As Christmas approaches and the year comes to an end, Trump administration officials are pointing to headlines about GDP growth and a soaring stock market to support the president’s absurd claim that Americans are enjoying the “greatest economy in the history of our country.” Behind these figures lies a sharply “K‑shaped” social reality: spectacular gains in wealth and consumption for the affluent, while tens of millions of workers confront stagnant real wages, mounting debt, mass layoffs, evictions, utility shutoffs and preventable deaths.
The past year has, in fact, seen a further concentration of wealth to levels that are unprecedented in modern history. Over the past year, billionaires in the US, consisting of 900 individuals, increased their wealth by a staggering 18 percent, to a record $6.9 trillion this year. Ten individuals alone increased their wealth by $750 billion. No figure embodies this obscene spectacle more than Elon Musk, whose net worth surged by over $500 billion in just two years, to reach $749 billion – more than the GDP of entire countries.
At the other pole of society, a recent AP/NORC poll shows that most Americans are concerned about rising prices for groceries, electricity and holiday gifts, with nearly half delaying major or non-essential purchases and searching for the lowest prices. Many are also racking up debt through “buy now, pay later” apps such as Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, PayPal, and Zip.
A Politico poll released in November found that more than a quarter of the population, 27 percent, said they had skipped a medical check-up due to cost, and nearly one in four reported skipping a prescribed medication for the same reason.
. . . There is growing anger in the working class, which possesses enormous social power. Supply chains, transport, healthcare and public services cannot function without labor. The strategic task is to convert widespread opposition into an organizational and political counteroffensive in 2026.
The World Socialist Web Site and the International Workers Alliance of Rank‑and‑File Committees (IWA‑RFC) call for the formation of rank‑and‑file committees in every plant, workplace and neighborhood to demand an immediate halt to permanent layoffs; full pay and benefits for affected workers; and shortened working weeks with no loss of pay to preserve jobs.
These committees should demand a ban on utility shutoffs and mass evictions; cancellation of predatory debt and an end to wage garnishment for student loan defaulters; and the reversal of public subsidies to billionaire projects in favor of massive public investment in housing, healthcare and services.
An industrial counteroffensive must be connected to a political struggle against the Trump administration – a government of, by and for the oligarchy. Trump is erecting a presidential dictatorship, the political form that corresponds to a society riven by staggering levels of social inequality. The vicious, fascistic campaign against immigrant workers, including Gestapo-style raids and the rounding up of entire families, is the spearhead for a broader attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class.
The Democratic Party has refused to mount any opposition, as it agrees with the main elements of Trump’s social program. Just one month ago, the Democratic Socialists of America mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, met with Trump at the White House, smiled for photos, and declared his readiness to work with the fascist president.
It is not a question of tinkering around the edges of a bankrupt economic and political system, but mobilizing the immense power of the working class in an irreconcilable fight against the entire corporate and financial oligarchy. This fight must be waged independently of—and in opposition to—both capitalist parties and the corrupt union bureaucracies, which serve as enforcers for the corporations and the state. The trade unions seek to divide workers along national lines and disarm them in the face of a historic offensive against jobs, wages and democratic rights.
The program of this counteroffensive must be the expropriation of the financial and corporate elite, the socialization of the major industries, and the use of modern technology to eliminate poverty, guarantee decent housing and healthcare and raise the material and cultural level of all humanity. The resources exist to guarantee full employment, housing, healthcare, and education for all. The question is: Who controls these resources—the oligarchy or the working class?
The answer depends on building a revolutionary socialist leadership, rooted in the working class and guided by a clear political program. The Socialist Equality Party and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees are fighting to develop this leadership and to organize the growing resistance of workers and youth throughout the world.
– Jerry White
Excerpted from “Christmas in America:
Staggering Wealth Concentration
and Deepening Social Crisis”
World Socialist Web Site
December 23, 2025
Excerpted from “Christmas in America:
Staggering Wealth Concentration
and Deepening Social Crisis”
World Socialist Web Site
December 23, 2025
NOTE: Jerry White was the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for vice president in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Joseph Kishore was the party’s candidate for president. For the Socialist Equality Party 2024 presidential campaign’s official website, click here.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• No, Hitler and the Nazis Weren’t Socialists
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and Democratic Socialism
• “Hopeful and Grounded”: Omar Fateh’s Vision of Democratic Socialism
• Zohran Mamdani and the Future of the Democratic Party>
• Socialist Equality Party: Quote of the Day – October 19, 2025
• A Timely and Important Conversation
• Mark Harris: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2023
• The Biblical Roots of “From Each According to Ability; To Each According to Need”
• Heather Cox Richardson on the Origin of the American Obsession with “Socialism”
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – June 12, 2019
• A Timely Reminder from Eugene Debs
• John Wight: Quote of the Day – June 2, 2017
• Jesse A. Myerson: Quote of the Day – July 31, 2016
• Something to Think About – December 14, 2011
• Jonty Langley: Quote of the Day – August 17, 2011
• A Socialist Perspective on the “Democratic Debacle” in Massachusetts
• Obama a Socialist? Hardly
• Obama, Ayers, the “S” Word, and the “Most Politically Backward Layers in America”
• A Socialist Response to the 2008 Financial Crisis
• Capitalism on Trial
• What It Means to Be a Leftist in 2025
• Ted Rall: “Democrats Are Not the Left”
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