Jim Crist: How affordability relates to income inequality and money in politics

The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.

Affordability has replaced Inflation as the dominant economic narrative. While inflation measures the rate at which prices rise, affordability speaks to whether individuals can sustain their standard of living within the current price environment. As pollster Frank Luntz noted, “Affordability means being able to buy the house you want, the health care you need, and the food and fuel that keep you alive.”

Survey data supports this shift. An Associated Press poll of more than 17,000 Americans found that cost of living concerns surpassed crime, immigration, and other issues as the primary factor motivating voter turnout. The cost of necessities like housing, food, and healthcare are rising much faster than wages for many people.

Rising income inequality is a major driver of the affordability crisis, as concentrated wealth helps high-income earners outbid others for housing, while stagnant wages for low/middle-income families mean they fall further behind. This is compounded by a fundamental shortage of affordable housing units and issues like restrictive zoning. The rich get richer and the majority get left behind.

The economy is a zero-sum game, where the billionaires get the sum and the rest of us get the zero. There are limited resources in any economy, and the rich are sucking them up, pricing the rest of us out of the market. It hurts our access to affordable housing, healthcare, consumer goods, education, etc. The American dream was stolen by those above us on the economic ladder, not below us.

Experts and average Americans alike believe there’s a strong link, with money in politics fueling rising income inequality by allowing the wealthy to influence policies that favor the rich, such as tax cuts and deregulation. This creates a cycle where economic power translates to political power, further increasing wealth disparities, and undermining democratic responsiveness to the middle and working classes. While other factors contribute (education, technology), the influence of big money is seen as a core driver of policies that exacerbate the gap.

As a result, politicians care more about their donors than their constituents and average Americans are getting zero representation. The rich have a totally different agenda than the rest of us, and that’s why we feel like the country is headed in the wrong direction. The country is being run by billionaires, for billionaires.

Approval ratings for Congress have been < 20% for decades. The presidency see-saws back and forth, where the prevailing sentiment is always “throw the bums out”. We have a two-party system, where roughly 60% of U.S. adults have negative views of both parties. We have a completely corrupt, bribery-based election system.

With billions in campaign contributions, we’re constantly bombarded by negative advertising, which has resulted in hyper-partisanship, essentially poisoning the public square. All any of us wants is a job, family, house and a healthy, secure community to live in. Yet we’ve been manipulated and brainwashed into two warring camps. Neighbor versus neighbor. Towns versus cities. Black versus white versus brown. Chopped into groups by political strategists and advertising executives.

Sadly, most of us don’t realize the real enemy is an elitist Supreme Court, which has been slowly yielding to corporate pressure for 140 years. Corporations can afford to litigate to get what they want over long periods of time. As a result, the meaning of our Constitution has been twisted into a pretzel, where corporations now have human rights and money is the same thing as free speech. Our elections are auctions and billionaires rule.

Congress can’t fix this with legislation. If they write new campaign finance laws, they will be challenged as unconstitutional. The best we can hope for are campaign disclosure laws that would expose the puppet masters pulling the strings.

Another approach that can be used is public matching funds, where a candidate raises small-dollar donations that get matched with public funds. So, at a rate of 8-to-1, a $100 donation becomes $900 for the candidate. But to be constitutional, this approach has to be optional. Another candidate can opt-out and take large donations from anonymous donors. That’s what’s called “dark money”.

Today, most of the election spending comes from corporate organizations such as Super PACs and other dark money corporations. These donors want something in return. The government is working just fine for the rich and badly for the rest of us.

How do we fix this?

If your favorite cause is the environment, education, healthcare, or supporting your favorite candidate, please continue to do so. And thank you for your efforts. But we’ll never accomplish any of our goals with this broken election system. We must fix democracy first. Please spend time and effort on one or more of these essential reforms:

• Nonpartisan redistricting (i.e. Fair Maps)
• Nonpartisan primary elections followed by a general election where you can rank your preferences. (i.e. Final Five Voting)
• Get Congress to call for a constitutional amendment (i.e. United To Amend)
• Public disclosure of dark money (e.g. Arizona Dark Money Law)
• Easy and secure voting that ensures free and fair elections
• Public financing of elections via matching funds

The American Dream is intrinsically linked to a strong, stable middle class, but the middle class is being hollowed out by those at the top of the economic ladder. Income inequality has hit historic, record-high levels and billionaires and gigantic corporations have captured our government.

Just as we did in the late 1800s, during the last Gilded Age, we need to create a Populist/Progressive Alliance. Today’s Democratic Party is controlled by affluent, out-of-touch urbanites who have little in common with regular Americans. Now that the affordability crisis has emerged, we need champions for lower/middle-income families to come forward, partner with Democrats and adopt a populist platform that appeals to a large majority of Americans. Here are the four main planks in the platform:

• Fix our broken and corrupt election system, as outlined above.
• Specific policies to address the lack of affordable housing, healthcare, food and energy.
• A secure border and a reformed immigration policy with a streamlined path to citizenship for people that have been here for many years.
• Higher taxes on the rich and a turn towards balance budgets

If all this sounds like a Bernie Sanders speech, it should, but with one major difference. If we want to appeal to a broad swath of Americans, we need to stake out moderate positions and messaging. No talk of socialism, free college, free healthcare, etc. Only then can we take back control of our government and make it work for all Americans.

And if you are sick of the money, corruption and political dysfunction, please take action by contacting George at Wisconsin United To Amend.

Jim Crist is co-chair, Wisconsin United To Amend.