KC Playlist: American Oligarchs Trending

Just a quick check-in tonight if only to share one more troubling stat . . .  Check-it: 

The top 10% of earners drive nearly half of all consumer spending.

Consider . . . 

This sounds nice and might even inspire a few TKC commenters to fake membership in this elite group.

However . . .

This economic model isn't sustainable. 

Moreover . . .

The long-term trend of top heavy economic disparity ultimately destroys the American middle-class and offers a vision of the future that has a lot more in common with Medieval Europe than anything resembling a "golden age" for this nation.  

Meanwhile . . . 

The only answer we're getting for this trend is an elaborate series of distractions that hope to divide Americans across gender, racial or . . . Worst of all . . . Pointless partisan lines. As if the average dude on the street REALLY wants to argue macroeconomics, tariffs and international trade policy. 

We only share these observations in order to elicit better ideas about how we all move forward. 

More importantly . . .  

The American middle-class has been shrinking since the 70s and so we're not panicked but instead deploy the topic if only to share yet another www.TonysKansasCity.com playlist on the topic of our betters . . .

Big Time was the fourth single to be taken from Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album. It has a better backbeat than some of his more popular tunes and reminds us that worsening American wealth disparity has taken hold if only because so many rubes imagine they're only a few moves away from joining the ranks of their betters.

The recent meme song "Man In Finace" reminds us that Gen-Z might be quicker to catch on to impact of worsening class-disparity than the rest of us. At the very least, the track speaks to the horriffic American dating scene as Valetine's Day looms.

ABBA's money song if only because it's cold and this track from Swedish disco royalty speaks to us tonight . . .

For the bridge, forgive us one of our faves . . . Hall & Oates rich girl is everything wrong about the 70s-era band making a rough transition to the Go-Go 80s.

Finally . . . Writing about rich & poor is a constant refrain for Americans and this Cab Calloway classic first recorded in 1931 reassures us that the "conversation" is ongoing.

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun Saturday night.