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It’s onerous to overlook.
Our nation is quickly evolving into two Americas.
One America consists of lower than a thousand billionaires who’ve an unprecedented quantity of wealth and energy and have by no means ever had it so good.
President-elect Trump and Elon Musk (Getty Photos)
The opposite America, the place the overwhelming majority reside, consists of tens of thousands and thousands of households who’re struggling to place meals on the desk, pay their payments and fear that their youngsters can have a decrease lifestyle than they do.
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Within the first America, the uber-wealthy purchase $500 million yachts with helicopter pads, $270 million mansions with 30 bedrooms, non-public islands, a fleet of jets to take them all around the world and rocket ships that blast off to the sting of outer-space. They obtain one of the best well being care cash should buy, ship their youngsters to one of the best faculties and may count on to reside very lengthy lives.
On this America, the three wealthiest males (Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg) personal extra wealth than the underside half of our society – over 165 million individuals. And their wealth is skyrocketing. Musk, alone, is now value over $450 billion and, mixed, these three males are value $955 billion.
And it isn’t simply these three males. The highest 1% now personal extra wealth than the underside 90% – and the hole between the very wealthy and everybody else is rising wider on daily basis.
Within the different America, the working class struggles simply to supply for the essential requirements of life. On this America, over 60% of our individuals reside paycheck to paycheck, thousands and thousands work for hunger wages, 85 million are uninsured or underinsured, greater than 20 million households spend over half of their restricted incomes on rent or a mortgage and over 60,000 die annually as a result of they’ll’t afford to go to a health care provider on time.
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On this America, 25% of our seniors attempt to survive on lower than $15,000 a yr and fogeys attempt to increase their youngsters in a nation that has the very best price of childhood poverty of just about any main nation on earth. And, due to stress and insufficient well being care, working individuals reside far shorter lives than the wealthy.
On this America, staff are scared to dying that in case your automobile breaks down, in case your child will get sick, in case your landlord raises the lease, in the event you get divorced, in the event you turn out to be pregnant, if for no matter cause you lose your job, one can find your self within the midst of a monetary disaster.
However let’s be clear. Our nation is not only experiencing an unprecedented stage of earnings and wealth inequality. At present, we even have extra focus of possession than we’ve ever had.
In sector after sector – well being care, agriculture, monetary providers, power, transportation – a handful of large firms management what’s produced and the way a lot we, as customers, pay for their merchandise. Unbelievably, simply three Wall Avenue companies (BlackRock, Vanguard and State Avenue) management property of greater than $22 trillion. These three Wall Avenue companies are the main shareholders in about 95% of S&P 500 corporations, exerting monumental management over the biggest firms on the planet.
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And that’s not all.
By no means earlier than in American historical past have so few media conglomerates, all owned by the billionaire class, had a lot affect over the general public. It’s estimated that six large media firms now personal 90% of what the American individuals see, hear and skim. This handful of firms determines what’s “essential” and what we talk about, and what’s “unimportant” and what we ignore.
In the event you use a social media account to get your information, likelihood is it’s owned by billionaires Musk, Zuckerberg or Trump. In the event you learn the Washington Submit, Fox or the Los Angeles Occasions, your information is owned by billionaires Bezos, Murdoch or Patrick Quickly-Shiong.
But it surely’s not simply the billionaire possession and management over the economic system and the media that ought to concern us. The uber-rich are additionally shopping for our authorities and undermining American democracy.
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By no means earlier than in American historical past have we seen a ruling class with a lot political energy. On account of the disastrous Residents United Supreme Court decision, billionaires and their super-PACs can spend limitless sums of cash on political campaigns.
And that’s precisely what they’re doing. Through the 2024 election cycle, simply 150 billionaires spent almost $2 billion to purchase politicians who assist their agenda and to defeat candidates who oppose their particular pursuits. Billionaires who signify simply .0005% of our inhabitants accounted for 18% of complete marketing campaign spending.
That’s not democracy. That’s not one particular person, one vote. That’s not what this nation is meant to face for. In his Gettysburg Address in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke about “a authorities of the individuals, by the individuals, for the individuals.” Nicely, right this moment, we’ve a authorities of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class, for the billionaire class.”
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We’re in a pivotal and unprecedented second in American historical past. Both we battle to create a authorities and an economic system that works for all, or we proceed to maneuver quickly down the trail of oligarchy and the rule of the super-rich.
The selection is obvious. We should stand collectively for democracy and justice.
