Abstract  Economic inequality exacerbates pre-existing racism, misogyny, and nativism and is the root cause of the current surge in American populism. The shocking growth of economic inequality in America over the past 50 years has left the bottom 50% of the population owning less than 1% of the nation’s wealth. Personal income for the lower 80% of the population, adjusted for inflation, has been stagnant since the 1970s. All this has produced economic insecurity sufficient to endanger American democracy. A possible partial solution is a massive expansion of the current Social Security system to give all Americans the basic dependable income enjoyed by current retirees. The last part of the paper outlines a politically plausible New Plan for such an expansion.