Inequality — Blog — Jamie Aroosi

Barricades and Garbage Cans: America’s Police State

In New York City, one of the comparisons being made is between the response to COVID-19 and the response to the BLM protests. In the case of COVID-19, the city (and the state) proved themselves largely inept, and despite months of advance warning, they acted much too late. However, when it came to the BLM protests, the entire city was shut down in anticipation of protests that were still largely prospective, imposing an 8 pm curfew and transforming the city into a police state. In other words, when it came to a public health threat that's been known for months, the city was only capable of acting ineffectively and after the fact, but when it came to stifling potential, future rallies for racial justice, the city was capable of acting swiftly and in anticipation of a forthcoming “threat.”

This comparison speaks to the way that the American state—at both the city, state, and national level—has increasingly abdicated any role in providing for the public good while instead seeing its role as primarily that of providing “law and order.”

Seven Lean Years

Last week, billionaire Robert F. Smith announced that he would pay off the student loans of the 2019 graduating class of Morehouse. And I figured I’d write something because I feel pretty conflicted about it—or I at least feel like I should be more conflicted about it.

The general atmosphere surrounding this gift was one of jubilation. I had many colleagues, friends, and acquaintances celebrating the gift, as did public figures I admire, like the civil rights activist Shaun King. But my initial response was one of anger. Anger at a system that creates student debt in the first place, and anger over the celebration of an individual who is one of few beneficiaries of that system (Smith has 4.4 billion dollars). It struck me as akin to celebrating our feudal lord for feeding us in a time of famine (which was a feudal obligation). Worse yet, it's actually more akin to celebrating our feudal lord for feeding us while his hoarding of grain helped cause the famine in the first place. The charity is only required because of the crime that necessitated it.

But I caught a little blowback for expressing my frustration, and I think I can see where people were coming from.

Jamie AroosiMay 29, 2019Robert F. SMith, Shaun King, Morehouse College, Iris Marion Young, Michelle Alexander, InequalityComment

When You Have More Money Than Exist Things To Buy

Recently, a Jeff Koons balloon sculpture sold for 91 million dollars, setting a record for the highest price for a work of art by a living artist. It reminded me of a film I recently saw, on a flight back from Los Angeles.

Entitled "The Price of Everything," the filmmakers managed to interview many of the artists, buyers, and dealers involved in the contemporary art market. And it didn't take very much to realize what was going on. Basically, the super-rich are so rich that they've run out of things to buy.

Jamie AroosiMay 16, 2019Inequality, Jeff Koons, ArtComment

The Last Working-Class Professor

A colleague recently posted about the role that student debt plays in perpetuating class inequalities in education, which essentially creates an insurmountable obstacle preventing almost all people from attending the type of elite institutions from which our ruling class emerges. In other words, student debt is a mechanism for preserving elite rule. Brett Kavanaugh isn't the sharpest tool in the box (not to mention that other Yale alum, George W. Bush), but the high cost and prohibitive debt load ensure that they can continue to monopolize the resources and benefits of these institutions, while claiming them to be meritocratic. As Kavanaugh mentioned, he "earned" his seat on the Supreme Court, even though the fact that there will soon be two Supreme Court justices from his prep school seems to indicate a different story.

But this point aside, it prompted me to respond that we're now seeing the last generation of working-class faculty members die off.

The Hamster Wheel Economy

Every once in a while I'm amazed by the degree to which we've become a rentier economy.

Take a look at any graph that measures debt levels, be it credit card, student loan, home loan, or medical, and there's a sheer explosion of indebtedness. From one point of view, this is a consequence of stagnating or falling wages, which is a process that began in the early 70s. Since that time, the American economy has in fact grown, oftentimes quite dramatically. But wages have been kept flat, so that every dollar of new growth has been funneled to those at the top. Consequently, in order to maintain a half decent quality of life, most of us have to finance this on debt. For example, people used to be able to pay for college by working summers, but wages have been kept flat for almost 50 years, so that paying your way through college is now impossible. As a result, we see an explosion in student debt, as it's the only way most people can finance higher education.

Aside from the knee jerk conservative reaction that ignores or doesn't care about the economic reality that created this indebtedness, and that instead chooses to blame debtors for their indebtedness (being poor or homeless is always a choice!), we don't give enough attention to what this means about how the economy has changed.

Jamie AroosiSeptember 28, 2018Debt, Rent, Puerto Rico, Economy, Wall Street, InequalityComment