That one is easy, and the answer is the same for both.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. Proverbs 10:15
That is the way the entire American economic, legal, and political system is structured. To enhance the strength of the wealthy, exacerbate the destruction rendered by poverty. I mean I wish I could say that it is a recent thing, wish I could blame Republicans, Ronald Reagan, conservatives. But I can't because that is the way it has been FROM THE GET GO.
Take our Health Care System. Probably the only fully developed country in the world that has a free market based health care system, as if that was even economically possible. Why? So the poor can stay poor and the sick can die broke. Because what does that mean, the rich get richer.
Social Security, what a flippin Ponzi scam. I mean you structure something like that you end up like Bernie Maldoff. But the government, they can do it. Why is there a "cap" on earnings subject to the FICA tax? It is horseshit. Unearned income, let that phrase settle, "UNEARNED INCOME", is taxed less than earned income. WTF? So, I go out and bust my ass and "earn" income, I pay more in taxes than some fatass rich cat that sits on his ass and collects "unearned income"? Seriously? The example I use is the ditch diggers and the shovels. If you tax the ditch diggers more than you tax the dudes renting the shovels pretty soon, no one wants to dig ditches and everyone wants to rent out shovels. Can you say labor participation rate?
But let me conclude by explaining how it has always been that way. During the Revolutionary war armies would stroll on to a farm, mostly state militias, and take some corn, or some cows, gunpowder, even "arms", from the person that owned the farm. Then they would write out an IOU, it is called Continental Script, and as an avid and lifelong numismatist, I have a nice collection.
After the war things were tough. It is laughable that people complain about inflation and the economy now. It was bad. Farms were in disrepair, crops failed because they went unattended as males flocked together to fight off the mighty British army. And state governments were dead dog broke. To begin the reconstruction those farmers needed money, badly. Seed, feed for their mules, hell even food to feed their families. So they sold those "scripts" to people like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Sold them for pennies on the dollar.
Then, after the Second Continental Congress, the passing of the Constitution, one of the very first acts of Congress was to pass a bill introduced by Hamilton to pay for those scripts, dollar for d, ollar. The funds were to come from the Whiskey tax. I mean talk about adding insult to injury. Those farmers that sold those scripts for pennies on the dollar, well now, the one way they had to turn their crops into cash revenue that wasn't perishable, was being taxed. And how that very tax was structured is just another story, for another time, that reflects the entire premise of this thread.
But think about it. Those hard worker farmers, that fought the British and made this nation free, got pennies on the dollar for the assets they gave up to support the Revolution. And then, they were taxed to pay the wealthy speculators dollar for dollar for those scripts. In a real sense, raped TWICE. No wonder they rebelled, especially in upstate New York, which is another story as well. That revolution was put down by a "Lee", as in a forefather of Robert E. Lee. And while numerous individuals were convicted of treason, Washington knew the whole damn thing was a scam and he pardoned them, sparing them from the hangman's noose.
Look, I know it is a long screed, and I could go on all day about it. The one comfort I have is that the wealthiest person ever to be elected was George Washington, until Donald Trump strolled into the White House. Two bookends that hopefully, with the help of the Millennials, will end this 200 plus year long, rich get richer poor get poorer, society.
