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From the President's Desk May 2008 Why You Aren't Making More Money by Russell Wild "'They're paying us no more now than they were back in 1999—even less!"' is a refrain heard time and time again in the publishing industry—especially among writers, and doubly among freelance writers. We grope for explanations. We grope for solutions. We just grope. But we don't grope alone. According to the most recent Census Bureau data, real (post-inflation) median household income has fallen by 2 percent over the past six years. This is despite impressive growth overall in both Gross Domestic Product and worker productivity, and despite the fact that many Americans—such as many ASJA members—are working longer and harder than ever before. According to numerous and varied studies, each upward blip in productivity, and any additional wealth earned by our society, is now going entirely into the pockets of the already super rich. What does that mean in terms of ASJA and writers' best strategies for getting ahead economically? I'm not entirely sure, but part of the answer to any problem is to first understand the problem. Our problem is not limited, as many writers may think, to weaknesses in the publishing industry, lack of collective bargaining power among freelancers or cheapskate editors. People of all sorts are not making what they once were. And those same people, who belong to many different groups—social, ethnic and professional—often, like us, feel isolated. They may think that they alone are being victimized, point fingers at those adjacent to them or right above them on the economic pecking order and fail to notice the much larger social picture. Those who do notice the growing inequality of income and wealth in America are often hesitant to say anything about it, for fear perhaps of being red-baited. (See tagline, below.) The root causes of income and wealth inequality are not all political, and perhaps neither are the solutions. But politics—taxation, in particular—can certainly play a pivotal role in either setting things right or making matters worse. Is it fair, for example, that you have to pay 15.3 percent of your net income to self-employment taxes, yet the corporate executive or the hedge fund manager who makes $10 million a year pays only a tiny fraction of one percent of his net income to payroll tax? (Reason: Payroll tax is levied against only the first $97,000 of income. ) With the national elections upcoming, I provide this as food for thought—and possible action. Individual action is one possibility—you can vote for a candidate who promises to address this inequality. Another possibility is collective action. Should ASJA take on such issues as fair taxation of the self-employed? Should that be part of our organization's mission? We must make that decision together. To help sound out the membership, and seek out which issues ASJA should take official positions on, effective this month, we have a new "'Advocacy Coordinator. "' She is Salley Shannon, who also happens to be our vice president. Please feel free to contact either Salley or me or any other member of the Board of Directors if you have any opinions on the matter. Meanwhile, on a completely different political front, ASJA elections are around the corner. During the first or second week of May, you'll receive your ballot to vote for officers to the Board of Directors. Please don't forget to cast your vote. It will be a good warm-up for the national elections in November. ASJA President Russell Wild is not now, nor has ever been a member of the Communist Party. The pinko views expressed in this column are his alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASJA. He can be reached at Prez at asja.org. Salley Shannon, mentioned in this article, can be reached at vp at asja.org.
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