In addition to watching the country sleepwalk into a dictatorship (ah, it couldn't happen HERE), I continue to be be puzzled by our unwillingness to comprehend and resist the unprecidented wealth disparity in the U.S.
Economists call it the K-shaped economy, though no one really seems to understand the nuances of that shape. Bottom line, though, is that most of the momentum of our economy comes from the wealthy (people making over $125,000 per year was one marker I found) increasing their spending. They can't spend enough to slow down their rapid dividends and high salaries and stock options.
As the song goes: "The rich get richer and the poor have children." Wait. That is not true any longer. Now it's back to "...and the poor get poorer."
So, the rich have plenty of money as the stock market continues to churn along and the middle class just struggles to hang on. The lower classes economically? Forget about it. The very wealthiest in the billionaire class might as well live in another reality compared to the "average" American.
The slow drip of scandal from the Epstein files may embarrass some of the world's elite, and many continue to hope that, somehow, Donald Trump will feel so much shame from his longtime friendship with a pedophile that he will resign, but what comes through most clearly is that the elite, the very rich, live in an insulated and separated world... and have done for many years.
Morality is for the poor. Ethics is for suckers. The extremely rich are interested in hoarding more riches and feeding their egos while the vast majority of the world struggles.
I assume this has been worse in world history. I would imagine ancient Rome presented an even deeper and broader gulf between the very rich and the very poor (slaves, at the time).
Most commentators are quite fine noting the gulf between urban and rural populations, as if concentrating so much education and money into small areas automatically creates conflict. And, yes, much of the world's unrest can be traced to levels of education.
But, as in most human interactions, it is wise to simply follow the money. There are rich Democrats and rich Republicans and rich autocrats and rich tech gurus. They sort of squabble, but they all seem to do quite well, no matter which political party is in power.
Full disclosure: My wife and I happen to have just enough equity plus investments plus pensions to have something to lose were the economic system to change very much. It would not be wise to hope that Baby Boomers will suddenly support some sort of redistribution of wealth any time soon. And most Boomers don't have what we have.
Jeff Bezos yesterday oversaw over a third of the Washington Post staff being let go. The given reason was that the paper lost $100 million last year and things don't look good in the future. Bezos, of course, is worth over $340 BILLION and seemed to have little problem investing in the Trump family by funding the Melania documentary for $75 million.
Investing... bribing... it's all the same when you are stupidly rich.
Bezos might have simply claimed that $100 million invested in supporting American democracy and free speech was well worth it. After all, his wealth will likely increase by that amount in the next month.
But Bezos made the choice the very rich almost always make: They keep their money. They help themselves. They don't think too deeply about the difficulties a rich man might face in squeezing through the eye of that needle that Jesus referred to as the challenge for the very wealthy.
Bezos and his tech siblings were chummy with the Obamas. Now they suck up to the Trumps. They will rapidly shift their sucking up to the next government leader. And the rest of us will continue to pretend that it's all about values and government programs.
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