My 93-Year-Old Grandfather’s Election Eve Message
The State of our Country 2020
Art Stevens
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about the overall state of our country. What I come away with is very disturbing and unsatisfactory, to say the least. We have a tremendous amount of Americans, both young and old, that have to work one, two, sometimes even 3 low paying jobs just to be able to exist, that is to put food on their table and for lodging.
Many are young people who have college degrees, who, no matter what jobs they may have been saddled with loan payments that are usually anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000. Not a wonderful way to start your adult life. The quality jobs are just not there. President Trump claims that he has created the most jobs and has created the best economy in the history of our country. I will not dispute the numbers, but are these decent quality jobs that allow a person to live in a moderately comfortable way, or are they just manual labor to augment the income of the millionaires and billionaires in our society? Therein lays the key question. How, or WOULD YOU, want to change this?
When President Trump came into power, I heard a lot of talk about America first: bring manufacturing companies back to the U.S.A. from Europe, China, etc. I am all for that. So now it is four years later. What happened? What happened is fairly simple. The oldest story in the books: follow the money. The way that money is circulated throughout our business world today is that the great majority of it (including great tax write-offs and tax cuts) go to the top moneymakers; supposedly (according to Reagan) it then trickles down to the working people. The problem is that it does not trickle very well. Some are held by corruption, some by greed, and some just by how much of their wealth they are willing to part with.
No, I am not saying that money in this country should be distributed equally.
What we have to start understanding in this country is that we now have a population that is well over 300 million people and the great majority of those are low to middle-class workers. When the Constitution was signed, the United States population was 4 million. Philadelphia was the nation’s largest city, with 40,000 inhabitants. Compare that to under 10 million when our Constitution was created, and the conditions that prevailed at that time. It is now more than 327 million.
I believe that that in itself creates new and unique situations that we must deal with to satisfy the wants and needs of our entire population: not just the wealthiest.
We have a capitalistic system: but WAIT… is it TRUE 100% capitalism?
We have Social Security: we have a federal Post Office. These are not programs you would call capitalistic. They are not privately run. If anything, they could be called socialist.
Does that mean we have a Socialist system running our country?
Of course not.
Understand, please, that I am not suggesting what I think we SHOULD have, but rather, what we DO have: right now… this minute. 100% of Capitalism does not work. 100% of Socialism definitely does not work. The word Socialist has been made into a dirty word in our politics today. It is just a word. In my mind, it refers to something to help the great majority of the population we have today to live and have a better life. What we have now is Capitalism with a tiny touch of Socialism to help the masses. If anyone told me we should reverse that, I would fight it to my dying day. I WANT Capitalism because I do not want to lose the chance for a person to achieve the American Dream: to succeed and to make lots of money. I WANT that touch of Socialism so that the lower to middle class does not suffer because of it. The problem, as always, is how do we get there? Do YOU want Social Security and the U.S. Post Office eliminated? Have they helped us or hurt us through the years? Ask the older people you know that use them.
Ask me for instance.
I am 93 years old. I have worked almost every day of my adult life (and some before that as well). I have always paid every bit of the taxes my government asked me to pay. I retired when I turned 70 years of age and started to receive Social Security payments. My wife passed away in 1999 and I have lived alone since that time. Whatever savings I had were dissipated many years ago. If not for the Social Security payments I receive I would be out on the street or depending on support from my family, and they have enough problems of their own. What allows me to be independent at this age are those very payments. Am I wrong for thinking this way? Am I wrong in your eyes because I am utilizing a tiny part of our system that you might call socialistic? If the word socialism is the problem, let us invent a new word that you can live with. It is not the word, but the meaning behind it and how it is used in our everyday life.
Joe Biden has a plan for how to shape our economy should he become President a month from now, and I agree with him. At the outset, let me say that I am not an accountant. If I use numbers along the way I do not mean them to be absolute in any way. I use them as examples, whereas the numbers used by Mr. Biden are his.
Mr. Biden plans an extensive rebuilding of our countries infrastructure. Rebuilding many roads, bridges, highways, airports, etc: start making electric cars and building charging stations throughout the US: bring back MADE IN AMERICA: This all has a three-fold advantage: (1) To create good-paying jobs for our citizens; (2) To bring our country to the top once again as the leader of the free world; (3) (and I think the most important), to provide our people with the best conditions we can live under.
Some of these ideas might sound a little familiar to some of you. FDR, back in the thirties: right after the 1929 crash, when he formed the CCC, NRA, CWA, and FSA to put people back to work, as well as creating the Social Security Administration. President Eisenhower, in his time, built the road network across the U.S. that we now use close to 70 years later.
Were they wrong?
No, I do not think so.
OK, I hear you. How do you pay the tremendous costs of doing all of this? Of course, this question is always the turning point in any discussion similar to this. This, according to Mr. Biden is how. I agree 100%.
Raise taxes on anyone making $400,000 dollars a year or more. No new taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. What would the percentages be for each category over $400,000? I have no idea, but there is no doubt in my mind that can be figured out to arrive at a figure that would still keep the wealthiest very, very comfortable. Take out your microscope and look at how it really works right now. How much income (in YOUR mind) does it take to live a very comfortable lifestyle for you and your family?
1 million?
5 million?
10 million?
I could go on and on.
A person in that position has every right to make more than he is now making, but if he does, he also has to pay the higher percentage for that category. There are many, many multi-millionaires in our country, and also a splattering of billionaires as well. Some of these groups will not make as much as they have in the past: you can consider that as a downside if you like. I look at the upside and the tremendous good it would do for the lifestyle of what I think is probably 85% to 95% of our population. And, at the same time, the wealthiest in our country would still be FAR from dropping into the middle class. Mr. Biden can supply the numbers you would want to hear far better than I can. Listen to him with an open mind, but always keep the quality of life of American citizens uppermost in your mind.
As I write this, Joe Biden has a substantial lead in the polls. I have seen enough of politics to know that that is far from a guarantee, but please understand that my MAIN reason for this paper is a plea for you to elect a Democratic Senate so that Mr. Biden if he does indeed win the Presidency would then have the tools he needs so that he can carry out these objectives.
About the Author
Art Stevens, a jazz musician, diehard Mets fan, and bandleader was born in New York in 1927. He moved to Las Vegas after retiring from the music industry. He is the father of Leslie Kutner and Michael Stevens.
He is the beloved grandfather of Max Kutner, Stephanie Kutner, and Samantha Kutner. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. To contact him, email skutner@nevada.unr.edu.
