Left Signal Boost, one of my favorites on Facebook, posted a great essay “The Wealth Gap: How Extreme Concentration of Wealth Fuels Inflation and Hurts the Working Class.” Talking about how the ultra wealthy create a bottleneck that generates installation.
This is excellent. And, furthermore, it’s not just the ultra wealthy. Which is good news because the middle class is far more numerous, and therefore collectively have more leverage. The “upper-tier middle class” is able to hoard a lot of wealth, and that generates strong inflationary pressure.
Yes, the “upper tier middle-class” (I would roughly say, what, people making 60 K to 120 K or something?) may not be mega billionaires, but there are many many more of them. In other words, a large segment of the population.
Furthermore, I think a lot of people in this demographic tend to have 401(k) and other financial instruments. Some of those middle-class 401(k)s have $200,000-$1 million in them. Basically these folks are are investors undergirding the corporate economy. This is playing out in a planetary ecosystems way as well as the social economics way. Which is painful, as a lot of the most passionate environmentalists I know are in this demographic, while also participating in this sector of the economy.
They definitely have a distortive effect on the economy, and it’s almost like people are living in a different world. While still considering themselves part of the 99%, and railing against the one percent. As a Boomer who dropped out of the middle class some decades ago to do activism fulltime, but who still finds herself in contact with a lot of social circles with my richer peers, I often feel the split.
In my book DEEP GREEN, I didn’t have a whole chapter about money but I did mention in passing that it surely has an impact on the biosphere and ecosystems etc.
In the 7 years since I launched my book, I have learned just how deeply that is true. At one point in my middle class working life I had amassed about $70,000. It came to me that this amount could have the effect of an oil spill if not deployed properly.
I ended up deploying it carefully, using it for my continuing eco education, mental health, as well as sharing w the community, etc.
Money is a big thing that just doesn’t always get talked about. Especially among the middle class. The middle class underestimates the effect of its money. I’m really thinking of my fellow white Boomers. I sometimes wonder how different the world would be if all the Boomer 401(k)s and other Wall Street investments got liquidated and instead the Boomers use that money to pay off their mortgages, or buy a commercial building in their own town and let the young generations have a launch pad for their local businesses (instead of needing to occupy themselves at crappy “jobs”) etc.
I made reference to 401(k)s. The reason for their existence is this construct known as “retirement,” where people are supposed to amass a pile of cash and then use it to live out their later years. For various reasons I have mentioned here and elsewhere, I consider this whole construct to be very unhealthy.
And yet, people are afraid to NOT do this whole “retirement investment and savings” thing even though it’s based on the extractive economy so ppl are making massive amounts of money on the backs of the planet and indigenous people etc.
If you would like practical steps on how to build economic security without participating in the murderous extractive economy, I highly recommend following my friend Laura Oldanie (Rich & Resilient Living), who produces a huge wealth of content about ethical economics, regenerative business, etc. She offers a course in regenerative finance / permaculture economics. The title of the course is Personal Economy Makeover. She is now, by popular demand, offering it as a recorded course that you can listen to any time. I will post the link below.
Here you go: https://www.facebook.com/share/GgVQFdD4udoDqGTL/?mibextid=WC7FNe
That is the link to Laura Oldanie’s Facebook post about her Personal Economy Makeover class. (For those of you not on Facebook, I have also pasted at the end of this post the text of her Facebook post. It’s really great stuff, very inspiring. I think a lot of us are looking for this right now.)
Also, here is the web link to the place on her website where you can see the info and sign up for the class. This is the newly available pre-recorded version. https://richresilientliving.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1172918
The live version, which I had the honor of participating in, was fabulous. But I really love that she is starting to offer it as a recorded series of sessions. So you can tune in anytime!
“Conventional thinking about personal finance & money leave us fragile & unprepared to navigate the economic and climate uncertainties that await us, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
“I had such a positive response to the live Personal Economy Makeover course that I offered back in May that I’ve turned it into a self-paced video course that can be accessed anytime. The material it covers feels especially relevant in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene & Milton, which I personally experienced in a coastal Florida town.
“As a green living & money coach I’ve spent the past 15 years transforming my conventional personal economy from a fragile, soul-crushing system that relied on and upheld the destructive corporate economy I abhor into a resilient, life-affirming engine that grows wealth naturally for me and my community over time.
“I created the Personal Economy Makeover Course to help as many people as possible do the same. You’ll find the link to access it in the comments below.”