The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let's fix it - here's how - By Bernie Sanders

[DonViejo]

While working people toil, the richest have never have it so good. It’s time to fight back – our democracy depends on it

Mon 29 Mar 2021 08.48 EDT

The United States cannot prosper and remain a vigorous democracy when so few have so much and so many have so little. While many of my congressional colleagues choose to ignore it, the issue of income and wealth inequality is one of the great moral, economic and political crises that we face – and it must be dealt with.

The unfortunate reality is that we are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires have enormous wealth and power while working families have been struggling in a way we have not seen since the Great Depression. This situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Today, half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, 500,000 of the very poorest among us are homeless, millions are worried about evictions, 92 million are uninsured or underinsured, and families all across the country are worried about how they are going to feed their kids. Today, an entire generation of young people carry an outrageous level of student debt and face the reality that their standard of living will be lower than their parents’. And, most obscenely, low-income Americans now have a life expectancy that is about 15 years lower than the wealthy. Poverty in America has become a death sentence.

Meanwhile, the people on top have never had it so good. The top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 92%, and the 50 wealthiest Americans own more wealth than the bottom half of American society – 165 million people. While millions of Americans have lost their jobs and incomes during the pandemic, over the past year 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.3tn.

more
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/29/rich-poor-gap-wealth-inequality-bernie-sanders

[XanaDUer2]

1. Bring the tumbrels

time to pony up

[DTRV]

2. Food, Shelter and Clothing Should be human rights

Bernie Sanders sentiments are allusions on where are moral vision of alloting material resources should be heading. With the extreme rich holding an excess amount of resources that is necessary for survival, I say their income should be reduced by taxes in order to decomidify any material resources that is needed for survival:
1. Food
2. Sheler
3. Clothing
4. Water

Once we have a true safety net established which does not require money nor labor and that safety net guarantees dignified living, then we can decide which luxury items will require the exchange of commercial labor for most of us.

[MissMillie]

3. not just a moral issue--bad for the economy

When so many people have no money to spend there is no economic growth.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Growing income and wealth inequality is not just an economic issue.

(snip)

Growing income and wealth inequality is not just an economic issue. It touches the very foundation of American democracy. If the very rich become much richer while millions of working people see their standard of living continue to decline, faith in government and our democratic institutions will wither and support for authoritarianism will increase. We cannot let that happen.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/29/rich-poor-gap-wealth-inequality-bernie-sanders

(snip)

Thanks for the thread DonViejo.