Morning Thanks--J. C. Huizenga and the Giveaway

According to the Pew Research Center, income disparity in this country has now reached levels approximate with what it was in 1928, a year whose mere mention brings shivers--or should. I'm still too much a Republican to say it, but my wife is far less hesitant: in America, it seems the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Sound like pinko populism? Tell you what--look at the lines here. Read 'em and weep. 

Dorsey Shaw, of Buzzfeed, put together this little gif based on the research of Emmanuel Saez, of UC-Berkeley, who's been watching the difference between rich and poor in this country for years, the go-to guy on income disparity. That Rocky Mountain High green line plots the incomes of America's richest one percent. It's skyrocketing.

The stats are really daunting--income, for instance. How about this: a remarkable 22% of income earned in 2012 went to the top one percent of Americans, a percentage that has doubled since 1980. Seriously. (To some of us, 1980 doesn't seem so long ago.)

Wealth, which is income that is accumulated, rose even more obscenely among America's richest families--ten percent more. If you don't think that's a problem, observe American politics, left and right, where political parties are relative paupers when compared to the feast of cash now legally available in unheard of dimensions from a few fat cats. Candidates from both parties kiss up to the uber-rich for handouts without which they stand no chance of winning elections. The guy who landed his little one-man plane on the White House lawn last week may have been nutty, but he was right--we've got an immense problem.

Interestingly, it's a problem only a few of us recognize. Research indicates that the American public doesn't know this kind of disparity exists--either that or they don't want to know. Honestly, if they did, the country could be in much, much worse shape--as it always is inhistory when so much power is in so few fists.  Want a real apocalyptic scenario: watch income disparity grow into class warfare.

Amidst all of that, here's a "man bites dog" story, or so it seems to me. A man with whom I share only initials and an ethnic heritage, J. C. Huizenga, from Holland, Michigan, recently sold two of his companies, businesses that create and produce specialized technologies. According to CBS news, Mr. Huizenga decided to share the wealth and simply doled out six million in profits to his work force.

Tell you what--let me put that in numbers you can see. Feast your eyes on this: J. C. Huizenga sold two companies, then gave away $6,000,000 to 575 workers in chunks that varied from $500 for his recently hired employees, to $50,000 to those with real seniority. (It might be helpful to read that paragraph again.)

"We didn't do it to inspire anyone, we did it to do the right thing for our employees," Huizenga told reporters. "Our employees are amazing people." And then, "That's really what a company is--not a collection of assets, it's a team of people."

Once upon a time, right here where I live, white people banned a backward American Indian religious ritual, "the Giveaway," a pagan rite Native people were forced to quit to become American, a practice not as bloody as the Sun Dance but just as backward.

What white people didn't really understand is that Giveaways somehow determined character. Tribal leaders were created by their largesse, their giving, their selflessness. We made the practice illegal because the savages had to become American.

This morning, I'm thankful for some man named J. C. Huizenga, and more than a little proud that he's Dutch-American, from Holland, MI. Just for the record, I didn't get a dime out of his profit-sharing, but I'm thankful for his Giveaway because his graciousness is a blessing for all of us.