This is the economic issue of our time.  Read it.  Watch the video at the end.  Think about it.  And then decide for yourself if you want to live within the walls that a handful of billionaires and their puppets in Congress have built around you.

 

Wealth is defined as our national net worth (assets minus debts).  We’ve got $86 trillion worth.  Who creates it and how it is distributed are the only real measures of economic activity that ultimately matter to most people. We all produce it, yet only a very few reap its rewards.  Excessive inequality of wealth is the problem.  It is perhaps a million times worse than most believe.  It is an insidious evil that stems from greed.  It is locked in place by laws.  It needs to be expunged from the face of the Earth.

 

With no justification (other than greed and power) our laws direct that we take from the great majority and give to the few. It’s the Robin Hood syndrome in reverse.  The consequence is that the top 10 percent have 90 percent of all wealth, while the bottom 90 percent have only 10 percent of our wealth. These outcomes are the fundamental cause of poverty and all of its related issues.  Poverty breeds despair, and criminal activity, and excessive incarcerations; it foments obesity and many health issues; it produces illiteracy; it brings about mental illnesses; it leads to high suicide rates; it shortens life spans; and it creates the conditions for teen pregnancies.  Inequality also saps our creative energies; it stymies upward mobility; while it leaves those affected without health care, without hope, and without the wherewithal for life, liberty, and the chance for happiness.  It takes from the economy by not allowing more prosperity to flourish; it is the fundamental cause of unemployment and under employment; it is the biggest contributor to national debt; it reduces research and development efforts; it prevents rebuilding of infrastructure such as railroads, bridges and power grids; it deprives us of the funds needed to educate and retrain our workforce; while it subtracts from competitiveness.  Inequality weakens us in the arts, the sciences, the crafts, and in explorations; it diminishes our underlying desire for goodwill among ourselves and in the international community. 

 

    Note:  The graph above shows how severely skewed wealth is in the U.S. and in the world.  A Gini coefficient of 0 would indicate a perfectly even distribution of wealth.  A Gini of 1.0 would indicate that one person has all the wealth and all others would have none.  At the present level of 0.9 we are rapidly approaching the one-person rule much faster than almost anyone realizes. 

 

The foregoing is not a list of idle conjectures, or theories, or opinions.  They are all facts, the inevitable consequences of excessive inequality found here and around the world.  They are all forms of enslavement.  To overcome them requires knowledge about causes and consequences, then determination to bring about change, then the courage to do so, and then taking decisive and appropriate action.  It is the number one economic issue of our times.  Almost as importantly, very little is being done to bring about the necessary changes that can reverse its effects.

 

Inequality allows no room for neutrality—you are either for inequality or you are against it.  If you are for it, you have serious moral issues in your life.  You need professional help in correcting them.  If you are against it, your duty to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to your country, and to your God is to help stop it and to help redirect new wealth flows away from the few at the top and into the hands of the many.  If you disapprove of it but do nothing about it, you are giving your approval to the gross inequality that persists.  That makes you complicit by default.

 

Inequality can be stopped and reversed by making the economy more efficient and more productive, thus creating more jobs, more incomes, and more tax revenues, and more wealth.  We need to direct all new money that is printed away from private investment accounts and put that money into circulation via community banks and credit unions where it can create new and expanded businesses, and new jobs, new tax revenues, and new wealth that flows to everyone.  These improvements can lead to offering free education to everyone who seeks it; to extending health care to all as a fundamental right of life.  We also need to modify the inheritance laws such that individual inheritances are limited to no more than $5 million dollars; we need to enact a true progressive system of taxation without diversions and exemptions; we need to break up all giant banks and corporations into smaller units to encourage competition and to reduce the influence of power centers; we need to lower corporate taxes so that it is not necessary for corporations to move their profits overseas and for repatriating profits that are now overseas; we need to supervise banking and securities activities to prevent collusion and unfair dealings. 

 

Left unchecked inequality leads to financial dynasties that tend to control elections and the legislators who make the laws that give them more power.  These conditions lead to the ultimate rule and control by the very wealthy, and to servitude by all others.  These conditions are real today.  They will get worse tomorrow unless we decide to take back what is rightfully ours.  Knowledge is power.  You are now armed with it.

 

There are a thousand creative activities that individuals like you can do to pitch in and get into this fight for justice.  You know your strengths and your talents much better than anyone else.  Just don’t let anyone tell you it is hopeless and change will never happen.  The wealthy are not smarter than you, legislators are not smarter than you, and bankers are not smarter than you.  One thing greedy oppressors all hate is this:  the truth.  To quote a famous book “the truth will set you free.”

 

You are also free to copy this message, and forward it to every legislator at the local, state, and national level; you may send it to every news outlet and every communication medium; and to every citizen and resident wherever they may be.  You may create you own posters, blogs, articles, and videos with these words and ideas, and post them on all social media.  You are not true to yourself, to your neighbors, to your forbears, to your heritage, to history, or to Providence if you sit down and do nothing about this pressing issue.  A sin of omission is just as serious as is a sin of commission.  You have the facts.  This is your moment.  Seize it.