The Great American Con: How Workers Are Tricked into Supporting Policies That Hurt Them

Written by Jerry Elman, December 22, 2024

MAGA is not about politics, it’s about conning workers about wealth.

Today, my blog shifts to an entirely different subject, the con game going on to create a wealth driven oligarchy in America, modeled after Russia, Hungary and other countries already leading the way.

Over the past four decades, the U.S. economy has undergone significant changes. Most of these changes have hurt the average worker. The middle class is declining at a rapid rate. At the current rate, most Americans will live below the poverty line in just a few more generations, while the wealth of the top 1% will eclipse the wealth of kings in the middle ages.

While productivity and corporate profits have soared, wages for working Americans have stagnated, wealth inequality has grown, and the middle class is shrinking to levels not seen since the 1800s. Despite this, millions of working-class Americans continue to support the very policies and politicians responsible for this economic disparity. This paradox is driven by misinformation, conservative media influence, and a deliberate effort to mask the true causes of economic hardship.

Donald Trump is not the creater of this economic inequity, the conservative movement and Ronald Reagan were. Trump is the master marketer of it. He is “selling lots of bridges” to make the wealthy more wealthy. He knows exactly what he is doing. His appearance of craziness and chaos is deliberate. People are totally misreading the influence and spell the MAGA movement is under. Social and cultural issues and politics are deliberately being used as a tool to mask the real focus – economics and the transition to an American Oligrachy. The Republican conservative movement is focused on this economic transformation which is happening without notice while the mainstream media does not have a clue and the public are being conned into fighting cultural and political wars. The right wing commentators fuel the fire of masking the real intent of where things are heading. Tucker Carlson as just one example talks Russia and Putin for a reason. Russia today has the richest oligarches in the world and the US is rapidly catching up. Many Republicans in Congress talk up Putin and Hungary for a reason. Those two countries have a proven path for the wealthiest 1% to control everything. And the US in in that same game.

The Impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 promised to stimulate economic growth and benefit workers, but the reality has been starkly different. The tax cuts disproportionately benefited corporations and the wealthiest Americans while contributing the largest increase in history to the national deficit. While corporate tax rates were slashed from 35% to 21%, companies funneled much of their tax savings into stock buybacks, executive bonuses, and shareholder dividends, rather than wage increases, expansion or job creation. It was all used for profits. Tax incentives use to focus on business expansion and jobs, not stock buybacks and executive pay. That tax system built the American middle class. Today that tax system which America used since the early 1900’s is labeled as “extreme or radical socialism” as part of the con. Equal opportunity for all is today labeled as a very bad thing. Only privaleged people deserve opportunity and fairness. Think about the real meaning of all the culture war stuff going on. It’s not about politics or core beliefs, it’s about money!

Back to tax cuts, some of the largest corporations that benefited from the 2017 TCJA while avoiding taxes include Amazon, Netflix, and General Electric. In 2018, Amazon reported over $11 billion in profits but paid zero federal income tax, largely due to tax credits, loopholes, and deductions. Netflix similarly avoided taxes despite recording record profits. General Electric, long known for its aggressive tax avoidance strategies, reported negative tax rates some years, meaning they received refunds despite earning billions.

In 2018 alone, U.S. corporations spent a record $806 billion on stock buybacks, with CEO compensation rising by 18%. Meanwhile, job creation and wage growth lagged behind expectations. The tax cuts accelerated wealth accumulation at the top, further widening the gap between the wealthy and the working class. The resulting deficit has been used as an excuse to cut funding for critical social programs, disproportionately harming middle- and low-income Americans.

Falling Wages and Rising Poverty

One of the most underreported aspects of the American economic system is the stagnation and decline of real wages for hourly workers. Over the past four decades, productivity has steadily increased, yet wages have not kept pace. According to the Economic Policy Institute, worker productivity grew by 61.8% between 1979 and 2020, while hourly compensation rose by just 17.5%. This discrepancy highlights how the benefits of economic growth have been concentrated at the top, leaving average workers behind.

As poverty rises and the middle class shrinks, crime rates and corruption inevitably increase. In nations where the middle class is not the dominant economic force, people often resort to illegal activities or corruption to make ends meet. The U.S., which once had a thriving middle class that drove economic stability and reduced crime, risks returning to such conditions as wealth inequality grows. Historical data shows that periods of economic hardship and extreme inequality in the U.S. have correlated with higher crime rates and social unrest. A shrinking middle class creates an economic vacuum, where individuals are left with fewer legitimate opportunities to achieve financial security, fostering environments conducive to theft, fraud, and black-market activities.

Since the rise of Reaganomics in the 1980s, wealth accumulation has overwhelmingly favored the top 1%, while real wages for average workers have stagnated. From 1980 to 2022, the top 1% saw their wealth grow by over 240%, while the bottom 50% experienced a mere 20% increase in real income. The economic policies of deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and weakened labor protections under Reaganomics have contributed to this imbalance, creating a lasting legacy of wealth inequality.

In 1980, the federal minimum wage was $3.10 per hour, equivalent to approximately $11.80 in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation. In stark contrast, the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 has not kept up with the rising cost of living, leaving millions of workers earning less in real terms than their counterparts did over four decades ago.

So yes people are pissed and have a legitimate reason to be pissed. The problem lies in that they don’t understand who screwed them and how they got screwed. The Republican right wing media and propaganda machine has them convinced the Republican conservative movement and MAGA are their savior when it is really a trojan horse!

Entitlements and the Wealth Divide

Republicans know how to label things with simple terms, even if the label is deceiving. One example is what they call “entitlements.” They make it sound like entitlements are something not earned and the essence of socialism. Examples are Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, and today even healthcare is being labeled an entitlement. The reality is that these are paid for and earned programs totally funded primarily by payroll taxes and deductions paid by working Americans. The wealthy, whose income largely derives from investments rather than wages, contribute far less proportionately to these programs. In fact, there are wage caps so they pay very little compared to their real earnings. This creates a system where the benefits of these programs flow to those who actively contribute, while the wealthiest benefit from policies that shield them from contributing at similar levels. The real entitlement is to the wealthy, not the hourly worker or the middle class.

Another common misconception, (actually a blatant lie), is that these “entitlement” programs are funded directly by the federal budget. Again, workers and employers fund them and the money goes into trust funds managed by the Federal government. However, the government borrows all the funds meant for future payouts from these surpluses to offset deficits elsewhere, like tax cuts, treating them like an interest-free loan from the nation’s workers. This borrowing creates the illusion of overspending on these programs because the borrowed money has to be paid back. The obligation to pay these loans back is taken from funds from the general budget, thereby making it appear these are government-funded programs. What they are really doing is dipping into money raised by regular taxes to pay back these trust funds. And so they get away with saying programs already funded with money that was in the bank are being paid by the loan payments in the regular budget. This narrative diverts attention from the tax cuts for the wealthy as the primary cause of today’s deficits. These deficits generate the need to borrow the trust fund money and pay it back. This is the real end game. They want to stop paying the loans back and steal the money so they can cut taxes further. Meanwhile, the top 1% will accumulate far more wealth.

If everyone paid their fair share of taxes, there would be plenty of money to fund the government without large deficits. The need to borrow trust fund money would go away.

Media Influence and the Political Con

A significant driver of this economic imbalance is the misinformation perpetuated by conservative media. The focus of outlets like FOX News is to mislead people into believing that the policies designed to help them — such as labor protections, higher minimum wages, and progressive tax reforms — are the source of their economic struggles. This narrative serves to protect and expand the wealth of the oligarch class under the guise of populism.

The very foundation of the MAGA movement is to con average people into believing and supporting the growth of economic injustice, unknowingly hurting themselves in the process. The political and culture war debates are deliberately crafted to distract from these economic realities that harm working-class Americans. For figures like Rupert Murdoch, the goal of FOX News is not to inform the public but to secure policies that grow the wealth of the elite while convincing viewers that these policies are in their best interest.

The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has been largely incompetent and ineffective in countering this messaging. Their failure to clearly articulate how conservative and MAGA economic policies harm the working class leaves many Americans believing and acting on propaganda that ultimately works against their interests.

Conclusion

The U.S. tax system, once a tool for building the middle class and promoting economic mobility, now disproportionately benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations. As tax cuts continue to funnel wealth upwards and wages stagnate for average workers, the gap between the rich and the poor widens, driving economic instability and social unrest. Without significant reform that prioritizes equitable taxation and reinvestment in working families, the erosion of the middle class will persist, risking the long-term health of the nation’s economy and society.

The path forward must involve holding corporations and billionaires accountable, restoring fairness to the tax code, and ensuring that prosperity is shared across all economic classes. Addressing media manipulation and ensuring that economic policies are framed accurately will be crucial in reversing these trends and rebuilding a more just and equitable society.