A Government For The Rich
Dwindling savings, rising costs, and a slowing job market – life is difficult for the middle and working classes in America, and it is getting harder. 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money than they are of dying. Consider how much someone must be struggling to feel that way.
Fewer than half of Americans have enough savings to cover three months’ worth of expenses, the bare minimum recommended to support yourself if you lose your job. This is at a time when layoffs surged to their highest levels since the start of the pandemic, with one million Americans being let go this year.
Those who have jobs are unwilling to take a chance on starting somewhere new, and companies are reluctant to hire due to the ongoing impacts of AI, the market effects from tariffs, and the chaos of the federal government, including newly threatened mass layoffs.
Uncertainty paralyzes everyone.
There are more unemployed people in America than there are job openings. Construction and Manufacturing are in a recession. Consumer sentiment is back to pandemic lows. Despite this, consumer spending grew last quarter. How? The wealthy are buying luxury items.
Over half of consumer spending is being done by the wealthiest 20% of Americans. The reason they aren’t feeling as squeezed as the middle class is that their income is driven more by capital gains than by a salary. Stock markets are at record highs, and housing values have risen dramatically over the past several years. That is also why the top 10% now hold 60% of the entire US wealth, and the wealthiest 400 Americans have more money than the bottom 64% of the population combined.
This didn’t happen overnight. Decades of federal policies have led to the transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top and the erosion of the middle class. The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have worsened the situation.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” is only beautiful for the rich, who once again reap significant tax breaks, resulting in substantial wealth gains. Money is being taken from the poorest Americans through cuts to assistance and healthcare programs.
Using the typical false rhetoric, Republicans claim that this is all to reduce the deficit by forcing able-bodied Americans to work in order to receive these benefits. The problem is that recipients who can work largely do work, but they aren’t paid livable wages. Something Congress could address by raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in 16 years. Instead, it languishes as a poverty wage in every state.
Additionally, premium subsidies for individuals enrolling in healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, which were enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan in 2021, are set to expire at the end of this year. Those who benefit from them still desperately need them, but Republicans are saying they’d rather let the government shut down in a couple of days instead of extending those subsidies.
They say we have no money for healthcare, only to turn around and give Argentina a $20 billion bailout for its self-created economic problems. Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, is a strong supporter and ally of Trump, but the reason for the bailout goes beyond that: US corporations and wealthy Americans have invested heavily in Argentina. Argentina’s stock market has collapsed and is the worst in the world this year. Bailing out Argentina bails out wealthy Americans once again.
Meanwhile, anyone struggling in America is told to go gain the skills necessary to land a better job. The problem is that, in addition to being burdened by student debt, recent college graduates are the ones standing in line at the unemployment office, with an unemployment rate 20% higher than the national average.
Republicans were quick to eliminate pauses on student loan payments and loan forgiveness programs when they took power, and the Trump administration attempted to eliminate the Job Corps, a federal education and job training program for young Americans from low-income backgrounds, aimed at helping them enter the workforce. The program’s fate is uncertain and rests in the hands of the courts.
America’s problems continue to go unaddressed while the rich get richer and the debt continues to soar. Having an economy that is barely inching forward, due only to spending by the wealthy, is a disaster waiting to happen. A downturn in the stock market is all it would take to stop their spending, sending the nation into a recession.
Instead of introducing legislation to eliminate taxes on the sales of multi-million dollar homes, Republicans should be doing everything they can to help average Americans buy their first home.
Instead of bailing out foreign nations and enacting tariffs as a tax on the American people, we should be investing in American manufacturing and emerging technologies.
Instead of ending federal job training programs, they should be expanded to help those whose careers are becoming obsolete transition into new ones. This would also address the lack of skilled workers that leaves jobs unfilled and foreign worker visas in high demand.
The solution is, and has been for the past 50+ years, to take a bottom-up approach. Ensure that the poorest Americans have access to livable wages and opportunities for advancement. The middle class should be able to support a family and buy a house on a single income. And everyone should be able to retire with dignity.
A government focused solely on the rich is one headed toward disaster.
https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-report/
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/08/stock-market-us-economy-rich-poor
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/12/home-equity.html
The article makes perfect sense. Which is why neither party - save Bernie, AOC and a few others - will do anything. The Overton window has shifted heavily rightward. Democratic approval is at an historic low; they should be able to figure out why but they don't want to rock the boat. The Democrats have stopped getting donations from me. And that should worry them.