Editorial: Identifying with Being an American

A friend said something very interesting to me recently. He complained that he feared Americans no longer felt a connection with being members of their country, but rather identified themselves exclusively by their role in its economic system, and that whether that role was vital or trivial largely defined their overall sense of self-worth. This struck me as being quite interesting. We live in the wealthiest nation on Earth, yet the concentration of wealth, which continues to accumulate ever so disproportionately toward the top, has consistently meant that people benefit less and less from being a member of our nation.

Think about it. 50 years ago, there was tremendous security in being a part of our middle or even lower classes. You had a well-founded belief that you would be able to provide for your family better in each generation and that even modest careers would result in a fair amount of comfort and leisure once you retired. This was, by and large, the American Dream. Slowly but surely, that security eroded and any parity in the social model went with it.

As the assault on collective bargaining continues, it is becoming clear that the generations entering the workforce today have less to look forward to than any before them, at least for the past 60 years. Governor Rick Scott aims to make it so that not even state employees hired going forward have an opportunity to earn a modest pension in return for their career of service at a modest salary. Many governors and legislators seek to abolish or at least severely diminish Social Security and in most of the bedrock companies of the American economy, pensioners exist, but from an earlier era, while those hired in more recent times take their chances with what they can contribute to a 401k – and what remains of it after each ensuing bubble/bust cycle.

There will always be a litany of careers that are comprised of toils of labor; monotonous, soulless endeavors that are necessary, if not fulfilling. The European model made it so that citizens could still expect to find fulfillment through pursuits of leisure and self-improvement, because they had six weeks of vacation, fair wages, a reasonable retirement age and a modest, but sufficient pension to support it – oh and universal health care to ensure that what money they had wasn't eaten up in its entirety by such expenses.

As a result of this expectation of moderate comfort, there exists not only a sense of pride, but a sense that they have a stake in their country and its continued success. Today, our country is still very wealthy, but fewer and fewer people have that same stake. They look around and see a handful of the elite enjoying never before contemplated wealth and hope that they themselves can pay for gasoline and meat.

This benefits no one, for as they consolidate more and more wealth those at the top are disenfranchising the very toilers who make their wealth possible. The rest of the world is demonstrating that passivity is generally conditioned upon a minimally satisfying and free existence. If the most that workers can hope for is a roof over their head and bread on their plate as they work their fingers to the bone, then that stake has been removed completely and it is the whole of society that suffers.  

There will always be disparity in a free-market system, but it is generally true that even those at the bottom fair better than they would in a closed-market system -- provided there are certain controls in place. Adam Smith spoke of self-correcting markets, but also of the ills of unfettered capitalism. Today, anyone who suggests that free markets operate best when there is enough regulation to prevent the monopolies, social stratification and eventual collapse that unfettered capitalism will always spawn is accused of being a socialist. There was a time when they would have been considered an economically-educated capitalist, one smart enough to realize that if all of the wealth continues to accumulate in one place (the top), the entire house of cards eventually comes down. Without a minimal expectation that we all have a genuine "stake" in the prosperity of our nation, the national identity disappears completely -- and the hoarded wealth is of very little comfort when such times come. If one desires proof, they need only turn on the news. 

Dennis Maley is a local author and the editor of the Bradenton Times. Click here to read more of his op/eds.