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Today I learned that the top 10% of earners in the US account for almost 50% of consumption
(www.morningbrew.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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Today I learned
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This has been the norm throughout most of history.
The last few years maybe, at least since agriculture enabled standing armies, but not for most of human history, which has frequently been egalitarian and communal
True but it is new to the American experience since World War 2.
The US has always been built to satisfy the top.
A Brief History of Income Inequality in the US
For further reading I'd highly recommend the book A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
Its no wonder the country is fragmented and polarised when 90% of people are not seeing any benefits from the status quo. The middle class is being wiped out.
The "middle class," ie the small business owners and sole proprietors, are largely falling to far-right populism as they are pressed downwards by decaying capitalism into the working class. That's why marginalized groups are being targeted by fascism, the spoils of Imperialism are drying up so imperialism is being brought inward to a domestic underclass of laborers.
This reminds me of the in-group/out-group structure used to describe conservatism. Once the out-group (a particular minority, typically) has been eliminated, a new out-group (another particular minority) is identified and thusly marginalized/crushed until they're gone...and the next out-group is identified etc. in this case the small biz owners/proprietors voting conservative thinking it'll get them a seat at the table when it's really just gonna be a chain around their neck at best. They will be the minority that's targeted one day.
That's what puts the "con" in conservative--everyone in the group believes they are always going to be part of the in-group, even when they are easily-identified minorities... Perhaps today wasn't the day they got demoted to the out-group, and participating in the joyous dismissal of the most recent out-group leads them to the even deeper belief of their permanence in the in-group... Until one day when they get their very own jpg of pikachu and ICE is coming for them this time (งツ)ว
The actual utility is that the "petite bourgeoisie" as they're called are essentially turned into witch-hunting footsoldiers to root out leftist organization. This allows the ruling class to freely lower living standards, wages, etc domestically in order to raise profits. It's a temporary but brutal solution.
Wow, even worse than i thought 🫠
Yep! Has happened everywhere that fascism has taken hold, and has happened in a pretty much permanent state in the US Empire from the outset. Capitalism necessitates expansion to fight falling rates of profit, which is why developed countries imperialize others. It isn't just for more, it's for any profit. When there's nowhere else to plunder, and you can't exploit workers overseas even more, and profit rates are still falling, you turn to domestic reasons. Turn off the treat printers, stop bribing your domestic working class, take the mask off and murder dissent while you treat your domestic working class the same way you treat the international working class.
Capitalism can't escape this cycle. It even causes wars, that's why Nazi Germany kicked off World War II; it needed new colonies. Europe only opposed it because the Nazis were daring to colonize Europe and not just the global south. Only socialism, where we move beyond production for profit towards producing to satisfy needs, can solve this.
my own family is a microcosm of this: half of us are white passing and that half married white people, so now they've voting maga and somehow refuse to believe that their own mexican heritage and surnames won't have any impact on how they'll be treated after they're done with the rest of us brown people. it gets much worse when you consider that they have closeted queer children/grandchildren; they've put in efforts to eschew the customs that we all grew up with; and even one of them still isn't an american citizen.
the in/out-crowd mindset is also infectious; my parents stayed true to their leftist/liberal political leanings until my white passing siblings were able to influence them w the relative affluence afforded from my siblings' small business owning in-laws. it took a come to jesus talk with my mother to convince her not to vote for trump in 2016 and it was a lost cause for my father; both told me that we're no longer mexican because we're "better off" than my cousins/aunts/uncles.
last xmas was the feather that broke the camel's back for me: my siblings' abandonment of our xmas customs allowed me to visit those cousins/aunts/uncles (who were not at all white passing) and the main topic of discussion was how crazy republicans have gotten and how white people are becoming that way too; meanwhile i had to learn the hard way w my sister that night that these subjects are "not appreciated" with my immediate family and part of me feels stupid/slow for not picking up on it as quickly as my siblings did.
now i'm able to recognize that my brown siblings have been using their in-laws living in latin-america as an excuse for not visiting for holidays in the last decade+ and i'm going to have to cook up an excuse of my own since i'm no longer married. lol