For decades, working-class people in Canada and the United States have been convinced to give everything—their time, their labour, their votes—to prop up a system that prioritizes corporate profit over human well-being.

We are told that prosperity will trickle down, that deregulation and free markets will lead to greater personal freedoms, and that supporting policies that benefit the rich will somehow, someday, benefit the rest of us. But the reality is far grimmer: we are being manipulated into sustaining an unsustainable system, one that depletes affordability and quality of life while keeping the poor and working class locked in a cycle of economic precarity.

The only thing that is trickling down is piss on the heads of the working poor.

From birth, we are inundated with pro-market propaganda. Schools teach us to aspire to succeed through endless work rather than through collective action. The media bombards us with stories of “self-made” billionaires while ignoring the realities of systemic poverty. Politicians—whether left, right, or centre —consistently prioritize business interests, promising that what’s good for Bay Street is good for Main Street.

But this is one big fat, fucking lie.

Economic data shows that as corporate profits rise, wages stagnate. As productivity increases, worker compensation remains frozen. As CEO bonuses skyrocket, layoffs become more common. The system is not designed to reward hard work; it is designed to extract as much as humanly possible from the labouring majority while funnelling wealth to the elite few.

The 1st Trump administration embodied this capitalist exploitation in its purest form. While Trump campaigned on populist rhetoric—claiming he would bring jobs back, protect American workers, and drain the swamp—his policies did the exact opposite. His tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Americans. Deregulation led to environmental destruction, corporate malfeasance, and further erosion of worker protections. His mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic prioritized business interests over public health, leading to unnecessary deaths and economic turmoil for the working class.

Despite these failures, millions continued to support Trump, demonstrating the effectiveness of capitalist propaganda. By scapegoating immigrants, demonizing social programs, and fuelling culture wars, his administration kept many voters distracted from the fact that they were being systematically robbed by the very policies they supported.

In response to the failures of Trump, America sought a market-safe and acceptable answer in Joe Biden—a Nixon-era Democrat whose idea of good policy, now-termed ‘Bidenism,’ failed because it attempted minor wealth distribution without significantly addressing the systemic oppression embedded in American society. Rather than delivering bold structural change, such as the aggressive tackling of American monopolies, Biden’s administration relied on moderate, incremental reforms that failed to disrupt the underlying economic inequalities inherent within the American system. His approach critically failed to create its own brand of left-wing populism, which could have energized the disaffected and working-class voters since-abandoned by decades of neoliberal policy.

This failure was particularly evident in underserved and exploited areas like the Rust Belt and the Deep South, where economic devastation and political alienation remain rampant. By refusing to embrace transformative policies that challenge corporate dominance and by failing to invest in long-neglected communities, Bidenism has proven to be an ineffective counterbalance to the deep-seated disillusionment that fuels reactionary politics in the U.S.

Now we face Trump II – a presidential administration with a U.S president almost transparently operating solely as a rubber stamp for the objectives of the Billionaire class; rubber-stamping the destruction of the very mechanisms that combat entrenched wealth, corruption and economic liberation. At times, it appears that the policy of the 2nd Trump Presidency is entirely to bring down the United States so that an economic fire-sale can occur and transfer the single greatest amount of national wealth into the hands of very, very few. His policies – especially his tariffs and his intended tax breaks towards the wealthy would actually spiral the United State’s national debt by up to $11 Trillion more. But the kicker is that corporations will most likely not feel the blunt of the economic downturn, as the intention of the tax breaks are to reduce corporate taxes and boost the profits of the corporate class – no doubt, willing to spend billions and billions of taxpayer’s productive value to subsides what will be hundreds of billions in losses to keep up a house of cards. People need to understand that the stock market is not the economy, and that the economic reality of living in Canada or America is divorced from the reality of the market. This is why you are seeing layoffs of hundreds of people every day in the news, yet CEOs and corporations are reporting bigger and better profits in the the billions.

Canada has not fared much better than our American cousins. Since the signing of CUSFTA (1988), NAFTA (1994), and CUSMA (2018) neoliberal policies have hollowed out entire industries, outsourced jobs, and driven down wages. Free trade agreements promised market-approved prosperity but instead allowed corporations to quickly chase cheap labour overseas, leaving Canadian workers unemployed or underemployed. We have almost completely gutted this nation’s capabilities of self-sustaining our own manufacturing, and the very social programs that allowed earlier generations of Canadians to enjoy class mobilization and fair economic liberation.

Federal housing programs were written off in the wave of 1980’s neoliberalism and our sense of pride in contributing to a system that at least attempted to create economic fairness went with it – and has done so since. Housing has become increasingly unaffordable, wages have not kept up with inflation, and public services have been eroded under successive governments that prioritize privatization and austerity. The neoliberal consensus— economically embraced by both major parties—has ensured that policies serve corporate interests rather than the needs of everyday people.

Worst, it is through these policies that we have effectively created our own poison pill – economically and haplessly tied via a festering umbilical cord to a sinking America. Ties with which – Trump now uses as a weapon against Canadian sovereignty with his near-manic application of tariffs.

Time and time again, we are convinced to vote against our own material interests. Fear-mongering about socialism, unions, and wealth redistribution keeps us tethered to a system that is actively making our lives worse. The working class in both Canada and the U.S. is told that demanding better wages, stronger universal healthcare, and stronger labour protections is “radical” while giving endless subsidies and tax breaks to billionaires and corporations is just common sense.

If we are to break free, we must unlearn the lies we have been fed. We must recognize that American capitalism—especially in its current neoliberal form—exists to exploit us, not to empower us. And most importantly, we must organize, educate, and refuse to be the willing foot soldiers of a system that is built on our own suffering.

Don’t be a useless idiot for the Robber Baron class. Fight for something better. Break your chains.

-K-