We have economist who are still trying to figure out what happened that caused the Great Recession. Where did America’s wealth go? How did we end up with millions of people losing their jobs, their savings accounts, their homes over something the largest banks did wrong? How could they put us in this predicament – the guys we put so much trust in to take care of America’s financial needs?
If we really want to know what happened to that wealth that use to belong to the Middle-Class in this country, we need to look no further than those who would skirt our tax laws by placing their incomes into offshore accounts – much as the way the Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney has been doing.
While our economy suffers and millions of Americans are out of work, a few Americans are storing up wealth. We have to ask ourselves, for what purpose? Is it because they’re saving for a rainy day? Of course not, that kind of wealth goes way beyond future security.
What we have allowed to happen in this country – mostly by trickle-down economics from the Reagan era from the 80s until even now – is a transfer of wealth.
I also believe that talking about tax laws and how they should be set and who should pay what is a big ruse and they will go nowhere. The tax laws are always going to favor the wealthy, as long as money is involved in politics; or in other words; until Hell freezes over.
Money is power and individuals who are allowed to amass humongous amounts of wealth, can literally control governments. And, those governments that allow individuals to spend unlimited amounts of cash in the guise of “Freedom of Speech” are trading their nation out to the highest bidder.
There is also a bottom line when it comes to wealth and the disparity of wealth among the average citizen. History has always shown that when poverty grows instead of wealth for most, and every day people become unhappy about their own situation, revolutions are born and things happen, sometimes for the good and sometimes not.
Here we are, politically fighting over a four percent raise on taxes for millionaires and nothing can budge because of it. We have to ask ourselves the question why the stalemate on such a popular plan?
We have trained our political lawmakers to become whores to contributions, trading their votes on the floor for financial support to win yet another election. If we want our political leaders to listen to us instead of just those guys with millions and trillions of dollars stored away, then we need to separate our political leaders from the overwhelming influence of that same money.
For our economy to work, all of us must prosper. Those businesses that create, manufacture, sell, distribute or serve know that their prosperity depends on the prosperity of the consumers. Businesses need customers and customers buy because they have money; very simple economics and one doesn’t need to be an economics major to figure that out.
What I believe has really been going on here for a very long time is that the wealth that has been created in this nation by all working Americans, has slowly trickled out of it this country and into the foreign bank accounts of a few billionaires. It’s also the same billionaires who complain about our tax laws and how their too high, being that they’re paying a hefty 13 to 15 percent, like their favorite candidate, Mitt Romney.
Surely the wealth they’re accumulating is slowly draining America’s individual wealth until we are at their mercy, with China standing over us demanding payment of the bill we owe them. Some may say that’s a radical way to see things but I take it for what it is; a redistribution of wealth. But instead of wealth being used up by welfare moms, as conservatives would have us to think, the nation’s collective individual wealth which has been distributed upwards, to those who already enjoy an abundance of wealth, so that they grow even much wealthier.
1 percent of Americans own 40 percent of the wealth in this country. Surely that wealth didn’t get there because just a few people excelled, and everyone else just didn’t work hard enough or save enough. As President Barack Obama pointed out in a recent speech:
“Let me tell you something. There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
In other words, we’ve all built this nation together and we’ve also helped business owners build their businesses and prosper. We do know they can’t exist without us.
Maybe it’s time for an economy that works for all of us instead of just a few; not likely to happen as long as “Big Money” calls the shots.
This is a republish from my website: Fidlerten Place