Column: Barbara Finley-Shea, My Point of View

“One picture is worth a thousand words,” says an old proverb. If we took a snapshot of our nation, our national portrait would reveal a dangerous concentration of wealth. These key words are at the heart of who we are today and the struggles of American society.

What is concentration of wealth? Those whose wealth is in the top 1 percent own and control 42.7 percent of our nation’s marketable assets. The next 19 percent of wealthiest Americans own 50.3 percent of our nation’s marketable assets, so the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans own 93 percent of our nation’s wealth. The 7 percent of wealth that’s left is shared by the 80 percent of us at the bottom. Those are difficult figures to comprehend. A study done in 2010 found that most Americans have no idea that our nation’s wealth is so heavily concentrated in the hands of so few.

In a 10-inch-long representational photo of one hundred citizens, one person representing that 1 percent of the wealthiest would have 4.27 inches to him or herself. Nineteen more people would share the next 5.03 inches, while 80 of us would be squeezed into the picture’s last seven-tenths of an inch. This more closely resembles wealth distribution of Third World countries than other industrialized nations.

Concentrated wealth means that those at the top have greater power over politicians. It also guarantees that the interests getting stoked are those of the few who hold the nation’s purse-strings. The growing consolidation of media companies guarantees that interests of the super wealthy will be the loudest voices heard, drowning out voices of ordinary citizens.

Our nation hasn’t always looked like this. In 1922 the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans held 36.7 percent of our wealth, while the bottom 99 percent held 63.3 percent of the wealth. After World War II, the bottom 99 percent of citizens rose to a high in 1976 of 80.1 percent of our nation’s wealth. The rise in wealth of average Americans corresponds to the rise of labor unions. In recent decades, however, corporate assaults on labor unions and Americans forgetting the struggles of workers have resulted in weaker labor unions.

Although not all workers are unionized, the presence of unions results in higher wages and better working conditions for all, as businesses compete for employees.

Weakened labor unions mean even more money for the super wealthy. But it’s not only labor that suffers when wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of too few. Farmers struggle to get fair prices for producing milk, livestock and crops.

Over the last few decades, food processing and distribution monopolies have virtually destroyed any competition among companies that buy farmers’ produce. The government has allowed monopolies to dictate prices to farmers. Ever narrower profit margins push farmers to expand their land and livestock production, but doing so involves large capital expenditures, difficult to pay for with smaller returns.

Other results of wealth concentration include disappearance of the middle class, young people struggling to fund college educations, bridges and roads collapsing and crumbling, children selling magazines and popcorn to keep schools open, veterans going homeless, preschool programs like Head Start cut (proven to reduce crime and boost scores!), social services cut and seniors told their Social Security must be cut to balance our nation’s budget.

Feeding the drain of money from pockets of ordinary Americans, into pockets of the wealthiest is the money spent on our unquestioned, growing military budget. Our military budget is larger than the military budgets of China, Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Canada and Australia combined! Current military spending consumes about 54 percent of government expenditures. War means big money for military contracts, but money spent on war is money not spent here. Products created to fuel war are largely not useful. Children can’t eat bombs, bullets or guns.

We can change our national portrait by paying attention to what politicians do and say, not just during campaigns, but all year long. We must hold them accountable on real issues, not divisive social issues, tailor-made and media-fed to keep Americans at war with each other.

We need to follow the money from our checkbooks to the government and see where it ends up. Does money come back to make our lives better? Or does it feed the growing inequity, destroying dreams of good lives for our children? We’re responsible for our society; our civic duty is to read newspapers, pay attention, get active and focus on what’s important.

Barbara Finley-Shea is the pastor at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Lyle. She resides in House District 27A and is a member of the Mower County DFL Party.