The moral fiber of political culture

By Andrew Whyman
SPECIAL TO THE BONANZA
April 30, 2008

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These are the best of times or the worst of times depending on the luck of the draw and various other considerations.

At no time since the Great Depression has the distance between those fortunate few at the top of the economic ladder and the multitudinous masses at the bottom been so pronounced. It’s a trend that has been ongoing for some 30 years and which has continued to accelerate during the Bush years.

If you’re a Democrat you might pound away at the elites and their wheel barrels of money while offering vague and unfunded promises to the working classes about paying for health care, preventing bank foreclosure or just helping with the heating bill or a child’s college education.

If you’re a Republican you tend to believe that still lower taxes will fuel the magic of free markets and create yet more prosperity for all.

It’s more fun to talk in vague generalities about such matters because that way no one gets offended. But particular situations and specific circumstances have a nasty way of intruding themselves into otherwise genial cocktail conversations. Perhaps I’m just a spoil sport or too sensitive to fill in the blank, but it bothers me to be a party, however tangentially, to extraordinary social inequity. Call me a bleeding heart liberal if you must. I’m proud of it.

Why raise these issues at this particular time? Because Nevada and the nation’s problems continue to deepen and none of the presidential candidates seem willing to trust that the public can handle the truth about them.

In Nevada sales tax revenue has dropped precipitously, gaming taxes less so, but overall the state has taken major hits. At the county level necessary social services for seniors and at risk youth fray to near breaking. In upscale Incline, library hours may well be curtailed, as will senior and teen programs. Fortunately, Incline still has $40 million homes for sale.

Nationally, natural gas and electricity prices have soared while low-end incomes stagnate and the price of food and gasoline continues to ascend toward the heavens. In Rhode Island officials predict a record number of properties will lose gas and electricity services due to repeated failure to make payments.

Similar scenarios have been reported in other Northeastern states. Without additional federal aid those citizens who still owe large sums to oil companies to heat their properties will lose service next fall.

Unbelievable as it may seem, freezing to death in America could become another tragic consequence of a deepening recession.

While this is indeed a grim montage, those at the top end of the ladder would seem to be surviving reasonably, and some would say obscenely, well. Examples abound. Kenneth Griffin of Citadel Investment Group “earned” a mind boggling $1.5 billion in 2007. Not to be outdone, John Paulson of Paulson and Company, last year’s top earner, took home $3.7 billion. Then there was Philip Falcone of Harbinger Partners who made $1.7 billion and the stalwart Democratic backer George Soros who eked out $3 billion. Meanwhile Timothy Barakett of Atticus Capital made $750 million while James H. Simons of Renaissance Technologies pocketed $2.8 billion.

Of course, should these numbers, and others like them, cause your knees to go all wobbly, Republican gurus will patiently explain that donating all that money to pay heating bills will have almost no impact on the federal deficit. Moreover, they will invariable add that these much maligned folks pay almost all of the federal income taxes already, even if hedge fund managers are only taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate.

If, on the other hand, you’re a bleeding heart liberal like me you might ponder what has gone wrong with the moral fiber of a political culture that protects the financial interests of the chosen few while ignoring the basic needs of so many.

Andrew Whyman is a nearly-retired physician who lives in Incline Village. To contact Whyman, e-mail adwhyman@aol.com.