If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one
is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness. – Victor Hugo

The threats to our financial well being keep coming at us fast and furiously. Whether it’s the cost of filling up your tank or heating your home; whether it’s inflation more generally and the “news” that it’s the fault of workers and retirees; whether it’s the claim of a politician that they are a “friend of labor” while they work to weaken unions; whether your tax dollars are bailing out another bank, it’s difficult not to just throw up one’s hands and give up.

Even the rise of smash and grab thefts and more violent crime is your fault. The general population is just so full of criminals, if you believe the media, your police chief or your elected representative.

Talking about our local sheriff may seem a little far afield in a discussion of the economy, but bear with me. January I attended the swearing-in ceremony of our new sheriff, Eddie Engram. He claims that one of the problems he faces is an increase in crime. His solution – no surprise – is a bigger budget and more officers to arrest and incarcerate the perpetrators.

When Engram campaigned for his position, he always mentioned growing up in poor communities and living with the crime in those communities. This led to his choice of a career in law enforcement.  Like too many people, Engram looks to punitive “solutions” rather than helpful ones. Unlike Victor Hugo, Engram places the blame on the wrong people. Given a limited pool of tax money, he favors “defunding” social programs in order to super-fund punishment. He doesn’t phrase it that way, but that’s the result.

Putting aside for the moment that the federal government is the gold standard for violent solutions, and that such violence is being modeled in the larger society, most “crime” is the result of desperation and despair. I put “crime” in quotes because the greatest crimes, in value and scope, are committed by the wealthy. They aren’t called crimes because they have been legalized by those who write the laws.

Here are some facts:
Oxfam has reported that food and energy companies doubled their profits last year and paid $257 billion to shareholders, while around the globe 800 million people went to bed hungry. Whose fault is this? Yours! It’s all because you got a tiny wage increase – finally– but it certainly has nothing to do with those profits. Who says so? Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and no one is going to contradict him. Read the financial section of any newspaper and it’s wage “inflation” that is being discussed.

Oxfam also reports that, over the past two years, for every dollar gained by an individual in the bottom 90 percent, a billionaire (there are 2,600 globally) gained $1.7 million. That’s $26 trillion going to the top one percent. And, yes, it’s still your fault. Surely, you’re not trying hard enough. Maybe you’re even lazy.

“While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams… a roaring ‘20’s boom for the world’s richest,” said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam.

And we all know where that “roaring “20’s boom” led. Which brings us to the current bank failures. Led by former chief executive and chairman of Citigroup, and now Press Democrat minority-owner, Sandy Weill, protections from some of the riskier banking ventures were removed with the ending of the Glass-Steagall Act. What we saw a dozen years ago, that a couple of financial institutions were allowed to fail in order to make bailing out the rest seem like common sense, may be about to be repeated.

I’m definitely not the one to try to explain the current situation – quantitative easing, asset valuations, bond prices, etc., etc. But it has all been aggravated by Powell’s decision to raise interest rates to counteract any gains made by the working class. He has been very clear that he believes we’re the problem. It’s classic class warfare. Inflation is to be cured on the backs of workers by reducing their buying power and “stabilizing” their wages and certainly not by enacting a windfall profits tax or even mentioning the vast sums of money being funneled to the already wealthy.

Jerome Powell has said that he understands the pain we little people are going through, but gee whiz, it just can’t be helped. We need “to restore balance.” What does that mean? Reduce your wages. Increase unemployment.

In his eagerness to sock it to us by raising interest rates, he forgot one thing. Higher interest rates are also adversely affecting the banks and their deposit liabilities and asset valuations because Congress never righted the wrongs that led to the Great Recession. The wealthy still get to play at the casino where, no matter the risks they take, they can’t lose because we’ll pay the house.

And propaganda will be used to convince you that it can be no other way. There are many forms of power, but possibly the greatest power of all is the one that causes people to believe that there is no other way than the current way, no other option, and that it’s just the natural order of things. What’s the point of looking for alternatives when there aren’t any?

So, as you struggle, you’ll be quick to assume that those petty criminals out there are the problem and that your local sheriff definitely needs a bigger budget. This society will have you angrier at an unhoused person stealing $5 to eat than at a guy in a suit stealing $5 million to buy a third house. Or at Jerome Powell and the corporations he protects, who just stole 150 percent of the wage increase you finally received.

What to do? Learn what propaganda looks like. Question everything that comes from a mainstream economist or pundit. Determine what is coming at you through the lens of the rich. With corporate media, that’s pretty much everything. Understand who is causing the darkness. Demand that your local government treat the disease, not the symptoms. Think from the bottom up, not the top down. Understand who profits. And then organize or support those who are organizing. Labor organizing done right – again, from the bottom up – may be our most valuable tool and our best hope. Be prepared to wage class warfare. To echo some graffiti I saw on a city street, “They have millions, but we are millions.”