Dr. Alwin Spence
As good citizens, it has been drilled in our ears, and we believe it, that hard work will bring you and yours the stability we all crave.
The long line-up at the Mexican border to cross into the United States, is merely to find employment so that they can take care of themselves, their families, and extended families also, realising their dream. Working hard is not the problem, it is to find gainful. employment.
Meanwhile, for many Americans and Canadians, this hard work theory is no longer providing them with the stability they are used to as there is a massive increase in ‘wealth inequality ‘. This trend, if continued, will cause greater hardships to our day-to-day workers.
As recently as 1965 the typical CEO of American companies, made 20 times the salary of their average workers. In 2021, those CEOs earned an average of $15.6 million, an average of 399 times more than the average worker.
What is frightening is that this was in 2021, during the height of the pandemic, when small businesses were closing with labour shortages especially in hospitals and retirement homes and a sharp increase in the price of food, rent and real estate.
The cry for help forced all levels of government to act in subsidizing not only the very poor but everyone.
Wages were not keeping up with inflation, but banks and other corporations were reporting large profits at the expense of Covid and poor people.
In 2020, the top 5% of the American population earned 23% of all U.S. income, and the top 20% of the U.S. population earned a whopping 52.2%. The other 80% earned just about 47.8 %.
In addition, low salaried workers had no health insurance, no pension.
plan, were forced to work at times three shifts and all-round hardships. In Canada there was a deterioration of hospital services, emergency wards were full, and surgery had to be rescheduled several times as C.E.O.s and large corporations were smiling their way to their helicopters, yachts to have expensive champagne, celebrating massive profits earned on the backs of suffering people.
How can this inequality of wealth be allowed to exist?
The picture gets even uglier when you divide the population by race. Today about 25% of all Black households in the U.S. have negative net worth. Only about 10% of white families are that poor. Black families have just $5. 04 in net worth for every $100 held by a white family.
Between 1983 and 2013 white households saw their wealth increase by 14%, while Black households saw their wealth declined by 75%. Also, what is of significance is that between 2005—2015, home ownership rate for Black households steadily declined.
The gruelling work done to pull-up Black families to a minimal standard of living did not materialise.
Well-known Princeton economist Ellora Derenoncourt revealed that there has not been any progress in closing the wealth gap since 1950. In fact, since the 1980’s the gap has been widening.
Why? Economists have agreed that this disparity is due to inherited wealth, a reality that white adults are more than twice as likely as Blacks and Latinos to get significant financial help from parents and family members.
Dorothy Brown, a Georgetown University Law professor said; “You have Black Americans who are doing everything they were told and not getting ahead.”
Her research showed that 38% of white adults received at least $10,000 in gifts or loans from a parent or elder relative while just 14% of Black adults report the same, 16% for Latinos and 19% for Native Americans.
Brown also pointed out that Black generational wealth transfer is more likely to work in the reverse, children sending money to their parents whose income over generations has steadily declined.
This pattern is consistent with immigrants to the U.S. and Canada, especially those from third world countries. Many of these countries depend on their citizens abroad for most of their well needed foreign currency.
Consequently, many if not all these immigrants fall into the pattern of the sandwich generation, simultaneously supporting at least two households.
It follows then that there is nothing left over to create wealth.
This will become a recipe for action, good or bad.
Increased profitability is accepted, and some people may be very good at that but there is also equity and inclusion.
Transformative change is needed. The world has the ability to stop the war in Ukraine, lift the standard of living for everyone.
We need the collective will to challenge and change. For Blacks and everyone else, we have it in us to move forward.
Wealth matters but it has its limitations. One writer said there is no difference being suicidal in a ghetto and being suicidal in a mansion. The abundance of things we have does not necessarily give peace of mind. What really matters is that hand you stretch out to help someone in need.
The millions in the bank is unable to rescue you from heart attacks and high blood pressure.
Material wealth serves its purpose, but real wealth is affirmation, affection, humanity, and brotherhood.
It takes all to work together to fill that gap.
