Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, 12/19/19
Recently Donald Trump’s campaign team put out a video in which Mr. Trump’s face is superimposed over that of Marvel Comics’ super-villain Thanos.
In the clip, Trump snaps his fingers and a voice says, “I am inevitable.” The next scene shows the Democratic leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, with Nancy Pelosi front and center, being turned to dust.
For those who aren’t familiar with Marvel lore, this scene comes at the end of the movie “Infinity War.” Thanos kills off half of the population of the universe, at random, with a snap of his fingers. Those who perish are turned to dust, including half of the Avengers (the movie’s superhero protagonists).
Thanos is a malevolent, unstoppable villain with a messiah complex. Prior to ending half of all life in the universe, he’d already destroyed his own planet and killed his daughter. Yet, he claims that he’s killing off half of creation to save it from destroying itself through clashes over scarce resources.
In the Trump video, rather than killing off half of the population at random, we see leaders of the Democratic Party being “dusted.” Trump isn’t attempting to restore some kind of balance to the world by randomly eliminating half of the population; he’s specifically focused on making life harder for those who stand up to him along with those who are already fighting for scarce resources.
One of the most recent proposals to come out of the White House is another cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or what most people think of as food stamps). The people who would be cut from the program would be those who are considered “able-bodied adults without dependents.” The rationale here is that cutting people’s food benefits will help motivate them to find work. The “logic” behind this is beyond comprehension.
Over the summer, the Trump administration suggested lowering the federal poverty threshold (already considered too low by many) bit by bit over the next few decades. The result of this change would be that millions of people who rely on various forms of assistance — from nutrition benefits like SNAP and WIC, to health care through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and some forms of Medicare, to fuel assistance and Head Start — would no longer be eligible.
Just to give a sense of current poverty guidelines, a family of four earning a gross income of $26,000 is just above the poverty limit (and therefore ineligible for several forms of federal assistance). Housing experts recommend that families spend 30% or less of their total income on housing. For this family of four, that equals $7,800 per year or $650 per month to spend on rent or mortgage, plus utilities.
Take a look on Craiglist and see what you can find for housing in this price range. Even if our fictional family were able to find housing plus utilities for that amount, they would be left with just $1,517 for the rest of their monthly expenses — food, transportation, clothing, health care and medications. Even if they were budgeting wizards and could make this work, there would be nothing left for savings or emergencies.
In 2017, just over 12% of all Americans were living with incomes below the poverty level. However, statistics for people of color were more severe. African-Americans are 2.5 times and Latinos 2.1 times as likely to live in poverty as whites. A full 25.4% of Native Americans lived with incomes below the poverty line, and people living with disabilities were close behind at 24.9%.
The suggestion of lowering the poverty line even further is a direct threat to people of color, women, children and people with disabilities, all of whom have higher rates of poverty when compared to the general population.
Even the administration’s trade war with China will end up putting a larger burden on households in the low- and moderate-income ranges since the end result is that consumers in the U.S. end up paying more for products. Experts estimate that the tariffs imposed on China will cost consumers $1,000 per year.
Meanwhile, recent reports show that in 2018 billionaires in the U.S. paid income tax at a lower rate than those in the bottom 50% of the income distribution. The tax rate for those at the top has been steadily declining over time.
These policies are definitely not random, nor will they help people who are already struggling for scarce resources. I’d argue that the Trump campaign was not wrong to compare their candidate to Thanos, but perhaps they didn’t go far enough. Trump is a destroyer.