Jackpot by Michael Mechanic

Author:Michael Mechanic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2021-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

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Even as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked economic havoc on the middle class, it offered America’s dynasties an unprecedented opportunity to bankroll their future generations. The table rate for the second half of 2020 averaged less than 0.5 percent—which is unheard of. Putting a few hundred million worth of your most battered assets into a long-term Jackie O trust would earn you a big charitable tax deduction, praise from your community, and a massive tax-free gift for your offspring once the economy recovers.

It’s not hard to understand why families would employ such strategies. As Mike Depatie pointed out, people act in their economic self-interest. What is perhaps more difficult to understand is why the public puts up with this. Amid the turmoil of the 2020 election season, millions of Americans hit the streets to call for economic justice and an end to police violence. The profound wealth gaps between rich and poor, white and Black, have been growing for decades. And yet the lower 90 percent has been surprisingly tolerant of the 0.001 percent propagating its wealth at everyone else’s expense. Why have the masses been so slow to take aim at the anthill?

A lack of political power is one clear reason, and stark partisan divisions another, but the phenomenon also has to do with an entrenched ethos that is peculiarly American. As we will explore in the chapter to come, we are raised on a set of myths that bring about unrealistic dreams and aspirations. U2’s Bono summed it up nicely during a 2002 interview with Larry King. “In the United States,” said Bono, who is Irish, “you look at the guy that lives in the mansion on the hill and you think, ‘You know, one day, if I work really hard, I could live in that mansion.’ In Ireland, people look up at the guy in the mansion on the hill and go, ‘One day, I’m going to get that bastard.’ ”

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