The gap between rich and poor in the United States has never been greater.
The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank working for the last 30 years to counter rising inequality. Its September 21, 2023 report stated:
- In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker.
- In 1965 they were paid 21 times as much. In 2021, CEOs made nearly eight times as much as the top 0.1% of wage earners in the U.S.
This would not have been news to Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science. In his masterwork, The Discourses, he observed the human condition as that of constant struggle:
Niccolo Machiavelli
“It was a saying of ancient writers, that men afflict themselves in evil, and become weary of the good, and that both these dispositions produce the same effects.
“For when men are no longer obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition, which passion is so powerful in the hearts of men that it never leaves them, no matter to what height they may rise.
“The reason for this is that nature has created men so that they desire everything, but are unable to attain it. Desire being thus always greater than the faculty of acquiring, discontent with what they have and dissatisfaction with themselves result from it.
“This causes the changes in their fortunes—for as some men desire to have more, while others fear to lose what they have, enmities and war are the consequences. And this brings about the ruin of one province and the elevation of another.”
Author Walter Scheidel, Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History at Stanford University, has also given this subject a great deal of thought. And, like Machiavelli, he has reached some highly disturbing conclusions.
Walter Scheidel
World Economic Forum [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D
He gave voice to these in his 2017 book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. His thesis: Only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout history.
According to the book’s jacket blurb: “Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes.
“Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return.
“The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
“Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality.
“The ‘Four Horsemen’ of leveling—-mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich.
“Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century.
“Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future.”
Revolutionaries have known the truth of Scheidel’s findings from the gladiators’ revolt of Spartacus (73-71 B.C.) to the French Revolution (1789-1799) to the overthrow of the Czarist Romanov dynasty (1917).
But American politicians serenely ignore that truth. They depend on the mega-rich for millions of dollars in “campaign contributions”—which pay for self-glorifying ads on TV.
Thus, in 2016, American voters had a “choice” between two “love-the-rich” Presidential candidates: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Trump owed his wealth to a $200 million gift from his real estate tycoon father. Clinton owed hers mostly through her husband, Bill, by his writing books, giving speeches, consulting private companies and advising billionaire Ron Burkle.
After leaving the Senate (2001-09) and President Obama’s cabinet (2009-13), she earned $9 million in speaking fees in both 2013 and 2014.
The result was that millions stayed home or voted in protest for third-party candidates who had no chance of winning.
In 2020, American voters got to “choose” between another two “love-the-rich” candidates: Donald Trump and Joseph Biden.
In his 1975 book, The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Modern-day America, British historian Robert Payne warned that the predatory rich would not change their behavior: “Nor is there any likelihood that the rich will plow back their money into services to ensure the general good.
“They have rarely demonstrated social responsibility, and they are much more likely to hold on to their wealth at all costs than to renounce any part of it.
“Like the tyrant who lives in a world wholly remote from the world of the people, shielded and protected from all possible influences, the rich are usually the last to observe the social pressures rising from below, and when these social pressures reach flashpoint, it is too late to call in the police or the army.”
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THE CORRUPTIONS OF THE RICH ARE STILL WITH YOU ALWAYS: PART THREE (END)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on December 12, 2024 at 12:10 amIn his 1975 book, The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Modern-day America, British historian Robert Payne warned that the predatory rich would not change their behavior:
“Like the tyrant who lives in a world wholly remote from the world of the people, shielded and protected from all possible influences, the rich are usually the last to observe the social pressures rising from below, and when these social pressures reach flashpoint, it is too late to call in the police or the army.”
Robert Payne
There are signs that millions of Americans are seeing themselves not on a racially-conscious basis but on a class-conscious one.
During the 2024 Presidential campaign, Democrats expected to retain control of the White House through the loyalty of groups that had traditionally voted Democratic: Blacks, Hispanics, women, those under 30.
Yet Vice President Kamala Harris fared badly with all of these groups.
According to a November 12, 2024 story on National Public Radio, “Why high prices toppled Democrats—and other governments around the world”:
“This year’s election results made one thing clear: People really don’t like paying more for everyday expenses….
“A survey by the Associated Press found high prices were the number one concern for about half of all Trump voters.”
Donald Trump
Hispanics, for example, ignored Donald Trump’s incessant attacks and threats to deport 11 million of them—because they were upset by the high price of eggs.
And according to a December 3 story published in Right on Time, Gen Z voters—those voters between 18–24 years old—turned Right “because of economic factors, like the desire for a whopping salary, according to a new survey.
“Financial services company Empower surveyed more than 2,200 Americans, and respondents born between 1997 and 2012 declared they’d need to make $587,000 a year to be ‘financially successful.’”
In short: Most of those who voted for Trump wanted to move from a lower financial class to a higher one. And they’re dangerously angry at their inability to improve their living conditions.
The latest evidence of this occurred on the morning of December 4: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was shot in the back while walking to an investor conference in Manhattan.
Brian Thompson
The accused shooter—Luigi Mangione—left behind shell casings with “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them.
The phrase has been adopted by critics of the healthcare industry to describe how insurance companies delay paying claims, deny valid claims in whole or part, and defend their actions by forcing claimants to enter litigation.
The phrase was popularized in the 2010 book, Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, by Jay M. Feinman.
Feinman, an expert in insurance law and professor emeritus at Rutgers University, wrote the book to be “an expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight back.”
Apparently, Mangione, the accused gunman, decided to “fight back” in a more direct and lethal way.
For the executives of America’s $1.6 trillion (in 2022) individual health insurance industry, online reactions to the clearly targeted assassination of Brian Thompson must be chilling.
Many comments ranged from unfeeling to outright hostility toward health insurance companies and the executives who run them.
UnitedHealthcare, as the largest private insurer in the United States, has been the primary target of those attacks:
“When you shoot one man in the street it’s murder. When you kill thousands of people in hospitals by taking away their ability to get treatment, you’re an entrepreneur.”
“An innocent victim was gunned down in cold blood. Have a heart regardless of your health insurance.”
“Can’t find the room to care over my daughter’s $60,000 cancer treatment. Thoughts and prayers.”
“My copay for thoughts and prayers is $100,000; I heard his condition was pre-existing; My ability to care was denied; My sympathy requires a referral; Submitted claim for condolences was denied.”
“My empathy is out of network.”
“Thoughts and deductibles to the family. Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network.”
“Today…we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.”
“Now the norms of violence are spreading into the commercial sector,” said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago’s project on security and threats.
“What I think we’re really experiencing as a country is the erosion against norms. That means, basically, seeing violence as the more normal tool, or acceptable tool, to resolve what should be straightforward civil disputes resolved in nonviolent ways.”
Incoming President Donald Trump has picked at least 11 billionaires and millionaires for his Cabinet. In some cases, they will have the power to cut spending on public services that are used by the most poor and vulnerable.
Trump has also threatened to ignite a tariff war with America’s biggest trading partners—Canada, Mexico and China. This will cause prices for life’s necessities to spiral out of control for millions of Americans.
At that point, Walter Scheidel’s 2017 book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, may become required reading for overpaid corporate executives throughout the country.
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