I believe the demonstrations against the financial community and Wall Street these days are the twin of what created the Tea Party four years ago. And it looks like we’ll see the same result: a larger fundamental gap between the left and right wings of America, with no-man’s land in-between, where moderates used to be found. The result will be an even more diminished ability to solve our political problems, leading to more economic disruptions.
The economic cataclysm four years ago was the original cause of the gap between left-wingers and right-wingers. It was how we got the tea party. The richest 1% now have 20% of the wealth of our country. It’s exactly what the Egyptians revolted against. Unlimited power and wealth almost always causes class warfare. Unless the government fixes the problem by reverting taxes to what they were in 1960 when Eisenhower was President, the class friction will continue to increase, folding into violence, and at least one more political party, this one splitting off on the left. If we collected higher taxes from the richest, we could use the money to fix our broken education system, making education affordable and the next generation competitive.
The result of our current taxation levels is more than just the destruction of our education system. A dysfunctional education system results in a lowering of income levels, lower total taxes collected and a greater deficit, a dearth of entrepreneurial start-ups, and fewer jobs for the young starting out. It’s a formula for violent revolution. We’re already experiencing the Arab Spring. We’re about to face the same in Europe. We can either have an American Spring or an American Winter. The protests on Wall Street are indications we might still see change and a fix to the madness in Washington. American Spring? Or American Winter?
