Too many bright people today are nevertheless ignorant about the state of the U.S. economy as it currently exists. They know about Adam Smith and his treatise from 1776 in which he laid out the blueprint for how free markets could work, and about how wealth is produced. They know about life, liberty, and happiness articulated so brilliantly by Thomas Jefferson; and they understand how free markets, and free minds, and free choice dovetail so beautifully into those values.  They know about the hardships and the sacrifices made by millions of our forebears.  Under the banner of patriotism they know much of our history, they are proud of it, and they are protective of it.  

It matters little if anyone refers to the great American experiment as an exercise in democracy, or in representative government, or in religious or sectarian values, or in the rule of law.  Those issues are being discussed vigorously today.  Even the ethnic, racial, and cultural diversities within our shores have been, in the main, a huge success and are in dispute only by little men with questionable motives.  What matters most today is that a large portion of our society is not aware of the underlying crumbling of our economic foundation that has taken place since 1776 in general, and in the last 50 years in particular.  Our economy used to work very well, but it no longer works well at all.  In fact our distribution of wealth and incomes are so grossly off track, and so far off their chartered course, that we may never be able to make them right again short of taking the most extreme measures. 

Bernie Sanders has correctly pointed to our main economic problem today—inequality of incomes and wealth.  It is likely a million times worse than even the brightest among us know about.  And it is getting worse by about $20 billion every day. What they believe is that differences in abilities, in personal efforts, and in brilliant skills of organization account for our differences in outcomes.  They have a cursory understanding that the tax laws may be a bit unfair, that inheritance laws are tilted toward the already advantaged, that old boy networks exist and they favor the already favored. I am certain they do not know how the Federal Reserve feeds excessive sums of money into the hands of bankers for their own enrichment and for the enrichment of their wealthy friends.  They almost certainly do not know that the recent surge of $30 trillions of wealth to those at the top came at the expense of a corresponding $30 trillion in GDP denied to the economy, and about the many millions of jobs not created, or the higher incomes for every worker that did not occur, to solvency to their retirement accounts and to Social Security and Medicare that could have been; to a huge reduction in our public debt that did not take place; and to elevated levels of prosperity for all that disappeared before they could be created.  I doubt if many of them understand that every advantage that has been and continues to be added to the wealth and incomes of the advantaged comes at the expense of the rest of us; that because of the excessive incomes that flow to the top mean there will be excessive poverty at the bottom.  They probably do not wince at the official list of 47 million Americans who live in poverty.  Would it help if they knew that another 47 million also live in poverty, but they are no longer counted because of the standard put into place back in the 1960s that no longer identifies one-half of the tired, the poor, and the wretched refuse of our teeming shores?  I’m certain they do not know of the link between the wealth that is transferred to the few at the top and to the long list of all the social ills caused by that transference—in those same neighborhoods where the very poor live.  To put it bluntly but accurately, excessive wealth causes excessive poverty and all its subsumed outcomes:  high crime rates, high incarceration rates, high drug usage rates, high suicide rates, high illiteracy rates, high obesity rates, high mental health issue rates, and low life expectancy rates. These conclusions flow from undeniable meta analytical cause/effect models; they are not simply conjecture or guesswork.  

Moreover, there is a conspiracy of silence among the enlightened few in government, Industry, and academia who are too timid to speak out because they haven’t the courage to voice their objections about these dual issues that are crying out for resolution, and that demand attention.  Shame on them. 

What the partially enlightened do not understand is the degree to which all those personal and societal values stated in the opening to this essay have been hijacked, bent, distorted, and made to work for a very few at the top—and at the expense to all the rest of us.  If we could first enlighten them about the information gap between what they believe is true , and what is actually true , that would be a great start toward solving the economic issues of the day. Without them on the side of “what is,” we have very little chance of moving on toward a new state of being that we can only call “what can be.”  That lofty plateau of knowledge is the place where real change can take place. Once we can establish the true “state of knowledge” about “what exists” today, a new reality that reflects the society and the values that learned men and women from our past articulated, who also lived them, and for which many of them died in trying to bring them to fruition for all of us.  

Will someone please tell me how to make these issues clear, or clearer?  What magic potion will wipe out ignorance and apathy in the hearts and minds of men and women of good will?  Where are the leaders who can and will carry the torch of honor and justice?  Do we have enough of the brave, the few, and the enlightened to make a difference before it is too late? Or, shall we just give up the dream and call our experiment a failure? 

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is an excellent source for truth about our economic system, its weaknesses, and how it can be improved.  You should consider joining or supporting this organization.  Sign up for a free subscription to timely articles here:  http://www.epi.org.

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