Shouting into the void

Nobody likes sacrifice but it's amazing to think that inconvenience has become the friend of tyranny

Following my piece earlier in the week, I’ve pondered for a while before sharing my frustration. I’m more than aware that there will be pushback on my thoughts here, but it would be disingenuous of me not to share them, given my passion that strategic economic disengagement is the only short-term solution to the cancer eating America alive.

Before my rant begins, I thought I might try to frame my advocacy differently to set the stage for why I feel so passionate about economic activism and, in this instance, see it as the only realistic choice in light of the threat. I have heard the sentiment time and time again, ‘Are we there yet?’, when it comes to crossing the existential threat barrier. Have we reached a constitutional crisis? Have we breached societal norms? etc. It’s a human trait to keep moving the goalposts so it doesn’t appear as bad as it really is. I’m afraid we are long past a constitutional crisis; the regime has dismantled not just government, but is reimagining society itself within the framework of Christian nationalist ideology.

The human condition is such that we tend not to act until actions impact us directly. Thoughts and prayers for those suffering economic desolation are cheap. It’s the very same reason Republicans are pro-life advocates. It doesn’t cost a cent to be pro-life; the problem arises when pro-life becomes real life and starts to require support. At this point, the same Republicans have absolutely no problem with children going to bed hungry and forcing parents to work three jobs to feed members of the ‘family’ these hypocrites pretend to hold so dear.

Governments of all persuasions have presided over the creation of the largest wealth gap in American history. I hate to have to keep repeating myself, but the bottom 50% of Americans are being shepherded into poverty, following the 36 million who have already been delivered into economic slavery.

It would allegedly cost an estimated $177 billion per year to eradicate poverty in the US, i.e., to raise every American above the poverty line. For context, that’s $15,000 for an individual and $33,000 for a family of four. 42 million Americans suffer from food insecurity and are in receipt of SNAP payments, that’s 12% of the population. There’s been a 40% increase in food insecurity since 2021. To understand the impact, the cost of disease-associated malnutrition to the U.S. economy is estimated at over $156 billion, while the cost of ending food insecurity is estimated at around $109 billion.

When it comes to homelessness, there has long been a figure of 20- $30 billion noted as the amount required to end homelessness. I personally am not buying that number. Jason Ward from the RAND Centre for Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles estimates the figure is closer to $59 billion.

I fully accept that these are very broad numbers, and I’m sure they don’t capture the real costs, so for the sake of this exercise, we’re going to jack them up. Let’s use the following:

• $200 billion for the eradication of poverty

• $150 billion for the eradication of food insecurity

• $100 billion for the eradication of homelessness

If we settle on $450 billion to raise living standards above the average third-world nation, that would be a start, don’t you think? Then there’s a whole other conversation about Universal Basic Income, which the government will be forced to face as AI decimates the workforce.

There’s no question that the challenges ahead will require planning, but this regime has little time for it. If you’re interested in the implications of UBI, I’d highly recommend visiting Professor Karl Widerquist's site. He’s a political theorist and economist who is a professor of political philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar. I have a piece in the works on UBI myself that diverges somewhat from the common theory, which I’ll be sharing for your delectation next week.

Back to the matter at hand, we’ve established that $450 billion could deliver significant societal change at the bottom. The problem is that the way American society is wired dictates that spending almost half a trillion dollars on those labelled as lazy losers unworthy of help is not high on most people’s priority list. We’re wired to require someone to look down upon, but we often fail to understand the chasm between the top 1%, who own as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Meanwhile, the top 10% who currently account for 49% of all US consumer spending, own close to 70% of US wealth. In a country of 342.4 million people, an estimated 23 million own close to 70% of the nation’s wealth. This equates to just 12.2 million of the 134.8 million households in the US.

There is a reason that those in power keep a close watch on the middle class, and the US is no exception. Democrats were obsessed in the 2024 campaign with focusing on this demographic, while being prepared to throw the working class under the bus for Trump to pick up with his false promises. Historically, extreme wealth concentration at the top, combined with stagnation and exploitation of middle and lower-income earners, has almost always led to revolution.

Current income inequality in the US is high relative to other developed nations, with a wealth Gini coefficient of 0.83 being far more pronounced than income inequality. To wrap some historic context around this, in pre-revolutionary France in 1789, the wealth inequality Gini coefficient is estimated to have been between 0.80 and 0.85, with the top 10% controlled roughly 70% of total wealth. It’s like looking in an economic mirror across the centuries, where clearly the wealthy elite remain the fairest of them all until they don’t.

You have to ask the obvious question? Why aren’t the pitchforks out? Simple, the American people have been anaesthetised by a decades-long campaign of indoctrination, cheap consumption and a bottomless pit of available cheap credit, all supported by a highly efficient propaganda environment turbocharged by social media. Americans are sold a fantasy of exceptionalism designed to encourage out-of-control consumption fueled by debt. They are led into the quicksand and can’t escape their own indenture, thereby becoming economic slaves.

There has never been a time in history when those at the top have done a better job at convincing those below them to look down, not up. Those below you become recipients of blame for your diminishing prosperity, and so it cascades down; that’s why the working poor, the disabled and the homeless don’t stand a chance in the new America.

Returning to the $450 billion we spoke of earlier to end poverty, food insecurity, and homelessness in US society, the next question is always: where do we find the money? It is estimated that, in addition to the wealthy elite receiving close to half a trillion dollars each year for the next decade from Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, they will double-dip, evading an estimated trillion dollars in taxes each year, too. If you need more evidence, I suggest you read this New York Times piece from 2021 by Alan Rappeport, who noted:

The United States is losing $1 trillion in unpaid taxes every year, Charles Rettig, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, estimated on Tuesday, arguing that the agency lacks the resources to catch tax cheats.

The so-called tax gap has surged in the last decade. The last official estimate from the I.R.S. was that an average of $441 billion per year went unpaid from 2011 to 2013. Most of the unpaid taxes are the result of evasion by the wealthy and large corporations, Mr. Rettig said

There is no remedy for this societal theft because administration after administration has turned a blind eye to the point where Trump has now castrated the IRS and is handing out presidential pardons like million-dollar candy to white-collar fraudsters, allowing them to cheat their creditors. This is about much more than the rich being handed unfunded tax cuts; it’s about theft amounting to the US defence budget EVERY SINGLE YEAR. This should be grounds for revolution in itself. Alas, crickets.

OK, let’s get to the rant. Having written about strategic economic disengagement as a solution for almost a year now. I want to be clear that I’m not here to lecture anyone, just to put the facts on the table and ask you to consider how Americans are failing themselves. Unfortunately, I can’t help but feel like I’m peeing into a headwind. As I’ve said many times before, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. While I’m not going to stop talking about it, I don’t want to hear any more complaints that nobody in independent media is talking about solutions. I’ve been screaming about a trouble-free safe solution, but few are listening. I think people aren’t looking for real solutions; they’re looking for a quick fix that results in little to no inconvenience.

I want to be very clear: I support days of action on the streets, and I support events under the ‘May Day Strong’ banner scheduled for May 1st. I think such events send an important message. However, they do not deal a blow to a regime now fighting on a whole separate level. I have no problem with having a day out on May 1st, chanting:

– Tax the rich so our families, not their fortunes, come first
– ICE out: no unchecked federal enforcement power in our communities
– Expand democracy, not corporate control; defend free and fair elections

I’m afraid, though, I think the days of stating ‘the bleeding obvious’ are long gone, especially with a regime that doesn’t give a damn. The only effective action available is to STOP SPENDING and not start again until the objectives are met.

It’s time to wake up to the reality that in this moment, the people are NOT winning, Trump is losing, and there’s a massive difference. I believe Democrats are flipping seats largely courtesy of widespread Trump protest votes being loaned to them because there’s no other option. I get emails from the DNC by the bucketload every day begging for money, and I have absolutely no idea, just months out from the midterms, what the Democratic policy agenda is, other than once again, ‘Vote for us because the other guy is a fascist’ Jesus, will they never learn?

I believe the democracy activist community is the only hope of truly defeating this tyranny, but this must be a ‘gloves off campaign’. There are 90 million Americans who didn’t vote in 2024 because nobody trusts any politicians anymore. Establishment Democrats are betting the house not on a coherent policy-driven proposition to the American people, but rather that Trump will set himself on fire, leaving them an open goal. This will then help them facilitate more of the same old same old Republican lite agenda, as corporate America punches their tickets to jump back on the special interest gravy train.

I’m sorry, I’m just incandescent with rage that nobody wants to face the truth because it’s just too difficult, uncomfortable, or inconvenient. Maybe it’s because I’m on the outside looking in? Democracy doesn’t need a day out; it needs an army of warriors willing to spend on nothing but the essentials until the goals are met, and it’s just not there. That’s not because those warriors aren’t out there; they exist in every town and city across America, and they ARE ‘fired up and ready to go’, but, in my humble opinion, they are lions being led by donkeys.

The really sickening thing is that as democracy falls, political operatives and strategists will make millions justifying their own existence by playing it safe. Rest assured, there will be no shortage of profits emanating from the Industrial Election Complex on BOTH sides of the aisle leading up to 2028.

The great news is, I believe Democrats will win in 2026 and in 2028, so if that’s all you’re in it for, you’ll get your wish; loads of cash will exchange hands as corporate America shifts its bribes to the Democratic Party. I just happen to think America is better than that, but hey, what do I know?

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