A Journey to Hell and Back
They say that economics is the dismal science. It’s tough. That is probably why there are no economists in Congress. I bluffed my way through course after course mainly with a talent for writing. Not great writing, but writing that was good enough for my professors to cringe and say “He most know what he’s talking about. He tells it so well."
I have been on a personal crusade since I was 13 years old. And, trust me, that was very long ago. My journey began on a cold wintry day. I had not eaten in four days. I also hadn’t met another person in the same circumstances, so I began my own crusade of discovery, not knowing where it might take me, how long the journey might last, but nevertheless determined to get to the bottom of my urgent predicament. My tasks: to find out about wealth; how it is created; how much wealth exists; who has most of it; why I had none; and how I could get my hands on enough of it to hold the wolves at bay near a doorstep that I did not own. I wanted good answers that I might be able to share with my fellow travelers in their pursuits of other forms of fulfillment.
Decades later, with three academic degrees to help me, and more disillusionment and obstacles than I can recall, I finally reached the promised land of enlightenment. I found that, despite all the obstacles and travails, the issues surrounding this venture into hell had gotten much worse, yet its causes and cures remained buried under mountains of ignorance and apathy. And that is just the way the architects of wealth accumulation would have it always to remain. Silently, and with malice aforethought, they had siphoned away 90 percent of our nation’s wealth, stored it in certificates of ownership, and put the blame for its absence among the brethren on those who had none. They mockingly called them “people who want stuff,” as if wanting a small share of the things they helped produce were a crime or a sin. They conveniently never mentioned that "choosing their parents wisely" was the only work that inheritors did to pocket billions of dollars.
There is nothing in textbooks, or in private books of wisdom, that correctly identifies what wealth really is. We know it as “net worth,” or “assets minus debts.” We also know assets as “stocks, bonds, and real estate.” That is the stuff of academia. I call wealth “unearned and untaxed inheritances.” It gets worse. That same wealth grows at 8.2 percent annually via dividends, interest payments, rents, and by capital gains, thus doubling in value every 8.5 years. The current value of wealth holdings by the ultra-wealth is $135 trillion. In 30 years it will be $1.4 quadrillion. And in 50 years it will be $6.9 quadrillion. How much of that total is earmarked for the poor? Not one dime.
Wealth also has an ingenious wall of protection to assure that it remains in the hands of the holders and their offspring—in perpetuity. Keep the flows of wealth intact by laws that prevent leakages. And the necessary laws are passed by legislators who can be bought, first, with campaign money, and then with favors, Make them your puppets, make them dance on strings of dollars; gird them with campaign lies; arrange speaking engagements; fund books; and fill the airwaves with lies, lies, and more lies. If those reinforcements need stronger protection, repeat these words until they sicken us all: “We are a nation of laws,” and “nobody is above the law.” They assert that Medicare and Social Security are the cause of our $33 trillion national debt. That is hogwash. Both programs are paid by the payroll tax, and they are both paid in full. Neither has contributed one penny to the national debt. The national debt is the result of tax break after tax break flowing to the ultra-wealthy. Under Donald Trump, another $7 trillion flowed to the super-rich, thus sinking us $7 trillion deeper in debt. There is the problem, America. The poor are the victims, not the cause of our national debt. Sucking $135 trillion out of the economy is the cause of poverty and our national debt--not welfare, and not minimum wages, and definitely not programs that pay for themselves.
Naturally, commercial banks have a big role to play in maintaining a steady flow of weatlh from us to them (the bottom 90 percent to the top 10 percent). It is done by keeping a steady 70 percent of all new money printed and made available by the Federal Reserve to the banking system flowing into the wealth accounts of the ultra-rich. The other 30 percent gets into circulation by lending just enough to all others to keep the economy at a sub-optimal growth rate. Who’s to stop them? Nobody. They are the foxes guarding the hen house.
You may have noticed that the Supreme Court is now a part of the grand plan to gain and hold in perpetuity more than 90 percent of the wealth of the nation in the hands of the ultra-wealth. The latest known converts to this game of “wealth-rape” are Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh. They wont’ admit it, but their votes in favor of every “conservative” action that comes before them is evidence enough that something very wrong is wafting through their minds.
There is also the oldest trick in the books at play throughout the land: Blame the poor left in the wake of the “wealth rape” crusade for their own plight. Overwork these lies: “The poor are lazy; they won’t work”; and “they want things.” And threaten to eliminate their means of survival such as Welfare, Medicare, and Social Security. Call them all “Ponzi” schemes.
OK. This has been the working person’s version of who, what, when, where, and how plus why you have been getting the shaft in the past 30 or 40 years. It is the biggest reason for why you are having difficulty finding enough money to stay alive and well. It’s why you are having a very hard time with your kids’ education. It’s why we need a minimum Living Wage near $100,000 for every household, not a minimum wage of $7.15 per hour.
Wealth is being siphoned out of circulation and into the accounts of the ultra-wealthy unearned and untaxed. That fact, alone, should be enough to awaken the fighting spirit in a caterpillar. In a nation of 333 million residents, there are 166 million residents with IQ’s in the upper one-half. The upper half holds the hopes and dreams of our “best and brightest.” And so, if not us, who? And if not now, when?
Readers, I have it on good authority that Heaven is keeping score on this issue. So please Download and Forward a copy of this essay to:
President’s Council of Economic Advisors
Federal Reserve Board
MIT Living Wage Team
National Credit Union Assoc.
