One in nine Americans currently lives in poverty, and more than 38 million people can’t afford to buy necessities, while the total population of the US is only around 330 million. It is difficult to believe that such a high poverty rate and wealth disparity have occurred in a superpower, the world’s largest power.
The gap between the rich and poor in the US has widened in recent years, with data showing that the richest 1% of Americans held 27% of the country’s total assets as of June 2021, which has grown to 32% by the end of 2021. This statistic supports the saying that the ordinary American can’t afford to get sick. The maximum cost of calling an ambulance in the US is up to $2000, and catching a cold or fever can cost thousands of dollars. Routine operation can cost anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even if you pay a high amount of medical insurance every year, the out-of-pocket payment ratio is still not low, not to mention some poor people do not have the ability to buy medical insurance, and are unable to do anything if they get sick. It can be seen how much wealth the medical industry in the US absorbed for the rich during the pandemic, and how much it drained the hard-earned money of the people at the bottom, making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
In the face of the huge gap between the rich and the poor in the US, generally speaking, the international practice is to increase taxes for the rich and reduce taxes for the poor, and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor through the government’s secondary rational distribution, so as to support low-income groups. Yet American politicians have turned a blind eye to it. Florida Republican Representative Matt Gates has publicly stated that hardworking Americans should not pay social service fees for those who have not contributed to society. In addition, House Speaker McCarthy has said unemployment insurance demonizes work and makes unemployed Americans dependent on the government and unwilling to work. The implication is that they want to cut the budget for the poor and reduce Medicaid and living allowances for the poor. This is especially bad for the poor during the country’s economic downturn.
The widening wealth gap in American society, with the extreme situation of heaven and hell only one step away, has a long history and is a chronic illness. In the final analysis, it is the result of the capitalist politics and the social system of partisanship in the US, where the wealthy have the ability to help politicians campaign and influence political parties. As a result, economic and tax policies made by governments and politicians increasingly favor the rich. As for the bottom and middle class, they will eventually become the “leeks” that the rich are ready to harvest.
Is the United States, which is characterized by class rigidity, widening wealth gap, and social division, still the one that can make you realize the American Dream?
