Americans believe the rich are smarter, harder working, more ambitious and more worthy... Why?
That narrative has been ubiquitous for decades, but is it necessarily true, especially since so much wealth is not earned but inherited. But, even an individual took a chance to start his or her business, does that mean they should be the only real benefactor? Maybe they did build the company from the ground up, but it's been my experience that they always had help. In my own personal experience, all too often, those who helped the rich get rich were inevitably left behind. They either worked as an employee or were forced to leave the company because the founder did not want to share. This is how the world in which we live works now. Those who are most ambitious thrive as they step on top of and over those who helped them get where they've gotten. Whether in a small company, a large one or in the government, the rich and powerful always seem to forget their allies. Such inequality is life and to the victor go the spoils. We live in a world where the victors are righteous and the losers are where they are simply because they made bad choices. But could it really be that black and white? If it is, and you play the game, are you really safe?
For those of you who think you are safe from the repercussions of inequality because you're rich, think again: In a dog eat dog world, the biggest dog almost always wins. This is why I have been saying "The Plight you ignore could become your fate" which is from that great commentary by Friedrich Gustav Martin Niemöller.
While I realize Niemöller's words pertained to Nazi atrocities, I believe we all, the entire Human race, are facing the possibility of a very bleak future: A future that can be avoided if the masses wake up and realize the harm that excessive wealth is and will have on the coming generations. While the extent of the torture(s) these future generations might face may pale in comparison to those devices by the Nazi's, more people will suffer more than Hitler and his cohorts could even have imagined.
And though the following may simply represent one man's experience, it proves that no one is safe from the machinations of bad actors. Listen to this man's riches to rags story in which he had nothing to do with his own downfall other than trusting a banking system that he should not have. Homeless man lost millions...
Now, think about your own situation. The man in the video above was rich, but lost everything without doing anything wrong. He worked hard. He saved his money then he lost it all because his financial institution went bankrupt. A story that so many people have lived through while many those who caused America's economic collapse in 2008 have become richer. Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs is now a billionaire. Jaime Dimon the CEO of JP Morgan s now a billionaire.
So, are they deserving of their wealth? Maybe they work hard, but could they really be working harder than many of the people I've worked with in construction? Could they have worked harder than the UPS guy referenced in the "...lost millions... video above? And, even in an upside down parallel dimension where bankers work harder than construction or delivery guys, should their wealth come at the price of anyone else's life? Does anyone deserve to live a better life when the cost of their opulence is someone else's life. What if it were your life, or the life of a loved one that was to be forfeit?
In my opinion, anyone who is willing to sacrifice others for money is a sociopath. The problem is, that in America we have been trained to idolize those people which does not bode well for our future.
Forget war, we have people dying in the streets because a small minority of people need more money for their vaults. Think about it. If you have millions or billions and you are given more, what happens to that excess? More then likely, it goes into a bank where it debases the currency, making everyone else that much poorer. The rich don't need that extra money, because there is only so much you can buy. They don't put that money to good use by paying living wages. If they did, we wouldn't have people living on the streets or in their cars. If the rich put their excess to good use, we wouldn't have nine (9) million starving children in the world. Life would be better, as it was just a few decades ago when the rich weren't being handed our wealth... Our kid's inheritance
I must admit that I used to be of the mindset that the rich deserved every penny they made. That was before I opened my eyes and my mind. That was before I looked at how the richest people in the world are getting richer and causing the worst outcomes for so many of our fellow humans. In the end, the main objection I have to this misguided belief is that for every dollar some people claim aristocrats deserve, there is one less dollar that could have saved a life. And, Ultimately, we're not talking dollars, we're talking billions of dollars. And, as for that argument, that if you tax every dollar a rich person makes, you still couldn't save everyone. Well, maybe not, but we could save a hell of a lot of people. And, why only consider last year's taxes. How many people could have been saved had we taxed the rich in a moral way for the past decades or decades?
The Regaining American Democracy (RAD) dictionary word or phrase of the day is:
Lifeviction - noun
Any eviction that occurs to a person or persons involuntarily living in the street, in a vehicle or any temporary encampment.
See - Full-time Homeless - noun
Homeless people working full-time jobs who still can't pay for shelter.
