By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
May 1999
As the Dow Jones industrial average shoots past 11,000 on its way to the stratosphere, could we pause for a moment of silence to recognize the wealth disparity that has resulted and the threat it poses to our fragile democracy?
If you read and listen to the corporate press -- the Wall Street cheerleaders at Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, or the other major corporate news services -- you might think that the market boom has resulted in wealth all around.
For the most part, the corporate press, caught up in their euphoria over this bubble economy, has ignored the reality on the ground.
They generally ignored, for example, the bit of reality recently presented in succinct detail by the Boston- based United for a Fair Economy.
Last month, the group issued "Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing Wealth Gap in America," a report that features the latest findings of economist Edward Wolff of New York University, a leading authority on wealth distribution.
This is what the report found:
There is little question that wealth concentration presented in this report is being fueled by corporate greed. And the resulting wealth inequality poses serious threats to our democracy and civic life.
"The wealth gap reinforces -- and is reinforced by -- widening disparities in education, economic opportunity, and quality of life," says Chuck Collins, co-director of United for a Fair Economy, and a co-author of the report. "Even the affluent lose from inequality as it hurts life expectancy for rich and poor, fuels violence, and denies all of us the contributions of people whose opportunities are denied."
Another co-author of the report, Juliet Schor, argues that "health, well-being and satisfaction appear to be heavily influenced by the ways in which economic resources, prestige and social position are distributed."
"In more unequal societies, human well-being and quality of life appear to be lower," Schor says. Wolff makes the point that "wealth, more than income, directly translates into political power." To counter the wealth threat to democracy, Wolff proposes a wealth tax on the richest Americans.
As an act of capitalist self-preservation, we think Gates and his buddies should agree.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. Together, they are authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Common Courage Press, 1999).
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