This article contains mature language. Reader discretion is advised.
Whether you believe that capitalism is God’s gift to this green earth, or an evil system that needs to be wiped away, there’s no denying that the current structure disproportionately benefits the wealthy. A global aristocracy has been born, who through their unimaginably vast assets wield more power than any class of humans in history.
I know that’s a big claim to make, but I think it’s an understatement when you think about how much a billion dollars actually is. If we stacked one million dollar bills on top of each other, the stack would reach as tall as a 35 story building. If you stacked one billion dollar bills, it would stretch all the way to the goddamn troposphere. And a billion dollars is scant compared to the vast fortunes of the .01%, or in other words, the global aristocracy.
Global inequality is best illustrated by a statistical trend that measures income growth from 1980 to 2016, dubbed the “elephant curve.” Named for the animal-like shape of the trend line, the elephant’s trunk reaches high into the sky because it represents the growth in the One Percent’s income.
With a vast array of assets and money stockpiled in Panama, they can steamroll the will of voters, hire private military companies, and create luxury doomsday bunkers. Perhaps worst of all, they own our privacy. Instead of influencing world events as a shadowy secret society, they can do it right out in the open.
The problems we’re facing today aren’t new; while cultures and technology change, the obstacles they face don’t.
One hundred years ago, the United States was not headed in a positive direction. It was 1921, a pandemic had just ended and in eight years the economy would do a nosedive. Decades of wealth consolidation by titans of industry had resulted in massive inequality between the elites and the working man.
Unrest was high as government forces put down labor union movements, often violently. Left-wing ideologies were gaining popularity in the 1930s, and some people felt revolution was the only way to correct the societal ills of the day.
Of course, a revolution never happened, because the conditions never quite lined up. Instead, World War II pulled the country out of the Great Depression, America reaffirmed its national identity and perhaps most importantly, the New Deal built a thriving middle class.
It didn’t have to happen like that; one of the greatest misconceptions about history in our day and age is that progress is guaranteed. There are many reasons why the United States is still here today and one of them was the many accomplishments made by labor organizing and legislation to protect the working class.
There’s no way to know what would’ve happened to the U.S. without the New Deal, but we at least know that the standard of living of the common citizen would not be near the same as it is today. Among the many accomplishments of the New Deal were restrictions on child labor, the right for workers to form unions and the minimum wage.
About eighty years later, many of the achievements made that protect workers have eroded away. Right to Work laws have made it nearly impossible for workers to form unions and bargain for better conditions. People sit in their car and wait in bread lines despite living in one of the most plentiful countries on earth. Due to inflation, the value of the minimum wage has deteriorated to a starvation wage. We may not have American children working in dangerous factories, but I wonder how long it will take for little Timmy to have to run Doordash orders on his bike to keep the family afloat? Or lie about his age to work in fast food? In case you’re still wondering, we’re not headed in the right direction. Welcome to the New Gilded Age folks.
While the rich haven’t quite reached the same concentration of wealth as the height of the Gilded Age, they’re getting pretty damn close. And from what I’ve seen, there’s not many politicians who are equipped to fix this problem. It remains to be seen if President Joe Biden is up to the task. He’s certainly said many of the right things, but he still misses the mark in one major respect.
He’s focused much of his messaging on raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars, which is good, but is only half of the problem. If the value of the original minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be around twenty-four dollars an hour. If we tried to raise it that high today, we would see mass unemployment and inflation because of the disparity between worker pay and executive pay. If we raise the minimum wage, it has to come out of executive pay and that’s something Biden is too scared to say.
There is still hope to be found though, and it’s in your fellow people. The only way we’ll be able to correct the inequity of our day is if we practice worker solidarity and support labor movements and attempts to unionize.
In the words of the late and great Fred Hampton, “Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we’re going to have to put it back in the hands of the people.”
