On Thanksgiving Day 2024, the broad mass of the American population has very little to be thankful for. Soaring costs for all necessities – housing, food, healthcare, childcare, transportation – continue to weigh down working-class families. Workers struggle to scrape together a turkey dinner for family and friends under conditions where the cost of a Thanksgiving meal is up 19 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The luxurious residential skyscrapers known as “Billionaires’ Row” on Manhattan, seen from Central Park in New York City, February 20, 2022.[AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey]
But there is a wholly different reality in the surroundings of the rich and super-rich. Champagne glasses clink on Wall Street, at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, in the white House, and on Capitol Hill where the stock market is booming and the bonanza reaped by America’s oligarchs and their political servants under Joe Biden is set to be massively amplified under the incoming Trump administration.
The ranks of American billionaires grew to 800 under Biden,and their collective wealth increased by 62 percent to over $6.2 trillion (not counting the additional hundreds of billions amassed in the stock market surge since Trump’s election). As of December last year, the top 1 percent of Americans took home 21 percent of all personal income, more than double the share of the bottom 50 percent. The top percent owned 35 percent of all personal wealth and the top 10 percent owned 71 percent, while the bottom 50 percent owned just 1 percent.
In less than eight weeks, Trump’s clique of billionaires, fascists, and quacks will take office. They will strive to impose an agenda of mass deportations and state repression,escalation of war and genocide,further tax cuts for the rich,dismantling what remains of the social safety net,privatization of public health and education,and repeal of virtually all regulations for big business. Things could not appear more rosy for the economic parasites that control both parties and the entire political system.
Elon Musk, Trump’s buddy and the world’s richest man, with a net worth of $300 billion and rising, is joined by billionaire comrade Vivek Ramaswamy at the helm of Trump’s new agency for government efficiency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where they plan to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion. This will mean slashing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and firing hundreds of thousands of public employees.
Income inequality (Gini coefficient)
This is on top of a social catastrophe that is already unfolding for the masses. Almost 40 percent of Americans, in a survey conducted by Harris Poll for Bloomberg News in December 2023, said their households recently relied on extra money in addition to regular income to make ends meet. Of these, 38 percent said the additional amounts barely covered their monthly expenses with nothing left over, and 23 percent said it wasn’t enough to pay their bills.
As December last year, mass layoffs in the automotive, aerospace, retail, and other sectors have continued to
These conditions have already triggered a wave of strikes – at Boeing, at the ports, in the automotive sector – where workers have risen up against union bureaucracies and voted down concession contracts.
Here are some key indices on the social reality facing broad layers of the American people on Thanksgiving Day:
hunger
According to the latest survey from the Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey (October 2023), one in eight American adults struggles to afford enough food. Nearly 28 million adults nationwide – 12.5 percent of the adult population – live in households where there is sometimes or frequently enough not enough to eat. This is the highest level that figure has reached since the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Homelessness
the document “state of Homelessness” from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2024 edition, reports:
In 2023, the year-over-year increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness was 12.1 percent, the largest increase since data collection began in 2007.
Severe housing cost burdens are rising. The number of renter households paying more than 50 percent of their income on rent increased dramatically, rising more than 12.6 percent from 2015 to 2022.
Poverty
According to the Institution for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. has the highest poverty rate among the 26 most developed countries in the world. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ranks the U.S. as number two behind Mexico on a scale of what economists call “relative child poverty” when measured against 35 of the world’s richest nations.
In 2023, the official U.S. poverty rate, according to the United States Census Bureau, was 11.1 percent.That meant 36.8 million people were in poverty in 2023.
Life expectancy
How is this possible in the richest country in the world? The answer is capitalism. This is a system where the working class, which produces all the wealth, is systematically robbed of the great majority of what it produces on the basis of private ownership of the means of production, production for profit, and the historically outdated nation-state framework of economic life.
The levels of oligarchic excess and parasitism in the U.S. are particularly grotesque due to the complete political subordination of the working class by the ruling elite through the two-party system. The working class’s exclusion from political life is enforced by the union bureaucracy and its pseudo-left appendages in such pro-Democrat groups as the Democratic Socialists of america (DSA).
This is reflected in such facts as a federal minimum wage that remains at $7.25, not even sufficient to sustain human life. Meanwhile, the two-party monopoly spends a trillion dollars a year on war and the military and a trillion a year to service a national debt of $34 trillion and rising.The latter payments, which directly enrich the banks and hedge funds, come on top of the total $12 trillion dispensed to save the financial elite during the Wall Street crises of 2008 and 2020.
The millions of workers who voted for Trump did so as a protest against the unvarnished indifference of Biden and Harris to the devastating impact of inflation and austerity, including the purging of 40 million people from Medicaid rolls. They did not vote for dictatorship, for rounding up immigrant workers in concentration camps monitored by the military for summary deportation, for the expansion of American imperialism’s global war to China, for an increase in Washington’s support for the genocide in Gaza, or for the destruction of millions more jobs and essential social services.
They will be stunned and enraged by what is to come under Trump, and they will resist, massively and on a revolutionary scale. Leon Trotsky devoted a chapter in his monumental History of the Russian Revolution to “The Tsar and the Tsarina,” in which he wrote about the cognitive blindness that seems to afflict ruling classes in the lead-up to revolutionary upheavals. He wrote:
To the historical flood that rolled its waves,each closer to the gates of his palace,the last Romanov simply set up a mute indifference. it seemed as if between his consciousness and his epoch stood a kind of obvious but absolutely impenetrable medium.
Trotsky continued:
The Tsar had no need for drugs: the deadly ”narcotic” was in his blood
The American ruling class faces a historic reckoning. The social force that alone can stop and reverse the slide into fascism and world war is the working class, in the U.S. and internationally. It will fight, but it needs a scientific Marxist and internationalist outlook and strategy and the building of a new leadership, which can only be achieved by the Trotskyist movement, the Socialist Equality Party, and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). To all those who see the dangers and wish to fight, we say join the SEP and take up the struggle for the political independence and socialism of the working class!
– how is the rising cost of Thanksgiving meals in 2024 impacting American families?
Time.news Interview: The Growing Divide in America on Thanksgiving 2024
Interviewer: Alex Thompson, Editor of Time.news
Guest: Dr. Emily Carter,Economist and Social Policy Expert
Alex Thompson: Thank you for joining us today,Dr. Carter. As we approach Thanksgiving 2024, the statistics coming out of the U.S. paint a rather grim picture for many Americans. Working-class families are struggling more than ever. Can you put into context the significance of a 19% increase in the cost of a Thanksgiving meal as 2019?
Dr.emily Carter: Absolutely, Alex. The irony of Thanksgiving, a holiday centered around gratitude, is stark when you consider that many families are feeling the squeeze of rising costs. A 19% increase in meal costs reflects broader inflation trends, particularly in essentials like food, which hits low- and middle-income families the hardest. When families are trying to make ends meet, the cost of a single meal can feel disproportionately burdensome, especially in contrast to the growing wealth of the top 1%.
Alex Thompson: Speaking of wealth, the figures indicating that the top 1% controls over 21% of all personal income while the bottom 50% holds just 1% are shocking. How does this wealth disparity affect social cohesion in the country?
Dr. Emily Carter: That level of disparity is deeply concerning. When wealth is concentrated in such a small segment of society, it breeds discontent and division. People begin to lose faith in institutions and the system itself. This can lead to increased social unrest,as we’ve seen with recent strikes across various industries. Workers are pushing back against what they perceive as unfair treatment, which is a direct response to their economic realities.
Alex Thompson: ThereS also the mention of mass layoffs and a looming wave of unemployment affecting sectors that are critical for the middle class. What do you foresee as the long-term implications if this trend continues?
Dr. Emily carter: If these layoffs continue and income inequality grows, we could see a important increase in homelessness and poverty—issues that are already on the rise. The most recent National Alliance to End Homelessness report noted a 12.1% increase in homelessness from 2022 to 2023, primarily driven by housing cost burdens. If these economic pressures persist without intervention, we risk a more permanent underclass that struggles to escape poverty, leading to societal instability.
Alex Thompson: Many Americans today feel like they’re living on the edge financially, with nearly 40% reporting they rely on additional funds just to make ends meet. Considering this, what role do you think government policy should play?
Dr. Emily Carter: Government policy should prioritize social safety nets that protect the most vulnerable populations. This includes maintaining robust funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, as well as affordable housing initiatives. With some political circles pushing for cuts in these areas under claims of efficiency, it’s crucial to recognize that these measures wouldn’t just harm low-income families but could destabilize the economy further, driving up costs and decreasing consumer spending.
Alex Thompson: Let’s touch on the larger political landscape you’ve mentioned. With the incoming governance signaling an intent to further benefit the wealthy—with planned tax cuts and budget reductions—what do you think can be done to challenge this tide?
Dr. Emily Carter: Mobilization from grassroots movements—workers organizing, activists pushing for policy change, and communities coming together to support one another—is essential. Moreover, they must translate their concerns into votes. Holding politicians accountable to the people they serve is critical, especially in an era where corporate interests often overshadow the needs of average citizens.
Alex Thompson: Thank you for those insights, Dr. carter.It’s evident that the path forward will require concerted effort from both citizens and policymakers. As we reflect on Thanksgiving, let’s hope that the narrative shifts toward greater equity and support for all families.
Dr. Emily Carter: Thank you, Alex. It’s significant we continue these conversations—only then can we foster change that truly benefits all of society, not just the elite.
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Alex Thompson wraps up the discussion, reminding readers about the critical importance of addressing income inequality, especially during this holiday season.