{"id":24926,"date":"2020-05-09T11:57:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T15:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=24926"},"modified":"2020-05-09T12:01:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T16:01:25","slug":"aocs-baseless-accusation-that-the-us-is-a-brutal-barbarian-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/05\/09\/aocs-baseless-accusation-that-the-us-is-a-brutal-barbarian-society\/","title":{"rendered":"AOC\u2019s Baseless Accusation That the US Is a \u201cBrutal, Barbarian Society\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"attachment wp-att-24927\" href=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=24927\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-24927\" src=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/oc-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"802\" height=\"535\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the COVID-19 pandemic is proving that the United States \u201cis a <em>brutal<\/em>, barbarian society for the vast majority of working-class Americans.\u201d As evidence of this, she claims that &#8220;40% of us couldn\u2019t even afford a $400 emergency\u201d before this crisis, and COVID-19 \u201cis more than a $400 emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, her \u201c40%\u2013$400\u201d statistic is false, and the facts that broadly inform this issue reveal that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>government social programs, which AOC seeks to enlarge, depress workers\u2019 savings, causing the very outcomes that she decries.<\/li>\n<li>the people of the US lead the world in charity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>middle- and low-income Americans are more financially capable of handling Covid-19 than the bulk of people in most developed countries, including those who live in more socialistic nations that AOC says the US should emulate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"link-0\">AOC\u2019s Allegations<\/h2>\n<p>In a <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomselliott\/status\/1246395059651653638\" rel=\"nofollow\">recent video<\/a>, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D\u2013NY) declared:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is supposed to be the richest society in the world, and I think what this crisis is showing us is that this is only a rich society for a very small amount of people, and it is a <em>brutal<\/em>, barbarian society for the vast majority of working-class Americans because 40% of us couldn\u2019t even afford a $400 emergency before this thing started. This is more than a $400 emergency, and we\u2019re really going to have to step up and completely change our approach to our public systems.<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"link-1\">The \u201c40%\u2013$400\u201d Statistic<\/h2>\n<p>The statistic cited by AOC stems from an annual Federal Reserve <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">study<\/a> of people\u2019s \u201cself-reported ability to handle unexpected expenses.\u201d Contrary to her claim that \u201c40% of us couldn\u2019t even afford a $400 emergency,\u201d the survey actually finds that 12 percent of US residents fall into that category. Furthermore, the facts surrounding this 12 percent figure reveal that it overstates the portion of people who can\u2019t afford such an expense.<\/p>\n<p>Per the Federal Reserve\u2019s <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">report<\/a> on this issue, \u201cif faced with an unexpected expense of $400\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>61% \u201cof adults say they would cover it with cash, savings, or a credit card paid off at the next statement.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>27% say they \u201cwould borrow or sell something to pay for the expense.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>12% say \u201cwould not be able to cover the expense at all.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Hence, AOC\u2019s figure of \u201c40%\u201d includes people who would place the expense on a credit card and not pay it off right away. This is materially different from her claim that they \u201ccouldn\u2019t even afford\u201d it.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the same <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">report notes<\/a> that another survey found 76 percent \u201cof households had $400 in liquid assets (even after taking monthly expenses into account).\u201d In other words, it\u2019s not that they \u201ccouldn\u2019t\u201d immediately pay for an unexpected $400 expense; they just preferred not to do so. Given that 40 percent of US residents carry a credit card <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">balance<\/a> \u201cmost or all of the time,\u201d the \u201c$40%\u2013$400\u201d statistic says little beyond that.<\/p>\n<p>With regard to the 12 percent who claim they \u201cwould not be able to cover the expense at all,\u201d <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cex\/2018\/combined\/decile.xlsx\" rel=\"nofollow\">consumer data<\/a> shows that the lowest-spending ten percent of US households spend an average of $1,369 per year on entertainment and $208 per year on alcohol. That\u2019s enough to handle about four $400 emergencies every year. Furthermore, these figures are based on household surveys, and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/document\/consumer_income_expenditures_distribution_bea_2012.pdf#page=3\" rel=\"nofollow\">explains<\/a> that they \u201care subject to deliberate underreporting of certain items.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fourth-lowest ten percent of households\u2014who are also included in AOC\u2019s 40% figure\u2014spend an average of $2,830 per year on entertainment and $320 on alcohol. This is enough to cover about eight $400 emergencies, which means the issue is not about a lack of money but how it is spent.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of these facts, media outlets have published headlines like these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2016\/05\/25\/the-shocking-number-of-americans-who-cant-cover-a-400-expense\/\">\u201cThe Shocking Number of Americans Who Can\u2019t Cover a $400 Expense\u201d<\/a> Washington Post<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/money\/nearly-40-of-americans-cant-cover-a-surprise-400-expense\/ar-AABOxN1\">\u201cNearly 40% of Americans Can\u2019t Cover a Surprise $400 Expense\u201d<\/a> MSN<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/10-americans-struggle-cover-400-emergency-expense-federal\/story\">\u201c40% of Americans Don\u2019t Have $400 in the Bank for Emergency Expenses\u201d<\/a> ABC News<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/nearly-40-of-americans-cant-cover-a-surprise-400-expense\/\">\u201cNearly 40% of Americans Can\u2019t Cover a Surprise $400 Expense\u201d<\/a> CBS News<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2018\/05\/22\/pf\/emergency-expenses-household-finances\/index.html\">\u201c40% of Americans Can\u2019t Cover a $400 Emergency Expense\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;CNN<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also, the survey <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf#page=62\" rel=\"nofollow\">includes<\/a> all \u201cnoninstitutionalized, civilian\u201d adults who live in the US, not just \u201cworking-class Americans\u201d as AOC asserts. Thus, it also includes <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#work\" rel=\"nofollow\">non-working<\/a> Americans and <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/immigration#numbers_illegal\" rel=\"nofollow\">millions of unauthorized immigrants<\/a> who are not <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/8\/1324a\" rel=\"nofollow\">legally allowed<\/a> to earn income in the United States. Since these individuals often <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/immigration#crime_fraud\" rel=\"nofollow\">work off the books<\/a> and don\u2019t disclose the money, this potentially skews the results of such surveys.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"link-2\">Government Social Programs<\/h2>\n<p>Also belying AOC\u2019s rhetoric about the inability of Americans to weather a COVID-19 crisis is the fact that taxpayers already pay for <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#sources\" rel=\"nofollow\">most<\/a> of the living expenses of low-income households, including the vast bulk of their medical costs. <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/healthcare#government-medicaid\" rel=\"nofollow\">Roughly 22 percent<\/a> of the US population is on Medicaid, and as the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems\/Research\/ActuarialStudies\/Downloads\/MedicaidReport2017.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Beneficiary cost sharing, such as deductibles or co-payments, and beneficiary premiums are very limited in Medicaid and do not represent a significant share of the total cost of health care goods and services for Medicaid enrollees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Beyond medical care, federal, state, and local governments provide a wide range of other benefits to low-income households. In 2015, the US Government Accountability Office <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/680\/671779.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">identified 82<\/a> federal <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialspending#programs_means\" rel=\"nofollow\">means-tested welfare programs<\/a>. When all of these benefits and other sources of income are included, US households that are officially \u201c<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#poverty\" rel=\"nofollow\">in poverty<\/a>\u201d consume an average of more than $50,000 per year in goods and services. This amounts to 5.2 times the income they report to the Census Bureau.<\/p>\n<p>Governments also <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialspending#programs_shifting\" rel=\"nofollow\">shift the costs<\/a> of some welfare policies to the private sector. A prime example is the federal law that <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/healthcare#spending-government\" rel=\"nofollow\">requires<\/a> most hospitals with emergency departments to provide an \u201cexamination\u201d and \u201cstabilizing treatment\u201d for anyone who comes to such a facility and requests care for an emergency medical condition or childbirth\u2014regardless of their ability to pay and immigration status.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, federal, state, and local governments provided an average of $23,050 in <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialspending#overview_benefits\" rel=\"nofollow\">social benefits<\/a> to every household in the United States. The federal government <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/apps.bea.gov\/scb\/pdf\/2008\/03%20March\/0308_primer.pdf#page=6\" rel=\"nofollow\">defines these<\/a> as \u201cpayments from social insurance funds, such as social security and Medicare, and payments providing other income support, such as Medicaid and food stamp benefits.\u201d These alone are on par with the total <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#international_disposable\" rel=\"nofollow\">average household income<\/a> of Eastern Europe, including both private earnings and government benefits.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the federal government has recently enacted enough Covid-19-related legislation to nearly double its regular <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialspending#overview_benefits\" rel=\"nofollow\">$2.6 trillion<\/a> annual spending on social benefits. This includes but is not limited to <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/56316\" rel=\"nofollow\">$192 billion<\/a> for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and an estimated <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-signing-h-r-748-cares-act\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">$2.2 trillion<\/a> for the <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/116th-congress\/house-bill\/748?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Coronavirus+Cares+Act%22%5D%7D&amp;s=1&amp;r=3\" rel=\"nofollow\">Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"link-3\">Impact on Personal Savings<\/h2>\n<p>Such levels of government social spending, which AOC <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/ocasio-cortez.house.gov\/ajs\" rel=\"nofollow\">wants to increase<\/a>, are the main reason why many workers don\u2019t save more of their income. As detailed in <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecb.europa.eu\/pub\/pdf\/scpwps\/ecbwp1847.en.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">2016 working paper<\/a> published by the European Central Bank:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cAs the state organizes and offers more public insurance, there is less need for relatively poor households to hold precautionary savings, and more income might be used for consumption purposes.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201csocial services provided by the state are substitutes for private wealth accumulation.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201can increase in welfare state spending goes along with an increase\u2014rather than a decrease\u2014of observed wealth inequality.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Furthermore, Americans must ultimately fund these programs, which hinders their ability to save. The <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialspending#overview_benefits\" rel=\"nofollow\">$23,050 per household<\/a> in social benefits that governments paid out in 2018 ultimately came from American households. Although high-income households bear a <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/taxes#distribution\" rel=\"nofollow\">greater share<\/a> of these costs than others, middle-income workers lose about <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialsecurity#taxes\" rel=\"nofollow\">15.3 percent of their paychecks<\/a> to <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialspending#programs_insurance\" rel=\"nofollow\">social insurance<\/a> taxes.<\/p>\n<p>If, in contrast, these workers could have saved and invested a fifth of these taxes during their careers, each retired middle-income worker <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/socialsecurity#personal-case\" rel=\"nofollow\">would have<\/a> an additional $199,000 to $764,000 in savings today.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"link-4\">Voluntary Charity<\/h2>\n<p>Long before governments began providing appreciable amounts of social benefits, the US led the world in charity, and it continues to do so.<\/p>\n<p>In <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"http:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/jeffvir.asp\" rel=\"nofollow\">notes<\/a> that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the 1780s, he described how Americans cared for the sick and poor with striking contrast to modern, government-run welfare programs:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Churches collected money and appointed modest, quiet people to deliver these resources and personally look after each person in need.<\/li>\n<li>For the poor who had \u201cneither property, friends, nor strength to labour,\u201d farmers took them in, and churches paid these caretakers an annual sum to do this.<\/li>\n<li>For the poor who were \u201cable to help themselves a little,\u201d churches supplemented their income so they could \u201clive comfortably in their own houses, or in the houses of their friends.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cVagabonds without visible property or vocation, are placed in work houses, where they are well clothed, fed, lodged, and made to labor. Nearly the same method of providing for the poor prevails through all our states; and from Savannah [Georgia] to Portsmouth [New Hampshire] you will seldom meet a beggar.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sick people were \u201cvisited by all the neighbors,\u201d who brought them food and took turns watching over them at night. Regarding this charity, Jefferson wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>It \u201cis without comparison better than in a general hospital, where the sick, the dying and the dead, are crammed together, in the same rooms, and often in the same beds.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Being in a home and under the care of a local community has advantages that outweigh the \u201cregularities of medicine and regimen\u201d in a hospital.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cNature and kind nursing save a much greater proportion in our plain way, at a smaller expense, and with less abuse.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In the 1830s, a French historian and political scientist named <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Alexis-de-Tocqueville\" rel=\"nofollow\">Alexis de Tocqueville<\/a> visited the US and wrote a famous work entitled <em><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/8690\/8690-h\/8690-h.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">Democracy in America<\/a><\/em>. In it, he stated that what \u201cI most admire in America\u201d is how people were personally engaged in advancing the welfare of society:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the United States the interests of the country are everywhere kept in view; they are an object of solicitude [concern] to the people of the whole Union, and every citizen is as warmly attached to them as if they were his own.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When a private individual meditates an undertaking, however directly connected it may be with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the cooperation of the Government; but he publishes his plan, offers to execute it himself, courts the assistance of other individuals, and struggles manfully against all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is often less successful than the State might have been in his position; but in the end, the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the Government could have done.<\/p>\n<p>Although federal, state, and local governments <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/government_spending#overview\" rel=\"nofollow\">consume<\/a> about 33.5 percent of the US economy\u2014at an average cost of $54,000 per year to every household in the nation\u2014US citizens still donate about <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charitynavigator.org\/index.cfm?bay=content.view&amp;cpid=42\" rel=\"nofollow\">$50 billion<\/a> each year to charities that <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charitynavigator.org\/index.cfm?bay=search.categories&amp;categoryid=6\" rel=\"nofollow\">provide<\/a> \u201cdirect services to people in need.\u201d That equals an average of $1,316 for <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#poverty_trends\" rel=\"nofollow\">every person<\/a> who is <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#poverty\" rel=\"nofollow\">reportedly<\/a> below the poverty line.<\/p>\n<p>US citizens also <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charitynavigator.org\/index.cfm?bay=content.view&amp;cpid=42\" rel=\"nofollow\">donate<\/a> $38 billion per year to health charities, along with $59 billion to education charities, and $127 billion to religious groups, many of which serve the poor.<\/p>\n<p>A <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cafonline.org\/docs\/default-source\/about-us-policy-and-campaigns\/gross-domestic-philanthropy-feb-2016.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">2016 study<\/a> of 24 nations by the Charities Aid Foundation found that the people of the United States are most generous and donate 1.44 percent of the nation\u2019s gross domestic product to charities. The next closest nation, New Zealand, donates 0.79 percent, or 45 percent less than the USA. Nations such as Finland (0.13 percent) and France (0.11 percent) donate less than one-tenth of the USA.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"link-5\">The Big Picture<\/h2>\n<p>The most comprehensive mass measure of people\u2019s financial condition is their <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/income_wealth_poverty#consumption\" rel=\"nofollow\">consumption<\/a> of goods and services. This is the World Bank\u2019s \u201cpreferred\u201d indicator of material well-being due to \u201cpractical reasons of reliability and because consumption is thought to better capture long-run welfare levels than current income.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The latest available data show that middle-income Americans and even the poorest 20 percent of Americans <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/news_poorest_americans_richer_than_europe.asp\" rel=\"nofollow\">consume more goods and services<\/a> than the national averages for <em>all people<\/em> in most affluent countries. This includes the majority of nations in the prestigious Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including more socialistic nations that AOC says the US should emulate:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/brutal2c20barbarian20society_4383a800-5ffb-4334-9ab8-3c92b2db5596.png\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>An important strength of this data is that it is adjusted for <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/PA.NUS.PRVT.PP\" rel=\"nofollow\">purchasing power<\/a> to measure tangible realities like square feet of living area, foods, smartphones, etc. This removes the confounding effects of factors like <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/monetarypolicy.asp#inflation\" rel=\"nofollow\">inflation<\/a> and <a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/monetarypolicy.asp#exchange\" rel=\"nofollow\">exchange rates<\/a>. Thus, an apple in one nation is counted the same as an apple in another.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to AOC\u2019s portrayal of the USA as \u201ca <em>brutal<\/em>, barbarian society for the vast majority of working-class Americans,\u201d the key facts that inform this matter show that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the lone statistic she used to support this allegation is false.<\/li>\n<li>personal savings\u2014the subject of her statistic\u2014are depressed by government social programs that she champions and seeks to expand.<\/li>\n<li>when it comes to charity, the people of the US are the most generous in the world.<\/li>\n<li>middle- and even low-income Americans have more material resources to weather COVID-19 than the majority of people in most developed nations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/lenny-blue-bg-1.jpg\" alt=\"James D. Agresti\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h5><a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fee.org\/people\/james-d-agresti\/\"><br \/>\nJames D. Agresti<br \/>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n<p>James D. Agresti is the president and cofounder of Just Facts, a think tank dedicated to publishing rigorously documented facts about public policy issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fee.org\/articles\/aoc-s-baseless-accusation-that-the-us-is-a-brutal-barbarian-society\/\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/Scripts\/fee-repub.js\" async=\"async\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the COVID-19 pandemic is proving that the United States \u201cis a brutal, barbarian society for the vast majority of working-class Americans.\u201d As evidence of this, she claims that &#8220;40% of us couldn\u2019t even afford a $400 emergency\u201d before this crisis, and COVID-19 \u201cis more than a $400 emergency.\u201d However, her \u201c40%\u2013$400\u201d statistic is false, and the facts that broadly inform this issue reveal that: government social programs, which AOC seeks to enlarge, depress workers\u2019 savings, causing the very outcomes that she decries. the people of the US lead the world in charity. middle- and low-income Americans are more financially capable of handling Covid-19 than the bulk of people in most developed countries, including those who live in more socialistic nations that AOC says the US should emulate. AOC\u2019s Allegations In a recent video, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D\u2013NY) declared: This is supposed to be the richest society in the world, and I think what this crisis is showing us is that this is only a rich society for a very small amount of people, and it is a brutal, barbarian society for the vast majority of working-class Americans because 40% of us couldn\u2019t even afford [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3366,1574],"class_list":["post-24926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-aoc","tag-socialism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}