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| The only growth industry in our economy. |
The top 1 percent of Americans
owns 40 percent of the nation’s wealth[i].
Most CEOs took home an average 379 staffers’ worth in base pay[ii].
Just six Walmart heirs have as much wealth as 30% of Americans[iii].
There’s always been rich people.
But the rich today are so much richer than before and power has become so
consolidated in so few hands, it’s become impossible for anyone who is not born
rich to get ahead.
Even Obama, who was elected on a
platform of “change,” has stacked his cabinet with Goldman Sachs executives. So
even our government, which used to be the only means available of leveling the
playing field somewhat, has become useless.
Everywhere I look I see evidence
that proves our Third World status. Whether it’s the book The Unwinding[iv],
the documentary Two American Families[v], the daily articles I read in the New York
Times or the evidence right in front of my
eyes, there’s no denying that we’ve reached a point where the American Dream is
dead and there’s no turning back.
This is especially evident if
you’re not working 9-5. If you’re working 9-5, you’re shielded from a lot of
the worst evidence of America’s decline. But if you’re not working 9-5, it’s
amazing the people you see on the streets and on the subway. Hispanic women selling
fruit on street corners, Asian women collecting bottles, young African-American
teenagers selling candy on the subway. These are the job choices we’re offering
people.
Even if you’re a college-educated
white male like me, your options are dwindling.
When I first started working, it
was still possible to get a so-called “permanent” job. Now companies can’t
commit to more than three months at a time, if that. The fastest growing
segment of the economy is temp workers[vi].
So-called “permanent” jobs are disappearing and they’re not coming back.
Today, I saw a post on Facebook
saying that Manatus, one of the last existing diners in lower Manhattan, is
being turned into a Calvin Klein store. Rents on Bleecker Street, formerly a
quaint, residential street in New York City’s West Village, now surpass rents
on Bond Street in London and Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, according to the Web
site Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York[vii].
A few days ago, there was an
article in the New York Times about a
bidding war for a $595,000 studio in the West Village[viii].
According to the article “it was the only condominium for sale in the West
Village for under $600,000.”
And nowadays, even if you’re rich
enough to be able to afford a $595,000 studio, the competition to buy that
studio is so intense that you can’t really
afford it unless you can afford to pay all cash. Because you’re not just competing with rich New
Yorkers, you’re competing with rich people from all over the world, who will probably only be using the apartment as an
investment or, at most, a pied-à-terre. There are now entire buildings, if not
entire neighborhoods, in cities like New York[ix]
and London[x] that consist
of these uninhabited investment apartments.
My best friend (another
college-educated white male like me) recently had to move back with his sister
in Virginia because his landlord stopped accepting the rent he was paying on
his sublet. He and my other best friend (also college-educated) have both been
unemployed for over a year. The only reason I’m still living in New York City
is because I’m rent-stabilized.
So let’s stop kidding ourselves
that America is the “land of opportunity” and New York is the “city that never
sleeps.” Because neither of those statements has been true for at least 20
years.
1 comment:
Paul, congrats. I loved your article and sadly have to agree with everything you said about where our country is heading and has become.
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