With graduation season looming and a friend of mine working on a commencement speech, I was thinking about what advice I'd offer to a graduating class. Usually such speeches tend to go with touch-feely "take the road less traveled" advice. I hate to admit it, but if I were framing my advice not in terms of what is best for the country and the world, but just in terms of what is best for the graduates, my urgent advice would be to earn a lot of money in a hurry.
Easier said than done, right? Yes. But even if that weren't an issue, my advice definitely would be different today than several decades ago. Back in the 1950's and 1960's, there were huge injustices in this country, mostly based on race, gender, and sexuality. But when it came to something you had some control over --how much money you'd make-- the stakes weren't so high. In 1965, the average CEO earned about 15 times as much as an average worker. The gap between a typical worker and a typical executive was even smaller. Thanks to federal income taxes of up to 70% on the top bracket, the gap was even smaller when it came to after-tax pay. And for the most part, at least within racial units, the rich lived in the same basic neighborhoods as the middle class, sent their kids to the same schools, and lived very similar lives.
These days, though, the average CEO makes 351 times as much as the average worker. The gap is huge even between typical executives and average people. The rich live in private gated communities with their own security, and no need to care about crime in other areas. The rich send their kids to private schools, with no need to care if public schools fall apart. They have multiple homes, with the ability to flee climate disasters. They lead fundamentally different lives.
That gap is eroding democracy, too. These days, politicians can largely neglect the interests of the majority, since gerrymandering has effectively created a class of suburban/rural super-voters. Time and again we see the majority in a state vote Democrat, and then a majority of seats go to the Republicans. In Wisconsin, in 2018, Democrats got 18% more votes than Republicans in the state assembly elections. The result was Republicans getting 75% more seats than the Democrats. Meanwhile, traditional news is being supplanted by social media controlled by a handful of white, male tech-bro billionaires, where they'll have the power to drive public opinion and ultimately public policy for the ultra rich.
In the 1960s, there was an argument to be made that an individual would live a happier, fuller life following his bliss rather than following the dollars. If you, say, loved teaching, then there was a solid middle-class existence you could choose that way, with community respect and a life not too terribly different from the life some classmate might lead if he became a banker, instead. But now, you'd be signing up for a whole different existence.... and a real possibility of a future of poverty and exploitation at the hands of a plutocracy. At this point, money isn't just about getting yourself a few little luxuries the masses won't have. It's about defending against existential threats.
Easier said than done, right? Yes. But even if that weren't an issue, my advice definitely would be different today than several decades ago. Back in the 1950's and 1960's, there were huge injustices in this country, mostly based on race, gender, and sexuality. But when it came to something you had some control over --how much money you'd make-- the stakes weren't so high. In 1965, the average CEO earned about 15 times as much as an average worker. The gap between a typical worker and a typical executive was even smaller. Thanks to federal income taxes of up to 70% on the top bracket, the gap was even smaller when it came to after-tax pay. And for the most part, at least within racial units, the rich lived in the same basic neighborhoods as the middle class, sent their kids to the same schools, and lived very similar lives.
These days, though, the average CEO makes 351 times as much as the average worker. The gap is huge even between typical executives and average people. The rich live in private gated communities with their own security, and no need to care about crime in other areas. The rich send their kids to private schools, with no need to care if public schools fall apart. They have multiple homes, with the ability to flee climate disasters. They lead fundamentally different lives.
That gap is eroding democracy, too. These days, politicians can largely neglect the interests of the majority, since gerrymandering has effectively created a class of suburban/rural super-voters. Time and again we see the majority in a state vote Democrat, and then a majority of seats go to the Republicans. In Wisconsin, in 2018, Democrats got 18% more votes than Republicans in the state assembly elections. The result was Republicans getting 75% more seats than the Democrats. Meanwhile, traditional news is being supplanted by social media controlled by a handful of white, male tech-bro billionaires, where they'll have the power to drive public opinion and ultimately public policy for the ultra rich.
In the 1960s, there was an argument to be made that an individual would live a happier, fuller life following his bliss rather than following the dollars. If you, say, loved teaching, then there was a solid middle-class existence you could choose that way, with community respect and a life not too terribly different from the life some classmate might lead if he became a banker, instead. But now, you'd be signing up for a whole different existence.... and a real possibility of a future of poverty and exploitation at the hands of a plutocracy. At this point, money isn't just about getting yourself a few little luxuries the masses won't have. It's about defending against existential threats.
Last edited:
