The United Way is biased but the overall sentiment rings true. American society is absolutely predatory aka “Fuck you I got mine”.
And if you think that is a good thing you are part of the problem.
Poverty in America, in other words, has become endemic and ubiquitous because its systemic and structural. It’s baked into the system. It’s a feature, not a bug. And most Americans these days, I’d wager, understand this intuitively. Work hard, play by the rules, become something, someone worthy. Be a teacher, engineer, writer, coach, therapist, nurse etcetera. What do you get? You get your pension “raided” (read: stolen) by hedge funds, you get your income decimated by “investment bankers”, you get charged a fortune for the very things you yourself are involved in producing but never earn a fair share of, you get preyed on in every which way the predatory can dream up.
https://eand.co/half-of-americans-are-effectively-poor-now-what-the-c944c518db6a