This Week in Income Inequality: Dec. 13, 2024
Are ghost guns the new guillotines?
Once again in this week’s round-up, there’s a lot about the CEO shooting and how it relates to class warfare. Are we having a class war or are we not? I would say we’ve been having one for quite a long time, but not everyone noticed until now.
As always, I’m in favor of peaceful changes to make our system more fair and equitable. Even the billionaires and multi-millionaires should be, too, because history has shown us that being rich and powerful doesn’t necessarily save you when the peasants have finally had enough. A handful of American billionaires have as much wealth as the bottom half of America.
I do not advocate violence against billionaires (or anyone). But it’s absolutely inevitable to happen at some point – and the American peasant doesn’t need a guillotine because so many of them are already armed. Plus, ghost guns are now a thing. Speaking as a peaceful peasant, let’s change some laws to make the system work better for everyone, shall we?
Jess Piper gets two mentions this week. First, she talks about how growing up poor marks you. I completely get that, having had many similar experiences. But also, a little paper called The New York Times gave her a shout-out this week!
I was sitting in bed reading the NYT and suddenly there was her name! Quoted! For her brilliance! I lost no time posting a link on here, and am I ever glad I did, because Jess had not yet seen it!
Note to all: When the NYT finally gets around to mentioning me, please let me know asap. I am sure it is just a matter of time.
Actually, at one point I ran into a NYT reporter in the wild looking for sources about a certain topic. My son was a perfect fit and I was all set to have her interview him but my son – an intensely private guy – declined. He does not share my NYT dreams.
If you have some hot income inequality-related news you don’t see shared here, please add it in the comments or shoot me a message! I intend this round-up to be a one-stop shop for everyone who cares about this topic.
What’s a life worth?
J.P. Hill, New Means
What we’re called to ask is why the murder of one man must be described as unspeakable violence, but the systemic denial of life to 100,000 people is an acceptable business practice. We’re called to ask why profiting from the denial of life earns a person millions while the people denied care ought to accept drowning in debt and disease. We’re called to ask why only certain lives are precious, and only in certain circumstances. Why does playing by the rules render someone innocent, even when the rules produce a stream of death and devastation?
In Her Purse: The Money Maven Edition
Lindsey Stanberry, The Purse
Michelle writes Untrickled, a sharp and smart newsletter about income inequality and the many challenges facing working class Americans. She is a former newspaper editor, and she brings those strong reporting skills to Untrickled. Michelle also comments frequently on Purse newsletters, and I really appreciate her no-nonsense feedback.
From a Note I shared:
Take a Whiff of Eau de Trump. It Reeks.
The New York Times
So shared because it quotes the great Jess Piper:
In her View From Rural Missouri newsletter, Jess Piper cited foolishness in her own state to defend the necessity of U.S. Department of Education oversight: “I am a witness to the witless.”
The Inner Civil War
Brett Scott, Altered States of Monetary Consciousness
Perhaps you’re paid too little at work, and are worried about the cost of living, so you seek to compensate by making money in the stock markets. Rather than paying for goods, you recycle money back through the financial sector to buy shares in companies that are run by managers that believe they must boost profits by paying workers less while charging customers more
See what just happened there? One part of yourself seeks to benefit from the suppression of two other parts of yourself. This is our inner civil war.
Desperately Seeking a Coalition of the Decent
Charlie Sykes
Suffice it to say that history is soaked with bloody consequences of violence between the haves and have nots.
That’s why democracy and the rule of law matter so much: they let us resolve our differences without killing one another.
But I regret to tell you that this is apparently not self-evident amongst people who imagine that they are the bulwarks against fascism and hate.
Farmhouses and Sweet Potatoes
Jess Piper, The View from Rural Missouri
I lived half of my life in poverty and I know many of us act like we are in poverty even when we have moved out of poverty. If you think my Master’s degree gives me any relief, you’re wrong. There is a persistent song in my head…things may be okay now, but I could lose everything tomorrow. The chorus is annoying.
Your Non-Numbers Brain is Your Hidden Financial Superpower
Kim Doyal, Women, Wisdom & Wealth
Here's a truth I've been sitting with lately: What if everything we've been taught about being "good with money" is filtered through a masculine lens that doesn't honor the way many women naturally make their wisest decisions?
You Can’t Rebrand a Class War
Hamilton Nolan, How Things Work
If you are one of the many analysts seduced by the idea that the Trump administration would be in some way friendly towards the “working class” or would in some way advance the concept of antitrust enforcement in the public good, you are a god damn idiot. Please stop analyzing politics for the general public. Horseshoe theory has poisoned your brains and blinded you to reality. The total melding of the federal government with the interests of the ultrarich and a strongman leader who conducts federal policy in service of only those who bow to him is not “populism.” It is fascism. I would love to stop entertaining this charade so that I do not have to periodically rewrite this for the next four years.
America’s four stories (Part 2)
Robert Reich
The Triumphant Individual, meanwhile, was no longer the little guy in need of a helping hand, but the business entrepreneur who would spawn new companies and industries if unencumbered by government regulations and taxes.
Through the alchemy of supply-side (“trickle-down”) economics, the Triumphant Individual’s self-enriching triumphs would, Reagan said, help us all.
Entitled To Everything
The Peaceful Revolutionary
The contradictions of our era are: mansions sitting empty most of the year, luxury cars gathering dust in garages, and private jets going unused most of the time. Meanwhile, homelessness rises, and workers spend more than half their wages on cramped rented rooms. Restaurants, concerts, and sporting events become exclusive activities of the wealthy, while many poor workers avoid going out to meet with their friends due to the cost. Even in the world's wealthiest nations, food banks multiply and malnutrition grows. This inequality manifests across every aspect of life:
In education, elite private schools and personal tutoring prepare wealthy children for prestigious universities and lucrative careers, while underfunded public schools struggle to provide basic resources. In leisure, the children of the wealthy enjoy abundant free time supported by their trust funds, while others work multiple jobs with minimal benefits and no time for rest. Financial security follows the same pattern—some have robust investment portfolios to weather any crisis, while most live precariously from payday to payday.
Yet we produce such excess that half our food is destroyed before reaching shops, and much of what remains rots unsold on shelves. The cost of producing almost everything has plummeted, yet prices for life's necessities—food, housing, education—continue to rise. Technology has multiplied our productive capacity many times over, but the fruits of this abundance remain as concentrated as ever.
About Michelle Teheux
I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here or on Medium. My new non-fiction book is Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class. My most recent novel is The Trailer Park Rules.
All wealthy families are alike; each poor family is poor in its own way.
— Leo Tolstoy, if he had written about a trailer park
For residents of the Loire Mobile Home Park, surviving means understanding which rules to follow and which to break. Each has landed in the trailer park for wildly different reasons.
Jonesy is a failed journalist at a dying newspaper with one dream left. Jimmy and Janiece Jackson wanted to be the first in their families to achieve the American dream, but all the positive attitude in the world can’t change their predicament. Darren is a disabled man with a dark past just trying to enjoy his life. Angel is the kind of irresponsible single mother society shakes its head about, and her daughter Maya is the kid everybody overlooks. Kaitlyn is a former stripper with a sugar daddy, while Shirley is an older lady who has come down in the world and lives in denial. Nancy, the trailer park manager, runs it like a tyrant but finds out when a larger corporation takes over that she’s not different from the residents.
When the new owners jack up the rent, the lives of everyone in the park shift dramatically and in some cases tragically.
Welcome to the Loire Mobile Home Park! Please observe all rules!
Thank you and Jess for open comments without paywalls. I wish l could now afford everyone, but I add one-two a month. I will get to you and her momentarily. Your voices are clear and resolute, your writing superb. You are on my list of keepers.
Might have mentioned this before, but when you push people to their breaking point, sometimes they break. It's good to see some on the Right waking up, especially in regard to the rich grifters at the Daily Wire (namely Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro) chastising the 'Left' for celebrating Thompson's murder. They lambasted these guys, rightly pointing out that the Right and Left are united to a large degree on this. Sad to see a murder being the catalyst, and it very likely won't last, but last week introduced a lot of people to class consciousness. Some are finally seeing that it's not Left/Right but Up/Down.
Good article as always, and thanks for the roundup!