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income inequality
Staring Down the Abyss of 2025
The basis of hope for a better future, I believe, is the courage to accept reality. A change of collective consciousness is our best shot at not only surviving but thriving.
Jan 05, 2025
2025 offers an intriguing mix of the certain and the uncertain.
Here’s what is certain: Democratic institutions will continue to crumble, witness the erosion of the rule of law in the U.S. and elsewhere; long-standing norms governing public affairs, such as a bar to prosecuting political opponents, will loosen their grip on behavior; countless species, especially among birds and insects, will go extinct; a host of “unnatural” disasters attributable to climate change, like wild fires and floods, will devastate wondrous landscapes and settled communities; politically or environmentally-induced mass migration, as experienced now in the various parts of the world, will become more pervasive; income inequality between the top 0.01% and the lowest 50% will increase; economic stability, as in the world-wide acceptance of the U.S. Dollar, will wane.
While not a certainty there’s reason to give added credibility to the risks of nuclear warfare, catastrophic climate tipping points, metastatic ethnic cleansing, and a world-wide pandemic, with mass extinction the result.
Within our own narrower, national context, certainties include the highest ever figures for extraction of natural gas and oil, continued increases in chronic diseases such as Type-2 diabetes and cancer, ballooning healthcare costs per capita, upward swings in gun sales and school shootings, dramatically increased levels of homelessness, and more intrusion of microplastics into the oceans and into our bodies.
An unfettered grasp of our situation can offer up considerable light, hope, even optimism; and it can strengthen our resolve and solidify our resilience.
Uncertain are the targets, timing, locales, extent of severity, and designation of victims related to these eminently predicable developments in the world and in our country. Unclear is what will constitute right and effective action in the face of this inevitable political, social, and environmental unravelling. Finally, the grounding for individual and collective action—spiritual moorings, moral anchors, forms of mutual aid—remains inchoate.
To be human is to know we are going to die. This is certain. With each passing day of 2025, my physical being will be undergoing its own forms of unravelling, making death more proximate. What I don’t know is when and under what circumstances it will occur. Nor do I know for sure what my attitude and affect will be should I be conscious at the time.
With increasing disintegration worldwide and the social fabric in this country fraying, what can one do, how should one approach and contend with encroaching forms of “death” in the world and in this country? What are citizens’ essential responsibilities? For me what are mine as a mate, a father, grandfather, and friend?
You, the reader, might conclude, as you absorb all this, “How pessimistic, how fatalistic!” It will likely surprise you that that is not my mind set at all. Rather I am of the mind that the truth indeed sets one free. An unfettered grasp of our situation can offer up considerable light, hope, even optimism; and it can strengthen our resolve and solidify our resilience. Take a hard look at the obverse: that burying unvarnished realities has improved our prospects. Hardly! Denial, obfuscation, euphemism, soft- pedaling, and distraction have not improved things. In fact, a strong case can be made that they have produced exactly the opposite, a deepening of our plight.
So I beckon my fellow citizens to adopt a different strategy, one that willfully accepts our dire circumstances, without wallowing in them, thus offering the chance of achieving more positive outcomes than our current predicament presages. The basis of hope for a better future, I believe, is the courage to accept reality. A change of collective consciousness is our best shot at not only surviving but thriving.
That I will die soon is certain. That 2025 heralds negative trend lines on multiple fronts is certain. But this is where the parallel can end. With a willingness on all our parts to accept our dire lot we can begin to veer away from what now seems a foregone conclusion.
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What the Post-Election Autopsies Leave Out
Any serious analysis seeking to understand what happened on November 5 must begin with the recognition that the seeds of this year’s Democratic defeat were planted decades ago and are now bearing fruit.
Dec 16, 2024
Democrats are still reeling from the shock of losing to Donald Trump for the second time in the past three elections. There’s quite a bit of finger-pointing and soul-searching taking place, with both journalists and activists writing “autopsies” to understand both the reasons for the defeat and what lessons can be learned moving forward.
I would be more supportive and less skeptical about the merits of some of these exercises were it not for two reasons. In the first place, most of these autopsies will be focused too narrowly on this election, as if the problems we are facing just emerged this year. Secondly, if past is prologue, these “studies” will most likely be read by a few, then shelved and forgotten.
In fact, any serious analysis seeking to understand what happened on November 5 must begin with the recognition that the seeds of this year’s Democratic defeat were planted decades ago and are now bearing fruit.
The problem with the Democratic consultants is that they are the same cast of characters who’ve been running and ruining politics for decades.
A few weeks ago, I wrote my own finger-pointing exercise, but now want to look more deeply into the forces that have come to shape the contours of our political landscape. Here are some of these factors:
1. Profound political, social, cultural, and economic changes in American life have left millions of voters unsettled, insecure, and angry. Unmoored, they are looking for certainty. In other similar moments in history, populations shaken by such dislocations have turned to forms of fundamentalism—finding certainty in a mythic glorious past—or to “strong leaders” who they felt understood their plight.
2. In addition to these societal changes, deep scars have been left on Americans’ psyche by dramatic transformative events. The terror attacks of 9/11 and failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan left Americans feeling vulnerable and seeing our stature in the world diminished. Add to this the economic collapse of 2008-2009 that shattered confidence in the American dream, all-too-frequent horrific mass shootings, and traumatic impacts of Covid-19, and you have a society on edge waiting for “the other shoe to drop.
3. Given this context, political leadership’s response to the unsettled electorate is important. For their part, Republicans have had some success in exploiting and expanding the fear. From Richard Nixon’s presidency until today, a constant thread in the Republican playbook has been preying on voters’ fears and insecurities. Early targets were “Black” welfare recipients or criminals. Donald Trump has expanded the list to include immigrants, particularly Mexicans and Muslims; the “deep state;” and pretty much any group who challenges him. Trump has wielded the “fear of ‘them’” as a potent weapon to supercharge his campaign against opponents.
Democrats, on the other hand, have appeared disconnected from the challenges faced by most voters. Instead of speaking directly to their pain, Democrats talked about the programs they’ve launched, the progress they’ve made in creating jobs, saving the environment, protecting women’s healthcare choices, and advocating for a balanced approach to immigration. While all true, these discourses on policy have sounded “wonky,” making Democrats sound out of touch, dismissive, or even patronizing.
What voters have wanted is to know that candidates understand their insecurities and anger. The Democrats who’ve been effective at doing this have been those to whom voters could relate. Barack Obama was able to turn voters from fear to hope. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden were successful because they showed voters that they too were angry at income inequality and loss of jobs and promised to fight for them.
The bottom line has been that voters needed to know that those who would lead them understand their situation.
4. For the first three-quarters of the last century, Democrats operated according to a simple philosophy. As the party that supported economic justice for workers, they believed government had a role to play, as my mother would say, “to lend a helping hand to those who can’t lift themselves up.” Republicans, on the other hand, were the party that protected the rich. Their motto was “lower taxes, less government.”
This has changed. As a Republican Senator recently boasted, “We have become the party of the working class, while Democrats are the party of the elites.” They aren’t, but that’s the perception they’ve successfully created.
How did it happen? Ask a Democrat today what the party stands for and you won’t get my mother’s bumper sticker answer. Instead, you’ll get a lecture on a range of social issues with no thread connecting them or making them relevant to working-class voters. Republicans, on the other hand, when asked them they stand for, won’t say lower taxes. Instead, they’ll pull out Trump’s list of “boogiemen” and Democrats’ cultural issues they hate. Or they’ll simply say: “Make America Great Again”—a catch-all phrase evoking a return to past “glory” (with all that it implies), or fighting against the social ills of culture change for which Democrats advocate, or simply a defense of Mr. Trump against his foes. As one of the more successful Republican TV ads said, “She fights for them [meaning transgender folk and the undocumented], he fights for us.”
5. There was a time when political parties drove politics and were real organizations from the local, to the state, to the national level. People belonged to a party. That is no longer the case. Today, parties are fundraising vehicles, amassing fortunes to pay for consultants who run the campaigns and oftentimes the parties as well. While many voters contribute small amounts, major donors contribute seven- and eight-figure amounts.
The problem with the Democratic consultants is that they are the same cast of characters who’ve been running and ruining politics for decades—following the same playbook and lacking any appreciation for changes in the electorate. They lack imagination and are risk averse, tying candidates up in knots with cautions about what they can and shouldn’t say. Trump, on the other hand, freed himself from the Republicans’ consultant class, sidelining them and instead acting on gut instinct. Voters have read this as authentic.
What played out in this election were themes and behaviors that have been brewing for decades. Unless Democrats take a long hard look at how and why they’ve lost connection with working-class voters and allowed consultants to take control of the party’s and their candidates’ messaging and outreach, the defeat of November 5 may well be repeated.
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UN Climate Chief Warns Inaction on Emissions Will Deliver 'Inflation on Steroids'
"Climate finance is global inflation insurance. Rampant climate costs should be public enemy number one," the U.N. official told world leaders at COP29.
Nov 12, 2024
As he addressed world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan on Tuesday, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell made the case that action against the planetary emergency can help combat an economic problem plaguing nations around the world: inflation.
Far from a threat reserved for future generations, Stiell told ministers gathered for day one of the conference's World Leaders Climate Action Summit that the climate crisis was "fast becoming an economy killer," already slashing some nations' gross domestic products by up to 5%.
"The climate crisis is a cost-of-living crisis," Still said, "because climate disasters are driving up costs for households and businesses. Worsening climate impacts will put inflation on steroids unless every country can take bolder climate action."
Stiell's remarks come amid growing discussion of the impact of inflation on political stability following the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election last week. In the wake of Trump's win, commenters have pointed out that almost every country that voted in 2024 voted to oust the incumbent party, and inflation following the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine is one prominent explanation.
Stiell told the leaders gathered at COP29 that they should learn from that inflation spike when making decisions about climate.
"Let's learn the lessons from the pandemic—when billions suffered because we didn't take the collective action fast enough when supply chains were smashed," Stiell said. "Let's not make that mistake again."
"Climate finance is global inflation insurance," Stiell continued. "Rampant climate costs should be public enemy number one."
"Unless emissions plummet and adaptation soars, every economy will face far greater fury."
In his remarks to the leaders summit, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres also emphasized the economic impacts of climate-fueled disasters.
"No country is spared," Guterres said. "In our global economy, supply chain shocks raise costs—everywhere. Decimated harvests push up food prices—everywhere. Destroyed homes increase insurance premiums—everywhere."
Guterres also tied the climate emergency to economic inequality, citing a recent Oxfam study finding that billionaires emit more greenhouse gases in an hour and a half than an ordinary person will during their entire life.
"This is a story of avoidable injustice. The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the highest price," Guterres said, adding that "unless emissions plummet and adaptation soars, every economy will face far greater fury."
However, both U.N. leaders saw hope in a rapid and equitable transition to renewable energy.
"Bolder climate action can drive economic opportunity and abundance everywhere. Cheap, clean energy can be the bedrock of your economies. It means more jobs, more growth, less pollution choking cities, healthier citizens, and stronger businesses," Stiell said.
Guterres argued that "the economic imperative is clearer and more compelling with every renewables roll out, every innovation, and every price drop" and called doubling down on fossil fuels "absurd."
"The clean energy revolution is here," Guterres continued. "No group, no business, and no government can stop it. But you can and must ensure it is fair, and fast enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C."
Currently, national policies put the world on track for 3.1°C of heating, which scientists warn would have devastating consequences for ecosystems and human communities.
Both Stiell and Guterres urged leaders to rapidly reduce their climate pollution and agree to a new finance goal at COP29 to help developing countries fund their green transitions and adapt to increasing climate impacts.
"On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price," Guterres said.
Stiell warned that "billions of people simply cannot afford for their government to leave COP29 without a global climate finance goal."
"These are not easy times, but despair is no strategy, and it's not warranted," Stiell concluded. "Our process is strong, and it will endure. After all, international cooperation is the only way humanity survives global heating. The time for hand-wringing is over; so let's get on with the job."
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