Much attention is put on what the executive branch and legislative branch can do to reduce the largest economic disparities.
Certainly there is no other entity in the world who collects 3.5 trillion dollars yearly in revenue and creates laws guiding how to spend the revenue collected.
State governments together, collect another $3 trillion???
Governments obviously make for an easy target.
But chasing the executive and legislative branches has inherent political obstacles.
If the majority of voters and their delegates don’t approve, it’s simply less likely to happen.
This alone becomes a nearly insurmountable barrier for a statistical minority constituency who is also at highest risk of being disadvantaged.
Keep in mind, every statistical minority group isn’t disadvantaged.
Jewish Americans are a statistical minority, but they’re overrepresented among American billionaires.
Asian Americans are a statistical minority, but they’re overrepresented among high income households. At the height of the economy prior to the Great Recession, Asian Americans actually had the highest median household net worth vs other major racial groups.
Being in the statistical minority, by no means, should convey ‘disadvantage’.
However, navigating national politics at a Federal level, becomes an insurmountable hurdle for a statistical minority who is disadvantaged, and specifically in this case, winning in national politics is virtually / statistically impossible for black Americans… at least it is impossible while in the statistical minority and in the absence of some culturally embedded value system for income and other financial capital.
For black Americans, politics is certainly an insurmountable obstacle…
An argument could even be made that the political fight against involuntary servitude (slavery) and even Jim Crow didn’t stop because of any political appeal made by black people.
Instead, the shift in values was arguably the natural result and human response to a global swelling in intolerable levels of guilt from economic imbalances which were only enjoyed at the demise of a core demographic of humans.
“Peak Philanthropy” and Other Contributors to the Great Migration
The argument therein suggests, the racial majority would have abolished slavery with or without Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and even Jim Crow would have ended with or without Martin King — due to natural cycles in human psychology.
Chaoticians and Cliodynamics: Academic Disciplines to Assess Historical Inequity
The president requires the vote of the greatest majority nationally. US Rep’s can go to Washington, but getting half the larger Congress to support new legislation will take more than just ‘the black vote’.
Perhaps all the racial progress that happened in this country… wasn’t b/c of any political might of black people…
– who have never had the ‘money’ to actively engage the political system
– have never had the ‘majority’ of voters
– have never even had the right to vote, at least not during the two major social changes in American history on race relations: the abolishment of involuntary servitude under threats of violence AND ending of Jim Crow systems. Neither of these came through the black vote.
Moreover, since the Voting Rights Act of the 1960’s, racial wealth disparities haven’t closed significantly – some suggest, even widened.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/todays-racial-wealth-gap-is-wider-than-in-the-1960s
Sure, some basal level of effort might be invested into Federal politics.
But what’s certain, a historically and persistently disadvantaged ethnic minority should not depend on politics.
Rather, they might direct their attention — firstly inward, and then — to an apolitical entity, whose power does not require any vote, laws, or elections.
Consider, the Federal Reserve.
Study and review their role in monetary policy.
When legislative and executive branches approved TARP, FR kicked in an additional $7t??
Some say FR cut a check for $29T???
https://www.cnbc.com/id/45674390
Suddenly here’s a route that doesn’t require politics…
Requires no votes.
This FR system requires no political capital.
No approvals by judges are needed at the local or national levels…
A disadvantaged statistical minority of Americans NEED to prioritize engaging with a ‘power system’ that does not have any inherent need to make ‘popular’ decisions. Keep in mind, TARP was not popular, much less the trillions injected by FR in subsequent years! It set off a wave of riots and social disturbances that to this day, haven’t fully been resolved.
Instead, they supposedly have a more pure mission, unadulterated by a need to appeal to any deeply biased political base. They certainly can’t be “paid off”, being that they largely control monetary policy.
“The mission of the Federal Reserve System is to foster the stability, integrity, and efficiency of the nation’s monetary, financial, and payment systems so as to promote optimal macroeconomic performance…”
Optimal macroeconomic performance… sounds like God’s work! (Per Matthew 19:21, among other scriptures.)
And the current FR chair is actually more open than all others among his cohort of national leaders, and compared to others who preceded him in his role.
It appears Jerome Powell is interested, at minimum, in identifying ways FR can help the plight of those left out and left behind, beyond “education and job training”.
Perhaps, at minimum, there’s a compassionate listening ear who has decision making authority, in the marble halls of Washington???
Meanwhile, too few others at the highest levels of global financial power are talking about the mal-distribution of financial capital.
How Money Supply and Its Distribution Promotes Wealth Inequality
Perhaps these reports suggest that maybe they’re rethinking how to preserve unemployment levels at its ‘natural rate’ to engage those who measurably ‘need’ the financial fruits of labor market participation the most??
For sure, there’s nothing natural about many of the magnitude of racial income disparities that currently exist.
Presume conservatively, FR’s been cutting checks or some equivalent financial instrument valued in the trillions across recent years.
Dig deeper into who got it and how??
Identify the extent of FR’s authority to disburse more financial capital through various creative instruments, to address the economic disparities.
If there’s potential for a pathway, can a vehicle be built to address the economic disparities starting first with motivated Americans who have been left out of participating in this recovery???
Evidently, even the US Treasury itself doesn’t appear to have ability to influence the executive branch to take real and proactive measures that might EFFECTIVELY boost its own ROI on assets (ROA).
Perhaps the unique structure of the Federal Reserve Banking System allows a disadvantaged statistical minority to engage with courageous people currently at the helm of the organization.
Update, March 21, 2020
Sure, it’s attractive and feels good to proclaim we’re leading political activism and voter engagement. But the reality is that people with money know who has it, and where to go get it. LISTEN to their arguments and strategy. Guaranteed, in requesting trillions, there was absolutely zero mention of the President, candidates, political parties, or voting.
Not suggesting the arguments are legitimate. Recall, this is coming from the same influencer who suggested that people with 60 times more wealth, are disadvantaged.
Instead, and for sure, learn to play in the bullring with the players who are actually requesting and are slated to receive trillions, deserved or un-deserved. For sure, focus outreach efforts on the Fed.