Affordability & Income Inequality

Affordability and income inequality are both related

in my mind.   We presently live in an era of 

unprecedented income inequality.   The top 10% of

income earners control 2/3rds of our National Net Wealth.  Meanwhile, the bottom half of all workers control only 4%.

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How did we get to this place?  Several forces are at play. First, we have the so-called "trickle down" economics.  This is a massive lie spread by corporate interests which says that if you let the wealthy keep more of their money to themselves, it will "trickle down" to everyone else.  Of course this hasn't happened.  Intead, they have gotten richer, and everyone else has gotten poorer (there is something that is trickling down--but it isn't money).  

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Another factor has been globalization.  America has always been a country where workers need higher wages relative to the rest of the world.  Some economists believe this is due to the unique history of America starting in the 18th century.  In any event, workers in other countries (expect for Western Europe, which is a different case), have much lower wages.  Globalization puts negative pressure on wage growth in America because more jobs can be done in countries where the wages are lower (however, the damage is mitigated a little bit because products from those countries are cheaper; yet, domestic goods and service, like healthcare, construction, and education, remaing stubbornly high).

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Then we have the assault on unions that's been going on for over 60 years.  Back in the 1950's union membership was at roughly one third of the workforce; today it is around 6% by some estimates.  While I have issues with some unions that are selfishly and destructively promoting the data center invasion in Montana, the bottom line is that the lack of worker organization means it is harder to get higher wages with large-scale employers.

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Either we are going to do something about this problem, or our system is going to collapse.  We need to do a mix of several things.  First, I want to see mandatory wage hikes for large corporate employers such as Walmart, Amazon, and others.  Second, I want to see wage subsidies for smaller employers.  These can be provided by getting more revenue from corporations and wealthy people.   Finally, we need to do more to support efforts to organize workers in America.  

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These, and other ideas, are things I want to see to address affordability and income inequality.  We might also need to do some additional things to help folks afford things like their electric bills and healthcare.  America has the wealth to be a fair society where everyone is doing well, but we just have to end this insanity of allowing fewer and fewer people to keep more and more of the wealth.  This is bleeding the rest of us dry and just can't contine forever without consequence.

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We spend too much time thinking about short term quarterly profits, and not enough time thinking about long-term sustainable growth.  Instead of obsessing with how well the market is doing, I want to see us focus on growing an economy that ensures people can make enough money to live comfortably.  We should be thinking about meeting the goals of income in charts like this one below, instead of getting so worked up about how well the Dow Jones is doing all the time.

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Maybe we need to have a bill of economic rights, such as the one that FDR spoke about in one of the last speeches he gave before he died.  Check it out below:

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If you want to take a deeper dive into this issue, check out this post I did back on May 4, 2025. Click here to check it out.  

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