Is Donald Trump the Voice of the American Dream or a Larger Wealth Gap?

 

Is Donald Trump the Voice of the American Dream or a Larger Wealth Gap?

We’re staring the potential of a bevy of trillionaires in the foreseeable future. There is no historical measurement, adjusted for inflation, that has reflected a wider wealth and income inequality gap than current realities and most certainly not as the trillionaire class arrives on station. Even as there are increases in wealth and earnings in the middle- and lower-income strata – the mega-rich always point that out – the inflation corrected disparity between those at the top and the rest has never been wider. We’re talking about wealth that once could only be found with monarchs and long-standing dictators, now routinely enjoyed by a new class of billionaires. Many of these oligarchs possess more wealth than a large swath of individual countries.

But it’s not just individuals that hoard these income and wealth advantages, there are regions (mostly very large and productive cities) that are able constantly to build on their unfair advantage. Their children’s education is built upon hundreds of years of sequential advantage. The family milieu for these scions of the mega-wealthy has provided cultural and travel exposure not available to most of us. The skyscrapers, museums, parks, zoos, theaters, universities, cultural programs and subsidized edutainment are not available in other cities, or not at this level. Laws of inheritance and control of family wealth have assured the mega-wealthy of an ability to perpetuate their economic dominance for generations to come.

It is in this morass that the American dream has died, with a majority of Americans voting to ensure that the dream never returns. The January 22nd Newsweek provides this analysis: “Billionaire wealth surged by $2 trillion in 2024—equivalent to $5.7 billion per day—as global inequality reached unprecedented levels, Oxfam International reported [1/20]… The report forecasts that at least five trillionaires could emerge over the next decade.

“The annual Davos meeting, [which ran in late January], brings together approximately 3,000 participants, including CEOs, government leaders, and academics… Oxfam's analysis, based on Forbes' Real-Time Billionaire List and World Bank data, paints a stark picture of a deepened divide. It notes that billionaire wealth expanded three times faster in 2024 than in the previous year, while the number of people living in poverty has remained stagnant since 1990.

“The global billionaire count increased by 204 to 2,769 in 2024. Nearly $100 million per day was amassed by the world's 10 wealthiest people. Low- and middle-income nations are spending half their budgets on debt repayment… ‘It's not about one specific individual. It's the economic system that we have created where the billionaires are now pretty much being able to shape economic policies, social policies, which eventually gives them more and more profit,’ Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar said. ‘Billionaires are shaping policies that benefit themselves, further entrenching inequality.’”

With this coterie of oligarchs, Trump truly believes that there is nothing to stop him from reimagining the United States. He has already raged against the simplest rejection of his efforts to amend the Constitution by executive fiat (erasing the provisions of the 14th Amendment granting unqualified citizenship to anyone born here). He wants so much more.

For most of us, the United States that exists today seems to have gone way off the equality rails some time ago. And it just might be too late to right the ship… the autocrats are now well-entrenched. Is this anomaly reversible? Not if this is perceived as “creeping socialism” or that cutting taxes for the rich keeps being repeated as the job creator… falsely. The numbers seem to have been locked in for quite some time. Facts? The wealth maps have changed profoundly, as Tom Kemeny, associate professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, writes in the January 17th FastCompany.com (also published in The Conversation): “The wealthiest cities in the U.S. are almost seven times richer than the poorest regions, a disparity that has nearly doubled since 1960…

“One need only glance at headlines about Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and other super-wealthy individuals to understand that wealth in America is increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Inequality is sharply on the rise… Until now, however, little has been known about where the richest households are located, which cities are the most unequal and how these trends have evolved… Using GEOWEALTH-US, we show that the wealth distribution across the U.S. has transformed since 1960. Inequality between the nation’s flourishing urban centers and other areas of the country, especially in parts of the South and Midwest, is higher than it has ever been over the previous 60 years.

“The expansion of wealth inequality is a challenge to the American Dream: the notion that with hard work, opportunity and prosperity are accessible to all… The map for 2022 reveals major disparities in typical (median) net worth across communities. Many of the least wealthy locations are in poor neighborhoods in some of America’s biggest cities—for instance, parts of the Bronx and East Harlem in New York, and areas of Houston and Milwaukee. A typical household in the five poorest communities had assets worth about $18,000. Many households in these locations held more debt than assets. Other wealth-poor areas of the country included parts of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

“The wealthiest communities today tend to be found in urban coastal areas… Palo Alto, California, and Nassau County, New York, are two of the nation’s five wealthiest places. The top five areas had median household net worth of nearly $1.7 million. That’s almost 90 times wealthier than the poorest five places.

“These wealth divides help explain why, between 2019 and 2021, according to the school finance indicators database, the Palo Alto Unified School District in California spent about $7,000 more per student than the minimum required to achieve national benchmark test scores. Meanwhile, the East Baton Rouge school district spent almost $4,000 less per student than is required to meet those same national standards. Cincinnati Public Schools underspent by more than $9,000 per pupil.” In short, that maxim “the rich get richer” is an understatement of alarming proportions.

Still, by controlling media and catering to religious extremists, MAGA has managed to hide the wealth of its masters under the deflective fog of the culture wars. The obvious economic discontent represented by MAGA voters, fueled by pervasive messaging by the mega-rich (enabled by the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs FEC), has been blamed on fellow economic victims to the delight of the absurdly wealthy class.

And yes, they are coming for your Social Security, Medicare and cutting educational support… because the very deficit they are causing by attempting to reduce taxes… is no longer sustainable. They want those with low and modest income to contribute to the rich. And even though the underlying funding assumption for Social Security and Medicare – a small body of retirees supported by a much larger body of younger workers – has not been true for generations, the obvious funding source (taxes on the rich) is unacceptable to the new oligarchs.

I’m Peter Dekom, and so many of us are so easily manipulated by the over-funded experts at media manipulation that their blame and deflect attacks actually work!!!!