I was talking with my good friend, who was lamenting that the library is facing cutbacks even as its role in the community is changing and expanding, that there are layoffs at all our medical facilities and public schools, and a reduction in town services, all while property taxes increase.
I made the comment that there is a fallacy in assuming there aren’t financial resources when, in fact, we are in an ocean of them. I continued saying that the acceptance of our scarcity needs to be challenged. He responded, “What ocean? It feels more like a desert.”
So I’ve taken a fun stab at listing financial resources in the U.S. and where they go: Total value of stock market $50-60 trillion, Federal Reserve assets $7 trillion, U.S. banking system $23 trillion, U.S. budget $6.5 trillion, private and corporate foundations $1.4 trillion, Massachusetts budget $55 billion, private philanthropists’ annual giving $350 billion, Mass Pension Reserve Investment Management Board $95 billion.
Our personal and business income creates a $7 trillion federal budget, where $1 out of every $3 goes to defense and payment of the national debt. Fifty percent of the stock market gains go to the top 1% of American households. Two percent goes to the bottom 50% of American households. The same percentages hold true for the $900 billion profits of the finance industry. The list goes broader and deeper.
But numbers often don’t provide a comprehensible understanding. If a typical home 25 feet in height represented the halfway point in wealth, the height of a building representing the top .05% would be just under a mile tall and would not be tenable. Nor is it tenable in real life.
Paul Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, argued that the purpose of economics is to improve people’s everyday lives. In Franklin County, this is especially relevant because traditional funding has not kept pace with local needs, resulting in budget shortfalls and housing challenges. Where to cut the budget has caused bitter disagreements on priorities: Fix the roads or fix our schools? Fund the library or fund social services? Towns in Franklin County receive approximately 11% of their revenue from state aid, compared with 26% statewide and 31% nationally, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
Each of us has our story. I live on a fixed budget plus a little extra and live with constant low-grade anxiety that it will go away. I fear for my adult children as they face such a hostile world.
Though it’s hard not to be taken in by fear and become isolated, I refuse to be a victim. Fear speaks with the urgency of impending calamity by casting shadows that stretch longer than the truth.
I am frightened, but as I see people volunteering at food pantries, serving on housing, environmental, educational, and social service committees, and just reaching out to one another more, I gain the courage to say softly but firmly, “Even so, I will move forward.”
I join others, and together we begin to weave our efforts together. We are increasing our understanding of each other’s concerns, accepting our differences, and focusing on what we can become rather than bemoaning what is being done to us.
In this effort, we become more powerful and develop the mindset that the economy is our economy, whose purpose is to sustain people and places, not to sacrifice them for the gains of a few.
Christopher “Kiffer” Sikes is a 40-year resident of Franklin County and founder of Common Capital, a nonprofit that finances small businesses and community projects in western Massachusetts. Any comments are appreciated and can be sent to kiffersikes@gmail.com