Jobs Will Follow a Strengthening of the Middle Class - NYTimes.com.

The Limping Middle Class

THE 5 percent of Americans with the highest incomes now account for 37 percent of all consumer purchases, according to the latest research from Moody’s Analytics. That should come as no surprise. Our society has become more and more unequal. When so much income goes to the top, the middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going without sinking ever more deeply into debt — which, as we’ve seen, ends badly. An economy so dependent on the spending of a few is also prone to great booms and busts. The rich splurge and speculate when their savings are doing well. But when the values of their assets tumble, they pull back. That can lead to wild gyrations. Sound familiar?

That’s the first paragraph of a recent op-ed by economist Robert Reich of UC-Berkeley.

I think this article is important, but that it misses a larger, longer-acting dynamic: the extent to which our most wealthy, with an awesome amount of “patient money” need to find places to “park” that money, and end up buying land and natural resources.

Mason Gaffney has written about this. I commend his site to your attention: http://www.masongaffney.org/

When we need land, particularly well-located land, we end up paying them for access. When we need natural resources, we pay them for that, too.

It isn’t that such access shouldn’t be paid for – it should – rather, why on earth should private individuals or entities be the recipients of that income, rather than it flowing to the commons to finance the goods and services that make our society a good place to live, without taxing work or purchases.