Poverty is a cultural defect
Empower the impoverished, repair the culture
Americans, at least the ones who are not multi-millionaires or above that stratum, face many real-world challenges in 2024. Among them is a corrupt political system that has resulted in a crisis of nearly every facet of American existence. Rampant homelessness. Out of control drug abuse and addiction. A staggeringly irresponsible national debt that has resulted from expenditures that do little to nothing to help Americans who struggle, and which are grossly and obviously skewed towards enriching the already wealthy and their many corporations.
The chart below shows exactly how evil the current systems of power are.
Look at the bottom 50%, then look at the top .1%. There is no way to say that a society is honorable with this wealth distribution reality. Wealth is power, and power is cruelty. The people at the top do not have any concern whatsoever for the masses below them on the wealth/power scale. If they did, that bottom 50% of the resources would be much higher.
Now notice that the levels of inequality are moving in the wrong direction for a society that values taking care of everyone. The opposite trend is occurring in the United States. A tiny fraction of Americans are grossly wealthy/powerful, and the other 99% are being crushed and smothered economically in an incremental, slow-moving method that ends with what? 99% of us renting and unable to do anything but live desperately, one paycheck at a time?
This is not OK. This is a situation that demands assertive action. This is an eat the rich time and place in history. The French Revolution was born out of gross inequality. In 2024, American inequality is orders of magnitude more uneven.
Time to take the world back.
Thank you for this post. I agree we need to take our power back. But I also worry permanent change is not possible and we will forever snap back to the founding system of white supremacy—that is until we deliberately declare a new vision. The fact that Roe did not result in a change to our constitution and could therefore be overturned is proof to me that our system is still rooted in the old vision. Make no mistake women in this country are suffering and dying as a result of the overturning of Roe. The overturning of Roe was a catastrophe, just not for those with power and unlimited $ resources. The rest are expendable when no longer exploitable. We need to change the system to protect the commons (instead of exploiting the commons): healthcare; public education; housing; utilities; and more. All of these are currently exposed to $ market speculation. They are being hollowed out by speculation (exploitation’s handsome sibling). We need to change things. Otherwise, if we manage to survive this current dark time our country will find itself in a version of the same struggle in the future—snapping back. Then again maybe Mother Nature will have the last say.
Poverty and inequality is not a bug of our system, it is built in. The system also needs constant consumption and growth to survive, which is terrible for the future of all living things on our planet. So, we all have to make decisions.
I have decided recently to not be part of the problem and will buy only what I need. I ignore ads, which only serve to promote unnecessary consumption. As an interesting aside, doing so will be better for your mental and physical well-being.