I definitely think the tax system needs to be fixed so that the richest people are paying at least the same tax bracket as someone making $250k/year that can't use ridiculous loopholes.

THere is always a top 1%. Even if those with the top 1% of the wealth disappeared today there would just be a different top 1% replacing them. The problem is the 50% of the population that's being kept sleepwalking, too uneducated and uninformed to prevent the autocrats from getting stronger, and how the policies of those in power are making it worse each day. We may be the land of the free, but that includes being free to be taken advantage of. Fixing that is difficult.

“There are a handful of super rich people “

“There are a lot of people struggling to get by”

Now let’s all get angry.

Maybe we can skip these types of stories and go straight to causation.

Why is America becoming unaffordable. Housing, education, and healthcare seem to always outpace inflation, for example.

I think it’s true the American system is broken, but I think the two Americas narrative is a bit of an oversimplification. There’s definitely plenty of people (over represented on this site) that aren’t yacht wealthy, but also aren’t paycheck to paycheck broke. Well paid laborers (SWE, other engineers, consultants) that can afford most day to day good, but struggle a bit more on big purchases like housing. I think ideally we’d tax the wealthy enough to allow more people to fall into that bucket of doing well but not crazy multiple homes well.