It’s the second day of Lent. If you decided to give something up, hopefully you’re not getting the shakes yet because Easter is still 45 days away. Polling and other data on what people give up show some common trends with social media, alcohol, and chocolate regularly topping the list. Other popular items include meat, swearing, coffee, soda, sugar, sex, lying, and smoking. Some of those might be good to give up for more than just Lent!
But a group of nuns has another suggestion for Americans, especially those in Congress: Give up billionaires for Lent.
“It’s not like giving up a sweet indulgence like chocolate,” explained Sister Emily TeKolste, a nun who works for NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice (the group best known for their “Nuns on the Bus” advocacy trips). “When we say we’re giving up billionaires, we mean we are working toward a future where no one is allowed to hoard excessive wealth and power — so that we can live in a world that looks more like the Kingdom of God.”
The effort is particularly aimed at members of Congress amid the political influence of billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and especially Elon Musk. Not only did all three have a prime seat at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, they have provided monetary and platform support for Trump. Additionally, Musk’s DOGE team has been driving the agenda of the new administration to dramatically shift U.S. policy and enact draconian cuts to numerous programs that help those who are poor, sick, or otherwise vulnerable.
“This Lent, we are urging Congress to reject tax cuts for billionaires and to protect programs that provide critical services like access to food and health care in our communities,” TeKolste explained. “We’ll be doing this by calling Congress, writing letters to the editor, posting on social media, and sharing about the campaign with others in our lives.”
NETWORK has created social media messages and graphics for people to post to spread the message about “giving up billionaires for Lent.” The group also has documented the financial impact of billionaires hoarding wealth and how that conflicts with the Catholic Church’s teachings.
Some of NETWORK’s graphics for their Lenten focus.
Others are also pushing the message. U.S. Rep. Chuy García, a Democrat from Illinois who has in the past spoken about his Catholic faith and supported the work of NETWORK, spoke on Ash Wednesday at a Democratic event in Washington, D.C., outlining budget priorities for Congress. With a cross smudged on his forehead, García said he hopes Republicans will “give up billionaires for Lent.”
So as we enter a season of Lent amid the chaos of Musk in this oligarchy-fueled administration, this issue of A Public Witness reads the Bible and the Forbes Billionaire List to decide this day who we will serve.
Gross Wealth
The average CEO in the U.S. makes nearly than 200 times that of the average worker. Another way of putting that is it would take the employee paid at the mid-range of a company 200 years to make what their CEO does in one year — and obviously even longer for lower-paid employees. The divide between the rich and poor keeps growing. While CEO compensation has exploded 1,085% since 1978, the average worker compensation is only up 24% over that 45-year period.
The top 10% of households in the U.S. together have 67% of total household wealth, leaving the other third for 90% of Americans to share. And the bottom half together have just 2.5% of household wealth. While the top 10% have an average household wealth of $6.9 million, the bottom half have an average of just $51,000.
And so while some people work multiple jobs just to make ends meet or some couples both have to work to make what one spouse could’ve a half-century ago, we’ve seen the rise of the superrich. Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, has more than $350 billion. If you could somehow spend $1,000 every second of every minute of every hour of every day, it would take you more than a decade to actually spend that fortune. Yes, that means spending $86,400 every single day for more than a decade. And by then, his wealth will probably be higher. Meanwhile, that man is cutting life-saving programs that assist the poor in our country and around the world — all while he’s enhanced his wealth with nearly $40 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits.
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