I am curious about what the Republicans, who now have control of all three branches, will do. Not only about income inequality but also about the less recognized but possibly more devastating dual economies now extant in America.
We all know about income inequality, where large business profits do not get distributed back to the employees but mainly get distributed upwards on the corporate chain. This has happened over the last 35 years, so that lower-paid employees have seen their paychecks, based on inflation and shared benefit costs, go down. I can write and discuss much more, but others have described the phenomenon elsewhere, and I really want to explain the dual economies, which are much less known.
Two coinciding economic realities create the dual economy. The first is income inequality, as briefly described above. The second is the overall low inflation rate. To have income inequality with a higher inflation rate may be high enough to keep us on a singular economy. Having a low inflation rate and less income inequality prevents the dilemma of a dual economy. Our dual economy has a significant portion of its participants living in an economy where price inflation is slightly outrun by pay inflation over most of one’s lifetime. But then there is a large segment of the population where price inflation outpaces pay inflation. Looking at the economy holistically, pay slightly exceeds prices according to the numbers. But when you pull out the only workers who get the bulk of pay increases, the rest, a majority, experience both price inflation and income deflation.
Of course, the inflation/deflation determination is based on prices alone, but it only makes sense to evaluate that equation by including salary changes to establish whether the economy is experiencing an inflationary period or a deflationary period. Through a realistic lens, most Americans are experiencing deflationary pay rather than a healthy low-inflationary economy experienced only by persons in the higher incomes.
Certainly, I had to toss aside some classic definitions of deflation to come to this conclusion, but perhaps those definitions may need some refinement. For example, interest rates have remained low, which is contrary to the classic deflation definition since they are not negative. If your income is less because your employer raised your health care contribution and completely ended your fixed pension, then the interest rate to refinance your home or buy a new car has gone up. Deflationary income and inflationary prices cause you to delay purchases, leading to the classic deflation condition. One can easily observe that growing income inequality creates a big divide in the US as individual victims express their dissatisfaction along social lines, obscuring the true economic causation.
I am certain that the supporters of Donald Trump include many victims of a deflationary economy. They are certain that someone who has run successful businesses can fix their problem. And their problem is that every year, their bills go up, they work hard to get a raise, and the bills have gone up more than their raise. Deflation. They do not care if he is a misogynist, racist, xenophobe. All those issues take a back seat to getting someone in office that knows how to manage to the bottom line.
There are lots of problems with that logic, but MAGA is now in control, and my question is how can their policy choices reconnect the dual economy into a single entity?
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It would seem that to answer that question, we’d need to bifurcate MAGA the president, from MAGA the constituents. MAGA the president will self resolve. We’ll continue to feel pain until he does, but midterms will bolster last Tuesday’s electoral wins to the point of neutering him politically at the least, or possibly taking him out of office. I’ll let those within the 2 party system handle that, either way, as indeed they currently have the steering wheel.
Without Trump, MAGA the constituents are in the wilderness, politically homeless. JD Vance or DeSantis etc. do not have the charisma. Trump is a one-off.
Many people are disenchanted with electoral politics altogether. But we are even worse off and more controlled by neglecting electoral politics. By doing so, we squander perhaps the best opportunity we’ve had in our lives to address this mess and self defeat, as certain wins such as Zohran Mamdani won’t be able to perform the way they need to, let alone catch on nationally rather than locally without our resounding backing. And that is on us; not him. The establishment will point to his failure and give us a “we told you so” and inequality will somehow be even worse than it is today.
At any given time, there are large numbers of disenfranchised and politically homeless. I see it that demand-side economically minded progressives (and in that, I mean those who see progressivism as much more than simple cultural identity politics) will need to have already formed a #VoterCoalition with the goal of making #OurDemand to candidates within the two parties, coming from outside the 2 party system (and thus viewed as savory to anyone, regardless of prior political convictions, while also being needed by the 2 parties even though they may prefer our organization to not exist).
Such a coalition needs to respect why and understand the specific mechanisms of how we indeed DO have a 2 party system. Its advantage and specific goal of creating MORE democracy within the framework of our Constitution, not less. As our Constitution itself without the 2 party system favors autocracy by design. And that we’ve had such a 2 party system since they created it, largely via Virginia politics, in the lead up to 1800 when replacing George Washington before modern Republican or Democrat parties even existed.
This way we can use the 2 party system to our benefit of solving our extremely unjust dual economies by exploiting a certain vulnerability created by the existence of 3rd parties as well as the politically marginalized as necessary leverage to achieve our united goals. I recognize a clear path to do so.
I would suggest such goals as a written contract with a presidential candidate including A) campaign finance reform, B) a promise to leverage her or his position as president by endorsing primary challenges to all lawmakers who don’t abide by said contract, and C) any other necessary goals using demand-side economics in the spirit of FDR’s 2nd Bill of Rights and in line with convictions stated by MLK and Eugene Debs, etc.
If it would simply exist, such a coalition would seem like it would be embraced and even be yearned for by most swing voters, 3rd party voters, those who think voting doesn’t even matter or even detrimental because it’s an act of compliance in a dysfunctional system, and most who feel marginalized or disrespected by the 2 parties. I’m also confident both parties would compete for our united endorsement, as they would have to due to said leverage.
Public interest would then be in the driver’s seat, as it was with the New Deal Coalition.
It would seem that if we instead surrender to the temptation of political apathy, it will be exactly what those who benefit from our dual economies want. Us to say “you win”, and shoot ourselves in the foot. Absolute failure and defeatism. I don’t see how people can accept this for themselves and the rest of us.
I for one reject such defeatism with the same vigor that I reject our dual economies, as created by those who enjoy such an unjust system.
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Don
November 5, 2025 10:41 PM
Why would the 1%’ers would want a singular economy? It seems clear to me they prefer an aristocracy – serf class. The intent is to make the serf class continuously poor, so they will work harder and longer for diminishing wages. Maybe I have watched too many Poldark episodes, but it is clear to me that we are going back to those economic times. In the Mt. Washington Valley, 14 year olds are working in the service industries. We are already backsliding to child labor.
It would seem that to answer that question, we’d need to bifurcate MAGA the president, from MAGA the constituents. MAGA the president will self resolve. We’ll continue to feel pain until he does, but midterms will bolster last Tuesday’s electoral wins to the point of neutering him politically at the least, or possibly taking him out of office. I’ll let those within the 2 party system handle that, either way, as indeed they currently have the steering wheel.
Without Trump, MAGA the constituents are in the wilderness, politically homeless. JD Vance or DeSantis etc. do not have the charisma. Trump is a one-off.
Many people are disenchanted with electoral politics altogether. But we are even worse off and more controlled by neglecting electoral politics. By doing so, we squander perhaps the best opportunity we’ve had in our lives to address this mess and self defeat, as certain wins such as Zohran Mamdani won’t be able to perform the way they need to, let alone catch on nationally rather than locally without our resounding backing. And that is on us; not him. The establishment will point to his failure and give us a “we told you so” and inequality will somehow be even worse than it is today.
At any given time, there are large numbers of disenfranchised and politically homeless. I see it that demand-side economically minded progressives (and in that, I mean those who see progressivism as much more than simple cultural identity politics) will need to have already formed a #VoterCoalition with the goal of making #OurDemand to candidates within the two parties, coming from outside the 2 party system (and thus viewed as savory to anyone, regardless of prior political convictions, while also being needed by the 2 parties even though they may prefer our organization to not exist).
Such a coalition needs to respect why and understand the specific mechanisms of how we indeed DO have a 2 party system. Its advantage and specific goal of creating MORE democracy within the framework of our Constitution, not less. As our Constitution itself without the 2 party system favors autocracy by design. And that we’ve had such a 2 party system since they created it, largely via Virginia politics, in the lead up to 1800 when replacing George Washington before modern Republican or Democrat parties even existed.
This way we can use the 2 party system to our benefit of solving our extremely unjust dual economies by exploiting a certain vulnerability created by the existence of 3rd parties as well as the politically marginalized as necessary leverage to achieve our united goals. I recognize a clear path to do so.
I would suggest such goals as a written contract with a presidential candidate including A) campaign finance reform, B) a promise to leverage her or his position as president by endorsing primary challenges to all lawmakers who don’t abide by said contract, and C) any other necessary goals using demand-side economics in the spirit of FDR’s 2nd Bill of Rights and in line with convictions stated by MLK and Eugene Debs, etc.
If it would simply exist, such a coalition would seem like it would be embraced and even be yearned for by most swing voters, 3rd party voters, those who think voting doesn’t even matter or even detrimental because it’s an act of compliance in a dysfunctional system, and most who feel marginalized or disrespected by the 2 parties. I’m also confident both parties would compete for our united endorsement, as they would have to due to said leverage.
Public interest would then be in the driver’s seat, as it was with the New Deal Coalition.
It would seem that if we instead surrender to the temptation of political apathy, it will be exactly what those who benefit from our dual economies want. Us to say “you win”, and shoot ourselves in the foot. Absolute failure and defeatism. I don’t see how people can accept this for themselves and the rest of us.
I for one reject such defeatism with the same vigor that I reject our dual economies, as created by those who enjoy such an unjust system.
Why would the 1%’ers would want a singular economy? It seems clear to me they prefer an aristocracy – serf class. The intent is to make the serf class continuously poor, so they will work harder and longer for diminishing wages. Maybe I have watched too many Poldark episodes, but it is clear to me that we are going back to those economic times. In the Mt. Washington Valley, 14 year olds are working in the service industries. We are already backsliding to child labor.