News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Jan. 22, 2016: O MY GOD! Do you believe that one year from today as I write this episode, January 21, 2016 – Barack Obama will no longer be President?
And I will be sad writing the very last episode of Obama’s America, episode # 312. And I hope it will not then be the first episode of Trump’s America, or Cruz’ America or Clinton’s America, etc., etc. It’s a long list.
But for right now it’s still Obama’s America and .. .
Extreme inequality is the ultimate issue in Obama’s America.
So it is impossible to give it too much attention. It defines everything else that takes place in Obama’s America, and the fact that President Obama is helpless to reverse it. Indeed, it has gotten worse over the last 7 year.
But his ultimate failure which he is personally responsible for is the fact that his criticism is muted. That he does not do more – which he could. The newest report on inequality just released to be timed with the annual winter gatherings of the Elites in Davos is instructive. This new report by Oxfam International which describes itself as “work (ing) to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrife.”
They also produce powerful reports. Here is the most recent just released.
It is titled “An Economy for the 1%.”
Here are two eye catching headlines ..
“Combined net worth of 4 U.S. billionaires total almost as much of the wealth of the bottom 40% of U.S. households.” It is worse that the four are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the Koch Brothers, Charles and David – each worth $48.8 BILLION.
And those Koch Brothers have created the most powerful political apparatus ever – to push an extreme right wing agenda that will concentrate wealth in America even more while further hobbling everyone else even more.
How does it look more globally in this same report?
“Last year, just 62 individuals held wealth equivalent to the amount owned by 3.6 billion people, about half the world’s population. ” It is the same game everywhere and even more pronounced globally.
Here is how The New York Times put it in their recent article …
“Workers in nearly all of the world’s most developed nations and in most developing countries have been getting a smaller and smaller share of the pie, Oxfam notes.”
“These are unprecedented levels of stratification in all of human history,” Mr. Winters apolitical scientist at Northwestern University who studies economic elites said, whether compared with ancient Rome or authoritarian dictatorships that exert near-total control of a country’s resources. “No other system has concentrated wealth as much as this system has.”
Got that? The concentration of wealth is worse than it was in Ancient Rome. Let me go further and make anther comparison – worse than it was in Ancient Egypt when the Pharaohs ruled over their slave society.
Mr. Winters concludes The Times article with this …
“We can adopt policies that make it harder for the ultra wealthy to shape our government and our society,” Mr. Winters said, “or we can do what we have been doing, which is greatly facilitating the ability of the rich to shape society.”
Again …. “or we can do what we have been doing, which is greatly facilitating the ability of the rich to shape society.”
In other words, government most of all is aiding and abetting the ever greater concentration of wealth to level never seen before and with NO end in sight and that definitely includes the United States; yes in the 21st century!
Which brings us right to President Barack Obama’s elegant White Houses doorstep!
There is a well known phrase that works well here … you are either part of the solution or the problem.
So I Googled “ President Obama and Oxfam repot on inequality.”
Guess what I got back? NOTHING!
Sure, sure Obama is on the record condemning extreme inequality. He very gently touched on it in his forgettable State of the Union speech and elsewhere. YAWN!
Here is what the Oxfam report has to say about Obama ..
“In the past 12 months, we have seen world leaders from President Obama to Christine Lagarde talk more about tackling extreme inequality but we are still waiting for many of them to walk the walk. It is time our leaders took on the powerful vested interests that stand in the way of a fairer and more prosperous world.”
Encore …
“We are still waiting for many of them to walk the walk. It is time our leaders took on the powerful vested interests that stand in the way of a fairer and more prosperous world.”
Walk the walk! President Obama is not even Talking the Talk in any meaningful way the last 7 years and he won’t his last year either.
Why not? Because Barack is taking care of #1 and #2 – himself and Michelle – and their After Life – that is life after The White House when they will be dialing for Big Dollars seeking to become Billionaires themselves. They are not going to get all that Dough from you and me but from the 1%. So why would they bite the rich hands that are going to feed them so, so well?
If Barack Obama had been the President we thought he would be, he would be using reports like this and the many that preceded it and forcing wealth inequality to the front burner in DC and across the country and the world every day and would have even left the Republicans with no choice but to take a stand.
Instead, President Barack Obama did not, and as I repeat episode after episode and will continue to do, INEQUALITY IS WORSE THAN EVER. Does he have the power to stop and reverse it all by himself? NO, but with it is getting even worse during his Presidency. How can it not be the most important and ever constant issue of his Presidency day in and day out?
I clearly explained it above. Let me do it yet again.
Because Barack is taking care of #1 and #2 – himself and Michelle and their After Life – that is life after The White House when they will be dialing for Big Dollars seeking to become Billionaires themselves. They are not going to get all that Dough from you and me but from the 1% so why would they bite the rich hands that are going to feed them so, so well?
Got it? If not, I have 52 more issues of Obama’s America to write.
Dear Readers, you will hear about it again here. Guaranteed!
