海角大神

America has a serious 鈥淲e鈥� problem 鈥� as in 鈥淲hy should we pay for them?鈥�

The question is popping up all over the place. It underlies the debate over extending unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed and providing food stamps to the poor.聽

It鈥檚 found in the resistance of some young and healthy people to being required to buy health insurance in order to help pay for people with preexisting health problems.聽

It can be heard among the residents of upscale neighborhoods who don鈥檛 want their tax dollars going to the inhabitants of poorer neighborhoods nearby.聽聽

The pronouns 鈥渨e鈥� and 鈥渢hey鈥� are the most important of all political words. They demarcate who鈥檚 within the sphere of mutual responsibility, and who鈥檚 not. Someone within that sphere who鈥檚 needy is one of 鈥渦s鈥� 鈥� an extension of our family, friends, community, tribe 鈥� and deserving of help. But needy people outside that sphere are 鈥渢hem,鈥� presumed undeserving unless proved otherwise.

The central political question faced by any nation or group is where the borders of this sphere of mutual responsibility are drawn.

Why in recent years have so many middle-class and wealthy Americans pulled the borders in closer?

The middle-class and wealthy citizens of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, for example, are trying to secede from the school district they now share with poorer residents of town, and set up their funded by property taxes from their higher-valued homes.聽

Similar efforts are underway in Memphis, Atlanta, and Dallas. Over the past two years, two wealthy suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, have left the countywide school system in order to set up their own.

Elsewhere, upscale school districts are voting down state plans to raise their taxes in order to provide more money to poor districts, as they did recently in Colorado.聽

"Why should we pay for them?" is also reverberating in wealthy places like Oakland County, Michigan, that border devastatingly poor places like Detroit.

"Now, all of a sudden, they鈥檙e having problems and they want to give part of the responsibility to the suburbs?" , the Oakland County executive. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not gonna talk me into being the good guy. 鈥楶ick up your share?鈥� Ha ha.鈥�

But had the official boundary been drawn differently so that it encompassed both Oakland County and Detroit 鈥� say, to create a Greater Detroit region 鈥� the two places would form a 鈥渨e鈥� whose problems Oakland鈥檚 more affluent citizens would have some responsibility to address.

What鈥檚 going on?

One obvious explanation involves race. Detroit is mostly black; Oakland County, mostly white. The secessionist school districts in the South are almost entirely white; the neighborhoods they鈥檙e leaving behind, mostly black.

But racism has been with us from the start. Although some southern school districts are seceding in the wake of the ending of court-ordered desegregation, race alone can鈥檛 explain the broader national pattern.聽According to Census Bureau numbers,聽聽of Americans below the poverty line at any given point identify themselves as white.

Another culprit is the increasing economic stress felt by most middle-class Americans. Median household incomes are dropping and over three-quarters of Americans report they鈥檙e living paycheck to paycheck.聽

It鈥檚 easier to be generous and expansive about the sphere of聽鈥漺e鈥� when incomes are rising and future prospects seem even better, as during the first three decades after World War II when America declared war on poverty and expanded civil rights. But since the late 1970s, as most paychecks have flattened or declined, adjusted for inflation, many in the stressed middle no longer want to pay for 鈥渢hem.鈥�

Yet this doesn鈥檛 explain why so many wealthy America鈥檚 are also exiting. They鈥檝e never been richer. Surely they can afford a larger 鈥渨e.鈥澛燘ut most of today鈥檚 rich adamantly refuse to pay anything close to the tax rate America鈥檚 wealthy accepted forty years ago.聽

Perhaps it鈥檚 because, as inequality has widened and class divisions have hardened, America鈥檚 wealthy no longer have any idea how the other half lives.聽

Being rich in today鈥檚 America means not having to come across anyone who isn鈥檛. Exclusive prep schools, elite colleges, private jets, gated communities, tony resorts, symphony halls and opera houses, and vacation homes in the Hamptons and other exclusive vacation sites all insulate them from the rabble.聽

America鈥檚 wealthy increasingly inhabit a different country from the one 鈥渢hey鈥� inhabit, and America鈥檚 less fortunate seem as foreign as do the needy inhabitants of another country.聽

The first step in widening the sphere of 鈥渨e鈥� is to break down the barriers 鈥� not just of race, but also, increasingly, of class, and of geographical segregation by income 鈥� that are pushing 鈥渨e Americans鈥� further and further apart.