by Stephen Vicinanza
I love to read. When I read I make all kinds of connections, some good and some not so good. Lately, I am finding fault with many of the tenets we hold as important, in the articles I read. I find the experts constantly spinning a web of carefully crafted scientific language, but not from the ground up. It is always from the top down.
Take a recent article in Forbes, on the housing markets. They are not doing well, but maybe getting better, the interest rates are going up, or maybe not yet. I know a single-family home is out of reach for anyone with a student loan, not just until they are 36 (the median age for first-time home buyers) but forever, and especially true if the buyer is part of a young family. There just is not a way for that group of people coming up in the world, to afford a home of their own.
I know that is hard to hear, but it is a fact, home ownership is out of reach for many. And then there are the experts who have a stake in what they write about. Forbes takes a statement from Zillow on the housing market when Zillow is known for buying houses in bulk in hot markets to drive up the price. It works very well, although it shuts out anyone who doesn’t have the upper economic status means to purchase such a home. Such tactics drive out affordability in markets that people need to move forward in life.
Another expert opinion that makes me scratch my head is the economists at Harvard. Every economist at Harvard is a millionaire, comes from an elite class of people, and has always been elite. How is that class of people supposed to figure out what would be best for a class of people in circumstances they have never known, or want to know?
They are gauging unemployment on a scale meant for those who are employed. The only accurate way to count the unemployed is by counting those people who are registered for unemployment. After one year, those people, if still unemployed are then forgotten. There is no accurate count of the unregistered unemployed.
Interest rates are another hot topic, as well as inflation. The two go hand in hand. What does a Harvard professor know of the hunger many urban children suffer from? Yet they are making decisions about food prices, reporting that food prices are good, and have come down. That food prices have “stabilized.” I am not certain for whom they are referring to. One genius even said unemployment would have to rise in order for inflation to go down.
That statement is exactly the elitist way of looking at the economy. That economist will never have to choose between paying the mortgage or feeding their family. They will never know the pain of being forced to put gas in the car, to get to work, rather than feed their family.
The economy, climate change, and environmentalism work together. Many scientists have proven that when we work to raise the economic standards of those who are disadvantaged it helps people move the economy in a positive direction. Those initiatives increase awareness, and that brings us to struggle.
Why must we struggle, with the economy, the climate, and the environment? That is simply because of the noise. There have been so many differing types of scientific studies about the environment we are just overwhelmed. Struggle helps us see clearly, but we have waited a long time, and been silent, holding our tongues when we know the truth.
America is the basis for the world’s economy, climate, and environmentalism. Everyone follows America, and we have been shut off by our leaders. We stand mute to the world on economic function and climate action. The opportunities to affect the climate are waning, yet there is time if we start speaking.
The economy can change, if the 70% of people, who fuel that economy, not the 1% who buy it, speak up. We can force the issue, through peaceful activism. And then struggle becomes a challenge, and challenge builds character. Americans have a great deal of character, like so many throughout the world.
