In my time abroad, I was repeatedly confronted with the same misconceptions about America. They usually all started somewhere along the lines of Friends, the Simpsons, and 90210 and ended somewhere along the lines of conspicuous consumption and immeasurable personal wealth. If I told them that nearly 40 percent of Americans will experience at least one year below the poverty line, would they believe me? It’s dubious. How could they, when America has one of the highest GDP’s in the world, 17,419,000,000,000 dollars to be exact. How would they know that many of us will not see more than 20,000 dollars in pay for a given year? That the percentage of the GDP going to the top 1 percent has doubled since 1979? That many of our living accommodations are closer to those of a 3rd world refugee camp than any 1st world mansion?
Poverty is real, and it happens here.
Perhaps even more startling, if you include those who have used welfare, lived at near-poverty level, or who have been unemployed, then four out 5 Americans would be in that number. That is not just a sizable outlier that is the overwhelming majority. Half of American children live in a household using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamps.
When we do – on the rare occasion – portray poverty, it appears as a singular and isolated occurrence taking place in the hoods and ghettos of inner-city black communities plagued with drugs and gang violence. Though this is certainly one reflection of poverty in the US, it does not nearly depict the full picture. Poverty is an entity far more pervasive than we are led to believe, taking form anywhere from the rural farmlands of Nebraska, to the inner city of Compton, and the suburbs of New Jersey. Two thirds of Americans living below the poverty line self-identify as white. Furthermore, only 10 percent living below the poverty line come from cities.
Whether for the sake of escapism or a defeatist mentality towards overcoming poverty, or a Puritan disdain for the poor as indolent colored by racism, we have chosen not to present a more complete narrative of poverty in the mainstream media. Why? Perhaps it’s also because poverty doesn’t sell. It’s an unglamorous and inconvenient truth. And, to the CEOs responsible for the huge media conglomerates, doing anything other than making money is not in their best interest. Let’s face it, not only does the American dream have market value, but media itself does too. Perhaps that’s why six of the ten highest-paid CEOs last year worked in the media industry.
The highest paid president of an American corporation was David Zaslav, head of Discovery Communications. In total compensation, he made more than $156.1 million dollars last year alone. Les Moonves, President of CBS, was a close second, raking in more than $54.4 million. The average American makes only 34,000 dollars a year. The median income is even lower at 28,851 dollars. David Zaslav makes about 45,000 times the median American salary; and the sum of money doled out in Wall Street bonuses is double that of salaries earned by all American minimum-wage workers combined. The poorest half of the US population owns 2.5% of the country’s wealth, while the top 1% – a tiny fraction – owns 35% of the wealth.
With this flagrant and shameless inequality, it is no wonder popular media culture presents such a skewed depiction of wealth and the American dream. Shining too bright a light on the totality of inequality and poverty could start a revolution – or at least affect sales. After all, this is what fuels the free market, consumer has faith in the product and the system. Only this time, the consumer is you and the product is the American dream. Because of this ideology, Americans happily buy into a culture of consumerism and the idea of America a land of plenty. This is what keeps our economy running, the notion that an individual is no more than the some of their purchases. Those who do not have are deemed obsolete by American culture.
So what could I say to these foreigners equally enchanted by American grandeur other than the disappointing truth? America is not as great as we are led to believe. There is still suffering and pain inside the home of the free and the land of the brave. These truths were met with shock and blank stares. Then, a moment disbelief. “But that is not what I see on the television.” They – as market shares in a marketable demographic – were being paid to blind themselves in disbelief and shield themselves with doubt. How could they see the disappointing truth when most American themselves can’t. Let’s face it, we are each one a commodity for sale.
Putney Mediates the Media 