New Report: The rich are richer than the Gilded Age and half of all U.S. children live in poverty, writes Lee Camp.
By Lee CAMP
One would think that perhaps the greatest benefit of being a cog in the wheel of a bloodthirsty, predatory, wholly unaccountable, rapacious global empire is being rich. Not rich in an Elon Musk/Monopoly Guy kinda way but rich in a not languishing in poverty kinda way.
But this is not true. A large percentage of Americans never get to touch the spoils of hegemony.
"Over 40% of the U.S. population-including 48.9% of children-is considered poor or low income."
You read that right. According to a new Oxfam report, half of all American children live in poor or low-income homes.... HALF.
When mapped out clearly for all to see, US inequality levels show that the country is way past revolution time.... Sorry, let me rephrase that. It's waaaaaaaaaaaay past revolution time.
Let your brain try to make sense of these other stats from the Oxfam report:
"In the past year, the 10 richest U.S. billionaires gained nearly $700 billion..."
Fun fact: If you make $60,000 a year after taxes, in order to make $700 Billion, you'd need to work for nearly 12 million years.
"The richest 1% own half the stock market (49.9%), while the bottom half of the U.S. owns just 1.1% of the stock market."
"The richest 0.0001% control a greater share of wealth than in the Gilded Age, an era of U.S. history defined by extreme inequality."
(Lee Camp)
So we've surpassed the Gilded Age. I guess no one should be shocked that Donald Trump (the first billionaire president) unironically held a Great Gatsby-themed party a few weeks ago at Mar-a-Lago. Parasites are rarely bashful or timid. They don't say "excuse me" and they don't ask permission. They just latch on and suck.
And of course any analysis of inequality tends to also have a race factor, or rather a racism factor, seeing as much poverty in America connects in one way or another to our systemic racism.
"Black and Hispanic/Latin households hold 5.8% of U.S. wealth but make up an estimated one-third of the population..."
Seattle, 2011. (Joe Lauria)
But wealth, or lack thereof, always strikes me as a vague measure until it's connected to things like health and struggle and death. The report helps us do that too:
"Looking at the 10 largest economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the U.S. has the highest rate of relative poverty, the second-highest rate of child poverty and infant mortality, and the second-lowest life expectancy."
Poverty kills. That's the cold truth. Poverty is not just the inability to purchase the latest video game you really want. It's not just your car bumper being held on with duct tape or your adult toy no longer vibrating properly but still being used because you can't afford the new model. Poverty actually kills. In fact, poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in America.
When this data is all taken together, it becomes clear the US has long surpassed revolution time.
The Gini Coefficient is a measure of inequality in a society where 0 represents perfect equality and a score of 1 represents perfect inequality. Although there's no hard-and-fast rule, when it gets over a certain point, revolution becomes highly likely. Well, hang on to your pantaloons - the U.S. currently has a Gini Coefficient worse than Ancient Rome before its collapse.
(Lee Camp)
Further pantaloon-tugging knowledge: Studies have shown a correlation between a high Gini Coefficient and revolution or revolt.
The Gilded Age ended with the New Deal, which "saved capitalism," for a time. The richest people in America realized - thanks largely to the Bolshevik Revolution - that they needed to decrease inequality in the US or the people, who were being treated with all the love and humanity one shows a toilet brush, would revolt and put the gilded men's bulbous heads on gilded pikes.
Capitalism, when left unattended, eats itself, the society, the world. Capitalism is cancer. With loads of radiation or chemo, you can often keep cancer at bay for a while. But with capitalism, no cure or remission is ever possible without revolution and revolutionary ideas. Outside of that, we all just wait to see how long it will take before there are no more trees, or water, or fish.
Lee Camp is the host of Dangerous Ideas, and the former host of Redacted Tonight. Most censored comedian in America.