Trump preys on our fears
Here’s a revelation that serves to explain why millions of voters have been drawn to New York City billionaire Donald Trump: Two-thirds of Americans would have trouble coming up with $1,000 to pay for some emergency.
In fact, the situation is even more dire than that. Consider:
Three-quarters of people in households making less than $50,000 a year, and two-thirds of those making between $50,000 and $100,000 would not have $1,000 to cover an unexpected bill.
Of the nation’s wealthiest 20 percent – households making more than $100,000 – 38 percent say they would have at least some difficulty coming up with $1,000.
Here’s how Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute focusing on poverty and emergency savings issues, frames the topic:
“The more we learn about the balance sheets of Americans, it becomes quite alarming.”
The findings of the state of Americans’ finances were gleaned from a poll conducted recently by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The poll goes a long way toward explaining Trump’s growing popularity. The Republican Party’s soon-to-be presidential nominee is tapping into the fears of many Americans – fears about their lives and about the future of the country.
To better understand what’s going on, the Associated Press interviewed a resident of Phoenix, Ariz., who works at a security company.
Mitchell Timme, 26, said that his wages have remained flat for the last few years while his cost of living has increased. Once everything is paid “there’s nothing left to save.”
“It definitely adds stress to everyday life,” Timme said. “It hangs over you. While it’s not something you would complain about every day, it’s there. And it weighs on you.”
Lap of luxury
Trump, who grew up wealthy and has never had to worry about paying for an unexpected emergency, has succeeded in persuading a growing number of financially challenged Americans that he feels their pain.
Indeed, his campaign for president has a similar tone to the one 88 years ago, when the Republican Party published a circular claiming that if Herbert Hoover won, there would be a “chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.”
Hoover carried the election by a landslide over Democrat Alfred “Al” Smith, and then presided over the Stock Market crash of 1929 that plunged the country into the Great Depression.
Trump’s campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again” has tapped into the growing discontent among white males, many of them blue-collar workers or those who have lost their jobs to outsourcing by American companies.
Trump has said that if elected president, he will force those companies to bring the jobs back home. He hasn’t specified how, in a democracy, a president can dictate to corporate leaders. In fact, Trump himself has long boasted of having business dealings around the world.
In its report on the poll results, the Associated Press referred to an Urban Institute study that found that having a modest, immediately available emergency fund is recognized as critical to financial health.
The wire service report noted that families with even a small amount of nonretirement savings, tween $250 and $749, are less likely to be evicted from their homes and less likely to need public benefits.
“People are extremely vulnerable if they don’t have savings,” Ratcliffe, the Urban Institute’s senior fellow, said. “And it’s a cost to taxpayers as well. Lack of savings can lead to homelessness, or other problems.”
Adding to the despair that many Americans feel is fallout from the Great Recession that began in late 2008 toward the end of Republican President George W. Bush’s tenure. Private-sector workers – unlike those in government and other public sector entities – have had their wages frozen for at least five years. In fact, a goodly number of workers have been forced to take pay cuts, while shelling out more for health-care coverage.
“Many families are still struggling with debt from the housing bubble and borrowing boom,” said William R. Emmons, a senior economic adviser at the Center for Household Financial Stability at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “And the recent economic stresses make it much more likely families are going to be fighting basic financial issues.”
Trump has found a way of not only tapping into the blue mood of many Americans – even though the Great Recession didn’t affect his personal wealth. He has said he’s worth $10 billion.
Indeed, a comment Trump made about the housing industry crash has formed the basis of a new line of attack by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, and her surrogates.
The real-estate developer – he built his business with a huge infusion of money from his wealthy father – made the following comment about the housing bubble bursting: “I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy [property and] make a lot of money.”
Clinton and the Democrats have used that comment to argue that Trump has no concept of what working-class Americans have experienced.
But rather than apologize for his seeming lack of understanding of what the Great Recession has done to a large segment of the population, Trump, who has taken the Republican Party by storm and is in the midst of redefining conservatism, doubled down:
“I’m a businessman; that’s what I’m supposed to do,” he said in reference to the deals that were made on the backs of people who lost their homes. “I feel badly for everybody. What am I going to do? I’m in business.”
It is noteworthy that many of Trump’s supporters took a financial beating during the recession and now hold the federal government responsible for their hardships.
Indeed, one of the issues that has made the soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee popular among the millions of voters who cast ballots for him during the primary season is his attack on government.
His contention that the keepers of the public purse have mismanaged taxpayer dollars has struck a responsive chord.
Indeed, every time public employees receive pay raises, increased benefits or retire with above-average pensions, Trump’s attacks become a rallying cry for his growing legion of supporters.
Trump is the ultimate RINO – Republican In Name Only – and a majority of his voters aren’t ideological Republicans. They would have supported him had he run as a third-party candidate.
As a man who’s used to getting his way, Trump has refused to play second fiddle to anyone in the GOP. That attitude has endeared him to millions of Americans, including those who would be hard-pressed to come up with $1,000 in case of an emergency.