Four numbers that show America's disdain for its most vulnerable people

Now, with a quarter of the population facing economic collapse, the need for a guaranteed income is magnified to a level last seen in the Great Depression.

https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/06/08/four-numbers-that-show-americas-disdain-for-its-most-vulnerable-people/



Hundreds of thousands of Americans have suffered “deaths of despair” from alcohol and drug abuse and suicides because they could no longer provide for their families. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, during a post-recession period when the economy and stock market were booming, the poorest 50% of Americans lost wealth. And now many of them have lost their jobs, their income, their livelihoods.

40%—The percentage of lost jobs that may be lost for good

Anywhere from half to three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Now the paychecks are disappearing. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs, many of which will not come back. A recent paper out of the University of Chicago estimates that over 40 percent of jobs lost are gone for good.

$40 Trillion—The amount of wealth that went to America’s richest 10% in just ten years

The poorest 50% got nothing. Their wealth actually declined. Over three-quarters of our wealth is owned by the richest 10% of Americans. Over $40 trillion has surged up to these individuals since the recession, allowing them to more than double their wealth to an average of over $3 million, mainly by doing nothing while the stock market nearly quadrupled in value. That’s American prosperity being shifted upwards, a redistribution of wealth to households that were already wealthy. America has nearly 20 million millionaires—approximately one for every seven households. But four of seven households are living without savings.

$8.70—The amount of black household wealth for every $100.00 of white household wealth

The economic pain is greatest for black households, who have seen their median household income DROP over the past twenty years, while their total household wealth remains at about one-twelfth of white households. The pain and misfortune continue to pile up for the black community, which has suffered the greatest effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Because of their job losses and lack of savings and inability to maintain rent payments, they will be taking the brunt of an inevitable housing crisis; and, in perhaps the cruelest hit of all, the Trump administration is still considering cuts in the food stamp program.

One hour—The amount of work in a week to be qualified as ’employed’...........

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