ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 analyzes the exfiltration of the lower-income and middle-income groups, including the agony created by small incomes and employment opportunities. The exfiltration is also from the economic and the political by neoliberalism. Lower class monetary needs are being denied in such terms as rental evictions, health coverage for the poor, and pharmaceutical pricing. Reputable organizations describe the real average wage as having the same purchasing power as it had in the 70s. Care should be exercised when hearing political claims, including those involving statistics: more than merely the numbers has to be understood. The nudging toward exfiltration promises to accelerate with changes like the gig economy, and by the prospects for humans when faced with the creation – as is forecast in the next several decades – of robots that can think faster and work more efficiently at laboring jobs than humans. The corporate take-over of government and politics is affected both by what corporations do and also by what the public understands. The limitations of free market economics are re-explored. The meaning of poverty is examined, explaining the view that the meaning is not only low incomes but also the extractive markets. The meaning of cultural inequality is also discussed. The utility of epistemic pluralism as part of the reader’s reflections are examined and illustrated in relation to the question whether the U.S. culture – including governmental system and economic system – is fair to Americans, or whether it is rigged to favor the rich and powerful?
