Create A Diversion

A recent study provides a stark picture of what Neo-liberalism has cost Americans. Robert Reich writes:

According to a recent Rand study, if America's distribution of income had remained the same as it was in the three decades following World War II, the bottom 90 percent would now be $47 trillion richer.

A low-income American earning $35,000 this year would be earning $61,000. A college-educated worker now earning $72,000 would be earning $120,000. Overall, the grotesque surge in inequality that began 40 years ago is costing the median American worker $42,000 per year.

The upward redistribution of $47 trillion wasn't due to natural forces. It was contrived. As wealth accumulated at the top, so did political power to siphon off even more wealth and shaft everyone else.

Monopolies expanded because antitrust laws were neutered. Labor unions shriveled because corporations were allowed to bust unions. Wall Street was permitted to gamble with other peoples' money and was bailed out when its bets soured even as millions lost their homes and savings. Taxes on the top were cut, tax loopholes widened.

When COVID-19 hit, Big Tech cornered the market, the rich traded on inside information and the Treasury and the Fed bailed out big corporations but let small businesses go under. Since March, billionaire wealth has soared, while most Americans have become poorer.

How could the oligarchy get away with this in a democracy where the bottom 90 percent have the votes? Because the bottom 90 percent are bitterly divided.

That in, a nutshell, is what these last forty years have been about. Set the vast majority at each other's throats, then rob the bank. If you want to rob a bank, you have to create a diversion.

Image: pymnts.com