Robin Hood remains one of popular culture’s most enduring folk heroes, captivating audiences for over 700 years. Whether real or fictional, his legacy endures, inspiring countless adaptations, ballads, books, and films. In summary, Robin Hood’s tales blend history, folklore, and imagination, creating a timeless hero who champions justice and equality (AI search summary). Real or imagined, Robin Hood was quite a man! Most notable among his praiseworthy acts was his propensity to “take from the rich and give to the poor.”

Both the man and the legend are dead in the USA. He has been replaced by his opposite, in value, acts, and vision. Today he exists not as a single person, but as an ideology. This ideology is rampant among its adherents that assert: “Let us pass legislation that takes from the poor and the downtrodden and gives to the ultra-wealthy. Not once or twice, by continuously, today, tomorrow, and forever.” By any other name, that legislation is here, and it is the embodiment of greed, scraped from the doorsteps of pure evil.

Here are the numbers in support of the effects of  the legislation that takes from the poor and gives to the rich.

Today, the net effect of taking and giving wealth is measurable by this outcome: Every day $3.7 billions of dollars flow from the bottom 90 percent of residents to the top of the wealth heap—virtually all of it is unearned and untaxed. That is the daily total of income flowing to unearned inheritances in the form of stocks, bonds, and real estate plus stock dividends, bond interest payments, rents, and capital gains on all three. On an annual basis, that total climbs to $135 trillions of dollars. In the next 10 years the total will be $270 trillion, and it is projected to grow in 50 years to the grand total of $4.4 quadrillion. (that’s $4,400,000,000,000).

The legislative background: 98 percent of all wealth is left to beneficiaries in the form of Inheritances, unearned and untaxed. Few argue against inheritances of $10 million or less going to individiuals tax free. Only 1.2 percent are left to charities. But inheritances of $11 million to $500 billion or more are at the core of wealth inequality, and all of its horrendous outcomes against society’s poor in the form of: hunger, lack of health care, lack of education, unemployment, incarcerations, suicides, teen pregnancies, housing, transportation, social immobility (see the Spirit Level, Wilkonsn and Pickett, for details about the strong link between excesssive wealth and poverty).

37.5 million residents today live in poverty, and 177 million need some government assistance. Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicare to give even more to the ultra-weathy will have a crushing effect on the poor, the midde class, and the elderly.

Proof: Since 1950, wealth in the US has grown by 7.2 percent annually. That number is calculated by taking the beginning value and today’s value, and then by  computing the compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Now, go to the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds report, find “household net worth,” and make the calculation yourself. As for the future, household net worth is highly correlated with US GDP (0.87), which makes it about as accurate a predictor that can be found in economic data. ($135 X 1.072^50 = $4.4 X 10^12). 

As to the number of residents in need of government assistance, see the work of 10 PhD economists at MIT who developed the individual Living Wage Scales for the US broken down individually for each of the 3,006 counties in the US.

Conclusion: The wealth inequality gap today is horrendous. In 50 years it will be 32 times worse. Does that portend opportunities for the poor? No, it means that there will be many times more poor than today, and the conditions of their squalor will be so severe that all fair-minded people of all races, religions, creeds, and colors will be offended to the core of their beings.

We cannot wait for that outcome. Passing on the great bulk of our wealth untaxed and unearned to inheritors must be stopped. We can exempt $10 million to each individual. But letting enormous inheritances grow to quadrillions of dollars is almost beyond comprehension.

Action starts at the voting booths. We must vote against all the ideologues at the state and national levels who are puppets for the ultra-wealthy. It’s that simple—and that daring. But only if you are human enough to become part of the solution, and not just an observer in the collapse of our nation.

Vote for our future. Also, copy and send this essay to 5 of your friends. Help get out the vote in November so your children will not have to fight in a bloody civil war 20 or 30 years from now.  It's that critical.