Some of you may know me from my videos parodying the notion of a “Corporate Person American.” In them, I turn to music and to comedy to express the indignation I feel about our nation’s irrational, immoral upward redistribution of wealth. One reason I’m so familiar with our dysfunctional economic system is that I’m one of those who have gained (at least materially) from it. Though I’m not really a “Corporate Person American,” I am an American who benefits from corporate-influenced policies. The following essay — which has been syndicated in about a dozen newspapers — is my attempt to address this same issue I take on in my videos, but from another, more personal angle.
I recently came out of the money closet.
It’s said that personal finances are the last taboo; if so, I and scores of others broke it by posting messages to the website “We Stand With the 99 Percent” in which we announced ourselves as wealthy supporters of the Occupy movement. Each message ended with the statement: “I am the 1 percent. I stand with the 99 percent.”
This was in response to the claims of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other critics that the Wall Street protestors’ advocacy of the economic interest of 99 percent of the American public was somehow pitting one group of Americans against another.
The messages on the website offer a fascinating glimpse into the emotional role money plays in all our lives, and now in the raw politics of recession. The posts vary widely: some are from trust fund babies, some from Internet millionaires, some from the simply comfortably middle class. But all argue that it makes no sense for any Americans to suffer privation when so many have so much.
This may be another big, welcome change that comes out of the Occupy movement. Just as cancer and other diseases are now discussed openly, much to the benefit of personal health and public education, even though they were at one time kept strictly private; so another central element of our lives—money—may finally become a fit subject for general discussion.
It may be a hard transition for some rich people to make. Many of those posting on the “1 Percent” website completely or partially obscure their faces, like criminals on a perp walk or protestors afraid of police surveillance.
Among the independently wealthy, such training starts early. Many of us are told not to talk about money when we’re young, presumably for fear of kidnappers and moochers. Plus, wealth—ironically, like poverty—is a marker of unwelcome distinction among kids just wanting to be like everyone else.
As we grow older, the rules are internalized: we become vague and furtive when issues of personal finance arise; cover stories are carefully constructed; make-believe or lightly-compensated jobs are attended to; tight-lipped nods of sympathy are offered to the economic tales of woe offered by our friends.
For some, the secrecy comes not only from a desire to fit in but from deep sense of guilt. Many of the 1 Percent posters agonizingly admit to ancestors growing rich from slavery, colonization and child labor. These are not easy ethical issues to resolve.
But such obstacles to openness must be overcome. By hiding their wealth, affluent supporters of a more equitable tax system and adequate public services deprive themselves of one of their best—because most personal—arguments. They leave the debate to rich people struggling to avoid paying fair taxes who, along with their sycophantic advocates, attack every reasonable reform with inflammatory charges of “class warfare” and “punishing success.”
And now is a time when candor about money can serve a particularly useful public purpose. Even as the streets are filled with Occupiers, the political system is paralyzed over two fundamental questions of public policy: what should the government do and who should pay for it. The public-spirited wealthy must weigh in with the important message that common needs take precedence over a further unimpeded accumulation of our private fortunes.
Considering the risks to their lives and livelihoods others have taken to forward social movements, the step I’ve taken hardly counts as courageous. But it’s something only a relative handful of us can contribute to this particular movement and moment. So I’m honored I could do it, and urge others who’d like to see our tiny slice of prosperity expand to do the same.
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Thank you to everyone who has read and commented upon my first two articles, and thank you to all those who have signed up to be part of the Coffee Party Commonwealth project! Our first strategy call is Sunday, December 18, at 5 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. Pacific). CLICK HERE to register.
Also, please listen to Coffee Party Radio: What Is the Robin Hood Tax? This is a radio show that I co-hosted with Annabel Park. Economist Dean Baker joined us for the first hour to discuss the Financial Speculation Tax (popularly known as The Robin Hood Tax), and why he and many others feel it would stabilize the US economy and help to balance our budget.
Also my follow up to the above article: The Rich Don't Need a Free Ride