Call me naive, but there is enough wealth in the world to support everyone.
Our problem is that the wealth isn't accessible to everyone.
Wikipedia tells us that there is a total of $125 trillion in wealth around the globe. Money Central of MNS.com tells us there are 7 billion people on earth.
Do the math. There is about $18,000 in wealth for every man, woman and child on earth.
That's about as far as I can go with the math. Now we need to look at economics and sociology.
I thought of checking how much worldwide debt there was, but decided that if everyone were to share equally in the world's wealth, all debts would have to be forgiven.
Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton, remarked today that our economic system is in peril today because basically those who would normally do the spending have run out of accessible income, and in many cases are maxed out on their credit cards. And that's in the Developed World alone. That's not counting the extreme poverty affecting billions of people in famine and drought and war ravished areas of the world.
As long as our country and others in the Developed World continue to artificially resuscitate an economic system that has outlived its effectiveness, many in our middle and lower classes will continue to get poorer and poorer. As benefits are cut, we will see more living on the edges, homeless, being malnourished, undereducated, moneyless people. Flea markets will continue to become the favorite shopping place for these people. Bartering will replace money. This segment of our population will not participate in the economic system of the upper 10 percent of the population.
Am I proposing a new type of communism? Perhaps, but more so. Our society has reached such a point that too much wealth is concentrated in too few people. And like the game of Monopoly, when that happens, there will be one winner, and everyone else will be the loser. The game is just about over, and the few potential winners are now fighting it out among themselves. The rest of us are just watching because we have lost. We can't afford the price of our housing, transportation and utilities. More and more of us end up in jail with no "Get out of Jail Free" cards left.
I'm sorry Congress and President Obama, but cutting back entitlements won't cure our debt problem, as will neither increasing entitlements. As long as people aren't empowered to participate fully in the national economic system, it will be doomed to failure.
Some strong medicine is prescribed by Granny. We need to look back to the Old Testament and notice how the Israelites controlled their economic system. Every 50 years was a year of Jubilee, when property was returned to original owners or their heirs, and the game started again with everyone on equal ground. In this way, the economic system was renewed and made to serve the population in general, not like it is in the Great Monopoly Game we now play that eventually stops all commerce when no one is left to spend any money, because it's in the hands of too few people.
So let us meditate today on what can be done that holistically cures our sick economy.
Do we continue to keep it on life support, continually feeding the monster intravenously as we all continue to bow before it while leaving token gifts praying for its recovery.
Or do we as global citizens start all over, giving land back to its original owners with appropriate tools and sustenance? Do we care for those unable to care for themselves with their funds that have been divided among all of us equally?
Sure, eventually there will be inequality once more, and then it will be time to recreate another economy anew, serving new people with new needs in a new society and time. Hopefully this time, however, we will have protected our environment and learned to live harmoniously with our neighbors around the world. And we will also have a global healthcare system that provides equal care to all people.
Just call me naive! But at least I may be more realistic than those trying to revive our economy in outdated ways that are no longer workable.