The Social Contract

If you missed "Morning Joe" Monday, you did not hear the BEST conversation I've ever encountered on our nation's income disparity and the sentiment of the people -- whether members of the Tea Party or Occupiers.

Joe Scarborough was off-set but added his view that people trust "big business" much more than "big government". Dr. Jeffrey Sachs took on that view by reminding Joe that there is no "free market" when rules are broken and wrong-doing occurs. Suze Orman drove that point home: "What happened on Wall Street is the reason people don't have a house or equity". She spoke of how the most recent distrust of the banks began when many began floating the idea of new fees, such as the $5 per transaction debit card debacle. She finished by telling us that the ills of the financial sector "led to middle America disappearing".

When Mike Barnacle jumped in with the "personal responsibility" argument, Suze took that on as well. She cited "financial illiteracy" and the evil of giving people the "rope to hang themselves". The exclamation point to her argument was quite effective: "We don't let kids drive when they're 3."

Dr. Sachs gave the history lesson: Fraud and deregulation began in the 1980s with the "Savings and Loan Scandal" and the "big boys" got the message that they could "make big money and get bailed out" if investments didn't pan out. "They knew exactly what they were doing," he added.

Mika cited a New York Times column written by Ross Douthat in which he explains how capital investment firms "served investors and not employees. America's edge came with a cost," he tells us. "The economy was more efficient and GDP kept growing," but this "new wealth was less evenly distributed." This fiscal "revolution" created growth, but did so at the expense of "stability" and "certainty". He adds that for many Americans, "private equity buyouts cost them...a good job." With Bain Capital obliquely referenced -- and by extension, Mitt Romney -- the Reverend Al Sharpton seized on Romney's absurd "politics of envy" comment. "People fighting for collective bargaining...in Ohio and Wisconsin aren't jealous of wealth."

But it was The New York Times column written by Charles Blow that brought out the true star of this topic. Charles cited Elizabeth Warren's stump speech explanation of "The Social Contract" to make the point that the "wealthy want all the benefits and none of the responsibility." The games of Wall Street and the ire of the people come down to this bygone concept which, sadly, we seem to have mislaid.

In a speech in Boston last September, Ms. Warren tells us: "For 50 years, if a family got richer the nation got richer. During the...1970s and 1980s (to the present), wages have been flat. The percentage of workers represented by unions dropped...and Congress quietly changed the rules (deregulations)" making "tricks" easier for lenders to pull on borrowers.

But perhaps her most eloquent speech on the topic came last August in Andover, Massachusetts. She explained, with great emotion, to the crowd assembled that no one has ever started a business by themselves. I'll paraphrase her vision: The highways you use to transport your products, we paid for. The workers you hire, we paid to educate. The police officers and fire fighters that keep your factory safe, we all paid for. If you started a business and you're doing well, God bless! Keep a huge hunk of it. But part of the unwritten Social Contract is that you take a chunk and pay it forward for the next kid.

Quite simply folks, that is who we are as a nation, as a democracy, as an interconnected society. How anyone could find fault with this rather than great pride is beyond me. Being reminded of it with Elizabeth Warren's words, and others, was a moving tribute as it came on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s day.

Joe tried once more with the words, "Free enterprise is messy." He put the focus on Europe's financial crisis, saying their governments and debts grew too large, causing their mess. In other words, "big government" goes wrong and we blame "big business". Dr. Sachs wisely disagreed: "The 1% have gamed the federal government...(and we need to) end the games because the middle and lower classes don't want to pay for a rigged market." If you add to that the fact that banks, hedge fund managers, and big corporations don't pay their share in taxes, as Dr. Sachs reminds us, you have the recipe for the stew we find ourselves in now.

That's what happens with "big business", and when that money lays the red carpet for our elected politicians. The system IS rigged, and the dis-empowered are left on the hook to clean up the bad investments of this "messy free market" or ours. (With their tax dollars, of course. It's not like they have any portfolios or retirement funds left!)

Thank you sir, I'll have another. Let's push our pols for an Amendment to undo Citizens United. Let's kill these ill-conceived SuperPACs. Let's demand that EVERYONE pay just as everyone benefits, according to that wonderful social contract of which Elizabeth Warren so artfully reminded us. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum is immaterial. This is your fight because this is OUR fight.

Yes sir, I'll have another all right. With HALF of our population in or near poverty, I'll take another reality. A reality shaped by the revolution of "disparate" voices coming together in a new harmony for equality and economic justice!