A very brief look about the largest inequality in American society: class
By CALEB SILVER —chsilver@ucdavis.edu
On Election Day 2024, it was quickly apparent that Donald Trump would be our 47th president. Right away, like hearing a friend tell a story they’ve already told, many liberals began to scramble with questions and condemnations. “Republicans are to blame.” “Kamala is to blame.” “Joe Biden is to blame.” “Obama is to blame.”
Though our collective culprit is not clear, Trump won — both the popular vote and the electoral college. We chose him to be our leader, our president. And, if we drop the voracious scapegoating for a minute, we could see that American voters have told us why they voted for him for the second time since 2016: “The economy.”
Of course, asking any expert about how the economy is fairing under Biden, they’ll tell you that, if this was truly a marker of concern, Harris would be handing a bible in a couple months, or perhaps an 83-year-old Biden would be grinning from ear to ear in a new presidential portrait. What I believe is meant by a perceived issue with the economy is the real issue of unaffordability — the unaffordability of everything. Despite all of the progress everyone tells you we have made within the realm of equity (which, perhaps, isn’t as great as everyone champions), the wealth gap in this country is larger than ever, making everything from groceries to technology unaffordable for most people.
Maybe you’ll take me at my word that the wealth gap is insurmountable, but, even so, I’d like to paint you a picture. For one, CEO of Tesla, X, formerly known as Twitter, owner and right-wing egoist Elon Musk is currently worth over $332 billion. It would be impossible for any American worker, even one making a salary above the $64,000 average, to make that in 10 lifetimes. Given the disastrous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) court case, which asserted that money is a part of free speech, Musk currently possesses more free speech than anyone else in America. However, it isn’t just Musk; The top 1% of Americans hold 15 times more wealth ($34.2 trillion) than the bottom 50% combined ($2.1 trillion).
Therein lies America’s largest problem, which is much more vast and complex than this article has room for. Neither Harris nor Trump can fix it on their own. In fact, Trump’s plan is to reduce the corporate tax rate from 21% to 18%, channeling Reagan-era levels of ridiculousness. This would follow Trump’s 2017 tax cut plan, which gave preposterous discounts to corporations and handouts to the ultra-elite.
Ironically, for a country that is so against the idea of welfare, we give a lot of it to large corporations and banks that lobby and befriend our politicians. In the eyes of many conservative politicians, fundamental aspects of public national social security and healthcare are perceived as unnecessary and unfavorable when it’s for the majority of the nation, but necessary and “American” when it comes to billion-dollar multinational corporations.
Democracy is not going to collapse in one day — it is going to erode over time, as it has been in recent years. America’s erosion is oligarchic. We are feeling the corporate consolidation of Reagan’s presidency today, and we will feel Trump’s now and perhaps in even greater force in 20 years.
When the ultra-wealthy (which can mean both people and companies, since they are practically the same) have everything and can do anything, things are naturally harder for the average citizen. And, when things are this hard and this unaffordable, we all look for one person to save us, even if it isn’t possible. Like it or not, Trump campaigned on change, he campaigned on making the unaffordable affordable and he did so through hate — which proved to be very effective.
However, the reality is that his presidency, like last time, is not going to deregulate corporations — it’s going to do the opposite. If we want our economy and our society to ever progress, we need to convince America that universal healthcare, an increase in taxes on the wealthy and a modern day trust-busting are the steps forward. Because America works in the ugly way that it does, it seems that what we need most is a figurehead to convince us of the virtues and necessities of progressive policy and economic populism.
Written by: Caleb Silver — chsilver@ucdavis.edu
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