America brands itself as the land of freedom and opportunity, but that slogan comes with a giant asterisk.
*If you’re rich.
The wealthiest Americans practically get away with murder, while the rest of us toil under their feet.
Freedom for the Rich
I bet you don’t believe me.
We have a Constitution that protects the rights and freedoms of all people!
But does it? Is justice equal, or do uber-wealthy have different standards?
I’d argue the latter, and I’ve come with receipts. Here’s how freedom for the rich is vastly different than freedom for the rest of us – and how it often comes at our expense.
Getting Away with Murder
Rich people (okay, not people, but corporations, which are run by people) literally get away with murder.
Healthcare companies that refuse claims for lifesaving care kill thousands of people a year.
Pharmaceutical companies that charge outrageous sums for life-saving medication, making it unaffordable to people who need it, kill thousands more. Pharmaceutical companies are also responsible for the opioid crisis, which claimed thousands of lives.
Industrial plants poison our air and water, causing an untold number of illnesses and subsequent deaths
Food corporations add weird fillers and chemicals to our food with uncertain impacts on our health. They also cut corners on safety, leading to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.
Nobody has ever seen a lick of jail time for these crimes.
Obviously, this is the worst case of how rich people are above the law, but they enjoy all sorts of other privileges in nearly every aspect of life.
Keeping Wages Low
They say money doesn’t buy happiness, but that’s a lie. It might not buy happiness outright, but it does provide the safety and security you need to pursue it on your own.
But rich folks don’t want to share the pie. They prefer to keep us fighting for scraps.
One of their favorite ways to keep us in check is to keep wages low. The rich and powerful lobby against any legislation to raise the minimum wage. They enjoy the freedom to pay workers paltry sums while the taxpayers make up the difference through social welfare programs.
The largest corporations in the country have the biggest percentage of workers on social assistance because they refuse to pay a living wage. Our system doesn’t just allow it – it encourages it!
Tax Subsidies
The wealthy are free to not pay taxes. They lobby Congress for all sorts of loopholes and subsidies that keep their tax bill as low as possible.
Meanwhile, ordinary folks foot the bill. We pay taxes on income, property, and purchases. Our tax dollars get rolled up into handouts for giant businesses.
But the rich don’t have to pay, because our tax code focuses on income tax rather than investment gains. The wealthy avoid taxes by storing most of their wealth in appreciating assets.
Affluenza Treatment
Rich people are above the law – literally.
Remember the rich kid who killed people while driving drunk, but avoided any jail time because he “didn’t know any better”
That case gained a lot of publicity, but I don’t even want to think about how many rich people avoid jail time for crimes that would thrust you and me behind bars in an instant.
Judges give far more grace to the wealthy.
Paying a Small Fee
What’s a $100 parking ticket to someone worth millions? It’s not illegal for them to park in a handicap spot or no-parking zone; it’s just a little more expensive.
Let’s expand that to multi-billion-dollar companies. Is it illegal for them to dump hazardous material into a river, or is the $10,000 fine for poisoning you just a cost of doing business?
The wealthy are basically free to break all sorts of laws because they can easily afford to pay the fine. It’s no longer illegal for them; it’s just an expense.
Good Lawyers
If a wealthy person does find themselves in legal trouble, they can afford the best lawyers who will typically find loopholes or cut cushy deals.
The Constitution guarantees the right to an attorney, but poor folks are stuck with overburdened public defenders.
People who can’t afford lawyers are more likely to be held on bail, and tend to receive longer sentences than those who can, according to World Metric poverty and incarceration statistics.
Deciding Who is Worthy of Free Time
The US is one of the only developed nations in the world without some sort of mandated paid time off policy.
And who do you think doesn’t get time off?
Low-wage workers take your orders, stock your shelves, tend to your children, and clean your mess.
Our corporate overlords decide who is worthy of a break and who isn’t, and guess what? You’re not getting one if they can help it.
Education
Rich folks can send their children to the best schools, from primary education to university. They enjoy legacy admissions to Ivy League institutions and never have to worry about student loans.
College is so outrageously expensive these days that it’s out of reach for poor kids, and a massive struggle for the middle class.
But it’s not just that. Schools are funded with property taxes. Low-income areas have lower tax rates and thus less money for education. That means kids from poorer communities have poor schools.
Parents don’t have the option to send their kids to better schools (please don’t tell me about the massive scam that is “school choice), which makes a good education a freedom for the rich.
Healthcare
Having access to actual healthcare is a rich people privilege most of us will never be able to afford.
When you have millions of dollars, you can afford the best doctors and treatments money can buy. You wouldn’t have to fight with insurance companies for treatment, or stay in a job you hate for access to healthcare.
I think everyone should have access to life-saving (and preventative) treatment they need for healthy lives, not just the rich.
Poisoning the Environment
In Europe, people have the right to clean air. In the US, giant corporations have the right to poison our air.
They pump all sorts of toxins into the air you and I breathe, yet no one seems to care.
Agencies that regulate these practices have very little recourse to prevent it, other than the fines we already mentioned (that rich people see as a cost of doing business).
Exploiting People
A horrifying freedom for the rich is their freedom to exploit other humans.
Slavery may have ended, but the rich just adapted. They use other people to perform backbreaking labor with few breaks. For example, a few years ago, a Texas law removed mandatory water breaks for construction workers – people who toil outside in sweltering heat.
Apparently, letting workers take a break to drink water cuts into profits.
But it’s not just that. Millions of people get injured on the job every year. Some have to retire early, as they can no longer work. Others lose their lives.
Our country could do more to protect these folks (i.e better worker safety laws), but we wouldn’t want to impact a billionaire’s profit margins.
It’s not just safety. It’s also wage theft, mandatory overtime, varying schedules, low wages, and all the other horrible aspects of American work culture that give corporations the freedom to exploit workers.
Bodily Autonomy
Rich folks don’t care that the US is stripping women of their rights to bodily autonomy.
They can afford private doctors to perform any procedure they need or travel to countries that support women’s rights.
Bodily autonomy should be a human right, but in some parts of the US (and if certain folks get their way – all parts of the US), it’s a freedom for the rich that the rest of us can’t access.
Insider Trading
Insider trading is technically illegal (unless you’re a politician), but you can’t tell me that the rich don’t benefit from their extensive networks of other rich and powerful people by sharing stock tips and company prospects before the general public becomes aware.
It’s technically not a freedom for the rich, because they’d probably at least get a slap on the wrist if they were caught, but even having access to the network of “in the know” folks is a rich people privilege that the rest of us will never have.
Access To Other People’s Money
It takes money to make money.
Wealthy folks can get massive loans from financial institutions, use those loans to invest, and make money because they pay less interest on the loan than they earn from investment gains.
They’re basically using other people’s money to enhance their fortunes.
The rest of us would never be able to get away with that.
Political Influence
Rich people get special treatment in the political sphere.
Regular folks get to vote. We can call our representatives and tell one of their low-wage staff members how we feel. We can write letters, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get a template response.
Wealthy folks take politicians for joyrides in private jets. They send lobbyists to Congress to fight for their causes day in and day out.
Who do you think will have more influence?
War Powers
Recently, the richest man in the world used his money to influence a war.
Elon Musk ordered his Starlink system to “slow down”, taking away Ukraine’s ability to respond to incoming Russian missiles.
No single person should have that much power. But he’s protected by his wealth.
Collecting Artifacts
Rich people get to restrict access to some of humanity’s greatest achievements.
They hoard paintings and artifacts in their private collections so others can’t enjoy them. And it’s not always legal.
Back in 2011, the owners of Hobby Lobby were caught smuggling in thousands of ancient artifacts. But, as with most rich people privilege, the family didn’t see a day of jail time. They paid a fine and had to return some of the artifacts.
Keeping More of What They Make
The regressive tax rate punishes labor while rewarding capital.
People who work for their money get taxed at a much higher rate than people who earn money with their money.
The rich are free to keep most of their earnings, while the rest of us are taxed on most of ours.
Freedom Costs Money
The dichotomy between the freedoms for the rich versus what everyone else gets proves a harsh truth about America: freedom costs money, and if you have it, you’re almost invincible.
The United States is the land of the free. You can do almost anything you want if you can afford it, up to and including harming others.
Most of us can’t afford it. Most of us aren’t as free as we think we are.
Freedom To Versus Freedom From
America’s system of freedom is based on the freedom to do what we’d like (as long as we can afford it).
And that actually makes the regular people less free.
Sure, we have the freedom of speech, religion, and to protest, but so do most other first-world countries. We also have the freedom to exploit people, poison the air, steal, and literally kill, if we have enough money.
Since normal people don’t, we’re the ones being exploited, poisoned, stolen from, and killed.
Europe’s system is very different. They also have freedom, but it’s the freedom from. They have freedom from exploitation, poison, thieves, and murder.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be free to do whatever I want with vast sums of wealth. I’d rather have rules protecting people from exploitation by the wealthy. I’d rather be free to breathe clean air, drink clean water, have time off for myself, and not be poisoned by a corporation.
But maybe that’s just me.