living in the age of the robber barons redux

Income disparity and inequality of influence over public policies are getting worse than they've been in decades in this increasingly possession-status conscious and arrogant country. Here's some stats to illustrate (from Paul Krugman's NYTimes column dated 2/27/06):

A new research paper by Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?, gives the details. Between 1972 and 2001 the wage and salary income of Americans at the 90th percentile of the income distribution rose only 34 percent, or about 1 percent per year. So being in the top 10 percent of the income distribution, like being a college graduate, wasn't a ticket to big income gains.
But income at the 99th percentile rose 87 percent; income at the 99.9th percentile rose 181 percent; and income at the 99.99th percentile rose 497 percent. No, that's not a misprint.
Just to give you a sense of who we're talking about: the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that this year the 99th percentile will correspond to an income of $402,306, and the 99.9th percentile to an income of $1,672,726. The center doesn't give a number for the 99.99th percentile, but it's probably well over $6 million a year.

Between our current administration's tax cuts aimed at rich individuals and corporations, their strong anti-union and anti-dissent stances, and their proclivity for keeping the business of the people's government a secret, this country is looking more and more like it was in the 19th century: dominated by a tiny, elite cadre of wealthy interests who use all the tools at their disposal to maintain the delicate balance between national economic and social policies that keep the money and power in their own hands and appeasing the shorter-term, individual needs of the masses. They have mastered the art of mass communication and message control to promote a culture of blind consumerism, individualism, and instant gratification of desires. If you do not have boatloads of money or belong to a well-funded or large majority group, you are almost completely disenfranchised in today's political structure.

So rather than people struggling for the advancement of their own needs through the collective advancement of everyone via the political process, they only see 2 options to getting ahead or being heard: 1) advancing their own needs by taking away from "others" around them or 2) advancing their own needs with the blind, short-sighted assumption that natural and social resources are endless and so their personal gain does not have any impact on those around them or their natural or social surroundings.

Just like the environment, saving our collected heritage of freedom and democracy and equality for all will require some drastic steps to change things around and loosen the tight grip that money has on our system of governance. I don't know what those changes should encompass any more than the next person, but I know we need to figure it out soon. Growing corruption, greed, arrogance to others and extravagance at home, and growing resentment and groupings of enemies abroad has been the earmark of the downfall of almost every great empire in history...