In a Presidential Election, It’s Best to Ask Questions Early

When I worked in the banking business, they used to tell us that if you had any questions, at all, about how to do your job, it was always better to ask those questions early in the process. An intelligent worker, they always said, really should want to gather as much information as he /she can in order to do their job effectively. And so, early on, there was "no such thing as a dumb question.” On the other hand, they warned, you couldn’t ask those same, basic questions two or three years later, after having operated in ignorance, over an extended period of time. That clearly marked you as a person who didn’t have enough courage, good, common sense and management potential to work in their company.

The people who were afraid to ask questions early, about things they truly didn’t understand, usually wound up getting fired, or having the very worst and the lowest-paid assignments in the corporation.

That was a good lesson and I’ve tried to remember that, and to apply it, in every thing I’ve ever done since that time.

That being said, I’ve got a few questions for Senator McCain and for Senator Obama. I figure that if I ask them now, I’ll be operating in an informed way. If I don’t, I’ll be operating out of ignorance, between now and Election Day, on November 4.

The first question is why neither of the presidential candidates ever talk to, or talk about, low-income people? Why don’t we see low-income people and members of the "working poor," estimated at one in four American families, in campaign commercials? Why do newspapers and TV stations so rarely interview low-income and "working poor" people about anything, including which candidates they prefer and which issues are important to them?

Here’s another thing…as early as 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's lacked a college education, and more than half of black men did not finish high school. In that same year, 72 percent of black, male high school drop-outs in their 20's were jobless, as compared to 34 percent of whites and 19 percent of Hispanics. When we realize that the average state prison inmate has less than 11 years of education, it is clear that there is a direct connection between poor education, joblessness, and crime. Where do the two presidential candidates stand on the need of breaking that cycle – especially as related to the special need to do so in the black community?

According to a 2005 report by the International Center for Prison Studies, in London, the U.S, with five percent of the world’s population, houses 25 percent of the world’s prison inmates. The report goes on to indicate out that the U.S. incarceration rate is 6.2 times greater than Canada’s, 7.8 times greater than France’s and 12.3 times greater than Japan’s.

It’s also important to note that about two-thirds of our prison inmates have been incarcerated for non-violent and drug-related crimes. Where do the candidates stand on finally having an effective deterrent to drug trafficking into this country? Such an effort would certainly make life easier for those living in our large cities. You don’t hear that question being asked of the candidates. Why not?

Here’s something else…according to the National Women’s Law Center, 15 million women live in poverty in the U.S. and poverty rates are especially high among women of color, older women and single mothers. What do the candidates have in their plans to correct these race-based, economic disparities?

Here’s another thing…black-owned businesses earned $89 billion in sales as of the last economic census. Does it still make sense that, even though blacks represent about 13 percent of the country’s population and own about five percent of the country’s businesses, that their firms generate only .4 percent, (less than half of one percent) of the country’s overall gross receipts?

Oops… maybe that’s a question we should also be asking ourselves. How can we still brag about having a black annual spending power estimated at $854 billion, while our own businesses take in just $89 billion per year?

That doesn’t add up. Why haven’t we learned yet to support our own businesses? Even if black consumers began to spend just one additional dime out of every dollar they spend, from now on, with a black-owned business, we could almost double the gross sales at the country’s black-owned firms.

And, since those businesses already employ about 754,000 primarily black people, not including the owners, at their current sales levels, it is reasonable to believe that we would also increase black employment by about 750,000 persons, in the process.

Here’s a final question…since when do our presidential candidates try to convince us that they’ve had a hard life because they have successfully moved up from a “middle class background” to become millionaires? What ever happened to the old-fashioned "American Dream" of starting out with virtually nothing and moving up to become successful? Apparently, that no longer applies. When they talk about being able to “relate” to the "middle class" and creating a government that will support the "middle class," are they talking about us? In fact, how do people become middle class, anyway?

It’s been interesting to see that the average black family's net worth comes in at approximately $6,000 dollars, while the average white family's net worth stands at about $88,000, according to census data. Not surprisingly, given the low family net worth of blacks, 28 percent of white families received inheritances to help launch them into the middle class, as compared to 7.7 percent of black families. And, even when blacks do receive inheritances, they receive about eight cents of inheritance for every dollar inherited by whites. In addition, at least one half of blacks who do receive inheritances, receive less than $1,000.

To put all of this into political perspective, it’s important to note the long-standing data on “voting patterns by education,” that reveals that 80 percent of college-educated adults vote, and 59 percent of high school graduates vote, and that only 43 percent of those without a high school diplomas vote. And, if it’s true that one major definition of middle-class status is having a college degree, then I’m sure that the smart people who run presidential campaigns know that about 30 percent of non-Hispanic whites are college graduates, as compared with just 17 percent of blacks.

So, when we hear the candidates talk about being committed to the “middle class,” are they including us in that commitment, or is the term just a euphemism for white voters? It would seem that these are just a few of the things that we should be asking the presidential candidates between now and Election Day.

I had hoped that Senator Obama might have answered several of these questions during his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination, but, of course, he absolutely did not.

As they taught me back in the banking business, it is much better to ask these kinds of questions early, than to continue to operate in ignorance and “hope” things will work out for us in the end.



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