That’s the good news. The bad news is that you probably did not see more than a tiny morsel of the new growth. How can that be? You helped to produce it—namely, the upward spiral in stock, bond, and real estate values. You did it by working for one of the 63,000 corporations in America, or in the tens of thousands of small businesses that produce the incomes that sustain our economy. Your efforts make the entire network of food and fuel production, housing, health care, transportation, education, entertainment, and all the services possible. Why are you not seeing a fair portion of the results of your labor?

The breakout of how all that wealth is made and distributed are not something you read about in newspapers, or blogs, or see and hear on television. Here it is straight from the Federal Reserve: $112.3 trillion of all that wealth went to the top 10 percent of our residents. The next $11.2 trillion went to the next 40 percent; and less than $1 trillion went to the next 10 percent of our residents; while the bottom 40 percent got nothing at all.

That wealth total is the highest in all the world. It’s distribution, however, is the most severely skewed away from workers and in favor of the ultra-wealthy in all the world. It did not happen by chance, nor by skills, nor are those at the top possessed by more energy, more intelligence, or by any human value or virtue you can name. It happened by laws made of, by, and for them. You and I have been getting legally screwed by the same laws for a very long time.

Let’s start with the inheritance laws. They are easy to understand. When anyone dies, he or she can leave 100 percent of their assets to others—tax-free. That seems fair up to, say, $5 million. But what about $50 billion? Is it fair for anyone to inherit $50 billion and pay no taxes on it, especially when we have $21 trillion in national debt?

Case in point: The Walton family inherited $23 billion back in the early 1990s when Walmart founder, Sam Walton, died. They did nothing to earn it, but today their fortune is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $175 billion. Why? Because it has been growing tax-free. They also did nothing to receive all that growth except to hold onto their Walmart stock. That is the same stock that all those tens of thousands of Walmart employees helped turn into multi-billions. Many of them, by the way, are on Food Stamps and other forms of public assistance.

It is a fact—reinforced by a host of laws—that 90 percent of all wealth is held by the top 10 percent, and 90 percent of all new wealth flows to the present holders of wealth. That's all true . Interest, dividends, and capital appreciation flow to the top. That accounts for 81 percent of all wealth. But many of them also choose to dabble in other money ventures, and that gives them another boost such that a constant flow of 90 percent of future wealth goes to the holders of present wealth. And it is all legal. It’s disgusting and immoral, but it’s legal.

What can you do about it? If you believe it is hopeless, it is—for you. But if you would like to see more of the wealth that we all produce flow to those who actually produce it, the quickest way is to change the laws back to the good old days when they reflected all our values. And that can only happen by electing a President, and a majority of Democrats, in both the House and the Senate.

A partial list of the opposition. Do not listen to propaganda from the right. It is paid for by billionaires like Charles and David Koch, Sheldon Adelson, Peter Thiel, Carl Icahn, Tom Barrack, Woody Johnson, Stephen Steinberg, Steven Mnuchin, Robert Mercer, T. Boone Pickens, Stanley Hubbard, Darwin Deason, Wilbur Ross, Andrew Beal, John Paulson. The list goes on.

Oh, yes, there is one more billionaire who will be putting his money to work in misleading Americans into voting for his favorite candidate. His name is Vladimir Putin. He’s the guy who loves to kill or imprison his opposition. He supports tyrants everywhere. Trump loves him and vice versa.

It will not be an easy task. This same group of ideologues also support rigging elections via Gerrymandering, passing laws that make voting difficult for the poor and the downtrodden, in killing worker’s rights, eliminating unions, and, of course, sending your sons and daughters off to fight wars that they haven’t the courage to get near. They will do almost anything to keep those wealth channels open and flowing toward them.

You get the picture. Just vote for Democrats. You don’t have to love all Democrats. But they are your best and only chance out of this mess any time soon.

There are 531 days until National Election day. This time, let’s get it right.