My students didn't know this. I was teaching them about social class on Tuesday, and I incorporated this into my lecture when we were discussing wealth inequality in the U.S. between the upper class and the lower classes. Here's a very minor overview of what we discussed:
The Current State of Wealth Inequality in the U.S.:
- The wealthiest 10% of Americans own 75% of the nation's wealth.
- Meaning...the remaining 90% of Americans own 25% of the nation's wealth.
- The wealthiest 1% of Americans own 36% of the nation's wealth.
- Meaning...the remaining 99% of Americans own 64% of the nation's wealth.
- Since 1970, the richest 20% of Americans have grown richer, while the poorest 20% have grown poorer, despite anti-poverty programs.
- Since the recession of 2008, the rich have become even richer, and the poor have become even poorer.
- CEO's earn 380x's more than the average U.S. worker.
- The five highest earning CEO's earn 1,225 times higher than the average U.S. worker.
They were mind-blown and instantaneously angry. Rightfully so, I believe. I was angry the first time I saw it, which was about a year ago. Since then, I periodically research the statistics behind this video, hoping that maybe the content has improved. But...alas...the wealth inequality in this country is still absolutely ridiculous and getting worse by the day.
Yet..here I am...lounging comfortably behind this laptop...SEEE?!?! My comfy sweater.
...listening to The Civil Wars (if you don't know them yet, I invite you to marinate in their awesomeness)...writing to you about why you should care about this stuff...and I know that you're thinking that you shouldn't. Because chances are your life feels fine. Yes, you might occasionally pay a bill a few days late while you're waiting on a paycheck to come through...or you might not be able to go out as many times as you would like to each week...but you have a roof over your head, food to eat, clothes to wear, you're relatively healthy, and you have play money. You may not be the richest person in the country, but you're probably not the poorest either. Things could be worse. Don't fix something that's not broken. Etc. Etc.
I get it. You're comfortable. I'm comfortable. Why raise hell and take the chance of losing that comfort when we're fine just like we are? But news flash, guys: THIS...this massive wealth inequality IS broken. This is absolutely not fine.
Our approach of...
is going to eventually lead to....
and...
AAAAANNNNNNDDDDDD.....
Okay...I'm exaggerating...slightly...but you get the point. Eventually, if we continue to remain ignorant of the state of affairs in this country, or pretend that it's not a big deal, or just selfishly live from day to day without caring about what the next generation is going to be left with, things are going to be very bad.
Out of all of the things that we talk about when politics come up, such as same-sex marriage, women's rights, the role of religion in government, immigration, the Ebola virus (see that's why I said I was slightly exaggerating because we could eventually end up with some deranged shit going on because of some crazy virus...), etc., why is this not receiving more discussion and attention? And when it does receive any attention, it's framed around McDonald's workers demanding higher wages, so people can subsequently talk shit about how a "burger flipper" doesn't deserve more money? This wealth inequality is getting worse by the day, and the only attempt to stop it recently (The Occupy Wall Street) movement was shut down before it even began and demonized as being a movement of lazy, socialists.
From a simple economic point of view and not even delving into the morality side of the argument, our country really needs to sit down and figure out how to fix this before everything collapses on top of us. No matter what your political party, race, sex, sexuality, social class, etc., this should not be okay with you. Our leaders are obviously part of the problem, so I suppose it's going to be left to the citizens. And that is going to start by becoming aware of the problems we are currently experiencing.
So...if you didn't watch the video above already...scroll back up and watch the video. Please and thank you.
More on this later...
