepresenting the picture of the American economy to reinforce the eighteenth-century philosophies of Adam Smith.
There should be more to politics than what both the Republicans and the Democrats, or anyone else who seems to have political power today, are offering us.

Judging by her opinion piece in the Old Gold & Black on Sept. 28, however, entitled “Democrats doomed to fail,” senior Barbara Smith has once again proved to many that our country still has a long way to go before we can once again achieve any sense of political civility.

Seemingly, any sense of fiscal responsibility by our government must be a laughing matter to Smith, for she not only feels the need to gawk at such desires put forth by the historically spend-happy Democrats, but also fails to acknowledge our current budgetary debt caused by our newly spend-happy Republican Congress and White House.

There is a need for fiscal restraint in our government, and whether it comes as a result of the work of Democrats or Republicans could not matter less.

And, factually and morally speaking, our economy does not in fact deserve any more credit than the media often gives it. Smith is right that the economy is growing. But for whom in America is it growing? The 26-year-old high school dropout working the checkout counter at Wal-Mart, who earns a shamefully miniscule minimum wage and receives hardly any, if at all, benefits? The single mother of two who must work the graveyard shift at the local Waffle House, only to also work two other part-time jobs during the day to barely feed and clothe her kids? Our economy is not growing for these people, who really do make up the majority of our American workforce, but who never seem to be well represented by the newest rosy economic statistic from the Department of Labor.

A cold statistic citing the number of new jobs is not a valid representation of economic growth, in America or anywhere else. Any economist who uses both their brain and their heart would agree.

We cannot, as Smith seems to think, leave the economy “to its own devices.”

Capitalist economic philosophy has been left to its own devices for over half a millennium, and it has come to wield upon us a double-edged sword of increased economic prosperity for the perennially wealthy, and persistent economic inequality for those who have the luck of being born into existing poverty.

Smith is right that our economy rests “at the feet of the entrepreneurs, investors and businessmen that turn the engine of economic growth,” which is exactly the reason why unrestrained capitalism is inherently immoral and corrupt. The problem lies in the fact that an unrestrained capitalist economy, buttressed by the work of said investors and businessmen, is an impersonal machine driven by the demands of the dollar, which has shown itself throughout history to be notoriously apathetic toward the idea of human equality on any level — whether social, economic or otherwise.

Let whomever wants to let the facts speak for themselves, whether Republican or Democrat, do so. And let us all note as well the economic disparity which nonetheless continues to permeate every fiber of our society, from the dilapidated family farms of South Dakota to the slums of Chicago. The distress of a human life speaks louder than any statistic ever will.

The Democratic Party is out of touch with America, and so is the Republican Party.

The sad truth is that many voters this November will be convinced that one or the other are not, because the only thing that matters for many Americans is an election strategy that tells us we will be able to keep our comfortably sustainable middle-class, salary-based lives, with our Honda in the driveway and our vacations for two weeks every summer.

There should be so much more to politics than this.