The Rich Keep Getting Richer And The Average American Gets F@#%ed

A new study shows that only about 39% of Americans have the financial wherewithal to withstand an “unexpected $1,000 expense,” according to Bankrate.com. Nearly 40% would be forced to borrow money or use a credit card to cover the cost of an unexpected medical or repair bill.

Meanwhile, the rich get richer—I mean really, really rich. It’s believed that less than 700 people have more than $4 trillion in wealth. The pandemic, with blinding speed, dramatically increased wealth and income inequality in America. Online companies, such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Apple and Zoom, have performed amazingly well and the executives and shareholders were handsomely rewarded.

Other sectors, such as those in the hotel, travel, hospitality, airlines and brick-and-mortar retail shopping, have done poorly and the workers are kind of screwed—laid off and forced to contend with the worst job market in modern history.

During the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak, Wall Street know-it-alls said that we would see a V-shaped recovery. This means the economy, stock market and job market would see a sharp drop, which happened in March and April. The geniuses then claimed everything would bounce right back. This is how they got the V-shape. To be fair to the prognosticators, they were right, as it relates to a small group of wealthy people.

What actually happened was a K-shaped recovery. On the upper end are the rich that are seeing unbelievable wealth. The downward slope of the K is pretty much everyone else. Billionaires have reaped unfathomable amounts of more money. For instance, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are all now members of the $100 billion-plus club. This is happening as millions of average Americans have lost their jobs and many families are struggling to make ends meet.

White-collar professionals who were able to work from home did relatively well, whereas those in low-wage jobs—who couldn’t—have lost out. The trend of the rich getting richer looks like it will keep going strong, unfortunately.

People who work at the online giants that hold near-monopolies in their sectors stand to gain, although not as much as the CEOs and founders. Workers in non-tech companies or hard-hit industries, including hospitality, airlines and retail stores, may continue to struggle. Over time, travel will resume, restaurants will be allowed to reopen and workers in these sectors can expect to see more jobs becoming available.

The policies of the Federal Reserve Bank and the elites that run the country have created winners and losers. Those who already have money and invested in the stock market are minting money, as the stock market is hitting new record highs. The wealthy are working at home and watching their portfolios boom. The rest of the U.S. is scraping by. Americans filed more than 74 million claims for unemployment benefits, millions of folks have given up looking for jobs and millions more are facing eviction in 2021.

This is coming from a capitalist. I’m invested in the stock market and have done well so far. The thing is this trend is unsustainable. At this current rate, we’ll end up with a medieval, feudalistic society. There will be the insanely rich oligarchs who run the big tech monopolies, the rung of well-paid lawyers, accountants and investment bankers that service the rich monarchy and then there will be all of the peasant workers.

We’ve already seen civil unrest and violence in the streets. Historically, this is what happens when you have a barbell-looking economy that’s completely lopsided with the uber-rich on one side and everyone else on the other.