Another day, another challenge to try and make sense of America, where moral decency, integrity and social responsibility have been banished from a new vision of America dominated by subjugation of everything that once made the US the envy of the world.
What started as an intended three-part post is now part five! If you would like to pick this series up from the beginning, click here.
It’s taken me a little time to come to terms with my work here. I never imagined people would be very interested in the ramblings of an old guy an ocean away on the subject of American politics and social justice. To some extent, I’m still in a pleasant state of shock that I have built a not insignificant merry band of truth seekers not frightened to absorb some sometimes brutal truths. It gives me hope that in the darkest of times, there are always good people willing to fight for what’s right.
I began this journey a little over four months ago with some trepidation, armed only with an opinion and a lot to say. I spent a little while feeling unworthy and conscious that my writing style can be somewhat quirky and nonconformist at times. However, what I have learned is that there is a community here that can look past the flaws and appreciate writing from the heart, and every fledgling writer should take heart from that gift that is present here. I wake up each morning feeling comfortable, now that I can tackle each piece with a sense of purpose and confidence, and I have people like you to thank for that.
As a side note, I am aware that my short paragraph structure may appear a bit unusual on a larger screen. However, given that many now read content on the go on mobile devices, I find that there is nothing worse and more intimidating than a wall of words. I hope those reading on larger screens can bear with the short paragraph structure in the interest of the collective good.
We’ve finally arrived at the conclusion of this series of posts examining the new reality for everyday Americans in this moment. Those who must endure what history will undoubtedly record as one of the most devastating periods for average, hard-working, good people, who are the very engine of the US economy.
I believe that American workers often undervalue themselves, and this is essentially a result of being told by the top 10% and their political proxies that they need to work harder and for longer to succeed in life. The wealthy have transformed aspiration into necessity. Where once having nice things was an aspiration within reach, in this new, allegedly more prosperous America, the only aspiration they now have is to survive. The nice things are reserved for others.
It makes me so angry that politicians from both sides of the aisle are content to see aspiration turn into survival. Life in America should not be a survival course; it should be about aspiring to achieve the American dream, not inheriting it through exploitation of those now denied access to it. It is the classic societal incarnation of the boiling frog analogy. Lower- and lower-middle-income earners have been sedated. They are being ushered into poverty and economic slavery to provide cheap labour to enable the rich to transfer every last drop of wealth from the bottom to the top.
There’s a diversity of economic statistics on the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, with some showing a rate as high as 65%. I have decided to go with Market Watch from May 14, 2025, and use the figure of 57%. Regardless of the number, this accounts for over 50% of workers. Studies indicate US workers are more likely to live paycheck to paycheck compared to workers in other developed countries. Those in power spend years indoctrinating Americans to believe that America is the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth, and they should be grateful to live there.
What nobody tells them is that they pay more for almost every service they need to live their daily life. More expensive healthcare, education, childcare, elderly care, I could go on. Now American exceptionalism will say, ‘Ah yes, but American wages are higher than in most developed countries. ’ What they don’t tell you is that the average salary is skewed by the number of obscene salaries paid to those in the top 10%. It’s well worth taking a trip to examine the various cost-of-living indexes. The harsh truth is that even before Trump, the claim that the US is the greatest nation on earth is, at the very least, an optimistic one. ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ’ as they say. Not that I have any problem with national pride, something most of us feel from time to time.
It’s challenging to determine where to begin when examining the impact of Trump’s agenda on the average American family, and it’s essential that I give due consideration to as many of the relevant variables as possible. What makes it particularly difficult to assess is the clever way Trump’s agenda is being integrated into the American psyche. It is undeniable that over half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and that 50% of Americans earn less than $ 30,000 a year. Legislators have effectively made family economic survival dependent on two wages. These are not radical left-wing talking points; they are simple FACTS. If ever you wanted proof that the wealth of America in 2025 is being created on the backs of low and middle-income workers, you are living it.
Republicans want you to believe that America is infested with immigrant vermin feeding off the welfare pot created by good white Christian American workers. What they forget to mention is the $900 billion in federal and state taxes undocumented workers pay, which goes toward services they don’t even have access to. Or the corporate welfare companies like Walmart enjoy, with their employees unable to survive without Medicaid and food stamps. Instead, they prefer to focus on demonising the mythical army of ‘able-bodied’ sofa-surfing gamers, gaming the system.
My argument is, why not pursue the estimated $1 trillion in unpaid taxes from those who will now benefit from yet another trillion-dollar tax giveaway? And if you are looking for abuse in Medicare and Medicaid, take a close look at the providers who treat it as a slush fund to drain taxpayer dollars. Perhaps they could even ask Senator Rick Scott to explain how it’s done, so they can begin to tackle the fraud. The only thing the American people are victims of is the rampant corruption and lies of their own president.
Trump’s whole agenda relies on the distortion of reality. This is no longer about controlling the narrative; it’s become about maintaining an illusion of growing prosperity for average Americans. Statements like ‘You are going to have so much money you won’t know what to do with it’ and ‘Gas prices are at $1.99’ aren’t throwaway lines; they are deliberate acts of deception designed to make you think you’re going insane if you’re not feeling it. Those who are powering this herding of people into economic slavery are clearly intent on using lies and deception to reimagine the social fabric of American society.
The cabal in the shadows understands that as humans, there’s nothing we hate more than being wrong, especially when it comes to character judgment. We hate to have backed the wrong horse, and that is a critical part of selling the MAGA ideology. Nobody wants to admit that they’ve been played; that becomes a reflection of their poor judgment, so they would rather stay the course.
We are living inside one big magic trick in which Trump is smiling as he cuts his beautiful assistant, the economy, in half, pretending the blood that’s squirting from the box is just part of the show. When you employ a liar-in-chief clown, don’t be surprised when you get a circus where there is no safety net for the high-wire act. It’s time to dispel the illusions and sit down at the table to examine the real impact on families. Take a look at this chart from the Guardian on 19th July:
This shows customs duty (TAX) showing a spike for 2025, which is the highest since 1910. In Trump's world, this is an excellent thing because it’s a revenue receipt he can point to while using sleight of hand to say foreign countries are ‘paying up. ’ It’s a deliberate bare-faced lie and he knows it. But it perpetuates the illusion he has created, suggesting that foreigners are getting what they deserve for ripping off America as he loves to paint it. The truth is that this is a homegrown tax grab from US importers, which derives ZERO income from foreign countries.
The only question that remains is how much of this tax grab is passed on to US consumers. To date, consumers have been largely shielded from any major price increases as a result of retailers front-loading the import of goods before Trump’s Liberation Day debacle in April. As a result, tariff costs have mainly been deferred to date. A report by Lauren Aratani in the Guardian on 15th July noted:
The prices of appliances, furniture and toys, products typically manufactured outside the US, all rose (in June). Food prices increased by 3%, with the price of beef rising by more than 2% over the month, coffee up 2.2% and citrus fruit prices rising 2.3%. While the price of eggs has been dropping over the last few months, a dozen eggs are still 27% more expensive than last year.
The litmus test will come with the July numbers, which I certainly anticipate to be even higher. The truth is that many Americans are so exhausted with politics and politicians that they rarely take much notice until things start to affect them directly; then they sit up and pay attention. It’s all about the subtle changes. For example, the gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the removal of the rules limiting credit card late fees, overdraft fees, and keeping medical debt off credit reports. It’s death by a thousand cuts. Christine Hines, senior policy director at the National Association of Consumer Advocates, notes:
“Ordinary people are more at the mercy of the companies they do business with. It's building a free-for-all for some bad actors out there. Consumers generally are in a very precarious place because some of these fundamental protections have been removed."
Adjusted for inflation, consumers are expected to pay about 4.3% more for power this summer. Then we move on to new student loan rules, which impose new lifetime borrowing caps: $100,000 for graduate students, $200,000 for those pursuing professional degrees such as law or medicine, and $65,000 per child for parent borrowers. Who said that segregation was abolished in education?
We can argue all day about this discriminatory approach to education, which adds to the discriminatory approach to healthcare, childcare and borrowing, etc. While this might line up with the Republican philosophy of keeping ‘em dumb and poor to eliminate critical thinking, it does absolutely nothing to keep the US competitive in a global market where China is turning out the most educated future workforce in history.
The bottom line is that Trump is ushering in a new era of rampant discrimination against low and lower-middle-income families. I can absolutely assure you that they are, as we speak, about to be the target of even more predatory lending and sharp business practices, and this government will do nothing to protect them, because it will be their friends committing state-sanctioned crimes against the vulnerable. It’s not for nothing that Blackrock is busy buying up trailer parks. They are preparing to profit from the expected creation of ghettos, as economic slavery takes hold.
The reason this is so difficult to write about with greater clarity is that the new budget bill is littered with hidden societal timebombs designed to transfer wealth from the bottom to the top slowly. The administration paints an illusionary narrative that it’s all about being patient; meanwhile, the top 10% have already run off with trillions of dollars. As humans, we tend not to react to adversity until we have to. As a result, warnings and bad news tend to be tuned out, and that is where we currently stand.
Moral decency and integrity left the building on the day Trump entered the White House. We are now living in a world where the FBI has spent thousands of hours flagging any reference to Trump in a child sex scandal. The Deputy Attorney General has been sent to coach a convicted key protagonist in the case. At the same time, the Speaker of the House suspended Congress so his own members can’t vote for the release of papers Trump himself used as a campaign weapon. You really couldn't make this stuff up, and yet they do, every day.
My friends, we have a long journey ahead. These are extraordinary times when our very sanity is being tested daily. All we can do is be there for each other and tell it as it is, without any sugarcoating. The American people deserve no less.
This isn’t the failure of the democracy experiment. It’s the failure of the human experiment.
Thank you for telling it like it is and for analyzing in a very readable way.