It\u2019s not every day one high school dropout gets to challenge a billionaire dropout, and likely the only dropout ever to reach outer space.<\/p>\n
I got this challenge idea reading in a recent edition of The Morning Call about the Horatio Alger-like story of Jared Isaacman<\/a>, the \u201clocal boy does good\u201d phenom who\u2019s one of the growing number of billionaires in the U.S.<\/p>\n Isaacman said he \u201cwas disappointed as a child when he found out that there wasn\u2019t much left to discover on Earth,\u201d which surely fueled his aspirations for space exploration. He seems to believe the Earth no longer offers frontiers to conquer. I vehemently disagree. Frontiers abound, if you refuse to look away.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a frontier \u2014 more challenging than going to Mars \u2014 I propose to him and others of obscene wealth they cannot truly believe they rightfully possess, while others starve. Share your wealth to change this national embarrassment, stemming from the worst wealth inequality:<\/p>\n Poor Black children born in the bottom 20% in the U.S. have just a 3% chance of rising to the top 20%<\/a>, poor Hispanic children just a 9% chance, and poor White children just a 12% chance.<\/p>\n Such injustice isn\u2019t accidental. Isaacman admits that a \u201clot of luck\u201d figured prominently in his ascent to the top 20% \u2014 actually, as a billionaire, to the top 0.00027%.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not luck that generates success. More determinative is luck\u2019s cousin, privilege. And whether we call it \u201cwhite privilege\u201d or privilege of economic class, being born in the right ZIP code is the path toward moving up in America.<\/p>\n For too many children the ZIP code they\u2019re born into is a death sentence to their American dream. Perhaps this is what comedian, George Carlin, meant when he insightfully said \u201cthey call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.\u201d Certainly, it\u2019s a lie, at least for poor children. Or as Abigail Disney, the Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, says, for too many children, it\u2019s \u201cThe American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,\u201d a movie everyone should watch.<\/p>\n Wealth inequality is the moral cancer destroying our society and our planet. Images make this point powerfully. Let\u2019s look at wealth inequality in pictures.<\/p>\n Isaacman spoke to students at the Zoellner Arts Center on Lehigh University\u2019s campus in Bethlehem, a venue large enough to seat all of the 902 U.S. billionaires. Those handful of billionaires collectively possess $6.8 trillion of wealth \u2014 yet they fit in one single room. Picture them.<\/p>\n How much money is $6.8 trillion? How immoral is it to hoard such huge mountains of wealth? Especially considering that the bottom half of the U.S. population \u2014167 million citizens \u2014 collectively possess a paltry $4 trillion<\/a>?<\/p>\n The image of 902 billionaires sitting in that small auditorium, controlling 170% as much wealth as half the country, depicts how condensed this runaway accumulation of wealth has become for the \u201chaves.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the other picture. The 167 million in the bottom 50%? What\u2019s needed to seat them all? Answer: 3,340 baseball stadiums each with a 50,000 capacity. That\u2019s how diluted wealth is for the \u201chardly haves.\u201d<\/p>\n These two pictures side-by-side capture the vast, indefensible chasm between the superrich and working poor.<\/p>\n Wasteland images of poverty created by greed are everywhere. See one of five children hungry in this allegedly great nation. See dilapidated schools, outdated textbooks, mold spores filling the air, asbestos exposed, in schools built 150 years ago. See infants dying, the U.S. ranking 54th out of 227 measured countries<\/a> in infant mortality. See babies in car seats in front of a TV, for lack of universal quality day care.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the U.S. photo album in stark terms. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. has the highest poverty rate among the world\u2019s 26 most developed countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n And abject greed is exploding:<\/p>\n \u2022In one year, the top 1% \u2014 3.5 million citizens \u2014 increased their wealth by $4 trillion, hitting a record $52 trillion.<\/p>\n \u2022In one year, the top 0.1% \u2014 350,000 citizens \u2014 doubled their wealth to $23 trillion.<\/p>\n \u2022In one year, the top 10% added $5 trillion of wealth.<\/p>\n These statistics give the lie to the greatest swindle in history: \u201ctrickle down economics\u201d, a magic, neoliberal shell game that disappeared the working class and poor.<\/p>\n Think you\u2019re insulated? See artificial intelligence, standing in the wings, poised to launch wealth injustices to the stratosphere.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, unconscionable wealth funds private launches to space and $100 million weddings in Venice, while our children go without. Close to 42 million Americans are now being asked to eat cake as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are cut and millions will soon be unable to afford medical insurance \u2014 while child poverty has nearly tripled just since 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n Greed destroys people, empires and souls. Renowned historian, Ramsay MacMullen, in his classic study, \u201cCorruption & Decline of Rome,\u201d summed up the greed that toppled an ancient empire with just three words: \u201cfewer had more.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a contributed opinion column. Ettore J. Angelo is a criminal defense attorney in the Lehigh Valley. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com\/opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not every day one high school dropout gets to challenge a billionaire dropout, and likely the only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1559],"class_list":["post-21687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}