“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the Spring of hope, it was the Winter of despair.”     --Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Welcome to this collection of essays. They bespeak the resurgence of a dichotomy in human motivations told to us with panache by Charles Dickens; namely, the struggle between ignorance and enlightenment. We are losing that fight. We no longer merely shun ignorance; many now embrace it with enthusiasm. Encapsulated minds are showing up in greater numbers at the voting booths across the country. Nearly 50 percent of voters are throwing in the towel on freedom to think, to do, and to imagine in favor of mindlessly following ideologies that are leading them and us to ruination. To quote another deep thinker, “these are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine understood the power of the pen. But now we also need to stop and reverse the trend in recent years and restart the engines of human progress without the batch of ne’er-do-wells who have bought their way to power.

Have we lost the courage to face these new tyrants, to confront them, and to demand our fundamental rights? We had better regain it. A long list of tyrants has trampled on freedom to think with wanton abandon. Book burnings are now the consequence of shallow laws passed by equally shallow minds. Gerrymandering is an affront to fair play. One person telling 35,000 lies in four years is the new political norm. “Only I can fix it,” is the incredulous cry emanating from the lips of one who cannot think or speak coherently. Wisdom is mocked in favor of insurrection. “The Big Lie” is rampant. And, yes, this deadly list of diseases has spread to our Supreme Court controlled by men who believe something as simple as a Code of Ethics is for us but not for them.

Although the text that follows winds its way through many subjects, its focus is on justice, and how our wealth distribution can help us understand the extent to which we honor our founding values and principles. For example, we know that we have more wealth than any other nation. But do we also know we have the most skewed distribution of wealth among all the industrialized nations on Earth? Or why? Or what we can expect in our lives if we do not begin to change it now? The principles found in the Preamble to our Constitution offer us superb clarity in guiding us to answers that are worthy of our efforts.

Our wealth distributional skew gets worse with each passing day. It is that incessant. It is also true that unless we begin to understand the fundamental reasons about immense differences in how wealth is distributed, we could be in for one thousand years of living under a heavy servitude that portends the darkest years yet in our history. The way out will be arduous. We need to learn a method first introduced to humanity by Socrates more than 2300 years ago. We need to immerse our minds and our sensibilities in a good understanding of Critical Analysis, the science of how to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, to think and to act.

Our objective is concerned with enlightenment—a precursor to action. It is not about earthly or cosmic truth, or equality of outcomes. It is about the extent to which we are honoring those values and principles stated in our Constitution. This approach allows us to think, observe, and to analyze without all the diversions that float so profusely in the halls of academe. There are but six principles that underlie our foundation. They are: 1) to form a more perfect union; 2) establish justice; 3) insure domestic tranquility; 4) provide for the common defense; 5) promote the general welfare; and 6) secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. If we could put those principles in the foreground of our social and intellectual activities, we could begin to level the playing field against impostors so that justice would have a good chance of emerging.

An equitable outcome does not mean an equal outcome. It means sufficient enough to eliminate poverty, the conditions of squalor, and how everyone could live purposeful lives without government assistance. In order to accomplish those goals will require that we produce about $6 or $7 trillion dollars of new wealth that finds its way into all households. Is this goal do-able?

The answer is a resounding “yes!” A simple projection of wealth in the US shows that it will rise from its present total of $150 trillion to $300 trillion in just the next 10 years, and by 32 times that amount by the year 2073. Inflation will push the dollar value needed into more households to about $14 trillion by 2043. That is the nature of big numbers. Still, that objective could be achieved 20 years from now. So far, I am well within my investigative skill set. The longer we wait, the costlier will be the changes—and the less likely they are to happen.

This book has nothing to do with “taking from the rich and giving to the poor.” For me, it had its origin more than half a century ago when I acknowledged that I would pull back the curtain and reveal the motive, means, and opportunities taken by the few to corral the many. Both my numbers and methodology are intact. It does, however, require a change in attitude by many more enlightened individuals. I am here to help summon that call. But do not worry. You are free to disagree, but only if you do so without resorting to wild assertions or faulty methods.

Massive accumulations of wealth by the few have a huge negative impact on the many. It is directly linked to the conditions of squalor that inevitably appear in the absence of prosperity. That squalor consists of: hunger, crime, illiteracy, suicides, incarcerations, teen pregnancies, mental health issues, lower life expectancies, social immobility, and a reliance on government aid programs. The ultra-wealthy are the fundamental source of these conditions whether they know it or not. Moreover, we become accessories after the fact if we fail to act. A meta-analysis stemming from of an immense volume of data from around the world by anthropologists Pickett and Wilkinson (The Spirit Level, 2010) shows that massive inequality is like a time bomb that is ticking toward an explosion far beyond anything we have ever witnessed in the past. The enemy is greed. In order for one small group to hold $135 trillion of wealth (doubling in value every 10 years), it is necessary that a majority of our population must live far below their needs. The US banking system is not exempt from causal liability. It is a central player in creating and maintaining our dual inequality issues. It is the most direct link in the chain of events that describe the human agony it portends. There are others.

The Willie Sutton (1901 – 1980) Syndrome. This mild-mannered bank robber from the 1930s is reported to have said in response to the question, “Why do you rob banks?” as simply this: “Because that’s where the money is!”  This book pulls back the curtain and reveals how our commercial banks, a growing number of renegade legislators, and a relatively small coterie of the ultra-wealthy have picked up where Willie Sutton left off. But this triad is currently siphoning a whopping $1.62 tillion every year from our national wealth pool and directing it to the ultra-wealthy. The math behind that value is easily provable. They don’t use a gun, or even a Brinks armored truck. But it happens nevertheless. Among other efforts they fund political campaigns for extremist candidates who will do their bidding. Their mission: Buying elections for candidates who, in turn, will support every piece of legislation that the ultra-wealthy directs them to support, but mainly by lowering taxes on the wealthy, plus acquiring or maintaining a stranglehold on incidental issues such as protecting and keeping deadly assault weapons of mass destruction in the hands of imbeciles; taking control over a woman’s right to manage her own health; what can or cannot be on the shelves of public school libraries; maintaining a steady flow of wealth to the ultra-wealthy—unearned, untaxed—and in secret locations. There are many others such as gerrymandering voting districts, all part of the book of conservative servitude. Today, with 840 billionaires, we have already created 840 family dynasties with more political clout than my $8 calculator can handle.

There is a 4th member that is complicit in the New Willie Sutton gang. It is the Republican majority on the United State Supreme Court. In their decision (Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 US 310, 2010), four Republican justices (Scalia, Alito, Roberts, and Thomas) voted to allow unlimited corporate money to flow into US political campaigns. Scalia has now been replaced with three more neo-conservative justices. Incidentally, Citizen’s United President, David Bossie, took a leave of absence in 2016 to be deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump. This compact worked in 2016 while the rest of us were asleep in the silence of the ballot boxes. Now they assert that they are above the fray and do not need a Code of Ethics in order to maintain neutrality in their decisions.

In the pages that follow, you will find many more hard facts, carefully analyzed, and a rational evaluation of those facts. This method is the tool of highly qualified investigators. There is no flim-flam, no wild assertions, and no make-believe. It is the purest of all the methods for finding best answers to difficult issues. It is stated briefly in five steps: 1. gather only facts; 2. analyze them; 3. synthesize them; and 4. evaluate them; and 5. reach limited conclusions about them that are accurate, reliable and useful. These steps are the foundation to the Scientific Method, first offered to us by Socrates, c. 469–399 BCE. It is how we minimize bias, slant, greed and ideologies in all their forms and dimensions. It his how we reach for the pinnacle of our endeavors, also known as enlightenment. Truth is a concept better left to God. Don’t be misled: Persons of the cloth cannot find what better qualified men and women have not.

Whether we describe ourselves as Democrats, Republicans, Independents, or Other, nearly all of us claim to prefer freedom over slavery as a way of life. But a huge number of residents nevertheless have become obedient followers of political ideologies. That is a condition much like Germany from the 1920’s, just 100 years removed. Hitler was a power-hungry fascist who was eventually taken down by those who understood the stakes—but only after 50 million people died in the rubble of his making. It remains to be seen if today’s leaders can rise up from the ashes of old ideologies and act with courage, honor, and wisdom.

The resurgent political ideology that has descended upon us is generously referred to as authoritarianism. In real time it is identified by bellicose leaders, spouting lies and nonsense, and throngs of loyal followers. This book is not offered as scholarly insight into what might emerge from academia, or from institutions that focus on subjects related to freedom. It’s too late for that. Instead, it is couched in common-sense language, intended to take concerned readers on a journey from our philosophical foundations, to our heritage, our achievements, our challenges, and how we can use the methods of Critical Thinking to analyze the worth and relevancy of facts; analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated with rigor. It was 12 years in the writing, and more than 70 years in the living.

Each essay is also intended to help illuminate the central theme in a fresh and entertaining way. At the heart of it all is the hope that these messages will help you, the reader, to find your own passion about your life, about your country and how to make sense of the improbable events of our times. I believe that is the critical step in finding our collective sanity, if not our destiny. For motivation, the focus is on this challenge from the distinguished educator and scholar, Horace Mann, who left us with these immortal words: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

This is our time, and that is our challenge.

The decorative corner borders at the top each page are reminiscent of a stage, and we are in the front row to witness 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 and the agony of defeat.” Secondarily, it is a chance to interact in a casual way—short of actually reaching out and touching our sensibilities. Let’s call this an exchange of energies.

One major task of this book is to lay the groundwork for raising annual incomes of all US households to minimum MIT Living Wage Scales that range from $80,000 to $125,000. In theory we might achieve that goal after a very hard-fought redistribution of incomes. But if we shift our focus toward the future, we can build new streams of income that take from nobody yet can bring about new prosperity to those who have been denied it for too long. Once all households have enough income to pay for food, childcare, health care, education, housing, transportation, and other necessities without government assistance, only then can we in good conscience proclaim a victory. It could take 20 years or more. Regardless of the time element, it definitely requires that we take that first step.

By averaging 3,006 counties, and 12 combinations of adults and children per household, the MIT team found that $100,000 is the most representative annual income needed to sustain a family in our time frame. This level of income does not include dining out, taking paid vacations, or saving for retirement. Minimum wages and Poverty Level wages are antiquated concepts. Welcome to 2023 and the concept known as the Fair Living Wage!

The Fair Living Wage scales were developed by the MIT team led by Prof. Amy Glasmeier. There is nothing in our Constitution or our Declaration of Independence about “safety nets” to avoid hunger, or poverty level wages. Those two founding documents contain more than our history and more than 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 and residents who cherish freedom as much as we do. Equally important, the Fair Living Wages are do-able.

To achieve a Living Wage for all is a goal that is worthy of our humanity, our strengths, and what we know is possible. I use the ubiquitous “we” to include all those who support a greater participation in corporate profits produced by workers. 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 goals, 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 until we have included most of those who need our help dare we say we have won a victory for humanity.

Goals. Do not look astonished at the prospect of every US household having minimum incomes in the range of $80,000 to $125,000. That range is possible today with just a few changes in our daily lives. The logic, the data, and the argument are easy to grasp. The numbers add up. You may even wonder why we do not have a Living Wage for everyone today? Still, few things worthwhile are free. Nor are they 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 contribution to our prosperity. 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, K through 12. Society needs residents of all ages 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 they are a minority. They are callous, but not very bright. Together, we are much more powerful than they are. Their ranks come from within a small pool of about 840 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 52 percent (172 million residents) have no wealth (net worth) at all. Their debts surpass their assets. Those numbers are tallied by and are readily available from the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds reports. The current distribution is a disgrace to the wealthiest nation on planet Earth; it is an insult to our heritage; and it needs to be changed.

Who Benefits? This book and its objectives would directly affect the bottom 52 percent of US households. They are the workers who often cannot afford to live in the same cities where they work; those who subsist without participating in the wealth they help to produce. It will take about about $7 trillion of income to raise all workers up to a livable level of $80,000 to $125,000. Why can’t they work their way out of poverty? The reason is because after the ultra-wealthy have taken the lion’s share of wealth, thus there is nothing left for the bottom 52 percent of workers. They 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, by their disgraceful voting habits, and how they want to shift the playing field more and more toward those now at the top 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 for those who pay for their political campaigns.

The Dual Underlying Problems. There actually 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 of the two. 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 extant 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 that to happen is that we do nothing, and let the status quo continue. It takes only an economy growing by a net 3.2 percent annually, to siphon away 90 percent of all our wealth and hand it over to the top 10 percent. And their contribution? Virtually nothing. The math is simple.

Ownership of nearly all of our distributed wealth is the result of tax laws. Very little of it is held by those who worked in creating it, with excellent minds, the American ethic, or by talent. The confiscatory laws have been bought by a small number of 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 their Reverse Robin Hood effect far into the future. Here is the pocket version of their modus operandi:

We have 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 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 tax exemption laws. They do not like informed citizens, free markets, or competition—the built-in safety measures – that could put us all on a more reasonable playing field.

I wrote the following essays over a time period of about 12 years, but they are an outgrowth of a lifetime of study and participation in public, private, and educational endeavors. I’ve updated most of them. Each essay was topical when it was written, yet with the goal of looking 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 clarity and encouragement in all of them. It will take a commitment—to honesty, knowledge, and fairness in order to bring about the necessary changes this book outlines.
Purpose. This book’s purpose is to help focus attention on a few objectives by using the power of critical thinking. It is partly expository and partly philosophical relying on critical analyses in revealing issues that are leading us toward selfish goals. It draws from many facts that are synthesized into a coherent whole intended to illuminate rather than to obfuscate.

Essays differ from scholarly papers. They are less formal, but nevertheless they have their place. They need not follow strict rules of composition, thus are considerably more readable. This approach stands in opposition to 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.

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 can lead to progress.

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 uncompromising conclusions; 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 collective voices and actions speak louder than my words or feelings ever could.