Welfare for Single Moms and Dads is Bad. Welfare for the Rich is Perfect.

From left to right: President-Elect Donald Trump, Tech Billionaire Elon Musk and Billionaire Amazon Owner Jeff Bezos. Photo credit: Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Getty Images

After promising to bring prices “way down”, returning president-elect Donald Trump has noted “prices will go up.”

A Lifetime of Money

Elon Musk’s companies like Tesla and NeuraLink have received over $20 billion in public funding. To put that in perspective, in their lifetime, the average person will earn roughly $1.8 million (“earn” being the keyword not “be given through public funding”). So, essentially, in public funding, Elon has received the lifetime pay of over 10,000 people. And each of those 10,000 people could reasonably used that $1.8 million to contribute to a family.

Elon Musk’s net worth is roughly $430 billion. Again, to put that into perspective, that is the lifetime earnings of 250,000 people. To spend the money he has as a regular American employee, he would need to live and die 250,000 times.

According to the PEW Research Center, the average food stamp recipient receives roughly $180 a month, while the average household receives $343. That represented a drop from about $245 and $464 respectively.

That noted, recipients are encouraged to become independent of food stamps within six months and no longer than three years. The average recipient does not stay on for three years, but assuming they did, an individual would receive less than $7,000 total over that timeframe. The average family would receive less than $13,000 in food stamps over three years. Elon’s $20 billion public funds equal 1,619,695 families on food stamps for three years. Elon’s total net worth is equal to that of 34,823,453 families on food stamps for that same period of time.

Not to compare apples to oranges — or dollars to food stamps in this case — but $20 billion in public taxpayer dollars to a man worth hundreds of billions is more concerning than $13,000 feeding a family. The question becomes, why is the focus so much on welfare to families in need than on the welfare received by billionaires?

The Poors Versus The Poors

Poverty spans across every race, religion, sexuality and group of people, but the wealthy have been experts at using their media conglomerates to pit the financially insecure against each other.

Race has been a focal point of division in this country since its inception. Still, even then it was the wealthiest of men who had the means to buy a human. As income inequality grew and the country became more industrialized, with it came more racial oppression, ultimately leading to segregation through Jim Crow laws.

Many racists are as poor on an education level as they are financially. They are frustrated men working longer hours for less money in careers that demand more qualifications. They are hardworking, but their hard work gets them nowhere, and they need somebody to blame. This is where finger-pointing at African Americans and immigrants comes in, directed by the media.

Through media campaigns, the ultra wealthy have been able to guide the attention of poor whites away from the economy and to African Americans and immigrants.

Poor whites have been told lucrative jobs are going to unqualified Black employees through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies. These people have no clue what DEI is or what it does. They don’t realize DEI ensures that the Black person with experience, education and no criminal history isn’t overlooked for an unqualified candidate with 34 or 35 felony convictions. Without it, that could happen. Check the results of the most recent presidential election.

Many years ago, a group of Latinx workers went on strike due to an immense amount of pressure from racists to have them deported. In that short time, Americans asked, “Who will pick my strawberries?” The jobs they had been told immigrants were taking, no Americans wanted to work. It presented a complex problem: How do you deport millions of hardworking immigrants on which your economy depends heavily and fill the vacant jobs nobody wants? And so, the racists and nationalists backed off. Yet history tends to repeat itself. Now more than ever, many Americans are blaming immigrants for their own financial strains and voted specifically for the mass deportation of immigrants.

That noted, the media is instigating race and immigration issues, while income inequality exacerbates the housing and employment crisis in America. The price of rent is too high, and the qualifications for jobs are not matching the pay.

Rent has gone up, increasing the visibility of wealth inequality. This has led to more homelessness. Although many point to drug addiction as the root cause of homelessness, it doesn’t explain the working poor of California.

In California, the Safe Parking Program allows businesses to rent out their parking lots to people with vehicles to sleep in. Many of these people have full-time jobs, but they can’t afford the unreasonably high rent in their state. They don’t have problems with drugs or work ethic. Their state has a problem with housing compounded by income inequality.

Furthermore, it is not uncommon to see a job posting requiring a master’s degree for a position paying $50,000 in a big city like Chicago or New York City. Without focusing on how that pay doesn’t even come close to covering the cost of living in these places, 50k for a position that requires master’s degree is insane when considering that degree is equivalent to 18+ years of education.

Even so, the formally educated and the not-as-formally educated have been pitted against each other as well. This usually boils down to class differences between the middle class and the working class, but these groups are more similar than they know. Both groups are usually living paycheck to paycheck. That’s a conversation in and of its own.

A Quick Note on Wealthy Shady Pastors

On top of receiving tens of thousands of dollars in public funding, wealthy pastors have taken advantage of congregations, using their money to buy jets, while selling their congregation “Miracle Spring Water”, expensive bottled water that supposedly makes all person’s financial hopes come true.

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland used the funds of his congregation to buy himself a jet, one he purchased from director Tyler Perry. The ministry spent $2.5 million on upgrades and $17 million on a hangar. Copeland is noted as saying, “You can’t talk to God in commercial.” So, from his perspective, those flying in coach have no way to connect with God. It’s probably not coincidental that those who would be flying coach are his congregation, while most of those doing the opposite are usually wealthy. By the way, Copeland’s own net worth reportedly sits at a healthy $300 million.

Additionally, Peter Popoff wasn’t ashamed to sell his congregants “Blessed Water” — supposedly from a spring near Chernobyl in Ukraine — and “Miracle Spring Water” — the water he says leads to financial flourishing. Popoff promised his Miracle Spring Water would bring its consumers beautiful homes, luxury cars and the cancellation of all debt by God. He did this without an ounce of shame and made hundreds of thousands doing so. Although his net worth doesn’t match that of Copeland’s, Popoff’s still sits at an impressive $10 million. That’s likely more than any person who’s had the misfortune of buying his products. Shameless tactics like his and Copeland’s are sad but speak to the wider issue of scams cloaked in religion. The bent over, gray-haired woman taking a 30-minute bus ride to the same church her pastor pulls up to in a Rolls Royce highlights the injustices of income inequality rearing its head within religious sectors.

The Takeaway

The People, intending to vote against capitalism, have just elected capitalism incarnate. Welfare for billionaires is good. Welfare for dads who need a little help is bad. It is beyond this country to feel sympathy for a single mother feeding two children off food stamps in this era. While pastors continue to scam their congregations for millions and receive tens of thousands in public funding, the average American struggles to afford rent.

Those who fall victim to the crushing reaches of capitalism are painted as lazy, drug addicts or unrightfully entitled, images painted through repeated media campaigns until they become talking points. Americans have been programmed to despise their own kind, The Average American, while being lied to and misled by their representatives, Right and Left alike. Maybe it is time to rethink how we do capitalism in this country. Just a thought.

This article was written by Jermaine Reed, MFA, the Editor-in-Chief of The Reeders Block, who also works an Adjunct College Professor and director. Join the email list to get notifications on new articles and books. This article is 100% human-written. And remember, if you see an error, that’s what makes us human. Subscribe and share.

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