Persons of Means

 

The British refer to them as "Landed Gentry".  In the Gilded Age, they were "Robber Barons". These days, they are the "Billionaire Class", although they much prefer the more genteel label, "Persons of Means",  with its implied largesse.

America is supposedly a class-less society, but of course that is fiction.  We have always had an upper class and they have always been privileged, spending some of their money to make more money. A good chunk is spent on buying influence. A recent example of this power was the 2017 Tax Bill, sold to us as a boon to the middle-class (there's that class-less thing again) but in actuality a trillion dollar gift to those with the least need. Paul Ryan proudly tweeted the bill gave Pennsylvania teachers an extra $1.50 per week - while Warren Buffet reaped $680,000 in tax savings. 80% of the benefits went to the wealthy  The corporate tax rate was cut from 35% to 21%. The trickle-down ruse succeeds once again.   

Most of the Persons of Means clique have managed to remain pretty anonymous. Some super-ego names might ring a bell. Bezos, Ellison, Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg, Koch, ...  And you would be surprised how little in taxes they pay. "The scandal is that these actions are perfectly legal. Bloomberg and Buffett, who have both supported raising tax rates for the wealthy, have both had $0 income tax bills. (Buffett, at least, has long acknowledged this, infamously saying he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.)"  If this doesn't make you angry, you must still harbor the delusion that you will someday join that select company.

Citizen's United has made American Corporations a powerhouse of influence peddling - you know, the SCOTUS ruling that corporations are people.  Corporations now contribute huge sums to politicians and can do so anonymously through non-profit PACs.

And guess what.  We are in a wave of the new old means of lining pockets.  Inflation. It's easy go on a rant over higher prices - and blame it on the government.  But the government generally does not set prices, other than in war time. Nixon tried wage and price controls in the 70's, but when they ended, to Jimmy Carter's dismay, pent-up demand set inflation rocketing. Fed management of interest rates is about the only tool the government has, so you should expect interest rates to go up, up.

Rising gas prices always seem to be an explosive issue. But gas prices are based on the price of oil, which is now around $90/barrel. A year ago the price was around $47/barrel. Who's responsible for this doubling? It's about supply and demand - with some price manipulation thrown in for good measure. So if you want to rant, pick on OPEC, Exxon/Mobil, Aramco, BP.  (I'm a climate change worrier and I believe higher gas prices are a good thing, motivating a faster transition to alternative energy options.)

But it is true, the cost of most everything going up. Common wisdom says, "it's supply chain problems", "it's the pandemic", "it's the drought/floods/fires”, "there’s a shortage of chips", "workers are getting $15/hr now", "there aren't enough workers", "shipping costs are way up", "war and rumors of war",   ... 

These are all true, but you know what?  The major underlying cause behind these price increases is ... GREED. There seems an agreement among corporations that now is the time to capitalize, get to the levels of profitability shareholders expect, not to mention the bonuses the C-offices expect. So jack up the prices and blame, well, see above.  (If you think Corporate America is concerned about your bank account, other that reducing it, you aren't paying attention.)

I actually don't begrudge the price increases by small businesses, especially restaurants. So many have gone under in the past couple years. My father owned a small hardware store and in the wacky inflationary early 80's, he'd say, "we lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume."  

Corporate gougers. Not so much

Car dealers are raising prices. Automakers are pushing back. Consumers are stuck in between.

Ford and GM have warned dealerships to stop selling vehicles above MSRP, but such markups are now pervasive across the industry amid supply shortages

How Much Money America’s Billionaires Have Made During The Covid-19 Pandemic. 

And the answer is: "U.S. billionaires have gotten about $1.2 trillion richer during the pandemic."

America’s richest 400 families pay a lower tax rate than average taxpayer

"The richest 400 Americans paid an average 8.2% federal income tax rate, which is “low” relative to other taxpayers ..."

Amazon raises US price for Prime as profits jump  

"The firm's profits in the quarter also jumped, to $14.3bn - almost double the prior year."

Starbucks Profits Soar by 31%—But It's Raising Prices Anyway

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson—who saw his compensation soar by 39% to $20.4 million in 2021—told investors during the company's earnings call Tuesday that "supply-chain disruptions" and rising labor costs are to blame for the coming price increases

In 2020, top CEOs earned 351 times more than the typical worker

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that CEO compensation has grown 1,332% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%. In 2020, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. made $24.2 million on average, 351 times more that the typical worker.

Exxon Mobil reports a $8.9 billion fourth-quarter profit as oil prices soar.

Heralding its financial comeback after several years of mediocre returns and criticism over its environmental performance, the company said it would resume buying back its stock to the tune of $ 10 billion over the next two years

We have a Statue of Liberty. We also need a Statue of Responsibility. Will the billionaire class ever have enough?  When John D Rockefeller was asked this, his reply was .. "just a little bit more", an insight into the thirst of the 1% and a bleak harbinger of the prospects of a change in the status quo. Thems whats gots, keeps. They will not yield quietly.

So I have low expectations for Congressional action, but, unless you have a Swiss bank account, I'm asking you to write your Member of Congress. Tell them that you too are a person of means and you're not going to take it anymore.  #fairshare #levelplayingfield. Maybe include a check.

And why am I not surprised,   Beer prices are going up in Minnesota. 

Copyright ©  2022  Dave Hoplin

On Writing While Old

I like to write.  I’ve been at this blogging thing for 8 years now, knocking out a couple posts a month. I am a prime example of how blogging opens the world of “publishing” to absolutely anyone. I don’t have illusions of competency or popular appeal, but what the heck, it’s easier than scribbling in a spiral notebook and it's a satisfying hobby, considerably cheaper than gambling, yacht racing or golf. I've convinced myself it keeps my mind from totally atrophying.

I tend to write a draft quite quickly. Often the inspiration forms during the time of insomnia, although these 3AM musings are frequently nonsensical. I then do a couple rounds of edit after the model of Norman Mailer: 

“I would hardly remember what I had written the day before. It read, therefore, as if someone else had done it. The critic in me was delighted. I could now proceed to fix the prose. The sole virtue of losing your short-term memory is that it does free you to be your own editor.”  

A real editor would of course say 'get rid of all those adjectives and adverbs' rather than adding more as is my egregious, irritating, incessant, unrepentant penchant.  I then let the post rest a couple days before coming back for a final edit or a decision to drop the whole thing into the bit bucket. And then the title. That takes awhile. 

The good thing about writing while old is that while the short-term is weak, the long term remains vivid (and perhaps idealized) and the many years provide many memories to draw on. But there are hazards. When you are an old writer, as Grace Paley said:

“You may begin to notice that you’re invisible. Especially if you’re gray-haired. But I say to whom? And so what? All the best minorities have suffered that and are rising nowadays in the joy of righteous wrath.” 

Actually, it's not just old writers.  It's old folks in general. We get discarded figuratively and literally, as the plague has so ruthlessly illustrated. So subliminally I write to assert we old folks’ relevancy.

Frank & Earnest are my role models. I started with tales of growing up in a small town in the prairie-lake country of west central Minnesota, writing from the perspective of a 10 year-old kid - my target audience being my family and a few homies - hence the title "Distant Innocence". But there’s just so much that that focus can yield, so over time I’ve expanded to whatever piques my interest. 

I write for my own personal entertainment. I’ve reached the age where I spend no time worrying about those who might object to my views. I don’t expect to convert anyone anyway. Although, if I’m completely honest, I try to write with some nuance and subtlety - the goal not to soften my 'message' but to make the writing more interesting and to get the reader to exercise some thought. And occasionally I attempt a humorous post - a dangerous enterprise. I am no Mark Twain. But if a few people get some enjoyment from these efforts, I'm satisfied.  

And as for those I annoy, weigh in. I am willing to be convinced of the error of my ways.  Just remember, I am old and it will be difficult to knock me from my high horse. I tend to hang on tight because I don’t bounce nearly as well as I did in my youth. But I don’t mind a good honest row - if you can avoid the name calling.

Copyright ©  2022  Dave Hoplin

Me and Martin

I am a this is most certainly true Lutheran, raised on the theology of grace. At times it seems like my only chance. I even went so far as to publish a How To Do Lutheran guide, justified by faith in the Luther imperative to “sin boldly”.  

So I think my Lutheran creds are pretty solid.   But that brings us to me & Martin.

Martin Luther is the bulwark never failing of the Lutheran faithful. He is rightly credited with launching the 16th century Reformation, birthing Lutheranism as well as reforming the Catholic Church, condemning the egregious practices of indulgences, salvation for sale. It doesn’t work that way and Luther boldly nailed this and 94 other theses on the Wittenberg door in 1517.  "I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen." 

Thus, Luther begat Zwingli, Calvin, Wycliffe, Wesley, ... and the resulting hodgepodge of Protestant denominations fracturing themselves on angels on the head of a pin theological differences. 

Luther translated the Bible from Latin to the vernacular and along with Gutenberg made scripture available to the commoner. He preached daily his theology of saved by faith alone - interspersed with aphorisms that presaged Poor Richard: 

• “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” 
• “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."
• "God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does."

He loved music and composed numerous hymns. You likely know a few even if you’re not Lutheran: Ein Feste Burg, Aus Tiefer Not Schrei Ich Zu Dir, ...  And he bluntly stated: 

• "A person who does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs." 
• “My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.”

Luther's Small Catechism has ben the bane of confirmation students for 400 years. I believe that by my own reason or strength it is impossible to memorize this stuff. 

And, being of German stock, he also loved his beer: “Beer is made by men, wine by God. Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”  

Slightly fractured logic perhaps.  

And he was a pretty earthy monk. In the 1550s, he wrote of his strategies to ward off the devil: “Almost every night when I wake up … I instantly chase him away with a fart.” 

Quite a remarkable feller. But like the rest of us, he was also deeply flawed. Although he married Katharina, a nun he smuggled from a convent in a herring barrel, and lived happily ("My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus."), his attitude toward women can only be characterized as misogynist:  "Women should remain at home, sit still, and bear children." 

As a father of a daughter, Me and Martin have a problem.

He was also bitterly anti-Semitic. 

• "If I had to baptize a Jew, I would take him to the bridge of the Elbe, hang a stone around his neck and push him over with the words, I baptize thee in the name of Abraham'".  

There is a theory that the thread from Luther to Nietzsche spins into Nazism, persisting and expanding in our own time.  But then there is this: 

• “When we are inclined to boast of our position [as Christians] we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are." 

A man of contradictions. Nevertheless, Me and Martin have a problem.

Actually, Me and History in general have a problem.

History is written by the victors and the unsavory, messy details tend to get filtered out. We rarely get the whole truth. We require heroes, flawless legends. I term it "Disney History".  Major Rogers & Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, outsmarting the British. Daniel Boone saving  Boonesboro from Indians on the warpath. Davy Crockett dying heroically at the Alamo. Texas John Slaughter, slaughtering.  And nary a woman in sight, except for Betsy Ross busily sewing. Perhaps it's not an accident that it is termed His Story. No hint of Thomas Jefferson, slave owner.  Or, Andrew Jackson and the genocide of the Cherokee Trail of Tears. And I cannot tell a lie, George Washington did not throw a cherry tree across the Potomac. 

Great stories. But fictions, not history. More akin to that other Disney invention, Fantasyland. A sad excuse for an education. School days history bring to mind Jack Nicholson’s line in A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth”. 

Well, I think we can and in point of fact, I think we should demand it. We know in our in our hearts that history is populated with charlatans and evil, and events are cruel and complicated. A deep history dive is actually quite fascinating and while it invariably reveals feet of clay it also does not negate accomplishments. (I can recommend some books if you're interested.) Let’s not whitewash our past but study it to learn from both the great deeds & words as well as the despicable ones. 

And about that book banning crap .. but that’s for another time

Copyright ©  2022  Dave Hoplin