🇺🇸 Discussion: The Second Gilded Age

[Lily Adler]

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises
A 2025 Course Correction Is Needed

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver

Trump’s/Republican’s 2017 tax cut for the wealthy helped accelerate this:

Visualizing Wealth Distribution in America (1990-2023)

The economy is growing (and better than in peer nations) but most of the gains are going to the rich while wages have been going up but far behind the wealth accumulation by the rich.

Americans’ Wages Are Higher Than They Have Ever Been, and Employment Is Near Its All-Time High
After adjusting for inflation, wages are higher than at any point in U.S. history, and after adjusting for age and sex, the percentage of the population that is employed is around its peak in U.S. history.

More Perfect Union: "Just 13% of workers in the U.S. now earn less than $15/hr. Two years ago that number was 31.9%, per new data from Oxfam." (June 2024)

 

[blueharvest]

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Step inside 'Billionaire's Beach’: From Kenneth Griffin to Donald Trump, this oceanside town is home to 58 billionaires

The wealth of these Palm Beach homeowners totals about $494.7 billion.

fortune.com

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

More billionaires than ever ranked in Forbes' annual list. Here are the top 10​

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5345950/forbes-billionaires-list

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Olivia Munn Blasts Jeff Bezos’ ‘Gluttonous’ All-Female Space Flight: ‘What’s the Point?’ | Video

The actress, who highlighted the country’s struggling economy, jokes it would be “fun” if the crew got stuck in space “just for a little bit” The post Olivia Munn Blasts Jeff Bezos’ ‘Gluttonous’ All-Female Space Flight: ‘What’s the Point?’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

www.yahoo.com

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

MacKenzie Scott Has Given Away $19 Billion Since Divorce from Jeff Bezos 6 Years Ago

MacKenzie Scott has "transformed" philanthropy since her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019: In the past six years, she's donated $19 billion to more than 2,000 organizations, a new study found

people.com

 

[squeekness]

Elon and Bezos could learn a thing or two from her.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Disney Heiress Believes Every Billionaire 'Who Can't Live on $999 Million Is Kind of a Sociopath'

Abigail Disney is continuing to speak out about wealth disparities.

people.com

 

[blueharvest]

 

[blueharvest]

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Trump donors eye potential bonanza if US succeeds with Greenland land-grab

Ethical doubts over role of campaign backers and investors with financial ties to president worth hundreds of millions

www.theguardian.com

Among those who have invested millions in KoBold Metals, a mining company at the leading edge of Greenland's "modern gold rush" for rare minerals essential to tech companies, are major Trump donors such as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and other Silicon Valley moguls.

 

[squeekness]

Trump donors eye potential bonanza if US succeeds with Greenland land-grab

Ethical doubts over role of campaign backers and investors with financial ties to president worth hundreds of millions

www.theguardian.com

Always only about the money.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Zuckerberg cozied up to Trump to settle his FTC lawsuit for less: report

Zuckerberg attempted to settle an antitrust lawsuit with the FTC with the support of Trump – but it was ultimately unsuccessful

www.independent.co.uk

 

[blueharvest]

 

[blueharvest]

 

[squeekness]

My country sucks so much right now.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Bill Gates pledges his remaining fortune to the Gates Foundation, which will close in 20 years

Bill Gates says he will donate 99% of his remaining tech fortune to the Gates Foundation

abcnews.go.com

 

[Herofan]

Would be a lot worse if, as is actually very possible alternative, the economy was not growing and real wages and employment were not growing, to have both real wages and employment near all-time high is pretty major, massive achievement especially when conditions, outcomes could be much worse, really bad.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds

The bottom 60% of U.S. households don't make enough money to afford a "minimal quality of life," according to a new analysis.

www.cbsnews.com

Yelling at everybody ‘have you tried not being poor and/or homeless’ will do nothing to reverse this.

 

[squeekness]

The rich think the poor are doing it to themselves.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Meta hypes AI friends as social media’s future, but users want real connections

Two visions for social media’s future pit real connections against AI friends.

arstechnica.com

 

[blueharvest]