By Deb Escobar, 20 October 2018
At the October 11th RC 10 Fall Meeting, members were treated to a workshop on Reversing Runaway Inequality, led by Charlie Albanetti of Citizen Action New York.
We were astonished to learn the true facts about income inequality, including that a top CEO makes 794 times the amount of an average worker. The gap becomes even worse when you consider race and gender. For example, Black women make only 64% of what white men make, and Latina women only 54%. This disparity leads to a lack of wealth that could have been used to pay for higher education, purchase homes, provide a financially secure retirement, or be passed on to future generations.
Many of us were surprised to learn that the primary cause of wage stagnation in the US is financialization. This means that the financial industry is extracting value from our workplaces by stock buy-backs, which increase the worth of each share of stock for the investors. These buy-backs are taking place to make a quick profit instead of investing in the capital resources or growth of the business, or fairly adjusting the wages and benefits of workers. This financialization has separated average wages from productivity.
We also learned that after the Citizens United legislation in 2010, independent political expenditures (not coordinated with candidate or party) skyrocketed from about $50,000 in 2005, to $200,000,000 in 2010. In 2014, Super PAC contributions amounted to $343,517,137. This influx of Super PAC contributions and donor class contributions has had a disproportionate impact on our political process.
The first step in reversing this process is to educate others about the true facts of income inequality. As retired teachers, we know firsthand how this impacts not only students but our communities and our retired population. We no longer have the luxury of sitting back from our political process -- we must get involved, get out the vote, and elect representatives who will be truly responsive to people, not to corporations, Super PACs, or the wealthy elite.
If anyone would like to learn more about this issue, the book Runaway Inequality by Les Leopold was recommended. If you are a part of a group that would like to bring this presentation to your members, contact calbanetti@citizzenactionny.org.