Income gap forces poor to take stand
by Connie Yu, Managing Editor

   It is probably fair to assume that an increasingly larger income gap is never a good thing for a nation.
   From the demise of Rome to the latest Nigerian revolution, history has taught us that a large income imbalance is often the catalyst for the end of a civilization.
   So it may surprise you to find that the difference between the richest and the poorest in the United States has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
   According to a recent New York Times report, the richest 1 percent of Americans had more money to spend in 2000 than the bottom 40 percent.
   In the same year, the top 1 percent of Americans tripled their income from 1979 after the inflation adjustments. In contrast, the bottom 40 percent had a modest 13 percent increase in their income to a little over $21,000 per year in 2000.
   So, what is the big deal?
   When most of a nation’s money is in the grasps of a few citizens, it gives those who are privileged not just more economic power, but more political and social powers as well.
    That is especially so in the current political trends, where the success of a political campaign both locally and nationally is dictated by its financial pools.
    Rich executives turn around and become equally wealthy politicians, who then pass new federal regulations to protect their Fortune 500 friends. In the meantime, social security and citizen benefits continue to dwindle downward with ever more restrictions and limitations.
    The Enron scandal was made possible only by the Federal Trade Commission’s “looking another way” policy. Media consolidation was favored by the FCC—to make it easier for big corporate media to cover for big corporate endorsers.
    At the same time, education has gone backward amid a national budget crisis while rich federal officials are still daydreaming in their fantasy about the rest of the world bowing down to America’s undefeated superpowers.
    Now, I do not wish to generate your hatred toward the “rich” people—for in a free-trade society, such as ours, it is only sensible for the richest to protect and advance in their own benefits.
   But let’s not forget that it is also your right to protect and advance in yours.
   Be active and participate in the local and federal policy-making process. Be observant and scrutinize the rationales and facts in your political reasoning. And most importantly, vote.
   Or we can do what we always do—sit around and wonder how the rich just keep getting richer.