Overview. Many years ago a professor told this tale about one of his students. He said he had asked the student, “What is the difference between ignorance and apathy?” The student hung his head in shame and replied, “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” And so it is with the state of the US economy and our ability to do much about it. There are those who are fed up by the inactions of our Congress—led by just enough ideologues on the far right to stop almost any change they disagree with; and there are many. Historians might label these times as the “Great Malaise” by those who understand they are getting the shaft, but do not know how to deal with it. Alarmists might call it the “calm before the storm” while anticipating a bloody revolution just a few years down the road. Most others are too sickened to label it at all. They walk around like Paul in the new testament: “O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” All are fearful of the supply chain shortages that have awakened the sleeping giant known as inflation without connecting it to it’s proper source, known as the ignorant and apathetic reaction by insurrectionists to the Covid virus. It is the rampant stupidity among those on the far right that is fomenting and perpetuating the instability. They continue to ignore the wise counsel of our best epidemiologists. Their defiance against wearing masks and getting their free vaccinations is the fundamental cause of tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths daily, the current bout with inflation, the instability in stock prices, turmoil in the economy, inactions by the government, and in the general mistrust among all residents. While I do not track similar activities around the world, stupidity among our lunatic fringe seems to have slopped over into the activities of most others.

My vocabulary continues to slip away from me in droves of words, as fewer and fewer words surface from my head from which to describe life in the US and around the world. But the single word that best tells this story is “rigged.” The conservative playbook reeks with the architecture of rigging. The purveyors of the Big Rig have hijacked our national and state legislatures and stopped virtually all progress such that only the very wealthy benefit from the efforts of us all. Billions of old and new dollars are flowing in massive amounts to the ultra-wealthy every day—mostly untaxed and unearned. That is how the very rich want it, and that is how it is. The “land of opportunity” as a straight-faced slogan is so far removed from reality as to be a bad joke or a mockery of justice. “Land of the free” and “home of the brave” are other fictions. We need to stop the embarrassment of hearing them by erasing those phrases from our daily vocabularies. Wealth is being sucked up so fast and deposited into the accounts of those at the top that even the blind, deaf, and dumb can feel it. A mere 50 senators can and have blocked all legislative avenues to make changes in the tax laws, in the wealth distribution scheme, and in the future growth rates so much so that all those of goodwill are now as ineffective as eunuchs at a procreation party in perpetuating the human race.

The US Schematic. This outline of how wealth is made and diverted shows how deceptively evil its designers have been, and will continue to be. The first operational block contains the Inheritance laws. All wealth (stocks, bonds, and real estate) inside family units must stay there according to the Doctrine of Charles Koch, et al.—unearned and untaxed. There is no need for anyone to oversee the factories, buildings, and land (they depreciate and lose value). Legal certificates grow in value by interest payments, dividends, and rents—plus capital gains to all three; thus they only appreciate in value. The compound rate of return is 7.2 percent annually. A 50-year old inheritor of $100 billion can watch his stash grow to $800 billion in 30 years—untaxed and unearned—as predictably as the rising sun without so much as lifting a finger. Present wealth holdings by the ultra rich are almost certain to grow from $125 trillion to $4 quadrillion in the next 50 years. How bitter is that taste? In just 50 years the ultra rich will be 32 times richer without lifting a finger. The math is simple: 1.072 X 10^50 = 32.34. There is your new wealth inequality gap looming out on the mathematical horizon.

Intellectualism. Moral lightweights such as Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos can and do avoid paying their fair share of taxes by refusing to take a salary. Instead, they borrow whatever they need from banks, and pay them back at an ultra low rate of interest, in lieu of paying the 31 percent rate set by the tax schedule. Family siblings such as the Waltons (offspring of the late Sam Walton of Wal-Mart fame), now hold an estimated $215 billion, all untaxed and unearned. This short list quickly adds up to $125 trillion by those at the top. It is also compounding so fast that it would boggle their petty minds if their IQ’s were high to grasp it, and if their MQ’s (moral quotients) were sensitive enough to care.

What about the poor who pay no income tax? Aren’t they the cause of it all? The bigger picture shows that when all taxes are considered (sales, gasoline, tariffs, tolls, property, entertainment, social security, health care), everyone pays about 30 percent. But only the rich can lower theirs more by obtaining bank loans instead of paying their income tax rate, by securing secret offshore accounts, by transferring US operations overseas, and by diverting otherwise taxable income to private foundations. These rigged venues are rarely discussed by politicians, bankers, scholars, or theologians. Notice also that 30 percent of a poor person’s $10,000 income is $3,000. That is a lot of bean soup foregone—to say nothing of rents, fuel, health care, and transportation costs. And finally, inflation acts just like a regressive tax that hits the poor the hardest. That is a fact. Google it.

The Economy. Commercial bankers are at the center of the rigged wealth and income distribution scheme. The Federal Reserve makes nearly all new money available to them to perpetuate the Big Rig. Bankers need only direct 70 percent of all new money into savings, and 30 percent into circulation to perpetuate the Big Rig from here to eternity. As it turns out, those two numbers are the key money streams that keep the rich rich rich and the poor poor. How much brain power does it take to absorb this relationship? It’s right here in the equation of money:

M1 X V1 = GDP

Where M1 = money in circulation
V1 = Velocity of money in circulation
GDP = gross domestic product

Now if M1 equals $4 trillion, and V1 equals 5, then  GDP equals $4 trillion X 5, or $20 trilion. Jobs and income depend on GDP .  Raise M1 and watch GDP grow, jobs incease, salaries rise, and tax revenues rise.  These tasks are controlled by commercial bankers, who are controlled by right-wing ideologues.  But assign the task of allocating money to the Fed and watch the economy surge and wages rise, while the dual inequality gaps begin to close. Is anybody listening? That is not socialism; that is tapping the talents of 400 PhD economists at the Fed.  What we have instead are right-wing ideologues calling the shots.  

New Fair Wage Standard. The minimum wage is as outdated in the US as outdoor toilet facilities. A wage of $7, or $10, or even $15 per hour is much too low for a nation that produces more wealth and GDP than any other on Earth. We need to replace it with a Fair Living Wage of $37.50 per hour, or $75,000 per year per US household. But the responsibility for tracking it must be assigned to an honest group. 10-year-old Girl Scouts come to mind for honesty. They could work concurrently with the Fed directing M1 money flows to credit unions. In contrast to banks credit unions direct 70 percent of its money to individuals and to small businesses. That is where new profits, new jobs, new wages, and new prosperity await all those who are waiting for the American Dream to enter their lives.

The Judiciary. We need to un-rig the Supreme Court from its ideological puppets armed with the power to jam up progress, and to pretend as if the Judaeo-Christian ethic came to us in a burst of glory from their version of Heaven. Their biases masquerading as intelligence is really just a figment of the right wing zealots. Where is it written that “we are a nation of laws—that must be obeyed?” It does not take much scholarship to discover that 6 justices are biased right-wingers, hand picked by the conservative playbook. Isn’t that slogan intended only to keep the masses in check? To counter the rigging that gave them a majority, we need to boost the membership to 12 justices, and give them all just 8 years of tenure.

There you have my version of the State of the Union. But I will admit to a bias. When I was 13 years old, and had not eaten for four days, I stood outside a commercial bank and pondered a way to rob it of just enough money to satisfy my hunger. But on reflection, I decided I would eventually learn the economics about why I was on the outside looking in, and if there really was anything behind that front door that might rescue me from my torment. Here I am many decades later. I have just enough to stay away from banks. Knowledge is power.