Inequity Baked Large: Our New Gilded Age, In Two Stats

 

<Class War CD: 2000

The Dils, helpfully reminding us
why the 1% deserve our undivided
love, attention, and gratitude...
[YouTube capture, plus all other images here]>

I hate the rich

They should dig a ditch

I hate the rich

Got a life without a hitch, 

life without a hitch

<Chorus>

I hate the rich, I don't want their money

I hate the rich, so it ain't so funny

<The Dils: "I Hate The Rich,"
What Records? single, 1977>

<i.>

We've all heard the saying, "One picture is worth a thousand words," right? There's a similar drive in journalism, where you're also looking for that "one thing" -- one bullet point, one fact, one figure, one quote -- that sums up the essence of what you're trying to tell the reader.

Well, when it comes to describing inequity in America, I've found two facts, on both sides of that divide, that really summarize the shit sandwich that most people are forced to eat right now. I found them via a survey that I filled out recently, and they're striking enough to post here. So, without further ado, here we go:

According to the most recent estimates from the Federal Reserve, the wealth distribution in the United States looks like this:

The bottom 50% of Americans own 2.5% of total wealth.

The middle 40% of Americans 

own 30.6% of total wealth.

The top 9.9% of Americans 

own 53.3% of total wealth.

The top 0.1% of Americans

 own 13.6% of total wealth.

Above: The sleeve that launched

a thousand air guitar dreams -- punk-rock style (1977)

Below: Not part of the 

original single release,
but I loved the effect...amazing 

what you can do,
with a YouTube dissolve... The Reckoner

Look at the poor, crawling on the floor

Look at the poor

Always wanting more

Always wanting more

<Chorus>

Look at the poor, all they need is money

Look at the poor, no, it ain't so funny

<"I Hate The Rich">

<ii.>

And here's another stat that really summarizes the Great American Divide. Remember all the hullabaloo about the wealth tax? Probably not, even though Congress pondered making such a move in 2021. Here's how it would have worked, had they actually gotten around to passing it:

The tax would have been 2% on the net worth above $50 million, with an additional 1% tax on net worth above $1 billion.

100,000 American households (less than 1 out of 1,000) would have been liable
for the wealth tax in 2023.

This is less than 0.1% of the American population.

The tax would have raised around
$3.0 trillion from 2023-2032,
contributing around 1%
of US GDP per year.

Congress didn't, of course. In 2021, we were treated to such unforgettable images as Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Gremlin, preaching about the joys of austerity from the comfort of his 65-foot houseboat -- so he and his mainstream media ablers describe it, though it's really a yacht -- and his Arizona counterpart, Kirsten Sinema, signaling thumbs down to the $15 an hour minimum wage.

There you go, then. There you have it. Forget all the maunderings and mutterings you've heard about "class warfare," unless somebody's referencing one of those other great songs by the Dils, featured above. Stats become -- consisting mainly of those at the very top, and those being shoved toward the very bottom. No more, no less.

Grotesque as those images undoubtedly came across -- reeking from every pore, of the smugness of privilege, and the endless 20/20 hindsight of entitlement -- they did much to rebut the traditional lament of orthodox liberals everywhere: "This is not who we are."

But as these two stats tell you, this is who we are. And what we are. And what we've become. Three decades of adjunct professorships, temp agencies, and No-future, No-benefit McJobs, have eaten away at the core fibers of our democracy. With so many millions slipping through the cracks, it shouldn't surprise anybody to see so many demagogues around the globe gain so much traction. Trump is hardly the only one, as the Hungarians, Israelis and Turks will be quick to remind you.

The only ones surprised, it seems, are the normies who never saw it coming. Go figure, eh? But, in response to the proposition put forth by the Dils' sibling songwriters, Chip and Tony Kinman, I'll say it plain:

I, too, hate the rich.

I hate them for their ravenous, runaway self-indulgences that they expect us to subsidize indefinitely. I hate them for their moral bankruptcy, and the utter lack of accountability it thrusts in our faces. I hate them for their never-ending attempts to bend the rest of us to their will.

And most of all, I hate them for their unforgiving and unflagging kung fu grip on the power and privilege that they pass down, with ticktock regularity, from generation to generation. Nothing personal, as you guys always claim. Just business.

Even if we survive the threatened return of Trump, and the white Christian nationalist police state he promises to impose, the million dollar question remains. How do we navigate back to some sense of proportion? Your guess is as good as mine, at this point, honestly. --The Reckoner

<"I Hate The Rich": Rear sleeve,

with some strategic alterations
by Yer Humble Narrator..

Neither of these versions 

graced the original sleeve,

but YouTube's dissolve effect felt
too good to resist!
The Reckoner>

Links To Go (A Little Slice Of Punk History
Really Goes A Long Way...)

CNBC: Five Alarming Stats On US Economic Inequality:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/28/5-alarming-stats-on-us-economic-inequality.html

LAist: This SoCal Punk Band Is Back
To Save Music At A Chinatown School:
https://laist.com/news/entertainment/the-dils-back-together-to-play-in-chinatown

Summer Of Hate:
Massive Three-Party Retrospective,

Interviews W/Dils Drummer John Silver, Guitarist Chip Kinman:
https://www.accum.se/~samhain/summerofhate/johndil.html#johndil

(Some of the best "deep dive" pieces I've ever read, on any underdog bad: suffice to say, even if you've only heard those singles, you're in for a treat here!)

Urban Institute: Nine Charts
About Wealthy Inequality In America:
https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/

Who Founded The Punk Bank? Looks Like Tom Verlaine Did

 

I've had this particular editorial howler sitting on my desktop for awhile, but I decided, it's just too funny not to share here. I came across this kernel from CBS News, while looking up relevant tidbits on Tom Verlaine's passing on January 28, 2023, and how the media were covering it.

Whoever created the headline was in a real rush to make their deadline. Obviously, right? Of course, it could just as easily have been some robo-proofreader's fault, too. From financial mavens, to fast-talking techmeisters, to the fading embers of mainstream journalism empires, AI is fast emerging as today's go-to corner-cutting tool. 

Still,"Punk bank" is a powerful phrase, because that's what has happened, to those pioneers who are still sentient enough -- and therefore, lucky enough -- to finally see their ships coming in, via song placements for movies and TV, or the inevitable, "Remember when?" reunion tour, slippin 'n' slidin' through your neck of the woods.

Tom Verlaine fits this pattern. After his pioneering band, Television, broke up in 1978, he maintained a steady, if low-key solo career, putting out four solo albums during the 1980s. 1992 seems to have been a decisive tipping point, when he dropped a third album, with the reunited Television, and his first instrumental solo album, Warm  And Cool.

And there matters rested, until 2006, when Verlaine re-emerged with two typically quirky albums, Around, and Songs And Other Things. He continued to tour with Television, only with Jimmy Rip riding shotgun on guitar, instead of co-founder Richard Lloyd, who left in 2007. What happened there?

The band spun Lloyd's departure as an amicable one, even as Verlaine periodically teased the possibility of a fourth album. Presumably, he wanted to square the circle after the muted response to their last effort (entitled Television, naturally). Of course, it never surfaced, which becomes clearer to understand, when you read these comments from Lloyd:

"Across Television’s final period, we rehearsed, we played – and we would write new songs. Then Tom would throw them away. For 14 years, from 1993 to 2007, when I finally quit, Tom would talk about us making a new record. But nothing ever came of it.

"We recorded nothing. Tom would always poo-poo the notion. It was like he didn’t want to give anything to Television. Tom never really wants to share credit." (UNCUT, October 2015)

Throughout these Spinal Tap-ish power struggles (see link below), Verlaine periodically guested on other people's records -- notably, those of his onetime romantic partner, Patti Smith -- and put out the odd film score, between those on-again, off-again Television reunion tours. He and Rip also found themselves a dream gig, of improvising music for silent music films -- and there were tours along those lines, too.

So he wasn't entirely idle, exactly. You could characterize his later years as a life of touring and recording leisure, I suppose, which makes me appreciate Lloyd's closing observation on his onetime guitar sparring partner: "Tom Verlaine is wonderful to laugh with. Tom can be the funniest guy on Earth. But, often, Tom just doesn’t want to get out of bed. I’ll certainly never do business with him again."

Ironically, Verlaine died on the cusp of scoring a real coup, having been announced as the opener for Billy Idol, on a six-date UK arena tour set for October 2022. But Verlaine had to bow out, after his doctors determined he wasn't medically fit enough to do it. (The slot went to Killing Joke and Toyah, instead.)

But that howler of a headline left me wondering, How much did Tom Verlaine earn, before he shuffled off this mortal coil? All those celebrity net worth sites are notoriously sketchy, due to their wobbly sourcing, of course.

Still, depending on which one you check out, that figure might be $100,000-$1 million (Idol Net Worth) $2 million (Hollywoods Magazine), $3 million (GH Gossip, Popular Net Worth), or even $1-7 million (BuzzLearn). There you go, then! Take your pick, and decide what you want to believe, which seems like a mantra well in keeping with the now-you-see-me, now-you-don't approach that characterized Verlaine's career approach, one dedicated to keeping the outside world at bay.

So what returns did all this recorded leisure yield commercially? I haven't found a lot of hard info to answer that question, though the BestSellingAlbums.org site claims gold status in the UK for Television's groundbreaking debut, Marquee Moon (100,000 sales).

That makes sense, since Television -- like many punk pioneers -- fared better overseas than at home. By contrast, Marquee Moon didn't even make Billboard's Top 200 when it came out in February 1977. I've never seen any figures for the second Television album, Adventure (1978), which is described as selling "modestly."

Generally regarded as the weak kitten of Television's back catalog, we can safely assume that Adventure hasn't match Marquee Moon status. We can probably apply that same yardstick to Verlaine's solo output, since ex-band members -- famous, or not -- end up starting over in the marketplace. Sometimes, they scoop up enough fans to outpace their previous track records, but that's not a lengthy list. I wouldn't expect to see Verlaine's name on it.

Still, whatever Tom Verlaine took home, it apparently was enough to keep him afloat in New York City, whose eye-popping average monthly rents ($3,450 for a studio; $6,995 for a four-bedroom unit) would make a rerun of the gritty '70s punk scene that he inhabited impossible today.

CBGB's closed up shop in 2006; it's now the home of a designer men's clothing shop, an event that would have seemed unimaginable to the denizens propping up the bar. All we have left are the memories and the outsider's music we feasted on, increasingly deemed safe for mass consumption. Case in point? the Stooges' "Down On The Street," whose assaultive instrumental break is currently gracing a Chevrolet TV ad ("Chosen Family") as I write.

I have yet to hear Television songs like "Marquee Moon," or keynote Verlaine tracks like "Kingdom Come," gracing any TV commercial, or serving as backgrounds for some A&E cop show -- yet But cult status or not, I imagine it's only a matter of time; anybody who crafts an album like Marquee Moon is bound to catch the gatekeepers' ears sooner, rather than later, I suspect.

So, in that sense, like many of his pioneering peers, maybe Tom Verlaine did invent the punk bank, as much as the punk band. Only, not in the way that he imagined, or envisioned. Time will tell if my hunch pans out. Somewhere in the ether, I suspect that Tom Verlaine is laughing at all this. And reaching for another cup of coffee. And, as always, one more cigarette. --The Reckoner

Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry,
Before Those Television Albums Go Platinum):

Uncut: The Story Of Television, By Richard Lloyd:
https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/the-story-of-television-by-richard-lloyd-71368/

< Words From The Front (1982): Cover Art 
Tom Verlaine stares down the future,

cigarette in hand: "What d'ya mean,

I invented... A punk what?

"Punk bank?

"What the hell does that look like?

"C'mon, man...you can't believe
everything you read. Or anything,
for that matter." >

<Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16110882>

Looking Back On Unemployment, Punk Rock Style (Update & Re-Post From 6/5/13)

 

<Now Then... (1983): Original Cover Artwork>

Reckoner's Note (6/18/23): What a difference a decade makes, eh? This is a re-post, actually, after I noticed this particular entry had disappeared, for some reason. After a brief stab at some sort of detective work or other, to figure out why, I threw up my hands, and said, "Right. There's only one option left: re-post."

But I'm quite fond of this entry, simply because it marked the first of what's become a running theme here -- the personal essays on all manner of big topics. By then, I was well into my sixth year of self-employment, with the peaks and valleys that accompany it. So it only seemed natural for me to revisit my various forays with unemployment through a classic song by one of my favorite bands, Stiff Little Fingers. 

"Welcome To The Whole Week," the song referenced here, is on Now Then... (1983), the last album released during Stiff Little Fingers original five-year run. As singer-guitarist Jake Burns has suggested, the song aims to turn traditional views of joblessness on their head: "Why should they be made to feel guilty because, through no fault of their own, they had no employment. They've got as much right to be happy as anybody has -- that was the idea (Stiff Little Fingers: Song By Song)."

I'm not hugely familiar with Now Then... itself, which marked a lower-key, more muted version of SLF's trademark fiery punk attack. Not surprisingly, longtime fans found it a disappointment, prompting the band to fold its tent shortly after the accompanying tour (over to you, Jake, for the epitaph: "We felt we had to stretch our wings a bit, and our audience at the time was not willing to accept that").

I'll have to check out the sonic evidence for myself -- surely, you don't want your heroes chucking out minor variations of the same thing, right? But in the meantime, enjoy this re-post, which attracted 69 views. My original post follows below.

<October/November '82 UK Tour Advert:
Aural Sculptors blog,
http://auralsculptors.blogspot.com/2020/07/20-from-8212-stiff-little-fingers.html>

And now and then, when I'm in the mood
I might get up at the crack of noon
Then take a wander down to the arcade
Might as well clock up a great high score
>"Welcome To The Whole Week"<

<i.>

For better or worse, Americans have long defined themselves through their jobs. As that guy on "The Honeymooners" can attest, our identities come from being known as the providers, whether it's as the head of a household, or the "better half" of a couple. To entertain other notions gets you in trouble; during my college days, my father would get irritable, because I'd never ask what my friends did...or planned on doing...with their lives. "But, Dad," I'd say, "that's like asking somebody, 'What's your sign?' There's more to life than work..."

Naturally, Dear Old Dad would roll his eyes, and scoff, having worked for much of his life. As we all know, however, a lot of folks are getting more time on their hands lately -- like it, or not. According to a June 21 article in The Washington Post, unemployment applications are holding steady, at around 387,000 altogether (give or take). The nation's unemployment rate hovers stubbornly at around 8.2 percent, but might dip to 8.0 percent, according to the minds at the Fed.

<Found via eBay: Print ad for "Bits Of Kids,"

a single that preceded Now Then..., 

and regarded as one of its better songs>

If you don't mind, I've decided to live my life
Well, it's always something to do
My girl comes round and all we do is talk
For hours on end, or we don't talk at all
While we more, or less, do as we please

<ii.>

Mind you, that's the best case scenario. If that's the best, who wants to stick around for the worst? The Washington Post's article also mentions another interesting statistic: consumer spending fuels roughly 70 percent of the economy. While the recent gas price dips may help people feel a bit less pinched -- within the last three weeks, our area has seen a decline from roughly $3.75 to $3.46 -- it's safe to say that nobody's banging the pom poms just yet.

Given this current downward spiral, does it even make sense anymore for people define themselves by what they do for a living? Having lost three jobs in the last decade, I know the drill. Though I never defined myself through a job (too punk rock for that, sorry!), each swing of the layoff scythe made me wonder what the point had been.

What meaning could the latest job have, I'd ask myself, if my livelihood could be destroyed so easily -- to be crushed and tossed aside like a $2 paperweight from your friendly neighborhood airport gift shop? In that split-second gut-kick, I could feel myself go from Provider to Nonperson overnight. No more fripperies like health insurance and low co-pays, let alone steady income (which is always welcome, no matter how crappily you're paid -- don't let anybody tell you different!).

Some of you have got it in for me
I don't need that or your sympathy
So I have no job, welcome to the whole week

<Live, Brixton Ace, 1982.
Left to right: Jake Burns, Brian "Dolpin" Taylor,
Ali McMordie, Henry Cluney:
YouTube.com>

<iii.>

I'm not rerunning the movie in my head as much nowadays, but that nagging feeling of being sold a bill of goods (What...Was...The...Point...Of It All?) has never completely gone away, either. That's why I like this song, "Welcome To The Whole Week," from Stiff Little Fingers. When this song came out in 1983, there were roughly three million Brits out of work as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pursued her single-minded monetarist vision...the populace be damned, if they didn't happen to agree.

This lyric -- of which I've quoted portions above -- is brilliant, for two reasons. First, it turns the whole idea of feeling guilty about being jobless on its head. As the narrator who gets up "at the crack of noon" makes clear, he's not going to waste time feeling that way, when he can finally do things that make his life tolerable (his girlfriend, his LPs, and the local pub).

By implication, he also doesn't feel any stake in a system bent on denying his humanity, let alone his existence ("I never said that this was my ideal/But still I'm gonna feel and make it real/So I have no job, welcome to the whole week")...but that's OK, because he's decided that he should be as happy as anybody else. In a society stuck on test-driving the hoary conceit of trickle-down economics...that's pretty powerful stuff.

Ironically, I never actually heard this song until recently -- as it's tucked away on Now Then... (1983), which remains largely unheralded...presumably because the band called it quits shortly after its release (that is, until the first of many reformations kicked off in 1987). The kitschy early Mac-style computer graphic cover doesn't help matters, either.

Hearing these sentiments when I lost the latest job would definitely have bought some comfort, if not a smile...because the absurdity of investing your identity around your career would become apparent in a heartbeat. You'd realize that you were trapped on some eternal midway, where the carnies run thicker than flies, and there's always a gangling six-foot-tall goon with meth mouth to point out the marks, and hit on their weaknesses with all the subtlety of a flying mallet.

Maybe someone will convince Stiff Little Fingers to reissue "Welcome To The Whole Week" for the U.S, where there's 12.7 million people living in enforced idleness right now...at least there's plenty of company, right? The more things change...the more they stay the same.--The Reckoner

        I never promised you I'd go away

You can't ignore me cos I'm here to stay

So it's too bad, let me at the whole week...

<Live in Brixton, 1982:
Check out Ali's print shirt --
Slightly out of sync with the band's punk vibe, isn't it?
But it was the '80s. after all.
Henry (right) keeps his head down,
and does his best
to get the "dots" (frets) right!>

Links To Go (Why Don't You...Listen...To Your Heart?):

Live At The Brixton Ace, 1982:
Channel Four ("Whatever You Want," 2/83):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqYg7SRMLa4

Fascinating clip from the much-maligned Now Then... era. Having checked it out, I have to say, I don't find those songs so dismissable, but you can judge the results for yourself.

Rock & Roll GLobe: Jake Burns: 
Nobody's Hero: Stiff Little Fingers' Jake Burns At 65:
https://rockandrollglobe.com/punk/nobodys-hero-stiff-little-fingers-jake-burns-at-65/

Sputnik Music: Now Then... Album Review:
https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/85620/Stiff-Little-Fingers-Now-Then.../