Welcome to this forum that seeks to explore many of the topics and issues that are related to the revival and transformation of the United States’ social, cultural, and economic pursuits and goals. The essays that follow will take us on a journey from our philosophical foundations, to our heritage, our achievements, our challenges, and how to transform our opportunities into realities. It was 12 years in the writing, and many more years in the living.

The border images at the top each page remind me of a stage, and we are in the front row to watch bits of history come alive via the printed word. To me this stage represents one of the glories of the human psyche where we get to tap into our reveries to find kindness, caring and compassion; or to be reminded of the “the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.” Secondarily, it is my chance to interact with you in a casual way—short of actually reaching out and touching you or your sensibilities. Let’s call this an interaction of energies.

Each essay was deliberately written to help jog our memories about who we are, what we stand for, while calling upon our guiding principles, our challenges, and our opportunities for clarity. Taken collectively, they are a statement of what could be—our destiny—one that is worthy of our highest ideals. For motivation, this book rests on a simple but eloquent challenge from the distinguished legislator, educator, and scholar, Horace Mann, who challenged us to action with these immortal words: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

The essays that follow span many different subject matters and issues. Each is intended to help illuminate the central theme in a fresh and enlightening way. One major task of this book is to lay the groundwork for raising incomes of all US households to minimum Living Wage Scales that range from $80,000 to $150,000. On paper we could do that today simply by a redistribution of incomes. But if we shift our focus toward the future, it is far more rewarding and likely to happen to take nothing from the wealthy. With some careful thought and determination, we can build our own wealth (i.e., by owning more stocks, bond, and real estate) with our own hands, minds, and souls. We need to generate new streams of income that can bring about new prosperity to those who have been denied it. Once all households have enough income to pay for food, fuel, housing, health care, transportation, and education, without government assistance, we are well on our way to fulfilling the principles and goals stated in our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence. Those two documents contain more than our history and our goals—they are part of a living trust we have with all who have gone before us, with each other, and with everyone yet to be citizens, as well as others, who—with the assistance of Critical Thinking—can learn to cherish freedom as much as we do. I can almost hear Horace Mann saying now, “Go for it!”

The Living Wage Scales were developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Economics Department, lead by Prof. Amy Glasmeier. To achieve a set of Living Wages for all is a goal that is worthy of our humanity, our strengths, and what we know is possible. We begin by acknowledging that greed and ignorance stand as formidable barriers from those who do not want us to succeed. We will need to draw from our collective talents and our best efforts in a concerted drive toward creating higher incomes while we also create a larger pool of prosperity for all. We must overcome the logically weak but formidable opposition that others will pursue in order to prevent us from reaching our goal, one that portends a glorious new future for millions of US residents. We can attract even more of humanity to the table of prosperity by welcoming them to our forum. Not untll we have included most of those who need our need help dare we say we have won a victory for humanity.

Our Goals. Do not look astonished at the prospect of every US household having minimum incomes of $80,000 to $150,000. That range is possible today with just a few changes in our daily lives. The logic, the data, and the argument are so easy to grasp that you may soon wonder why we do not have a Living Wage for everyone today. Still, nothing worthwhile is free. Nor is it necessarily spiritual. There is no manna coming from Heaven. We will need to educate, organize, and find leaders with the drive, the stamina, the determination, and the wherewithal to guide us out of the mess we have been led into—and into a new paradigm--where everyone can partake of the prosperity that we all helped to create.

We need to help everyone benefit consistent with their production, contributions, and needs. To that end, all progressive organizations need to support the early and continued education in the formal study of Critical Analysis at all grade levels beginning with grade 1 and continuing through grade 12. Society needs residents with enhanced abilities to analysis, synthesize, and evaluate important issues across the spectrum of needs relating to the human condition. In particular a pluralistic society always benefits when residents embrace logic, ethics, and aesthetics independently from politics and religion. An informed citizen is also the best defense against our dual opponents: ignorance and greed.

Yes, there will be opposition. But we outnumber them. Together, we are much more powerful than they are. Their ranks come from within a small pool of about 900 billionaires who have brought many state legislators into their folds. Indeed, they have bought the souls of at least 50 percent of the US Congress, and they rely on them as their “rubber stamp” puppets. How successful have they been? Today, disgraceful laws have been the major means for shifting $135 trillion of wealth, or 90 percent of all our wealth, into the accounts of the top 10 percent of residents. Going down the ladder, the next 40 percent hold the other $15 trillion. And the bottom 50 percent (166 million residents) have no wealth at all. Their debts surpass their assets. Those numbers are tallied by and readily available from the Federal Reserve. This distribution is a disgrace for the wealthiest nation on planet Earth.

Who Benefits? This book and its objectives would directly affect the bottom 52 percent of US households. It will take about about $7 trillion of income to raise all workers up to a livable level of $80,000 to $150,000. Why can’t they work their way out of poverty? The reason is because after the ultra-wealthy few have taken their bloated share, there is nothing left for the bottom 50 workers who are being held hostage by corporate banks, corporate CEO’s, and about 51 percent of state and national legislators who act on the instructions of the ultra-wealthy. You know the names of the legislators by their illogical and outrageous statements, and by their disgraceful voting habits, and how they want to shift the playing field more and more toward those now at the top of the with their greed-directed laws. They now want to kill Social Security, Medicare, Child Care, and take away women’s rights to control their bodies while they amass more and more wealth via tax-free stocks, bonds, and real estate.

The Dual Underlying Problems. There are two enormously unequal gaps at issue. One is the income gap, and the second is the wealth gap. The wealth gap is the larger. It is the result of transferring huge family inheritances from one generation to the next—nearly tax-free. The worst example is that of the Walton family (offspring of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart stores). In 1993 the siblings inherited $23 billion from their father, unearned and untaxed. Today that wealth heap has grown to more than $200 billion, still unearned and untaxed. Repeat such huge transfers and that canyon between the haves and the have-nots reveals the biggest wealth gap and human greed in world history.

• That same wealth heap grows at 7 to 8 percent annually via stock dividends, bond interest payments, and rents on real estate, plus capital gains on all three sources of wealth. With no changes that same $135 trillion of wealth is projected to grow to $4.5 quadrillion by the year 2073, or 32 times larger than it is today. About all that is required for this to happen is that we continue to grow the economy by a net 3.2 percent annually, while the wealthy continue to reap the rewards of all our efforts.

• Nearly all of our distributed wealth is the result of tax laws. Very little of it is due to hard work, excellent minds, the American ethic, or talent. The confiscatory laws have been bought by a small number of the ultra-wealthy persons by paying for the elections of state and national legislators who promise to do their bidding. Put another way, the same rich folks have paid, and will continued to pay, whatever amount it takes to buy their chosen candidates who will pass more legislation that takes from us and gives to them. Even worse, there is nothing today that stands in their way now of continuing the Reverse Robin Hood effect.

• We have indeed been lied to and misled by ideologues who have been guided by their greed while relying on nearly everyone else’ s ignorance to catch them at their ungodly activities. They are mostly bankers, and large corporate CEO’s, and that small pool of large inheritors who acquired their wealth via inheritance and special exemption laws. They do not like informed citizens, free markets, or competition—that could put us all on a level playing field.

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I wrote the following essays over a time period of about 10 years, but they are an outgrowth of a lifetime of study and participation in public, private, and educational endeavors. Each essay was topical when it was written, yet with the goal of looking far beyond the moment. Taken together, I trust they make a statement about our times, and what they portend in the years ahead. I hope you will find a lot of clarity in all of them. We need to commit to honesty, knowledge, and fairness in order to bring about the necessary changes this book outlines.

Purpose. This book’s purpose is to persuade every reader to act in support of its objectives. It is partly expository and partly philosophical relying on critical analysis in revealing issues that are leading us to an economic ruination. The scientific method helps us find answers, revealing more than it conceals, to the chagrin of the profiteers among us. It contains many facts synthesized into a coherent whole intended to illuminate rather than to obfuscate.

Essays differ from scholarly papers. They are less formal, but nevertheless have their place. They need not follow strict rules of composition, thus are considerably more readable.

Secondarily, this book is about closed-mindedness—the bane of humanity. Some call ignorance the worst of all our fears. But I have studied closed minds—a special case of ignorance. I have observed it, measured it in action, and reached limited conclusions about it. I’ve lived among the afflicted for most of my life. I have also read more than 1,000 books, articles, and treatises on the subject of closed minds. I known that subject well.

It has been said by a few wise teachers that all language is persuasion, if only to satisfy the author’s desire to be read or heard believably. Also, prose and poetry complement each other by appealing to both cognition (prose), and to affect (poetry). As a believer in the power of language, you will therefore find a few poems listed at the end to help illuminate, to persuade, and to soften the messages—all to help mellow the composition with a pathway to understanding that many prefer.

In summary, these essays circumscribe conclusions based on enlightened inquiry, not by declaring to have captured the everlasting “truth.” They are meant for those who prefer to assimilate ideas, rather than to search for precisely defined word structures; they appeal to the seekers of freedom to think, rather than to the mentally rigid; and to substance over form. Above all, I hope you enjoy this collection. Your voices and actions speak louder than my words or feelings.