Inequality

Black And Minority-Owned Businesses Are Denied Virus Relief Funds

May 29, 2020 Ama Nundoo, Face 2 Face Africa. Educate! COVID-19, Inequality, Racism, Small Business

Many Black and Latino business owners say they are on the verge of losing their businesses because they are currently out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, that may not be the only reason because according to a new survey, these two minority groups have also been side-lined and are barely benefiting from the Paycheck Protection Program and other government aid efforts. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that is intended to provide some form of financial aid to small business owners who are finding it hard to function amid the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, Black and Latino small business owners are on the losing end of the scale, according to the survey conducted by the Global Strategy Group for two equal-rights organizations, Color of Change and UnidosUS. From April 30 to last Monday, a total of 500 business owners and 1,200 workers were interviewed, according to the New York Times.

Covid-19 Profiteers Are Making A Killing

May 26, 2020 By Amber Colón Núñez, In These Times. Educate! Capitalism, Corporatism, COVID-19, Inequality

It’s clear that the 1% are playing by an entirely different set of rules. Profiteering on Covid began almost as soon as the crisis hit. In March, third-party sellers on Amazon began jacking up the prices on hand sanitizer. Sniffing out the opportunity for a windfall, profiteers bought out scarce supplies at grocery stores and resold them at exorbitant rates. It wasn’t long before Amazon curtailed the practice by banning new listings for masks and sanitizer. But Amazon happily continued to turn its own profit: The company’s earnings increased by $33 million every hour of the first quarter, even as its warehouses suffered coronavirus outbreaks and workers walked out over unsafe conditions. Bezos, the world’s richest man, has accumulated an additional $25 billion since the beginning of this year, putting him on track to become the first-ever trillionaire.

Connecting The Dots Between Environmental Injustice And The Coronavirus

May 18, 2020 By Katherine Bagley, Yale Environment 360. Educate! COVID-19, Environmental Justice, health, Inequality

While cities and towns across the United States are wrestling with the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, none have been hit harder than low-income and minority communities. Places like Detroit, Chicago, and St. James Parish in Louisiana, plagued by decades of economic inequality and pollution in impoverished neighborhoods, have experienced some of the country’s highest mortality rates from the virus. Recent studies have shown a link between high levels of pollution and an increased risk of death from Covid-19. Sacoby Wilson, an environmental health scientist at the University of Maryland, believes the coronavirus has cast a spotlight on largely unnoticed segments of society, from low-income people in polluted neighborhoods to residents of nursing homes and prisons, to workers in the nation’s meatpacking plants

The Decade Of Transformation Is Here: Remaking The Economy For The People

March 29, 2020 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance Newsletter COVID-19, Economic Democracy, Inequality, Recession, Workers Rights and Jobs

The pandemic, economic collapse and the government's response to them are going to not only determine the 2020 election but define the future for this decade and beyond. People are seeing the failure of the US healthcare nonsystem and the economy. The government was able to provide trillions for big business and Wall Street without asking the usual, "Where will we get the money?" However, the rescue bill recently passed by Congress provides a fraction of what most people need to get through this period. Once again, a pandemic will reshape the course of history. Last week, we wrote about the failings of the healthcare system and the need for a universal, publicly-funded system. This week, we focus on the need to change the US economic system.

Five Ways Using Stimulus Funds For Energy Efficiency Would Reduce Inequality and Protect the Planet

March 24, 2020 By Basav Sen, Inequality.org Create! Energy, Inequality, New Economy

I am getting some serious 2008 flashbacks these days. Our economy is going into what could become a serious recession, and our political overlords want to use it as an excuse for even more handouts to big banks, big oil, big airlines, and assorted other industries who already have too much. Meanwhile, communities and workers impacted by the downturn get only “trickle down.”

To Fight Coronavirus, Fight Poverty

March 21, 2020 By Kait Ziegler, Otherwords.org Create! Coronavirus COVID-19, Ideology, Inequality

As Americans do everything they can to stay safe and limit their exposure to COVID-19, we are seeing more clearly the great divides in our society. While the virus doesn’t discriminate, we are seeing that its impacts certainly do. In a pandemic, there’s a huge difference between having health care and not having it, between getting paid sick time off work and not, and having access to clean water and housing and lacking it.

The Socialist Specter In Present-Day US Politics

March 20, 2020 Victor Wallis, Counterpunch.org Educate! Ideology, Inequality, Socialism

The US political scene is haunted by talk of socialism. The basis for this has been developing now for some years, especially since the financial meltdown of 2008, which many came to see as decisive proof that a capitalist economy does not serve the majority. But how does this new mass perception express itself? On the one hand, there is wide recognition of the grotesque level of inequality, as expressed in the slogan...

Coronavirus And The ‘Shock Doctrine’

March 20, 2020 By Sam Pizzigati and Sarah Anderson, Otherwords.org Strategize! Coronavirus COVID-19, Inequality, Pandemic, Recession

In times of crisis like the current coronavirus pandemic, these sorts of calls for cooperation become the drumbeat of our daily lives. Unfortunately, no drumbeat ever gets everybody marching in sync. In deeply unequal societies like our own, a wealthy few can exploit such catastrophes to make themselves even wealthier. Back in 2007, Naomi Klein explored this phenomenon brilliantly in her landmark book The Shock Doctrine.

Does The Coronavirus Crisis Have To End With A Wealthier Wealthy?

March 17, 2020 By Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org Strategize! Coronavirus, COVID-19, Inequality

In times of crisis — the current coronavirus pandemic, for instance — these sorts of calls for cooperation become the drumbeat of our daily lives. And most all of us march to that drumbeat because we understand that we do need to cooperate and help each other when crises crash down upon us.

Six Quick—But Very Important—Points About Coronavirus And Poverty In The US

March 12, 2020 By Bill Quigley, Commondreams.org Educate! Coronavirus, COVID-19, Inequality, Poverty

In the United States, tens of millions of people are at a much greater risk of getting sick from the coronavirus than others. The most vulnerable among us do not have the option to comply with suggestions to stay home from work or work remotely. Most low wage workers do not have any paid sick days and cannot do their work from home.

Wage Inequality Continues To Rise As Racial And Gender Disparities Persist

March 4, 2020 Staff , Epi.org Educate! Inequality, New Economy, Racism, Sexism, Wage

Wage growth was strongest for the highest-wage workers while median hourly wages grew just 1.0% last year, according to a new EPI report. State of Working America Wages 2019 details the most recent hourly wage trends through 2019, showing that large gaps by gender, race, wage, and education level remain—and some of these gaps are increasing.

Class: The Little Word The Elites Want You To Forget

March 3, 2020 Chris Hedges , Truthdig.com Educate! Class, Ideology, Inequality

Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx grounded their philosophies in the understanding that there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the rest of us. The interests of the rich are not our interests. The truths of the rich are not our truths. The lives of the rich are not our lives.

To Tackle Inequality, We Need To Start Talking About Where Wealth Comes From

February 27, 2020 Laurie Macfarlane, Opendemocracy.net Strategize! Inequality, Taxes, Wealth

The studies, one commissioned by Trust for London and another by Tax Justice UK, explore public attitudes towards wealth based on focus groups held across England. Both found that most people are relatively content with people getting rich, and that attacks on the wealthy are often viewed negatively.

Living In Inequality, Dying In Despair

February 14, 2020 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org Educate! Inequality, Life Expectancy, Research

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released some welcome news late last month: Americans are living a tiny bit longer. In 2018, the federal health agency reported, U.S. life expectancy at birth inched up about a month, from 78.6 to 78.7 years. The Trump administration, predictably, claimed credit for the increase, the first since 2014.

The 3% Plan To End Starvation

January 28, 2020 Staff, Worldbeyondwar.org Create! Inequality, Military Budget, United Nations

Here’s a proposal that could end starvation around the globe. Never again need a human being lack the food to live. Never again need a single child or adult suffer the horrors of starvation. Hunger as a danger to anyone can be made a thing of the past. All that is required, apart from basic skills in distributing resources, is 3 percent of the military budget of the United States, or 1.5 percent of all the military budgets in the world.

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