Let’s do a tally of developments and trends so far in the current Trump administration. Simple math. What’s being enlarged and what’s being diminished. Extended commentary is unnecessary. The list speaks for itself.

First, what’s being enlarged? That’s easy.

• Wealth to the billionaire class. The Big Beautiful Bill. Beautiful to a few, ugly to the many. Enlarge the already obscene and enormous wealth of the billionaire class. You know, that handful of families that own as much wealth as the rest of us put together. A big bonanza for them. A big kick in the butt for everybody else.

• Inflation and risk of a major economic downturn. Trump tariffs increase prices for everybody. Maybe you voted for Mr. Trump expecting a better deal at the supermarket and the gas station. Sorry. Not happening. Who will be especially hard hit? Small businesses.

Insane gyrations in government decision making scare the hell out of big-time investors and discourage the necessary large investments for a manufacturing revival. Taken together, ill-conceived tariffs, a weakening U.S. dollar, erosion of confidence in US bonds, and market fluctuations will drive up import costs and interest rates and destabilize the economy. Home ownership takes a hit. So does car-buying. So does the ability to pay debts or getting loans for households, businesses and to finance education.

Second, what’s been – and will be — diminished? That’s a long and growing list:

• Middle class and working-class living standards. See above and for several reasons within this category.

• Access to health care. Cut Medicaid to finance the Big Tax Bonanza. It’s “Robin Hood” in reverse on steroids. What kind of society would do this? Best keep an eye on Medicare and Social Security.

• Government services we need and depend on. A whole range of illegally driven DOGE government cuts affecting a wide range of services from Social Security administration to the Post Office, for veterans, and so much more.

• Scientific research and funding the public health infrastructure. Progress to save countless lives and alleviate suffering, finding cures for cancer, ALS and many other maladies is pushed way down the road, perhaps for generations. Who needs vaccines when you can rely on those time-honored fourteenth century remedies?

• Education and knowledge. Public education and private sector universities are under severe attack. Curriculum dictatorship promoting, among other things, ignorance of civics and the distortion of history is a well-established way to control people. And when conspiracy thinking displaces reason, expect any number of bad outcomes.

• Tackling the climate’s rapid deterioration. Kill or kneecap alternatives to fossil fuel. Cancel big job- creating construction projects for wind and solar energy, the construction of battery plants, etc. Attacking science and denying climate destruction is a death sentence for those impacted by disastrous weather events.

• Programs to address our dire housing shortages, as well as green energy, transportation and communications infrastructure. How much will be cut from the enormous investments enacted with bi-partisan support early in the Biden administration and that prioritize rural economic development?

• Opportunities for workers to organize unions and bargain collectively for better wages, fair treatment, health and safety protections, and respect. Expect dramatic deterioration of pro-worker laws and policies.

• What we stand for as a nation and our standing in the world. An America long respected for its generosity, openness, sense of fair play, the rule of law and the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. Once a haven for the oppressed throughout the world, the opportunity for immigrants for a second chance in life and a road to citizenship. Not now. Maybe not anymore. A once great and admired America is a nation diminished, disastrously run as a mob-boss criminal enterprise. The Founders are turning in their graves. It’s what they feared.