“Owning” Our Own Society -Talking Points

“To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance - preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.”

-President George W. Bush's second inaugural address, January 20, 2005

"...if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country."

-President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004


Statements on the “Ownership Society” from Ford Leadership for a Changing World Award recipients:


“To President Bush, an ‘ownership society’ is one where Americans face retirement and the labor market on their own … But to some of us, a true "ownership society" is a society that is ‘owned’ by its people, where citizen-created institutions like Social Security, or cooperative enterprises assert people power over the market.”

- Abby Scher, Director, Independent Press Association

"If we are to talk about a real ownership society, it has to be more than just another retirement account invested in a mutual fund. The closest thing we've come to a real ownership society for the 21st Century is employee ownership through Employee Stock Ownership Plans and cooperatives. That's what we ought to be talking about."

- John Logue, Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Kent, Ohio

“It is baffling to me that the social security of the elderly and others should be an individual "choice." That is where the word "ownership" is dangerous. The real messages are: Everyone out for him/herself. Society has no responsibility to share in the concern for the livelihood or health or well being of others. 'Que cada quien se rasque con sus propias unas.'(Literally, that everyone scratch themselves with their fingernails. Figuratively, that everyone out for his/her own interests, without regard to other fellow humans). The Bush administration is cutting a tremendous amount of funding for housing development projects, which sharply affect the already meager affordable housing programs. Talk about doublespeak!”
- Diane Bustamante,
“The goal of an ‘ownership society’ is laudable, but at least two critical elements are absent from President Bush's presentations on this matter. First is the extraordinary level of concentration of ownership in the US, in almost every realm of life: Food, seed and agricultural companies, media and communications, banks, retailers, etc. This seems to me an overwhelming counterweight to small individual accounts. Secondly, these very same corporations are constantly urging -- quite successfully -- increased levels of consumption among consumers, effectively precluding any substantial improvements in our savings rates. Taken together, these two realities undermine the very foundation of a broadly-based ownership society.”

- Anthony Flaccavento, Executive Director, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Abingdon


Is the “Ownership Society” Really Dr. King’s Dream?

“President Bush’s Ownership Society goals may appear at first to be consistent with Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of economic opportunity for all races, but during the first Bush administration, the United States actually moved farther away from Dr. King’s vision.” - State of the Dream 2005: Disowned in the Ownership Society

The employment and income picture has gotten worse for people of color since 2000, eroding the progress made during the 1990s:

In 2000 the African American unemployment rate reached a historic low of 7.1%. It has been 9.9% or higher since January 2002.
Latino / Hispanic unemployment rates also dropped from 8.0% in 1988 to 5.7% in 2000, but rose again in the last four years.
After slowly increasing from 55% of white income in 1988 to 65% in 2000, Black median income fell again to 62% in 2003. For the first time in 15 years, the average Latino household now has an income that is less than two-thirds that of the average white household.
Throughout the 1990s, poverty rates fell across the board, declining fastest for African Americans and Latinos. But since 2000, more than one third of that progress in reducing poverty among African-American families has been erased, as 300,000 African-American families fell below the poverty line from 2000 to 2003.

Private retirement income and inheritances remain scarce among people of color.

African Americans have less in private pensions and retirement accounts, and so depend more heavily on Social Security. They would be more affected than whites by any privatization plan that made benefits uncertain.
Previous generations of race-based discrimination leaves a legacy for people of color, who are far less likely to get inheritances than white Americans.

For more on the “State of the Dream 2005: Disowned in the Ownership Society” see: http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2005/StateoftheDream2005.pdf

Where does our income go?

Child care costs have been rising much faster than both income and inflation, although the consumer price index increased only 29% during the 1990s, fees charged by child care centers and nursery schools shot up by 56%.
The costs of college have been rising even more dramatically. The Average tuition at public four year universities increased from roughly 4% of a middle class family income in 1980 to almost 7% in 2000.
Housing expenses – the biggest single item in the family budget – have placed additional pressure on family budgets. The median sales price of homes increased from $23,000 in 1970 to $62,000 in 1980 to $147,800 in 2001. In constant dollars the increase was over 60%.
A 2002 federal commission concluded that almost 28 million households – one in four – spend more on housing than the 30% of income commonly considered affordable.
The share of housing income used to pay rent has been trending upward; it rose roughly 11% between 1984 and 2001. Nearly 40% of renters spend more than 30% of their income on shelter, including about one in five who spend half or more of their income.
A 2001 survey by the Pew Center for the People and Press found that over a quarter of respondents (27%) said they didn’t have enough money in the past year to afford health care – up from 15% in 1976.
More than 43 million people were without health insurance in 2002.

Taken from America Beyond Captialism, by Gar Alprovitz, 2005


Business Ownership

More Americans now work in firms that are partly or wholly owned by the employees than are members of unions in the private sector. (p81) In 2003 there were 8.4 million workers in private sector unions and 8.8 million workers working in ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) employee owned firms.
There are approximately 11,000 ESOPs now operating in communities in all regions of the United States. Asset holdings total more than $400 billion. The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEOO) estimates that total worker holdings (of all forms of stock ownership and stock options) reached approximately $800 billion in 2002 – that is, roughly 8% of all US corporate stock.
Studies undertaken by the National Center for Employee ownership, by several teams of economists, and by the US General Accounting Office all confirm that combining worker ownership with employee participation commonly produces greater productivity gains, in some cases over 50%.

Taken from America Beyond Captialism, by Gar Alprovitz, 2005

Minorities’ share of the total U.S. population increased from 21 percent in 1982 to 32 percent in 2002. The share of businesses owned by minorities rose from 6.8 percent of all U.S. businesses in 1982 to 15.1 percent in 1997.
American Indians/Alaska Natives were the fastest growing business group. The number of American Indian/Alaska Native–owned businesses grew tenfold between 1982 and 1997, followed by Hispanic-owned businesses, the number of which quadrupled during this period.

For more statistics on business ownership and growth see, “An Analysis of Employer Data from the Survey of Minority-Owned Business Establishments by Ying Lowrey, Ph.D.” Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business, Washington, D.C
http://www.doleta.gov/reports/papers/Minorities_in_Business2001.pdf

Taxes and Income

The average after-tax income of the top one percent of the population more than doubled, rising from $298,900 to $631,700, for a total increase of $332,800, or 111 percent. (CBO adjusted these figures for inflation and expressed them in 2002 dollars.)
By contrast, the average after tax income of the middle fifth of the population rose a relatively modest 15 percent, or $5,700, reaching $43,700 in 2002. The average after-tax income of the poorest fifth of the population rose just 5 percent, or $600, over the period.
The top one percent of the population received 11.4 percent of national after-tax income in 2002, up from its already-large 7.5 percent share in 1979. (Each percentage point of after-tax income is equivalent to $62 billion in 2002 dollars.)
In contrast, the shares of national income received by various groups of low- and middle-income people all fell. The middle fifth of the population received 16.5 percent of the national after-tax income in 1979, but 15.8 percent in 2002. The bottom fifth received 6.8 percent of such income in 1979, but 5.1 percent in 2002.

For more information on income levels and tax brackets see, “What New CBO DATA Indicate about Long-Term Income Distribution Trends” By Isaac Shapiro 3/7/05
http://www.cbpp.org/3-7-05tax.pdf


Housing

Census Identified Ethnic Groups
(2000 Census)
Owner Occupied
Renter Occupied
All ethnic groups
66.2%
33.8
White Alone
71.3%
28.7
Black Alone
46.3
53.7
American Indian Alone
57.5%
42.5%
Alaskan Native Alone
57.3%
42.7%
Asian Americans-All Races
53.4%
46.6%
NHPI-Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders
45%
55%
Hispanic of any Race
45.7%
54.3%


In March, 2005: The USDA Rural Development announced that over $4 billion in single-family housing funds are available to assist more rural families become homeowners as part of President Bush's Ownership Society initiative. Over 10 percent of these funds will help families build their own homes and bring homeownership opportunities to families living in the Colonias, underserved areas and Federally designated communities

Taken from USDA News Release No. 0081.05 by Ed Loyd and Tim McNeilly
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2005/03/0081.xml

Healthy Community, Healthy Environment

Air Quality

Over the past 20 years, the air quality levels for pollutants have improved in the United States; however, about 160 million tons of air pollution were released into the air in 2002, and approximately 146 million people in the United States lived in counties that did not meet EPA standards.
Fifty-seven percent of Whites, 65 percent of African Americans, and 80 percent of Hispanics live in counties that failed to meet at least one of the EPA’s outdoor air quality standards.
Over 86 percent of African Americans, 91.2 percent of Hispanics and 70.3 percent of Whites live in urban settings, which are typically at higher risk for air pollution.
One study found that Hispanics are more than twice as likely as either African Americans or Whites to live in areas with high levels of particulate matter. Thirty-four percent of Hispanics, 16.5 percent of African Americans, and 14.7 percent of Whites live in such areas.

Pollution Exposure

Exposure to indoor or outdoor air pollution can pose a wide range of health risks for many populations. Those that are most vulnerable include children, the elderly and people with chronic lungdisease. For example, people who suffer from asthma experience periodic attacks of breathing difficulty and lung inflammation, often in response to environmental irritants.
Culturally diverse communities…are more often affected by debates over environmental health and government efforts to improve it. For example, asthma occurs disproportionately among low-income and urban communities, especially in inner-city African American and Hispanic populations. Therefore, controlling outdoor and indoor exposures is an important protective measure, especially for these groups.
People of color were found to be more likely to live near industrial sources of air pollution in two recent separate investigations looking at 1990 data on toxic air pollutants.
A report found that three of the five largest hazardous waste landfills in the United States are in African-American or Hispanic neighborhoods.

For more on the impacts of pollution on health in communities, see the American Lung Association, “Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities: 2005”
http://www.lungusa2.org/embargo/lddcdc/LDD.pdf