The American system is designed to keep people in their place

A display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., reminds visitors of our nation’s original sin. Photo by me.

The most important aspect to bear in mind about the history of the United States of America is that it has always been an oligarchy, where a small group of very wealthy and powerful people hold all the cards. This group will stop at nothing not just to maintain that position but to prevent anyone else from coming even close to it. In fact, America’s political, social, and economic systems are all built very intentionally to enshrine this unholy hierarchy.

And we are willfully blind to this. We call Russian oligarchs exactly what they are, but someone like Elon Musk is…what? An “entrepreneur”? A “businessman”? A “job creator”?

Elon Musk is speaking out against government subsidies. Here's a list of the billions of dollars his businesses have received.

I recently read an article in the Washington Post about a Colorado woman who had the misfortune in 2014 of requiring major surgery for which she expected to pay $1,300 out of pocket (which itself would be considered an inexcusable sum in any civilized country). But the so-called “nonprofit” hospital decided they weren’t making enough money off of her, so they spent the past several years suing her for the amount of $229,000. The Colorado Supreme Court recently ruled in her favor on the premise that she never agreed to pay the rate that the hospital was demanding (rather than the much more glaring point that the hospital was trying to steal from her via extortion).

It’s a hollow victory. Just imagine what this woman—or countless others like her—could have been doing with her life instead if she hadn’t been forced to waste undoubtedly insane amounts of time, energy, and money to fight a corporation that sought to profiteer and was perfectly happy to destroy her life as a means to that end. More than that, imagine what countless millions of Americans would be free to do if our government actually provided universal health coverage to its citizens and they didn’t have to worry about how to pay their crushing and often ruinous insurance premiums or medical bills.

Or, to take it a step even further to yet another realm of financial enslavement for far too many: Think about the freedom yet millions more Americans would enjoy if they weren’t saddled with predatory student loans and debt.

Therein lies the crux of the American system: Even if it doesn’t ruin you, it prevents you from getting ahead. It depletes you. It wears you down. It reduces you to a state of resignation, where you tacitly accept the false notion that you can’t have it any better than this. That is all by design.

The New York Times recently did a piece highlighting the importance of Roe v. Wade in allowing women of all socioeconomic statuses to pursue careers and financial independence in their lives. Now, naturally, if the United States—which still boasts more collective wealth than any other country in the history of the world—offered basics like universal health care, free or subsidized child care, or guaranteed paid parental leave, Roe might not be nearly as salient of a factor in achieving this laudable goal.

But of course America provides its citizens none of those things, and as it stands now, a group of Supreme Court activists is about to strip women of their 50-year-old right to reproductive freedom in direct contradiction to public will. Why? Because again, the ruling class does not want women to have choices.

Think about the 20-something single mother who grew up in poverty and left an abusive relationship right after learning she was pregnant again. She makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid in the red state where she lives, and if she decided to get an abortion, she’d have to go to a different state where it’s legal. Either way, she won’t be able to take time off of work when her child is born nor afford decent care for that child while she’s away.

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This is exactly the way oligarchs want her situation to remain—because someone like her who is empowered to advance beyond her current circumstances is someone who threatens their very power structure.

And make no mistake—no matter what happens with Roe, rich people will always be able to get an abortion if they need or want one. Or, if they decide to have a child, they’ll obviously have far better access to good health care coverage, paid time off of work (assuming they have to work at all), child care, and a safe, nurturing environment in which to raise the child. That child will likely grow up to have opportunities, wealth, and security that the child of the aforementioned single mother will never have, thus perpetuating a structure of inequality and injustice for generations to come.

Speaking of which, I’ve been reading with increasing despair about the scourge of gun violence in my city of Chicago. Perhaps most depressing of all is the number of perpetrators and victims alike who are just children. The suspect facing murder charges for a recent shooting death in Millennium Park is just 17, and his alleged victim was just 16. Of course, he’s being charged as an adult, but at 17, he’s just a kid, and yet he was still carrying a gun, just like so many others his age and younger who share his circumstances.

Imagine growing up in a neighborhood where this is just the norm—where generations of poverty, despair, and racial segregation are the rule, and education or economic opportunity are elusive but guns are everywhere. Then consider how those guns most likely were trafficked in from places where gun regulations are weak or nonexistent—places like the red state of Indiana, which borders part of Chicago and is a wide open door for illegal firearms to flow in and fuel gang-related shootings in the city.

Think long and hard about this the next time a white person tells you that the Second Amendment is a matter of “liberty.” Liberty for whom exactly? Say you’re a young person of color living in a long-neglected inner-city neighborhood where all you can do is spend your days and nights worrying about getting shot, which prompts you to carry a gun yourself (which you were able to acquire all too easily), which vastly increases the likelihood you’ll end up in prison or dead, either because you shot someone yourself or were picked up on other serious charges. How can you possibly get ahead in life against these odds?

Again, that’s precisely the point.

Relatedly, it’s no coincidence at all that the United States imprisons more of its citizens than any other country on the planet, and Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at five times the rate that white persons are. Meanwhile, gun dealers and manufacturers continue to profit, and zealots for the Second Amendment continue to nurse their insecurities and paranoia under the guise of “freedom” while dog-whistling about the plight of “Democrat-run cities.”

Americans who truly wish the best for their country should no longer delude themselves into thinking that ours was ever really a land of “equality” or “opportunity.” For the most part, that was only ever true for those who were part of a socioeconomic class that already predisposed them to do well no matter what.

But this observation obscures an even darker truth: Ours is a system very deliberately designed to facilitate the social, political, and economic subjugation of large numbers of people — preventing them from realizing their full potential, living their best lives, pursuing their dreams, or even just surviving—all so that those who are already wealthy and powerful can continue to become even more so.

To those who already have too much, even more is being given; and for those who struggle just to get by, even what they have is slowly being taken away. And the gap grows wider every day.

This is the essence of oligarchy, and this is America.