A Surprising Take on Wealth Inequality

By CEO/Executive Director Laura Gray

In July I went to the Kansas conference on poverty. For the most part, the point of view was what you would expect – most of the presentations were about poverty from a social justice point of view. The pleasant surprise was at least one session that was realistic about winning an argument when it’s purely about social justice. To quote Nick Hanauer from “The Pitchforks are Coming…for Us Plutocrats” the July issue of Politico, “Republicans say growth. Democrats say fairness – and lose every time.”

Hanauer’s article and much of the conference was about wealth inequality in America.

There is a marvelous illustration of the changes in the distribution of wealth in a YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM.

What’s just as interesting to me is a talk given by Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute called “America’s Future in Focus: A Conservative Vision for Social Justice.” I’ve excerpted several sections below. I’m not doing it justice, because I left out so much. Hopefully, what I am sharing is the common ground of social justice.

“I want to talk about Two Americas. I want to tell you, first, the poor are being left behind.”…

“Now, I said that the poor in America are being left behind and that’s just a fact. If you look at the data, it’s actually one of the most striking things about the non-recovery in the bottom half of the economy. Economists like me like to tell you that in 2014, we’re going to see a slow but steady increase in GDP, about 2.5 percent growth. Now, that’s true as far as it goes.”

“The problem is there are actually going to be two growth rates in 2014. The top half of the American economy: 5 percent. It’s terrific, fast growth. … Now, the problem is that the bottom half is going to see 0 percent economic growth. If you look at the data on economic growth over the past seven years, you’ll find that the bottom half of the American economy has stayed stagnant or has lost purchasing power in inflation-adjusted terms every year for the past seven years. Imagine how exhausting this is for the bottom-half. We haven’t seen anything like that since the Great Depression.” …

“I do not begrudge the rich one dollar of their gains because this is America. But we’ve got to do something about people in the bottom half,”…

…”Listen to conservatives arguing about poverty. … You’ve heard it a million times, right? You’re poor, what do you hear? You hear, I care about money. I don’t care about poverty. I don’t care about you. I care about money. Right?”

“It’s time for conservative politicians and people of good faith to say, I’m going to fight for you and your family with conservative policies whether you vote for me or not, and actually mean it.”

…” I started doing a lot of reading about what actually helps poor people. And what did I find? I found that the free enterprise system has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in history, Billions of people are not poor today because of your American free enterprise system that spread around the world after 1970. I want to fight for that. I want to do more of that. … Forget bringing down the top. Let’s lift up the bottom.”...

“So where are we? The first thing I told you is the poor are being left behind.” …

“The question is not if you’re mad enough to fight for change. The question is do you have enough love on your heart for everybody to fight for change. See, what leaders and patriots do is they fight for the weak, no matter how the weak vote. It doesn’t matter if they like the other guys. You’ve got to fight for them because that’s what leaders do. Do you have enough love written on your heart for everybody to get in the fight?”

“If you do, this country can win for the poor. This country can deliver on its promises. This country once again can be a beacon of hope for everybody, whether they’re coming here as immigrants or they’re not even here yet, but they’re Americans in their hearts. Or whether they’ve been here for a long time and they’ve been left behind. We are the generation that can make this occur. We can pass this on to people who are younger than us and they can be the heroes. They can be deputized to the heroic activity that is the patrimony left to us by the great founders of this nation.”

Children Matter: New Role, Same Mission

By Children’s Program Coordinator Josh Chittum

Nearly one month ago, I bid a difficult goodbye to my class of 3rd graders for the summer knowing I wouldn’t see them in the hallway on their first day of 4th grade. For a variety of reasons I had decided to leave the teaching profession, at least for the time being

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Because of the arbitrary privileges granted to me in life, I knew I could walk away from employment and everything would most likely turn out okay. That sentiment is startling to think about when juxtaposed with the situations so many of our families find themselves in at Community LINC.

The frenetic pace of teaching didn’t leave me with sufficient space or time to ruminate and meditate on those Big Questions, such as why I have a plethora of privileges amidst so many injustices in our world, nation, and city. And while the transition from the classroom to my new position has hurled me through the air with the speed of a cosmic event, I’ve found myself 10,000 feet in the air studying and obsessing over my position in life

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Among such an abundance to be fortunate and thankful for is the fact that I now find myself at an organization whose ideals and values so closely align with my own. Three of those shared values I’d like to highlight with the space I have left. (And no, I was not offered a signing bonus to say these things in my first blog post.)

One basic shared value - of monumental importance - is the commitment to justice that Community LINC carries out every day. While I am certainly interested in philosophizing and analyzing abstract arguments, this isn’t a theoretical or academic notion of justice. This is the everyday, face-to-face, sometimes exhausting struggle that hundreds of families take with us each year. While I did walk away from the traditional classroom, I did not, nor will I ever, walk away from this march and I am thrilled to join a team that has walked farther, and harder, and probably smarter than I have because I will learn so much from them and we will make a difference as a team.

Second, the staff here clearly values the people staying on our campus as individuals. I don’t hear generic client terminology or talk of faceless data points and numbers. I hear the names and stories and hopes and dreams of the men, and the women, and the children completing our program. I hear words to empower the individual, messages to encourage folks to lead the way to their individual goals and aspirations. We will be right behind them, but not in front, not dictating their path. And just as important, I see institutional value placed on staff as well - value placed on our time, our ideas, and our mental well-being.

And finally, Community LINC provides a vehicle for positive relationship building. There are many reasons humans are the most successful species on earth, but one reason is that we don’t find solitary shelter underneath sea-shells. We cooperate with, we learn from, and fellowship to each other. This is one reason why we have youth in Aftercare that literally walk a mile from their new home just to come to program night and maintain relationships with mentors, teachers, and friends.

Without allowing for strong relationships and valuing individuals, the World of Justice we are trying to build simply won’t happen. Thank you Community LINC for letting me be a part.