THE PROBLEM
THE PROBLEM
If it feels like it’s been getting harder every year for ordinary people to get by, that’s because it has.
The economy might be growing, but almost all of its benefits have been going to the people at the very top. The rich get richer, and the rest of the country struggles to stay above water.
The economy might be growing, but almost all of its benefits have been going to the people at the very top. The rich get richer, and the rest of the country struggles to stay above water.
Things weren’t always this bad. American workers, investors, and business leaders all used to benefit together when businesses did well and the economy thrived. But as Americans worked harder and the economy grew, working people stopped getting their fair share and the richest among us made out like bandits. They did it with the help of expensive lobbyists and enabling politicians and they destabilized the entire country in the process.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Now, the top 1 percent takes home almost 25 percent of the country’s income, inequality is at a 100-year high, and 40% of Americans can’t afford a surprise $400 expense. There is no place in the United States where the minimum wage is equal to the cost of living. Not one.
It’s a vicious cycle. As the rich get richer, they have more money to funnel into politics to rig the system even more in their favor, which in turn makes them richer. When a handful of individuals have impossibly large fortunes, it gives them too much private and public (i.e. political) power. At the drop of a hat, they can buy up an entire social media platform and run it to the ground. They can single handedly change the course of an entire war. They can emit untold amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere and drive climate change through the roof. And they can bankroll elections and have an outsized say over who gets to run for office, who wins elections, and then what officials ultimately do once they’re in office.
WHERE THAT LEAVES US