I had a "light bulb moment" this week regarding our political parties. Both parties have a targeted audience to which they appeal and a targeted audience on which they cast blame. That seems obvious, of course, but I've discovered the underlying foundation in which the candidates of both parties play the people. There are a few simple facts that we all know. The population of inner cities tend to be primarily black, poor, and democrat. The population of rural America tends to be primarily white, often bigoted, and republican. Both stereotypes are not always true, but the generalization is all the political folks need to keep the wheels turning. So, we've got the foundation for the racial division that makes headlines.
The next obvious division is between business owners and the "working class" formerly known as employees. Business owners used to be part of the working middle class! Some still are, but they are becoming few in number. What has served to divide the inner city and sparsely populated rural America is now used to divide suburbs and mainstreet America. The real difference in this, is a mindset that the politicians play on. Politicians are powerful employees that want to not only maintain their benefits package, but to increase it at the employers expense, a.k.a. "we the people." What used to be business men and farmers taking a few years to serve in Washington and going back to their businesses, land, and facing their constituents has turned into career politicians, and they have virtually no sense of business, production, or economics.
There is a different mindset to get up knowing there is no time clock and no hourly wage or salary. Self-employment has to produce a finished product. There is no A for effort. There is F, not only for fail, but also for incomplete! Business owners take risks, hourly workers can't imagine, or aren't willing to take. On the other hand, good employees are essential to a business. There used to be a real security in being a good employee, on someone else's clock, but that security no longer exists. Business owners, on start up, put in hours that cannot be compensated for, on an hourly scale. Business owners do not start their business with six and seven digit salaries. There are also many hard working people who are underpaid, but for the most part, those workers are in health care and child care, not factories or technical trade. There are many employees who make far from minimum wage, without the headaches of business ownership or management.
Now, what the politicians do; is get these two groups all fired up based upon the extreme foundation already established. The democrats are told if they are not making what the boss is making, they are being oppressed by rich republicans. The republicans are told democrats want to live off their hard work and take their savings and businesses. The reality is, the political machine is regulating businesses into bankruptcy and insolvency, while creating higher costs for what's left of the middle class and the underemployed. They do all this while blaming partisan politics for no job creation. Entrepreneurs create jobs, when they are not regulated into forfeiture. Skilled labor is the backbone of the economy, but skilled labor is only needed when the population needs what skilled labor produces. There is not a business in the world that can exist, only to pay employees and provide benefits. The only entity that does that is our government . . .
What our political process has done is create a symbiotic "imbalance" placing the burden of taxation without the tax breaks of the wealthy or tax credits of the poor, on the dramatically reduced population of what's left of the middle class. Much of the middle class that produced a strong economy was comprised of independent business owners and family companies. This single move that began noticeably in the early 80s has culminated now to the point, Americans literally loathe the "other party" and blame each other economically. Sadly, our leaders knew the root to plant and cultivate, that would divide the people. Even sadder, we have been willing participants. Well played Washington, well played.
For the love of money is the root of all evil . . .
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