The middle and lower class will barely get anything that belongs to them
After Donald Trump’s election as the POTUS, Jamie Dimon lobbied to be his Treasury secretary, but despite his interests, the job was given to Steven Mnuchin, a candidate of billionaire investor Carl Ichan.
Carl Ichan is one of the wealthiest men in America, and also one of the most powerful persons in the US, thanks to his connection to the president. Few months after Donald Trump declared his interest in running for the presidency, Ichan was among the first set of people to declare support for him openly. Ichan told the public that he believed Trump would bridge the gap between the rich and the poor as the president. When he made this assertion, he was worth $16.8 billion, but three years after Trump was elected, Ichan’s net worth jumped to $18.4 billion.
⚡️Donald Trump’s allegiance to Carl Ichan shows that politics is a game of friends that does not involve the average American.
Ichan and a lot of other business “raiders” shifted profit distribution from stakeholders to shareholders. Businesses were more concerned about the stakeholders during the times of Franklin Roosevelt. Still, ever since business moguls like Ichan came into the scene, it was more of pleasing the shareholders than caring about the stakeholders.
CEOs used to be stewards who are expected to commit to a life of servitude. They were expected to oversee the even distribution of wealth among all the stakeholders, but this changed as the raiders showed up. To maximize profits, the raiders had to overlook the stakeholders and concentrate more on the shareholders. They took businesses to places with cheap labor and laid-off workers just to accumulate more profits. Seeing that it’s the new trend, the modern CEOs adapted to the change. They started working to maximize the profits for the companies and their shareholders without paying any considerable attention to the stakeholders.
In a bid to cope with the demands of oligarchy, Americans developed three coping mechanisms:
- More women moved into paid work
- People took on more jobs
- More debts and fewer savings
These three coping mechanisms outline the problems the average American faces. Since the men barely had anything to show for their hard labor, the women had to move in so that they could sustain the family. This is the only coping mechanism that has proved very helpful for the average American family. People took on more jobs, spending less time for themselves and family, and they took debts upon debts just to live a comfortable life.