UbuMarx
4 min readJul 28, 2022

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The US is different from most other countries. The US fights more wars and drops more bombs than any other country in the last 100 years, or forever. The US has also done more to cause global warming, floods, droughts, destruction, pollution, hunger throughout the world than any other country. The US is hegemonically powerful. Like England before, and Rome, etc.

Also the US has so much wealth. But that wealth is wasted or misused so inappropriately. The wealth of the US could create such substantial good throughout the world, but it does the opposite. No other country has this influence or power. (China begins to be like the US with power.)

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There is no simple or singular way to talk about the US economy. Of course there is a country which enforces regulations with other countries, tariffs and fees and sanctions and stuff. And the country regulates taxes and commerce within its borders also. But the economic situation in Los Angeles, California, is completely different from the economic situation in Birmingham, Alabama. But it is even more complicated than that because the economic situation for some people living in Los Angeles is completely different from the economic situation of other people living in the same city.

I live in a very unusual situation. I get paid to drive. That is not unusual. But the people who I transport are unlike most any people in the world. I do not drive the richest 1% if people, or even the richest .1% of people, or even the richest .01% of people, or even the richest .001% of people. Maybe I drive the richest .0001% of people, or .00001%, or .000001%.

So my economic situation is very different than most people’s. Some people sell things to regular people. If you sell things to poor people then you will be in trouble when they are in trouble.

My people will ALWAYS be able to afford to pay for a ride.

But in my economy the price of gas is higher than last year, and my rent is more expensive, and food is more expensive. But I do not get paid more than last year. I have same pay but more costs.

Most people in America have gotten a raise in the last year. But most raises are about 4%, and cost inflation is about 8%. So they earn more dollars, but their income is less valuable than last year. I do not earn more, so my income is less valuable than last year. I earn less, because I get less hours, so my income is much less valuable than last year.

This is bad for most people, but many corporations are making record profits. Rich people are getting much richer, while poor people are getting poorer.

An economic depression does not effect all people the same. I may make less income than last year, but I will probably not lose my job, because my rich customers can always afford to pay for more rides. If I work at a business that sells items to poor customers though then my sales may go down, and profits go down, and then people lose jobs.

In the US inflation hurts poor people much, but it does not hurt the rich in the same way. And some rich people profit from it.

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Also it is important to understand that the US economy is not limited very exclusively by its borders. Many US companies are multinational corporations. Multinational corporations are not restricted by national borders. Nike makes shoes and products in Indonesia, and China, and Malaysia, in the US, (Maybe in Argentina?) and they sell things in all countries, and pay taxes, or don’t pay taxes, in many places. (They use laws to pay taxes wherever the taxes are cheapest. Of course.) So Nike, Google, Microsoft, Intel, … may all seem to be American corporations, and their owners make money while living in America, but the economies in which they function are not necessarily at all “American”.

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So in the US when I buy shoes, or a computer, or clothes, or most things, even some food, I am participating in economic situations that vary from a norm regulated by production within this nation.

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The government has influence in matters of trade between nations, and within the nation. But corporate power and influence is much more influential than government power. And corporations largely control the government.

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So poor people in the US are becoming poorer frequently and quickly these days, and things like the pandemic and global warming and the war in Ukraine make things worse, because it leads the government to spend money in bad ways, while preventing it from investing in positive things.

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UbuMarx

I am working on a doctorate in American Studies and the emphasis of my work is a study of poverty within the American Dream as a necessary/sacred presence.