08/24/2026
Thomas Sowell, as usual, makes an excellent point. American politics spends enormous energy staging a morality play about two small groups, the destitute at one end and the fabulously wealthy at the other, while the millions who work, pay taxes, raise families, and keep the country running are treated like scenery.
That is exactly what this cartoon captures. The press, academics, judges, and politicians aim every spotlight at the rich man and the poor man. Meanwhile, the mechanics, nurses, contractors, shop owners, retirees, and parents sitting in the audience barely enter the conversation, except when Washington needs their votes or their money.
The numbers support Sowell’s larger argument. Definitions matter, but under a strict measure of genuine hardship, the Census Bureau reported that 5.0 percent of Americans lived below half the official poverty threshold in 2024. The top 1 percent, by definition, represents another 1 percent.
That leaves roughly 94 percent of the country between those extremes. Even using the broader official poverty measure, 10.6 percent, or 35.9 million people, were below the line.
We should care for people who truly cannot care for themselves, and help able-bodied people climb back toward independence. There may also be good reason for tighter rules at the very top, particularly when political connections, monopolistic advantages, or specially written loopholes rig the game.
But the center of gravity in public policy should be the vast middle. Median household income was $83,730 in 2024. These are the Americans crushed by grocery bills, housing costs, health insurance, taxes, energy prices, and regulations that make it harder to build a business or save for retirement.
A nation cannot prosper when government treats the middle class as an ATM and political wallpaper.
Should Washington spend less time dramatizing the extremes and more time making life affordable for working and middle-class Americans?
