Fairness for all. Living wages. Affordable housing. Higher education. Safe neighborhoods. Clean air. Safe foods and drugs. Pure water. Health care when needed.
In short: The American Guarantee for all citizens.
Or what we have: 18% - 20%+ poverty rates, depending on which state you live in.
And hell will freeze over before we all agree to make the individual sacrifices necessary to bring this about. That would be called socialism by many.
I call it Social Responsibility. America is a fabric or tapestry. When we lift one, we lift all. If we harm one, we harm all.
It's just that simple. Or is it?
You can go to this link, Sweden's home page, to read about what appears to be the American Dream. Read for yourselves to determine the level of democracy and fairness of the Swedish system of government. And below to find what they are guaranteed, like higher education, health care, affordable housing, etc.
http://www.sweden.se/...
Until those who have are willing to sacrifice, like they do in Sweden (60% tax), equal opportunity cannot exist.
To date, America has been loathe to personally sacrifice.
And what do the Swedes get in return for their sacrifice:
They all get free higher education. What is that worth?
http://www.sweden.gov.se/...
They all get free medical care. What is that worth?
http://www.sweden.se/...
They get affordable housing. What is that worth?
http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/...
Crime is relatively low. What is that worth?
http://www.cga.ct.gov/...
Certainly, Sweden has its problems. I am not suggesting it is Utopian; however, Sweden is trotted out by the conservatives among us as being a BAD PLACE. "We don't want to be like Sweden!" Well, I spent a few hours with some Swedish college students at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah recently. Sweden sounded really good according to them. They were clean cut, smart, friendly, humorous, and healthy kids. Sweden must be doing something right. BTW, they were from working class families, not richies.
And yet, even under what Americans consider the tax BURDEN the Swedes have agreed to, there are still those in Sweden who become wealthy. So they haven't lost the freedom to excel.
It's as if we look through a different opportunity window. A window that shows a rosy picture for us IF we give very little and sacrifice very little.
And we wonder why 1% of Americans are in prison. The highest per capita prison population in the whole world. Nice!
And now hundreds of thousands are homeless and millions are unemployed. I doubt many will rejoin the middle class ever again.
Our health care system excludes millions. Heartless.
Our education has fallen below most of the Western nations and many less wealthy countries. Brilliant.
Perhaps it is time to look through the window of opportunity the Swedes look through.
Social responsibility is NOT socialism. It is fairness.
But hell will freeze over before we have enough courage to fight back.
And because we are loathe to demand more from our government, here is where we have ended up:
And this:
And over 7 millions foreclosed homes.
Because of this:
Which was enabled by the tax breaks (lost revenue) during the Reagan, Bush, and now Obama administrations. Would the out-of-control speculation that destroyed the world's economy have escalated if the speculators were paying the same rate of income tax they paid during other administrations. Heck, even Reagan charged higher income taxes than Bush/Obama are allowing:
And all that Deficit Decreasing decried by what looks like everyone on the Hill?
Here's where the deficit would be if we hadn't enacted the Bush Tax Cuts. Brilliant! Reduce revenue, escalate wars. Lose billions of dollars in small, unmarked bills piled and shipped on pallets to war torn Iraq. And we pay these people how much to screw up so badly.
It's not rocket science:
Let them know they are lying. Reducing/cutting/extending retirement age for Social Security is NOT a deficit fix. It's a crime against humanity. Ours, this time.