The Lies Conservatives Tell To Preserve Economic Inequality

The United States is still the richest nation on Earth, and one might think that would mean all of its citizens are benefitting from that. Unfortunately, that's not true. It's not true because too much of that wealth and income is in the hands of just a few people.

The sad truth is that, when it comes to the distribution of wealth and income, the United States is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The GINI index is used to show how inequality a country is (o being totally unequal and 100 being exactly equal). The World Bank has the United States listed as the 59 most unequal country (with only 58 out of 158 countries studied being more unequal). Our own CIA has it even worse -- ranking the United States 39th out of 157 countries.

The charts above show why this is happening. The top 1% is taking a much bigger share of total income, while the bottom 50% is taking a much smaller percentage than used to be true (top chart). The bottom chart shows that while incomes have risen for the top 1%, it has remained flat for the bottom 50%. This has resulted in the largest gap in wealth and income since before the Great Depression -- and it continues to grow larger (thanks to GOP policies).

Those policies will remain in place as long as the Republicans hold power. And they use 4 big lies to fool the public into going along with those failed policies. Robert Reich tells us what those 4 big lies are. Here's what he writes:

Even though we’re heading toward levels of inequality not seen since the days of the 19th century robber barons, conservatives keep lying about what’s happening and what to do about it. Here are their four biggest lies about inequality, followed by the truth.

1. The rich and CEOs are America’s job creators, so we dare not tax them. 

The truth is the middle class and poor are the job-creators through their purchases of goods and services. If they don’t have enough purchasing power because they’re not paid enough, companies won’t create more jobs and the economy won’t grow. The giant Trump-Republican tax cut for corporations and the rich hasn’t trickled down to ordinary Americans. It’s just made the rich even richer. 

2. People are paid what they’re worth in the market, so we shouldn’t tamper with pay. 

Wrong. Four decades ago, CEOs of big companies got 30 times the pay of typical workers. Now they get 361 times their workers’ pay. It’s not because they’ve done such a great job, but because they control the compensation committees of their boards. They’re using corporate profits to buy back even more shares of stock so their total compensation rises even more. And, they’re monopolizing the economy at the same time. 

Meanwhile, most American workers earn nearly the same today as they did forty years ago, adjusted for inflation. That’s not because they’re working less hard now, but because they don’t have strong unions bargaining for them, as they did then.

3. Any child can make it in America with enough guts, gumption, and intelligence, so we don’t need to do anything for poor and working-class kids.  

The truth is we already do next to nothing for poor and working class kids. Their schools don’t have enough teachers or staff, their textbooks are outdated, they lack science labs, their school buildings are falling apart. We don’t help with costs of child care. We don’t invest in early childhood education. We spend less educating poor kids than we do educating kids from wealthy families. 

4. Increasing the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs, so we shouldn’t raise it. 

In fact, studies show that in states where the minimum wage has been increased, the number of jobs increases. That’s because minimum-wage workers have more money to spend – resulting in more jobs, and also saving employers money on employee turnover. 

America’s lurch toward widening inequality can be reversed. But doing so will require bold political steps. And the American public must know the facts. 

So don’t listen to the right-wing lies about inequality. Know the truth, and act on it.