It's easy to call us cowards, in reality we live in a surveillance state that makes trillions of dollars by killing and torturing it's own citizens. In a place like this lacking morals becomes a question of survival. Definitely not excusing it, but it's the truth.

Man covid was devastating

This is a worldwide problem, not just a US one.

Always hard to interpret these bottom procentile numbers because a certain procentile has 0 wealth or negative wealth. A quick search says 25% of Americans have 0 or negative wealth. I myself have negative wealth because I recently graduated and I have student loans. A homeless guy with 0 debt and 1 dollar in his pocket therefore can be said to be wealthier than 25% of Americans, and myself. However my quality of life is very good with an above average wage. And I can be expected to start going into positive net wealth later in life as I start paying off those student loans.

I would love to see numbers in lifetime wealth generation or something similar that would take into account that a lot of people are understably at 0 or negative wealth at early points of their life. Otherwise I have a hard time interpreting these bottom procentile numbers. Makes for great headlines though!

And yet, people still think the top tier earners deserve to live in houses with unbroken windows and unburnt lawns...

It's not about spine, it's about the system. There is currently no mechanism to change this, even if we wanted to, which we generally do. We have to change the system first, so that a change in how we handle Sociopathic Oligarchs is possible.

And frankly, we're working hard on that. We've got a Midterm Election coming up that Dems have been working very hard to exploit as much as possible (for a change), and more than that, the people who are running and winning primaries are the kind that are going to insist on substantial changes when they get in office, starting with leadership. If the Dems take the Senate, Schmuck is out as leader, and then out of his office in 2028.

When we change the profile of the party, take control of Congress, then change the leadership, we are on the path to make bigger changes that can have a real impact.

Americans? It's fucking planet Earth (share your country and I'll demonstrate)

Seriously, what should I do as an individual to singlehandedly change this?

Not in a fedposting get-you-to-incriminate-yourself way, I'm genuinely asking what you expect me to do, one person out of nearly 400 million

I'm fucking trying, I'm doing everything I can in my rented apartment and my shitbox from the '90s

Who the fuck is the target audience for this on Lemmy, Europeans glazing each other because they did their imperialism before the internet existed?

Not just America, the entire world works like this. It's sadly our obligation to make people aware and understand how to fight against it, every small step we take will slowly build towards a more just place especially when we have big communities.

Ah yes, the old raped, dead husk of the stock market still working for the rich.

It's (ass all other bullshit the USA does) probably coming to the EU too, just some years later

I've always said this, the Americans who ended the gilded age and elected the Roosevelts will be rolling in their graves after seeing how spineless their descendants have been.

Of course they don't. Our country was founded by religious extremists. Puritans, Quakers, Calvinists, Mormons. One of the quotes of Jesus is "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

It also says in the OT that God appoints our leaders, and rebellion against our leaders is rebellion against God.

The vast majority of Christians in the USA are fundamentally opposed to anything that would financially better the lower and middle class. That's socialism, and it's evil. But the rich becoming this rich? That's holy. If they become even more rich, that just means they are even more holy.

Reading the graph, it looks like the bottom 50% have about $4T. A quick glance at the wealthiest 5 individuals shows that they have about $2T.

Not good.

This may be hopium but my perception is that the first few stem cells are finally coming together and starting to form the framework of a spine.