The Unspoken Truth About the Economy: Grapes of Wrath 2025-26 All Over

The Boom at the Top

The wealthiest 10% of Americans are thriving.  They now control over 60% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom half holds just 6%.  This concentration has grown steadily since the 1970s, when income inequality began to widen after a post-WWII era of broadly shared prosperity. 

From 1945 to the early 1970s, incomes across all brackets roughly doubled in real terms.  But since then, income growth for the bottom 50% has stagnated, while the top 10% continued to see substantial gains.  The top 1% now earn nearly 20% of national income, a level not seen since the Roaring Twenties.

This elite class, primarily composed of the top 10% of wealth holders, also dominates media ownership.  As of 2022, seven conglomerates controlled over 80% of U.S. daily newspapers, and these conglomerates are often owned or influenced by the top 10% of wealth holders.  This disproportionate influence over both legacy and digital media narratives creates a curated illusion of economic health, amplified by headlines that rarely reflect the lived realities of most Americans.

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
— Warren Buffett

“Half the U.S. population owns barely 2 percent of its wealth, putting the United States near Rwanda and Uganda.”
— Eric Alterman

The Crash at the Bottom

For the bottom 50%, the economy feels like a slow-motion collapse.  Real wages have barely budged since the 1970s, while inflation has consistently outpaced earnings for low-income workers.  While the lowest-paid workers saw a brief surge in wage growth between 2019 and 2024, their wages remain grossly inadequate to sustain families. 

Homelessness has reached record highs.

Seven hundred seventy-one thousand four hundred eighty people were unhoused in 2024, up 18% from the previous year.  Many live in cars, shower at 24-hour gyms, and forage for food at discount tables.  This crisis is exacerbated by the affordability crisis, which has left over half of renters spending more than 30% of their income on housing, and 22% spending nearly all of it, making it increasingly difficult for low-income families to make ends meet.

“A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little.”
— Bernie Sanders

“Homelessness reflects not individual failings, but society’s unwillingness to care for its people.”
— Anonymous

A night out might mean a meal at Denny’s—ultra-processed foods now make up over 55% of daily caloric intake, especially among low-income households.  These foods are linked to higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

The Mental Toll

The psychological toll is staggering.  Low-income Americans are 4.5 times more likely to suffer from clinical Depression than their wealthier counterparts.  Mental illness affects over 20% of U.S. adults, and its economic cost is estimated at $282 billion annually, equivalent to a significant recession.

“Mental illness alters people’s consumption, savings, portfolio choices, as well as the country’s labor supply, generating enormous annual costs to our economy.”
— Aleh Tsyvinski, Yale Economist

“Mental health isn’t something economists usually study, but its macroeconomic consequences are profound.”
— Job Boerma, University of Wisconsin

Two Americas

This bifurcation is not just economic—it’s existential.  The top lives in boom times, the bottom in survival mode.  And yet, this distortion is swept under the rug, hidden behind headlines of growth and prosperity.

“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
— Louis D. Brandeis

Until we confront this unspoken truth, meaningful reform will remain elusive.  The first step is acknowledging the divide.  The next is demanding a system that works for all—not just the fortunate few.