Both presidential candidates seem to have suddenly become populists with the closing of a few investment banks. We are hearing about the tensions between Main Street and Wall Street and the tax squeeze on the middle class, who also wants to be bailed out.
Now, no doubt folks will suffer as our economy begins a tail spin and I certainly don’t want to come off as insensitive to that in any way. As long as my grades stay up and I don’t have an affair with any of my students, my income is pretty much secure for the next few years, but this news terrifies me when I think of what it could mean for some of my family members. I am not going to go into any of those details because it is their personal business, but the possibilities of a second great depression really make my stomach tighten into knots when i think about what it could do to some of those i love most.
With that said, I’m wondering if this economic crisis may not be ENTIRELY bad for everyone. The logic of these situations usually means that when the economy is squeezed, the poorest class suffers most. Tax payers earn less and pay less. Trickle down economics ideology means that taxes are cut for the point of the socio-economic pyramid, so that the pump of investment will be primed. This also means that social programs are cut back and public entitlement systems start trying everything they can to exclude folks from them.
This is what happens in a recession when times are tough. Now, I wonder what would happen in a true economic meltdown? I am not an economist by ANY stretch of the imagination, but I wonder if it may actually HELP the poorest of the poor, by giving them some company. Wasn’t it the Great Depression that birthed the New Deal? Couldn’t a NewER Deal eventually result from a second crisis, when the government is (hypotheically) forced to face the fact that millions (more) of folks are living in poverty and doing favors for the ultra-rich isn’t going to ever “trickle down” as investment is shipped over seas? Would this result in a truly progressive tax code like exists in Europe? Could this be how we get universal health care and solide retirement benefits? What about more low income housing of better quality?
Of course, a disproportionate number of crips live in extreme poverty and lack housing. If these sweeping changes do start to happen, it is going to be essential that we jump on this opportunity to be sure that universal health care includes choice in how/where long term care is delivered and that new low income housing is accessible and integrated in the community.
I don’t HOPE for a true economic crisis, because it may turn out to be a very dark chapter in history (remember, in the 30s we got FDR’s new deal as the solution to economic crisis, but the Germans got Hitler’s holocaust). However, I wonder if there may be a small kernel of hope amidst the fear, for those who are most marginalized by the systems we have in place right now.