Whose Economy Is It Anyway?

All you have to do is turn on the news, check social media, or even walk outside your door to see that we are living in one of the most divisive periods in American history. In most cases, that division is discussed in terms of politics, with the rise of the far-right testing this country’s capacity to resist authoritarianism. Meanwhile, the unprecedented electoral success of many insurgent left-wing candidates this year proves that “socialism” isn’t as toxic a label as it once was, at least in some parts of the country.

While much ink has been spilled digging into the ideologies dividing the people of America, I believe the root of our divide lies less in what people believe and more in the basic opportunities that people have (or don’t). No matter what your political alignment might be, both the Republican and Democratic parties are struggling to connect with voters when it comes to addressing the material needs with which hundreds of millions of people are grappling.

If you choose only to look at a handful of macroeconomic figures, you might be tempted to think our economy is better than ever. The stock market is consistently hitting record highs; companies are raking in record profits and shareholders are reaping the benefits.

Photo credit: Jan Vašek

However, average American families are barely making ends meet. Household debt hit a record high of $20 trillion earlier this year, an increasing number of consumers are delinquent on that debt, and a U.S. News & World Report nationwide survey finds 43% of Americans couldn’t cover a $1,000 emergency with their savings. These are disturbing trends that reflect our historic wealth gap and fuel the rise of populists who thrive and profit from sowing discord over race, gender and class.

While most of the country is struggling, our economic inequities hit some people much harder than others. For one, new college graduates are entering an unprecedentedly difficult job market, with new grads experiencing an unemployment rate higher than the national average. With the rise of artificial intelligence, the impact on the job market is yet to be fully determined, and many young people looking to enter the workforce are less certain than ever of what their future might look like.

As has always been the case in this country, Black families bear the brunt of income inequality and poor labor protections. Even as Black wealth has increased overall, the racial wealth gap has grown just as quickly, with a total difference of $240,120 in wealth between the median white household and the median Black household. For every $100 in wealth held by white households, Black households held only $15, according to a 2022 Federal Reserve survey.

Average American families are barely making ends meet.

Of course, those figures are cold comfort to most rural, predominantly white families, whose opportunities have shrunk or even disappeared as the American economy shifted away from manufacturing, and automation replaces workers at an ever-quickening pace. In Georgia, approximately 17% of the state’s household wealth is held in rural counties while 83% of the wealth is in nonrural counties. Look no further than the closure of rural hospitals and the struggles of rural schools to see how our economy is leaving millions of hardworking families behind.

Behind all of these statistics are real people suffering real consequences for our refusal to rebuild the middle class from the ground up. We are not discussing hypotheticals – children are starving, parents are struggling, jobs are disappearing, and few people seem to have the will to do anything about it. If families in Chattahoochee County couldn’t afford groceries when the Dow Jones was at 40,000 points and they’re no better off now that it’s around 50,000 points, when are we going to finally reckon with the fact that we can’t keep defining American prosperity by how much richer the rich are getting?

For the last decade, we’ve heard that we need to “Make America Great Again.” In terms of a thriving middle-class, America was never better than it was between the 1940s and 1980s, when we had more equitable taxation rates, sustainably funded social services and strong unions.

While I don’t know one person of color who would be keen to time travel back to the ’60s, adopting economic reforms targeted to rebuilding middle-class power today would benefit families across the board. Most of the last 40 years has been an experiment in deregulation and trickle-down economics, both of which have failed by any objective measure for the average American family.

This country has the potential to be truly great for everyone for the first time in its 250-year history but only if our leaders remember to fight for the many, not the few. 

Tharon Johnson can be seen Sunday mornings on The Georgia Gang on Fox 5 Atlanta.