Life, Death, Hurricanes, Covid-19, and American Financial Inequality

Abstract

This paper, on the basis of objectively verifiable social outcome data, describes the increasingly grotesque financial inequality that obtains in the United States of America today. It shows how the wealth difference between rich and poor has become so great that these two demographics essentially live in different worlds, different realities. It also presents data showing that this wealth disparity has had a negative impact on the nation’s democracy, and American society’s ability to respond to crises like hurricanes, and pandemics. Finally, it proposes, again based on social outcome data, how non-violent social change that emphasizes wellbeing provides an optimal path to the future.