Class Warfare Is Decimating Working People—Can We Stop It?

The economy really is stacked against working people, and it is literally killing us

It is July 2024 and the minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25/hour since 2009. It’s one reason why I stand by this viral tweet I tweeted some time ago:

I’m good with my taxes subsidizing welfare benefits for people who can’t afford food. I’m enraged with my taxes subsidizing corporate welfare to businesses that won’t pay living wages.

I can already predict the inevitable email responses I’ll receive. “You’re a communist,” or “stop hating people for their success,” or my personal favorite, “don’t you get tired of spending other people’s money?” Each of these snarky replies are both deflection, and contrary to the ground reality that the super wealthy have in fact launched class warfare against working people through a rigged tax system, corporate fraud, corporate wage theft, and through a widening and deadly wealth and income inequality. The receipts prove it. And we need to stop it because this is unsustainable.

So, Let’s Address This.

Warfare Through A Rigged Tax System

The fact is, my above tweet is grounded in current reality. And that reality is that the ultra wealthy pay the lowest tax rate of any demographic in America.

While the super wealthy paid up to a 94% marginal tax rate post WWII to pre-Reagan, the Reaganomics trickle down scam changed all that to the detriment of working people. And to be sure, that high marginal tax rate did not bankrupt the super wealthy, it did not drive industry out of the country, it did not decimate the job market, and it certainly did not stifle innovation. Instead, it strengthened our economy, grew industry, and established a thriving middle class. Now, the ultra-rich pay “next to nothing” in taxes.

Warren Buffet famously remarked that he should not be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, but he is. And the scariest part is, this isn’t even the worst part of how class warfare by the wealthy is decimating the lives of working people in America. Consider corporate fraud.

Warfare Through Corporate Fraud

We already know that a major Big Pharma lobby prevents the passage of guaranteed universal healthcare, even though it would save 68,000 American lives and at least $450 Billion, annually. Now a new report published by the Wall Street Journal documents $50 Billion stolen by insurance corporations via fraud for made up illnesses. Exactly zero executives have or will suffer prison or accountability for this fraud, meanwhile the parent who stole baby formula to feed their hungry child is spending time in jail. Warfare is when billionaires can steal billions while enjoying the cover of Forbes, while destitute parents steal food and suffer the gauntlet of jail.

Warfare Through Wage Theft

Not content with committing insurance fraud, studies show that corporations annually steal another $50 Billion in wages from working Americans. Once again, zero executives go to prison, zero stores are shut down, and zero policy changes prevent future wage theft. Corporations like Walmart underpay their employees, force them onto welfare, and then steal their wages—all without so much as a slap on the wrist. It’s no surprise that taxpayers subsidize Walmart employees with more than $6.2B in benefits, because corporations like Walmart refuse to pay a living wage but commit wage theft.

Warfare Through Wealth Redistribution From Working People To The Ultra Wealthy

A detailed study reports the shocking figure of $50 Trillion redistributed from from working people to Top 1%. This is through a combination of bailouts for billion dollar corporations who gambled in the economy, absurd tax cuts and subsidies for the ultra wealthy, and exemptions for the wealthy unavailable to the poor. To be clear, the above is not a typo. Over the last 40 years of the Reaganomics trickle down scam, the ultra wealthy have taken $50 Trillion that would have otherwise gone to working Americans. This is unsustainable. It is no wonder that today, 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. These are policies enacted by the super wealthy to hoard their wealth, while working people suffer. This is de facto class warfare.

Warfare Through Widening Wealth and Income Inequality

Its should shock every person with a conscience that the trickle down scam has doubled wealth and income inequality over the last quarter century. In fact, by some estimates wealth and income inequality is worse today than it was before the Great Depression. In fact, in the near decade since the below cited report was published, combined with the COVID pandemic, the wealthy grew their wealth by another $2.3 trillion, while working people lost more than $2.1 trillion. It does not take a mathematician to see where our wealth went.

These are facts. This is what class warfare looks like. And yet, these facts are still not the scariest part about this class warfare. Because it isn’t just about poverty, it’s about the fact that these policies are killing Americans at record rates.

Warfare Through Enforced Poverty and Death

And thus the scariest part of this war on working people. Ultimately, this massive wealth and income inequality isn’t just impacting basic living conditions, it is deadly. Harvard University researchers at the Opportunity Insights project report that poverty is stripping Americans of decades of life:

The richest American men live 15 years longer than the poorest men, while the richest American women live 10 years longer than the poorest women. The gaps between the rich and the poor are growing rapidly over time. From 2001-2014, the richest Americans gained approximately 3 years in longevity, but the poorest Americans experienced no gains.

And this gap is further exacerbated when accounting for race. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports:

Life expectancy is lowest for AIAN people at 67.9 years, followed by Black people at 72.8 years, while White and Hispanic people have higher life expectancies of 77.5 and 80 years, respectively, and Asian people have the highest life expectancy at 84.5 years. Life expectancies are even lower for AIAN and Black males, at 64.6 and 69.1 years, respectively.

Early death is the end result of the unholy fusion of warfare through corporate fraud, corporate wage theft, redistribution of wealth from working people to the ultra wealth, and widening wealth and income inequality.

Can We Stop This Class Warfare?

I believe the answer is still YES.

It starts by accepting the fact that condemning these economic injustices isn’t communism, it isn’t hating people for success, and it certainly isn’t spending other people’s money. It is demanding a fair and just economic system where people are not exploited for food, water, shelter, healthcare, clothing, and education—the necessities of life.

It advances by building proven policy that works. As mentioned earlier, the middle class boomed (despite Jim Crow America and financial restrictions on women) when the ultra wealthy paid up to a 94% marginal tax rate. Imagine just how much stronger our economy can be today post-Jim Crow and post-1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act if the ultra wealthy paid their fair share in taxes? In less than a year the IRS has collected more than $1 billion in back taxes by having the resources to go after millionaire tax cheats.

And it sustains by protecting worker’s rights and banning the exploitation of life’s necessities. That means guaranteeing universal healthcare and paid family leave. Demanding a living wage for all working people in this country. And ensuring corporate executives who commit fraud, wage theft, and wage exploitation, suffer meaningful consequences for their crimes.

Perhaps the ultra wealthy enjoy counting their wealth over and over because they think it will make them immortal? I’ve long said that we do not suffer from a lack of resources, but due to an excess of greed. Right now what working people are suffering through is de facto class warfare, and it’s about time working people won. The path forward is difficult, but the status quo is far more difficult. It is time to end this war on working people, and restore economic justice.

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