By Joseph Batory

Looking at the picture of economic inequality across the USA is uncomfortable for any caring person. That’s because in the richest country in the world somewhere around 37 million Americans live at or below the poverty line.  Too many of our nation’s children (around 11 million) live in poverty which is the highest rate among all developed nations. And a study by the US Housing and Urban Development department noted that 500,000 people experience homelessness each night (other statistical estimates are as high as 750,000).

Meanwhile, the rich have gotten much richer. A Federal Reserve analysis has documented a $21 trillion increase in wealth for the top 1% of USA residents from 1989 to 2018. During that same time, the overall wealth of the bottom 50 percent of our citizens dropped by $900 billion.

In addition, a study from the University of California-Berkeley has indicated that about 1% of the wealthiest Americans own about 20% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 90% of our citizens own about the same amount (25%).

Despite this reality, too many elected officials at all levels of government have become “rubber stampers,” casting aside intellectual analysis and the real needs of the people in decision making and blindly voting for whatever the big money interests and/or political bosses dictate to them.

Indeed, Donald Trump’s chief legacy was tax breaks given to our wealthiest citizens. And the very basis for American representative democracy has been betrayed.

In one of the “worst ever” rulings by the US Supreme Court, billionaires, corporate monarchs and their well financed Political Action Committees have been permitted to call the shots in elections at all levels, basically using large amounts of money to finance/dictate self-serving agendas for designated political puppets to follow.

All of this echoes a speech a few years ago by the respected journalist Bill Moyers who summarized the deterioration of our government: “The egalitarian creed of our Declaration of Independence is mocked in all but name … The wealthy governing elites in America today – corporate executives, wealthy contributors, and  elected officials who have been bankrolled into office – possess a degree of power and separation befitting a true ruling class…”

The primary advocate for children in America, Marian Wright Edelman, leader of  The Children’s Defense Fund, has eloquently and sadly summarized this situation:  “…despite having the most billionaires and the highest gross domestic product among the 35-member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the USA ranks a shameful 32^nd among these 35 countries for income inequality.  The bottom line is that the U.S. is a world leader in the gap between rich and poor.”

Ironically, each of the world’s religions  focuses on the “responsibility of truly religious people” to care for the poor who need compassion and better support from our government and all of us. In the words of Confucius: “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.”

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Joseph Batory is the author of three books and more than 300+ published article on politics, history and education.