[Bernie Sanders...] The US has a ruling class - and Americans must stand up to it

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

Bernie is mad because he couldn't compete with Nancy's insider trading.

* * *

Let’s be clear. The most important economic and political issues facing
this country are the extraordinary levels of income and wealth inequality,
the rapidly growing concentration of ownership, the long-term decline of
the American middle class and the evolution of this country into
oligarchy.

We know how important these issues are because our ruling class works
overtime to prevent them from being seriously discussed. They are barely
mentioned in the halls of Congress, where most members are dependent on
the campaign contributions of the wealthy and their Super Pacs. They are
not much discussed in the corporate media, in which a handful of
conglomerates determine what we see, hear and discuss.

So what’s going on?

We now have more income and wealth inequality than at any time in the last
hundred years. In the year 2022, three multibillionaires own more wealth
than the bottom half of American society – 160 million Americans. Today,
45% of all new income goes to the top 1%, and CEOs of large corporations
make a record-breaking 350 times what their workers earn.

Meanwhile, as the very rich become much richer, working families continue
to struggle. Unbelievably, despite huge increases in worker productivity,
wages (accounting for real inflation) are lower today than they were
almost 50 years ago. When I was a kid growing up, most families were able
to be supported by one breadwinner. Now an overwhelming majority of
households need two paychecks to survive.

Today, half of our people live paycheck to paycheck and millions struggle
on starvation wages. Despite a lifetime of work, half of older Americans
have no savings and no idea how they will ever be able to retire with
dignity, while 55% of seniors are trying to survive on an income of less
than $25,000 a year.

Since 1975, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth in America
that has gone in exactly the wrong direction. Over the past 47 years,
according to the Rand Corporation, $50tn in wealth has been redistributed
from the bottom 90% of American society to the top 1%, primarily because a
growing percentage of corporate profits has been flowing into the stock
portfolios of the wealthy and the powerful.

During this terrible pandemic, when thousands of essential workers died
doing their jobs, some 700 billionaires in America became nearly $2tn
richer. Today, while the working class falls further behind,
multibillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are off
taking joyrides on rocket ships to outer space, buying $500m super-yachts
and living in mansions with 25 bathrooms.

Disgracefully, we now have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost
any developed nation on Earth and millions of kids, disproportionately
Black and brown, face food insecurity. While psychologists tell us that
the first four years are the most important for human development, our
childcare system is largely dysfunctional – with an inadequate number of
slots, outrageously high costs and pathetically low wages for staff. We
remain the only major country without paid family and medical leave.

In terms of higher education, we should remember that 50 years ago tuition
was free or virtually free in major public universities throughout the
country. Today, higher education is unaffordable for millions of young
people. There are now some 45 million Americans struggling with student
debt.

Today over 70 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and millions
more are finding it hard to pay for the rising cost of healthcare and
prescription drugs, which are more expensive here than anywhere else in
the world. The cost of housing is also soaring. Not only are some 600,000
Americans homeless, but nearly 18m households are spending 50% or more of
their limited incomes on housing.

It’s not just income and wealth inequality that is plaguing our nation. It
is the maldistribution of economic and political power.

Today we have more concentration of ownership than at any time in the
modern history of this country. In sector after sector a handful of giant
corporations control what is produced and how much we pay for it.
Unbelievably, just three Wall Street firms (Blackrock, Vanguard and State
Street) control assets of over $20tn and are the major stockholders in 96%
of S&P 500 companies. In terms of media, some eight multinational media
conglomerates control what we see, hear and read.

In terms of political power, the situation is the same. A small number of
billionaires and CEOs, through their Super Pacs, dark money and campaign
contributions, play a huge role in determining who gets elected and who
gets defeated. There are now an increasing number of campaigns in which
Super Pacs actually spend more money on campaigns than the candidates, who
become the puppets to their big money puppeteers. In the 2022 Democratic
primaries, billionaires spent tens of millions trying to defeat
progressive candidates who were standing up for working families.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr was right when he said: “We must recognize that
we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of
economic and political power” in America. That statement is even more true
today.

Let us have the courage to stand together and fight back against corporate
greed. Let us fight back against massive income and wealth inequality. Let
us fight back against a corrupt political system.

Let us stand together and finally create an economy and a government that
works for all, not just the 1%.

Bernie Sanders is a US senator from Vermont and the chairman of the Senate
budget committee


--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: sf.n...@mail.house.gov

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.