(미국) 미국내 불평등을 합리화하는 5가지 위선적 논리 (영문자료)

출처: http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-hypocritical-justifications-1-use-justify-americas-staggering-inequality

아래의 글은 비단 미국만의 문제가 아닐 것이다. 신자유주의와 글로벌라이제이션이 판치는 세계의 많은 국가에도 해당될 테니 한국은 더 말해서 뭐하겠는가? 신자유주의의 전파와 더불어 각국의 정부들도 권위주의(authoritarianism)적 성격을 보여주고 있다.

ECONOMY

5 Hypocritical Justifications the 1% Use to Justify the America's Staggering Inequality 미국의 충격적인 불평등을 합리화하는 위선적 논리 5가지

The duplicity seems endless as the world's richest people rationalize the staggering wealth disparity.

By Paul Buchheit / AlterNet

February 23, 2014

The hypocrisy is spread evenly among corporations, Congress, and free-market apologists, all of whom insult and imperil average Americans with their double standards. Here are some of the worst: 위선적 논리는 기업체, 의회, 자유시장경제 옹호론자들 사이에서 고르게 전파되고 있어서 그들의 이중적 기준들이 미국의 서민들을 모독하고 있고 위험에 빠트리고 있다. 이하는 그 논리들 가운데 최악인 5가지이다. 

1. Poor People Just Need to Get a Job. But there are No Jobs. 그들은 가난한 사람들이 일자리를 갖어 부지런히 일해서 살아갈 필요가 있다고 말하지만 실제로 그런 일자리가 별로 없다는 게 안타까운 미국의 현실.

This may be the greatest hypocrisy of them all, because it directly impacts so many Americans. When anti-food-stamp Congressman Stephen Fincher(R-TN) said, "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat," John Boehner had the answer: "Our job here is not to divide the American people...It’s to help every American have a fair shot at the American dream."

But they don't provide that fair shot. In October, 2011 Senate Republicanskilled a proposed $447 billion jobs bill that would have added about two million jobs to the economy. Members of Congress filibustered Nancy Pelosi's "Prevention of Outsourcing Act," even as two million jobs were being outsourced, and they temporarily blocked the "Small Business Jobs Act." In April, 2013 only one member of Congress bothered to show up for a hearing on unemployment.

Congress is not the only hypocrite here. In a recent poll that asked if "the government in Washington should see to it that everyone who wants to work can find a job," 68% of the general public agreed, while only 19% of the wealthy were in agreement.


2. Government is the Problem. Unless the Rich Need a Subsidy. 정부가 부유층에게 혜택을 주지 않는다면, 이건 바로 정부가 문제이다.

That "government is the problem" sentiment goes back to Ronald Reagan, whose post-recession spending actually increased four times faster than Obama's.

Food stamps have been cut to reduce government spending. But the Forbes 400, whose 13 richest members made more from their stocks in one year than the entire food stamp budget, includes 50 billionaires who receive farm subsidies. Walmart, which depends on public food stamp subsidies to keep its employees fed, has been forced to announce weaker revenuesbecause so many of its customers have been impacted by the food stamp cutbacks. 저소득층에 대한 정부의 먹거리 지원책은 정부의 지출을 줄이기 위해 삭감되어야 한다.

Most libertarians oppose government intervention of any type, unless it's for national defense, homeland security, surveillance, disaster relief, prison funding, the drug war, any subsidies to oil and coal and agricultural companies, bailouts and Quantitative Easing, tax subsidies that mainly benefit the rich, and anything to do with women's bodies.


3. "The Free Market System Distributes the Fruits of Economic Progress Among All People" 자유시장경제체제는 모든 사람들에게 경제발전의 결과를 분배한다.

Milton Friedman said that in 1990. More recently John Boehner remarked, "President Kennedy in 1960 said, 'a rising tide lifts all boats,' and I think that is in fact correct."

The business-aligned media seems to agree that we're all together in a yacht. "The industry is back," an analyst told the Wall Street Journal. Banks "should break all records" for earnings in 2014. A financial economistgushed, "The economy was firing on almost all cylinders as 2013 came to a close. For today, the sun is out and shining."

It's shining on the 10 percent who own almost 90% of the stocks beyond rapidly-disappearing pension holdings. In the 24 years since Milton Friedman's outrageous statement, U.S. wealth inequality has become worse than that of the entire developing world.

The 'fruits' of economic progress are not limited to money. Free-market capitalism can hinder the distribution of essential needs to average people. In the pharmaceutical industry, for example, companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer have lobbied to make it illegal for Americans to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Europe. Worse yet, they pay competitors to keep generic drugs out of the market, thus ensuring that their more expensive drugs are the only option. on a global scale, it has been estimated that less than 10 percent of the budget for health research is spent on diseases that cause 90 percent of the world's illnesses.


4. Entitlements Must Be Cut. Except for the Entitlements Owned by the Rich. 가난한 사람들의 사회보장 의료보장은 깍아야 한다.  그러나 부자들의 자격은 예외로 한다.

Paul Ryan makes the Republican case for cutting Social Security and Medicare: "The 2011 Budget Control Act largely ignored entitlement spending. But that is the nation's biggest challenge...There's a better way to cut spending...structural reforms to entitlement programs."

They want to cut the benefits that workers have earned through long years of payroll tax contributions. Tax expenditures, on the other hand, which include subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes - and which mostly benefit the rich - areestimated to be worth 7.4% of the GDP, or about $1.1 trillion. That is more than enough to pay for Social Security.


5. The Super-Rich are the Most Productive Americans - They Earn Everything They Make 최상부유층이 가장 생산적인 미국인들이다. 그들은 모든 걸 벌어들인다.

It's confounding to hear the claim that America's highest earners deserve all they get when billion-dollar incomes are made by betting on mortgages to fail, or by betting on global food prices to rise.

John Paulson conspired with Goldman Sachs to create packages of risky subprime mortgages and then short-sell (bet against) the sure-to-fail financial instruments. The ploy paid him $3.7 billion.

Goldman Sachs’ commodities index, notes Chris Hedges, "is the most heavily traded in the world. Goldman Sachs hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve." Numerous sources agree that speculation drives up commodity prices. Wheat, for example, rose in price from $105 to $481 in just eight years.

Except for such money-making assaults on human need, the financial activities of the wealthiest Americans tend to be very safe. Marketwatchestimates that over 90% of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), the stock market, and real estate. The super-rich don't have to be productive. Thanks primarily to their investments in the stock market the richest 400 Americans took $300 billion in 2013, about the same amount as the entire safety net.


Hypocrite of the Day? Perhaps Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, who criticized fracking regulations for "holding back the American economic recovery," and then protested when a fracking water tower was to be built near his home. Or maybe banker Camden R. Fine, who called Post Office Banks "the worst idea since the Ford Edsel," even though low-income families pay almost 10 percent of their income in fees to traditional banks.

The hypocrisy keeps on coming, and our country's wealth keeps moving up to the hypocrites.

Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, a writer for progressive publications, and the founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org)