Empires don’t crumble from external threats but through internal hubris. By chanting “we’re number one,” this reality can be masked.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we will hear repeatedly that this is the greatest country in the world. And yet, by virtually every measure of quality of life, the United States is far from number one. One can even argue, compared with other industrialized countries, the United States ranks near the bottom, if not in last place.
When it comes to the cost of healthcare that citizens pay, the U.S. is number one. Yet it ranks last among industrial countries in overall performance, access to care, and recovery outcomes.
The U.S. is number one in the incarceration rate of its citizens. But it ranks last among industrial countries in overall citizen safety.
As to gun ownership and mass shootings, the U.S. ranks number one. That explains why the U.S. ranks near the bottom among industrial countries in life expectancy.
We are number one for all the wrong reasons.
It wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time, the U.S. had a strong safety net that provided a better quality of living. This was due to the wealthy paying their share of the taxes.
But with the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s, which embraced the laughable Laffer Curve, taxes on the wealthy were dramatically slashed based on the “trickle-down” doctrine. The idea was that if the rich had more money through lower taxes, they would invest it and create more jobs, and the “rising tide would lift all boats.”
Instead, to further increase their profits, the rich created cheaper jobs offshore, eliminating manufacturing jobs here at home. This unexpected consequence contributed to a radical shrinkage of the middle class.
At the start of Reagan’s administration, the income of the top one percent was 65 times greater than that of the bottom 10 percent. By the end of the Reagan administration, the income of the top one percent was 115 times higher.
From 1979 to 2000, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported the gap between the rich and the poor more than doubled. During that time, the U.S. experienced the greatest growth of wage inequality in the Western world. Since Regan’s Revolution, real income has risen only for the most affluent families.
As can be expected, the reduction of taxes on the wealthiest citizens—from 70% in 1979 to 37% today—meant the safety net contributing to the average citizen’s quality of life could no longer be maintained. Hence, social services were cut, if not eliminated.
Even what is owed to the average citizen, such as Social Security payments upon retirement, is mislabeled as “entitlements.” Such wording implies these services are “benefits,” obscuring the fact that they are, in fact, returns on what we invested into the program.
Like a salary paid in exchange for labor, these are neither entitlements nor benefits. They are earned. But if they can be defined as a benefit, then they can be substantially reduced by 23%, if not eliminated altogether.
Meanwhile, while the average citizen sees the continuous shrinkage of wealth and resources, the very rich simply get richer. Consider how the ten richest men doubled their wealth during the first two years of the pandemic, from a combined $700 billion to $1.5 trillion. This amounted to roughly $15,000 per second.
If those men were to lose 99.999 percent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99 percent of all the world’s inhabitants.
Some experienced historically unparalleled increases in their net worth. Elon Musk’s wealth went from $27 billion at the start of the pandemic to $294.2 billion by January 2022, a 1,016% increase. Steve Bezos saw his wealth increase during the same period from $113 billion to $202.6 billion, a 67% increase.
For these uber-rich, spaceships have replaced yachts as the ultimate status symbol.
If we consider that Musk, Bezos, and others like them had front-row seats at the last presidential inauguration, then we can understand how this administration has created a government of the uber-rich for the uber-rich. Plutocracy is established with the support of the people, mainly white Christians, who voted for this administration: 81% of white evangelicals, 60% of white Catholics, and 57% of white non-evangelical Protestants.
Something is wrong with a white Christianity that supports the diversion of money from the average citizen to the very rich. The good news for the poor of the Gospel has been pimped out by white Christian nationalists for the amusement of the rich.
To clarify, my earlier statement that the U.S. once had a robust social safety net was overgeneralizing. That was true if you were white.
For citizens of color struggling with the overt Jim and Jane Crow of the South, as well as the somewhat more subtle Jim and Jane Crow of the North, this safety net was never designed to catch their fall. Excluded, they did not benefit from the empire. They were its victims.
Greed is causing the empire to crumble. Now, everyone who is not uber-rich, regardless of their racial designation, is a victim of this reverse Robin Hood system.
Hence, when compared to other industrial nations, the U.S. unsurprisingly ranks among the worst places to live when it comes to healthcare, safety, or quality of life.
While the crumbling of this empire might ultimately be best for humanity in general, the truth remains that the super-wealthy will survive. Heck, as was the case during the pandemic, they’ll likely grow richer.
Those who will suffer are the average citizens. And those who will suffer even more are all of us who fall short of the white ideal.
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Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, and a contributing correspondent at Good Faith Media.