I don’t need much. I need to work to earn my living, which should be enough to keep a modest roof over my family’s heads, dogs included. I need to be able to pay my and my family’s doctor’s bills and health insurance. I don’t need to eat steak every day, but once a week would be nice.

I know that there are people far worse off than me. I know that there are people who go to the grocery store and are unable to buy their lists because so many items have gone up so much. I know there are people making the choice between buying groceries and medications on a daily basis.  I talked to a pharmacist recently and was told that people are buying meds by the week or day as opposed to the cost of monthly supplies.

Food pantries are stressed, having a hard time keeping up with the demand of late. 42 million people rely on SNAP, and yet in a tantrum against the ACA and SNAP the president was able to cut both off indefinitely. The largest city in the world is Tokyo, with 37 million people, and SNAP feeds 42 million. There were millions of jobs lost in the last quarter, so how many more will be applying for food assistance in the coming weeks? The same week as the SNAP suspensions were being argued and Trump was saying that he wouldn’t reinstate them, he showed off his newly marbled and gold festooned Lincoln Bathroom. He and his 130 best billionaires had a Gatsby themed opulent feast that cost a reported $1.3M. At the closing of the party, Gavin Newsom posted an AI-generated image of Trump as France’s Marie Antoinette, captioned “GOOD NIGHT, PEASANTS!”

Meanwhile, our president is demanding $230 M from the treasury to repay him for when he was indicted and convicted for his crimes relating to Jan. 6^th. He just personally made a couple hundred million off of a crypto deal brokered by pardoning Changpeng Zhao, whom he claims to “no idea who he is”. Oh, and dare I mention that Trump just came out with a self-branded wine and spirits line that directly profits him and sells exclusively at military bases?

Where does all of this stop? How ludicrous can things get? One of  Trump’s best buddies just got a $1 Trillion a year salary deal. Someone tell me what Musk is going to do with $1T, please? He could feed all of those 42 Million people and have change left over. Instead of destroying educational systems across the US, they could be built up so that the US has a chance to compete globally again. The scholarships alone that could be setup with a fraction of a trillion dollars would be incredible. In terms of wealth distribution, the top 10% of households holding approximately 60-70% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% holds only 2-3%. The top 1% of households own about 40% of all wealth, and the wealthiest 0.1% own a significant portion of that, showing a sharp increase in inequality over the past few decades.  This leaves a substantial portion of the US population in poverty with no way to get above the limit.

This is not what our country was founded on. This is not what our country was based upon. A person should be able to work an honest day and have honest aspirations and achieve reasonable goals. Those goals are unachievable at this time. The odds are stacked to highly against anyone not white and privileged that they are insurmountable. That is being taken away tier by tier from the American public. The used to be middle class is shrinking into the now lower class and the lower class is sinking further.

Somehow, something has to change. In France, in Louis XIV’s time, in the late 1800’s, eventually the common people tired of the elites feasting and eating cake while they starved. They eventually revolted and overthrew the king. Trump considers himself to be a King, maybe it is time to overthrow him and lop off his head with the others. I’ll gladly supply the guillotine.

Scott Livingston

November 12, 2025