July 4th was a day of celebrations and fireworks in the U.S. of "independence" and "freedom." But it was also a day of more mass shootings than any other day of the year.[^1 ] In France, riots caused more than $1 billion in damages following the killing of a teenager by police.[1] [2] In California, more than 171,000 people were homeless, about 30 percent of the national total.[3] [4] [5] The suicide rate of young Americans, ages 10 to 24, increased by 62% from 2007 to 2021;[6] transgender people were more likely to die of suicide;[7] and, active duty U.S. personnel suicides were up 25% this year.[8]
Are you, are we, surprised? No, probably not. Are we concerned? Yes, I think so. But, why is it happening, and what are we to do about it? Understanding what has been happening in the U.S., particularly during the last 50 years, is part of the answer.
In a new book, "The Big Myth,"[9] two California historians, describe in great detail how
. . . in the early twentieth century, a group of self-styled “neo-liberals” shifted economic and political thinking radically. They argued that any government action in the marketplace, even well intentioned, compromised the freedom of individuals to do as they pleased—and therefore put us on the road to totalitarianism. Political and economic freedom were “indivisible,” they insisted: any compromise to the latter was a threat to the former—any compromise at all, even to address obvious ills like child labor or workplace injury. Why did we ever come to accept a worldview so impervious to facts? A worldview [Adam] Smith himself, often thought of as the father of free-market capitalism, would have rejected? This book tells that story. (Oreskes, Naomi; Conway, Erik M.. The Big Myth (pp. 10-11), ibid.)
The first eleven chapters describe the history of business and political organizations, from the 1920s onward, in selling the economic and political thinking that affects us today. Great attention is given to the National Electric Light Association (NELA), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), founded in 1895 (and others later, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and The Business Roundtable).
By the 1920s, NAM had become America’s most prominent trade association; by the 1930s it would be spearheading the business opposition to the New Deal. In its opposition to child labor restrictions, NAM followed a playbook of rhetorical fallacies that market fundamentalists would lean on for decades to come, including slippery-slope arguments, ad hominem and straw man attacks, half-truths, misrepresentations, denial of documented evidence, and outright lies. (Oreskes, Naomi; Conway, Erik M.. The Big Myth (p. 40), ibid.)
Chapter 12 describes "The Dawn of Deregulation," lead by President Jimmy Carter, Senator Teddy Kennedy, and Cornell University economics professor, Alfred E. Kahn.
. . . the Carter era gives us a glimpse of what could have been: a future in which some of the excesses of the New Deal were corrected, without swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction. But it also shows how antiregulatory, antigovernment ideology had seeped even into Democratic thinking, laying the ground for the excessive pendulum swing that did, in fact, follow. (Oreskes, Naomi; Conway, Erik M.. The Big Myth (p. 429), ibid.)
The political groundwork for the big swing was laid by Senator Barry Goldwater and President Richard Nixon, particularly with the Republican "Southern Strategy"[10] following Goldwater's big election loss.
Ronald Reagan climbed onto the pendulum and pushed it far to the right.
Reagan had been using antigovernment rhetoric since the 1950s, and now, finally, his moment had come to shape national reality. He would popularize an ideological framework that deified markets and demonized government. He would promise to “get the government off our backs” (while actually only removing it from the backs of businessmen). It was the framework that NAM had been promoting since the 1930s, and that Hayek and Friedman had made respectable—the inseparability of political and economic freedom—encapsulated by Reagan’s winning slogan: “the magic of the marketplace.” (Oreskes, Naomi; Conway, Erik M.. The Big Myth (p. 458), ibid.)
The Reagan tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts, and the Trump tax cuts, all for the rich, and the Republican antigovernment positions have marginalized and pushed increasing portions of the population downward into increasing anguish, hopelessness and despair. (See "For Richer or For Poorer," published earlier[.11])
These conditions are built by design; it is structured violence.[12]
"How did the U.S. become a land of economic extremes with the rich getting richer while the working poor grind it out? Deliberately. America’s Poverty Is Built by Design."
Decades of anti-Black racial coding, including Ronald Reagan’s stoking of the “welfare queen” stereotype, helped perfect anti-tax and anti-government attitudes and consolidate Republican power, especially in the South. Just as the forces that perpetuate poverty are structural, so are the politics that undergird it.[13]
America is not a land of equal opportunity; it is a land with structured inequality.
Structural violence refers to any scenario in which a social structure perpetuates inequity, thus causing preventable suffering. When studying structural violence, we examine the ways that social structures (economic, political, medical, and legal systems) can have a disproportionately negative impact on particular groups and communities.[14] [15]
One of the main reasons why poverty is built by design is that our economic system is designed to benefit the wealthy. The capitalist system is built on the premise of profit and maximizing shareholder value. This means that corporations and businesses prioritize profits over the well-being of their employees and the community. This leads to low wages, the exploitation of workers, and a lack of investment in social programs that could benefit those in need.
Policies and laws are often designed to benefit the wealthy and exclude the poor. Tax policies, for example, are often geared towards the wealthy, with tax breaks and loopholes designed to benefit those who are already wealthy. This means that those at the top end up paying less in taxes, while those at the bottom end up paying more. Similarly, policies around education, healthcare, and housing often favor the wealthy, leaving those in poverty with fewer opportunities to improve their lives.
Urban planning has historically been geared towards the wealthy, with communities of color and low-income neighborhoods being marginalized and excluded. This leads to a lack of investment in these areas, poor infrastructure, and a lack of access to essential services such as healthcare and education.
So, what can be done to address this issue? The first step is to acknowledge that poverty is not a natural phenomenon but rather a result of a systematic design. This means that we need to shift our focus from blaming individuals for their poverty and instead focus on the root causes of poverty.
We also need to invest in social programs that benefit those in need. This includes programs such as affordable housing, healthcare, and education. Investing in these programs can have a significant impact on reducing poverty and improving the lives of those in need.[16]
So, are we surprised by those things on July 4th, and many other days of the year? No, but we should be concerned, and we should choose to support the political party that attempts to do something about it, not the one that seeks to perpetuate it! (Unless, that is, you are one of the ones who like this way. But, you too will reap the consequences eventually, like those in France.)
Riots in France have already cost businesses more than $1 billion | CNN Business↩︎
'Liberty, equality, fraternity' for all? New riots make France confront an old problem | AP News↩︎
A New Study Paints a Different Picture of Homelessness in California - The New York Times↩︎
California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness | Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative↩︎
HUD Releases 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)↩︎
Suicide and homicide rates among young Americans increased sharply in last several years, CDC reports - CBS News↩︎
Transgender People Face Much Higher Risk of Suicide, Landmark Study Shows↩︎
The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market : Oreskes , Naomi, Comway, Erik M. : 2023↩︎
These five paragraphs generated were by Opera Aira ChatGPT on 20230628 given the prompt, "Write an article about 'Poverty Is Built by Design.'''↩︎