Our Observation

The word “redistribution” has rarely been seen in such shining light as it is at this moment. That word had morphed into a euphemism of fear over the course of the last three decades or so. Regardless of whom you say that word to, they almost invariably fear that it means less money for them and more money for somebody else.

But a funny thing has happened to how we define that word, at least in the past few weeks, as the mass outcry about America’s wealth and income disparity has grown louder. More and more people have started to realize that redistribution isn’t some harbinger of a dystopian future where the average family loses all its money to greedy homeless people living off government cheese.

Redistribution isn’t some hobo-enriching peril to be prevented. It’s already happened. And it’s flowing in the opposite direction than where many at the top of America’s economic food chain would lead us to believe.

It’s why a story Tuesday morning in the Orlando Sentinel about $5 bank fees disappearing wasn’t just on the front page; it was the banner headline. Those checking and debit card fees had been put in place by many of America’s largest banks beginning five months ago, highlighting just how broad the gap between their economic fantasy and our reality really was. The banks, already making massive profits, wanted even more money. American consumers, still struggling to make ends meet in the wake of the Great Recession, had nothing left to give.

According to the economic books, our recession ended in July 2009. The word “recovery” began to pervade the headlines. The banks quickly resumed raking in billions again.

But a year and a half later, most Americans are still waiting for the real recession to end, as official unemployment figures continue to hover around 10 percent, with unofficial estimates as high as 18 percent.

Before American consumers could get new jobs and get back on their feet again, banks hit them while they were down, instituting new fees while they were already making huge profits. SunTrust, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America all jumped into the feeding frenzy. In Bank of America’s case, the new fee announcement came just days after it reported a record $4 billion quarterly profit.

The outcry was huge. Videos of protestors organizing and entering banks to close their accounts en masse soon hit the major networks. Bank Transfer Day — Saturday, Nov. 5 — was (and still is) set to see hordes of customers closing their bank accounts and taking their money to non-profit credit unions.

Suddenly the banks were scrambling to cancel the fees and refund money to their customers before they withdrew all their deposits.

That’s a big win for the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began protesting America’s record income disparity and greedy banks — among other things — nearly two months ago. That movement has continued to grow, spawning new movements such as the aforementioned Bank Transfer Day. And with that growth, so has public support of Occupy Wall Street’s message.

According to a joint New York Times/CBS News poll released last week, two out of three Americans now believe the nation’s wealth should be more evenly distributed. More than half of Republicans, in a sudden break with a long history of championing tax cuts, now believe that the rich should be taxed more.

Maybe that’s a response to the growing feeling that America’s longstanding narrative of going from rags to riches through hard work has been replaced with the grim reality of an economic and political system that stacks the odds massively in favor of those who are already rich.

But there’s a limit to that excess, and we may have just reached a breaking point. Just as wealthy banks were deciding that we should pay more, American consumers said it’s time for some payback.