Should The Rich Rule?

The United States is rapidly losing ground to, and being surpassed by, other modern democracies around the world. This is happening in economic production, education, health and welfare, standard of living, and virtually all other standards of measurement, and at a rapidly increasing rate. The only exception is military size and strength; and that too will have to change as our economy declines. Today, our medical system ranks 38th in the world, education 14th, life expectancy 42nd, standard of living 12th, and gross domestic production 4th. The U.S. is 4th in GDP but 92nd in distribution of wealth, and therein lies the heart of the problem. At the current rate of decline, in 50 years, the U.S. will rank no better than 4th in economic strength, and perhaps even lower. With our decline in economic power, goes our decline in world influence. There was a time, before WWII, when the U.S. was probably number 1 in the world in most measurable categories. During the cold war years, following WWII, a propaganda war was growing between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. As a result, we, (the public), were exposed to a constant barrage of "we are the greatest." By our government, by our media, by our public school systems and through our institutions, we were told that we were the greatest and no other countries in the world had what we had. It became so ingrained in our psyche, that we are easily mislead even today. The original intent was to promote patriotism and convince the Russians we were better than them; but the end result is an uninformed public and a declining nation. Our government, and consequently, the laws and regulations which govern us, is determined and controlled by a very wealthy 1% of our population. As a consequence, the "system" is geared to support the wealthy 1%, often at the expense of the 99% (the rest of us). Money in politics has determined who our elected representatives are, what laws and regulations are enacted, how laws and regulations are enforced and even what information the public is exposed to. Money determines who wins and who loses, and the problem is getting worse. Of all the new financial wealth created in the U.S. between 1983 - 2004, 42% went to the top 1% of the population, 94% to the top 20%; which means the bottom 80% received only 6% of the new wealth. Distribution of Income in the U.S., 1982 -2006 Top 1% Next 19% Bottom 80% ______ ________ __________ 12.8% 39.1% 48.1% 21.3% 40.1% 38.6% World Income Equality by Family Household Country Ranking ________ ________ Sweden 1 Germany 10 Canada 35 UK 43 Japan 61 China 81 Russia 82 Iran 90 U.S. 93 If we are to survive as a major economic power and influential nation in the world, we have to reverse this trend. If we want a society where the average person can earn a livable wage and have reasonable access to decent health care and education, we must reverse this trend. If we want an American Dream where even the poorest among us can achieve wealth, we must reverse this trend. The problem is not uniquely Democrat or Republican. To solve it, we must first recognize that it exists. It is in the interest of our elected representatives to see that we don't. A huge amount of distorted information is being given to us by our political representatives and our media; which are being funded directly and indirectly by the very wealthy 1% of our population. A pervasive argument used to support the power of the 1% is that they are the job creators and therefore the more money they make, the more money everyone else will make. Problem is, the data does not support this conclusion. In, fact it supports the opposite conclusion. The more money they make, the more they can influence policy; the more they influence policy, the more money they make, etc., etc. As a result, we have a vanishing middle class and growing poverty. We have one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world; higher than most 3rd world countries. We have approximately 643,495 homeless persons at any given time; including 8,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles alone. 1 out of every 194 U.S. citizens will become homeless at some point. I am not suggesting the extremely wealthy should be punished for being wealthy, but I am suggesting that they should receive no special "perks" because they are wealthy - wealth alone is enough of a reward. There are several specific things that can be done to solve the distribution of wealth problem, however, many of them require political action by lawmakers; a problem when lawmakers are being

1982 2006

bought by the wealthy. We can start by researching information related to the subject in order to better understand the problem. Be very critical of the source. There are many popular sources for disinformation with highly "official" and patriotic sounding names, such as, National Heritage Foundation or move-on.org. These may be well meaning organizations, but their primary purpose is to support a political agenda or ideology; they are well funded by "right" or "left" wing interests. The best sources of information are from reputable academic studies and public media services. Sometimes government agencies put out incomplete and misleading information that benefits the administration in office. Official government data is worth verifying by academic studies. Next, we should elect politicians who share our concern and are less likely to become corrupted by the system. We should demand that our elected representatives take steps to correct the money influence in politics and hold them accountable. Some immediate things that should be changed are: Campaign Finance Laws - We need to have equal resources available to political candidates with total accountability of finance sources. Lobbying - We have to curtail the influence of lobbyists on legislation and the revolving door from congress to K street. We have to require all lobbyists to publicly reveal the legislation they are attempting to influence and who is paying them. Pork - We have to stop allowing unrelated attachments and riders to legislation. Tax Reform - We must simplify the tax code for everyone and close all the loopholes that benefit the wealthy minority. New Legislation - We need new legislation that will make it easier for new businesses to obtain start-up funding and for small businesses to borrow. The government needs to do everything it can, to encourage entrepreneurs, to invest in new technology and to support small enterprises. There need to be changes to many of our social programs to improve the quality of life for average and disadvantaged Americans. People need to believe they have a chance to compete. Disparity breeds distrust and kills hope. Desperate people without hope commit crimes, use drugs, become homeless and drain our economic resources. They are not contributors to economic growth and stability. It should be the goal of government to help those non-contributors become contributors. It is always more expensive to fix a problem than it is to prevent the problem. We need to fix the current problem and make sure we prevent the problem from reoccurring in the future. These are but a few of the steps we could take to turn things around. It's time we quit letting someone else do our thinking for us. Forget the slogans and labels and blame for our problems. Look for, and demand solutions. Expect results. We, the American public are to blame. (statistics given come from various academic and government sources, and are corroborated with more than one source).