President Joe Biden address the nation Thursday from the White House vowing a peaceful transfer of power. He said he congratulated Donald Trump on winning the election and also spoke with Vice President Harris.
You’re old, straight, white and rich, motherfucker – YOU’RE going to be “ok.” Everyone else is fucked.
I think there are two separate but related metrics at play here. Addressing income inequality would certainly go a long way towards improving quality of life for the working class, but Americans don’t care as much about someone having too much money as much as they care about having too little themselves.
Despite large movements like Occupy Wall Street bringing the topic of income inequality to the forefront of news for a while, the fact that it petered out and has ceased to be an issue means that enough members of the working class were still contented enough by their bread and circuses, so nothing came of it.
These voters don’t care if their CEO gets a $10 million bonus at the end of the year as long as they can still afford groceries and housing, but they do start to care a lot when they don’t. Only, blame is being directed at the government (inflated cost of living) rather than their rich bosses (wage stagnation).
It’s not really about that short of a timeframe. Here’s another example:
https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/
Compare 1963 to 2022:
We’re living in a new Gilded Age, people know they’re getting fucked, and saying “Oh, but look at this number going up” doesn’t work anymore.
I think there are two separate but related metrics at play here. Addressing income inequality would certainly go a long way towards improving quality of life for the working class, but Americans don’t care as much about someone having too much money as much as they care about having too little themselves.
Despite large movements like Occupy Wall Street bringing the topic of income inequality to the forefront of news for a while, the fact that it petered out and has ceased to be an issue means that enough members of the working class were still contented enough by their bread and circuses, so nothing came of it.
These voters don’t care if their CEO gets a $10 million bonus at the end of the year as long as they can still afford groceries and housing, but they do start to care a lot when they don’t. Only, blame is being directed at the government (inflated cost of living) rather than their rich bosses (wage stagnation).