FROM WALL STREET TO…
We can save our planet for generations to come; however, it will require that we the people evolve from a Wall Street economy to a Main Street economy, from capitalism, markets, runaway consumption, and depletion of natural resources to people, family, community, local business, and preservation of global resources. Dr. Korten contends, “We must now seize this pivotal moment in our collective history to recognize that we are in fact part of Earth’s biosphere and transform our economies accordingly.” (Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, Dr. Korten, 145)
Main Street met its doom in the 1970’s and Wall Street saw its birth in the 1980’s. As Dr. Snyder offers,
Beginning in the 1930s, an incipient American welfare state took shape. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier,” and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” described the shift from imperial expansion to social mobility. For many Americans, these were the decades of the American Dream. Through the 1970s, the gap between the richest and the rest was closing, enabling ever more Americans to join a broad middle class…The American Dream meant social mobility. Rather than promising more land forever, it offered a sense of unpredictable but possible social advancement on the present territory of the United States. Mobility was no longer about families settling down on land but about new generations creating new kinds of lives. In this conception, the permeable borders were those of social classes…In the American Dream, society was fluid, subject to achievement by individuals over the course of a single life. Unlike historical estates, such as the peasantry or nobility, the middle class was defined not by ancestry or vocation but by life. Entering the middle class was not only about individual Americans achieving a certain level of prosperity but about the general possibility that everyone could live unpredictably and end up somewhere new. Children would not be stuck in the estate or profession of their elders, as in previous centuries, nor caught in a race or class mobilization, as in the Nazi or Soviet regimes…Although sometimes presented as the natural result of capitalism, the American Dream depended on social policies developed after the capitalist collapse of the Great Depression. It lasted until its origins were forgotten and capitalism itself was enthroned as the lone source of freedom. That happened in the 1980s…During that decade, the west European and American responses to the postimperial age diverged…Beginning in 1981, under the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, American policies of social mobility were reversed. Union busting weakened workers’ ability to bargain. The neglect of antitrust law suppressed small business. A relaxation of taxes on the rich placed burdens on everyone else. The explicit rationale was negative freedom: President Ronald Reagan maintained that government can never help, only hurt…The end of communism in eastern Europe in 1989 was taken as confirmation of this American version of negative freedom. (On Freedom, Dr. Snyder, 131-132)
We will not be free, nor will we survive, if we ignore the limits of our Earth or deny the rules of our universe. Freedom and survival depend on recognizing constraints and turning them in our favor. (On Freedom, Dr. Snyder, 168)
With the 2024 Presidential Election just days away, an interesting reflection has been where Former President Donald J. Trump (DJT) and Vice President Kamala Harris (VPKH) stand with respect to Wall Street Economy and Main Street Economy. There is no doubt that DJT is on the Wall Street train! The puzzle has been how VPKH is able to balance campaign strategies to enlist support from middle America and working folks while at the same time honoring the needs of the corporate world and the Wall Street economy. Simply need to pay close attention to VPKH and Tim Walz messages and strategies as we move closer to election day. We have a great deal to get done to move from Wall Street to a new Main Street; and it all starts with each of us accepting the limits of our Earth and living with the rules of our universe. (On Freedom, Dr. Snyder, 168)
