Democracy and capitalism in America – can they both survive in the direction we are headed?

First of all, is it really about the ideologies of the left and right? If it is, we are lost. Most on both sides believe in capitalism in some form, but our hot button issues are many times societal, not monetary, but when elections come along…the biggest election issue is usually the “Economy, Stupid.” Most of us would also agree that we have not found a good replacement for some form of capitalism. We acknowledge that it is certainly not perfect. So… we continue to watch and listen to both sides and the buzzwords they spout. Many of these national shouters of words are simply drinking the Kool-aid. If we and our capitalist class do not pick up on this soon, we will have…in effect, our own form of Les Miserables.

I’ve read many complaints from businesses that basically they cannot find workers for their operations, from industry to restaurants and everything in between. Many of these same folks say that unemployment benefits initiated during the pandemic should be stopped because workers are staying home. I think they really believe that is the answer to their employee needs.

We have three multi-billionaires competing to be the first into space and one has just succeeded…that is if you consider 50 or so miles up space. These 3 have more resources than many nations.

So in what direction are we headed? Well, it is not that we are really headed there at all. We are already there. Capitalism has worked very well for those with large stock portfolios, family wealth, and a quality education. It has not worked well at all for much of the working class, and that includes many from both the left and right of the ideological spectrum as well and many of these folks whose parents and grandparents in the past would have earned a pretty good wage (via unions which are no longer representing a majority of workers).

As we can see from our billionaire astronauts, the differences between economic classes have been magnified in many cases. We’ve gone from a 1 to 30 earnings/wealth ratio between working class and upper class to closer to a 1 to 300 or 500 and much more in some cases. In other words, it has become obscene.

One percent of our population has 32% of the wealth. Fifty percent of our population has 2% of our wealth. Since 2020 that one percent made about $10 trillion dollars.

Consider what is happening in China, a nation of 1.4 billion which has promised its people a better life at least economically if they keep their mouths shut, and uses coercion to keep its one party system in power. The Chinese government is very afraid of its own people. The CCP is now preaching its way of doing things over democracy. Do we wish to go there?

What is it that our capitalist class does not get? Is it only greed? When do we believe it will kill the spirit that made America the place in the world that others hoped to be? When do we think it is that a majority or even a large minority of citizens will do something to change this?

Do we really believe that making it harder to vote will keep down that portion of America? Think about what happened on January 6th of this year in D.C…and that was only the result of someone’s fantasy.

Kerry Gyekis of the Wellsboro area is a forestry consultant with Gyekis Consultant Forestry, serving Pennsylvania and New York.