I guess we can’t all be Arthur’s because statistically, less affluent Americans stand only a 4 percent chance of becoming part of the upper middle class. That’s a number that is lower than in almost every other industrialized nation. Did you know that only in México and Turkey does someone born poor stand less of a chance of escaping poverty than in the United States?…good thing Turkey isn’t where Canada is, isn’t it? And if we could actually swop places with Canada on the map, we wouldn’t have to worry about illegal immigration anymore. How’s that for a happy thought?
But sadly, I still meet so many working class people who believe that it is the fault of the 150 million for dragging everyone else down, as though half of the country’s population gets up every morning and lays down again for a refreshing day of welfare and handouts while the 400 who have been soaking up America’s assets like giant self absorbent money sponges are simply hardworking, entrepreneurial, god-graced souls who are trying to help everyone else as best as they can, by acquiring all of the money so they can then trickle it all over us… And while it is true that One in eight American adults and one in four children now survive on government food stamps aren’t those unbelievable numbers for what is still, despite the lack of our social mobility, the world’s richest nation?
…. As Warren Buffett, the second richest man in America, said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
In 1980, 30 percent of the profits the country produced went to the richest 1 percent of American society. Today it’s almost 60 percent, while the other 99% of Americans have consumer debt that now totals about $13.5 trillion!
Personally, I believe that we who are among the working classes in America do not need to worry about stock piling our guns in order to be ready to fight off an ever growing and all encompassing socialistic government who will want to take all of our hard earned goods and money so as to distribute it amongst the poor, hungry, downtrodden, lazy, and illegally “alien” masses.
What we need to worry about is that if this trend continues and the rich continue to get richer while the poor…you know… wonder if they should begin emigrating to Mexico and Turkey… then perhaps someday soon the new American Billionaire Arthurs and their few friends will decide to take their 99% share of America’s wealth and do what the rich always like to do when their surroundings get too crowded, too dirty, too smelly too old or too “passé” for their gentile likings…
take the money and move elsewhere!
That’s what I am beginning to worry about, and…
That’s when we’ll most likely need our guns… to go hunting…for food.
I don’t think that there will be any fundamental changes until it is no longer unacceptable, unpatriotic, or whatever un- you wish to use to say the following:
All things considered, the United States of America is a bad place to live. Sure, you can buy most anything you like and you will most likely be allowed to have a credit card to finance that. But that is all that you will have, the freedom to buy. A country cannot claim to be the best country in the world when the disparity between those at the top and those at the bottom are this great and for the reasons that they are this great, where the enrichment of its citizens is in no real way a priority. People who are in positions of power to affect a change to this either cave to political pressure or are blocked from action by those quite comfortable with their position relative to the citizenry.
Only by realising and accepting just how bad one’s position is can things truly change. If the fullness of this reality is not accepted there is a very serious risk of relapsing, of making the same or similar mistakes again. This is the reality of life in the United States of America. To believe otherwise is to think a bit too positively to help matters.
Excellent post. And excellent comment, Voice. Alas. And especially Alas that it is indeed considered unpatriotic to point these truths out (while it’s evidently NOT unpatriotic to, say, threaten the life of the President or talk about overthrowing the government). Everything is drowned out in the chant of Exceptionalism, “We’re Number One, Uh! Uh! Uh!” Some exceptionalism, hanging out with Mexico and Turkey…. (I have a friend from Turkey, but she didn’t have to rise to the position she’s in!)
You stated:
“But sadly, I still meet so many working class people who believe that it is the fault of the 150 million for dragging everyone else down, as though half of the country’s population gets up every morning and lays down again for a refreshing day of welfare and handouts while the 400 who have been soaking up America’s assets like giant self absorbent money sponges are simply hardworking, entrepreneurial, god-graced souls who are trying to help everyone else as best as they can, by acquiring all of the money so they can then trickle it all over us… ”
I think this comes down to libertarian and Ayn Rand notions that equate morality with wealth. Many have swallowed the idea that the wealthy create jobs and make it possible for the rest of us to survive. They have encouraged this idea that those who are wealthy are moral simply because they are wealthy.
Though to be fair this is not what Ayn Rand nor libertarian philosophy actually espouse. Yes Rand connects capitalism and morality. But she didn’t believe that universally all who were wealthy were moral. Actually in her books there are many very wealthy and powerful characters which are completely immoral. But people don’t pay attention to what is really said, rather they interpret it based on what others say about it.