BK excerpt

ON CAPITALISM AND DEMOCRACY

As an economic system, there is no doubt that healthy elements of capitalism play a role in establishing, maintaining, and reinforcing a democratic government that is able to provide basic services to its citizens and instill reciprocal levels of confidence between the government, the manufacturing, industrial, financial, and corporate elements of society and the individual citizens themselves. In a capitalistic society which values democracy, the rights of the citizens should not be subservient to the needs of a financial institution, corporation, or special interest group, to the extent that the individual begins to feel increasingly insecure and concerned about providing a living for himself and his family. A democratic government in a capitalistic society has an important and necessary role to ensure that commercial institutions are not excessively profiting, or taking advantage of citizens to the degree that the citizens themselves have their natural rights threatened.

It is the people and not the corporations nor bureaucracies that are the sovereigns of the Nation and placing the needs of individuals first protects them from corporate abuse. This suits democracy as the logical and natural form of government for mankind – at least when it comes to solving complex problems between different segments of society. By acting as a compromising agent between the commercial sector and the civilian sector the government can hope to satisfy both the producer and the consumer.

Government has the fundamental responsibility to represent the interests of its individual citizens, but it also must act to regulate international commerce and trading, support the growing of businesses and collecting from these corporations, taxes, which are used in supporting institutions and programs within society – from schools and libraries, to museums and national parks,

from sponsoring an innovative research program in the manufacture of technology, to assisting families and individuals that may have fallen upon hard times and need government assistance. The apparent lack of concern and expediency in the United States in receiving government assistance to an individual based on unemployment or disability is one of the humanistic failures in which our government reveals a reluctance to ensure the welfare of its people. In doing this, they are not holding up their end of the bargain through the consent of the governed.

A government to maintain democracy in a free-market society, has a responsibility to regulate the markets, corporations, and financial institutions to guarantee that the individuals are not being oppressed or taken advantage of by these commercial factions. Strong consumer protection legislation is an important component in a capitalistic democracy as well as the active and transparent criminal prosecution and the imposing of financial penalties on commercial entities that break the laws designed to protect the consumer from unethical business practices.

Capitalism, at its extreme – left unchecked by government intervention – is an economic system in which extreme greed for money through acts such as usury, price gouging, ignoring environmental and labor safety regulations, and false claims in advertising results in an inequality of wealth where profiting off of large numbers of people to the extent that they become impoverished, benefits an incredibly, disproportionately, small number of individuals, who also end up, disproportionately, owning the vast majority of wealth and have a greater say in governmental policy. And hence the paradox – the government which is supposed to protect its citizens from such unethical behaviors is now being funded by the same groups that are causing the problem!

This wealth inequality and resulting corruption in government demoralizes man into becoming greedy and out of touch with the reality that exists. It

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leads to terrorism – both, through the capitalist, through the dissemination of false information and by frightening the oppressed and impeding them from uprising against an unjust system – but also by the oppressed, who lash out against this system, sometimes by committing violent acts against those whom are seen as the perpetrators of the lies and hypocrisy. This terrorism accomplishes nothing except harm to the innocents and fosters more terroristic acts in retaliation.

Capitalism, however when balanced with morality – when greed does not take hold to the degree that individuals profit off of others to the point that the access to the basic necessities of survival are limited, and does not result in competition for these necessary resources, and does not decrease the opportunity to improve an individual’s or group or individual’s social or economic standing, has great benefits to mankind. It fosters and rewards creativity and healthy competition, bringing the best out in those who wish to rise above their economic standing by providing opportunity. It results in many new discoveries and thus, ideally is a promoter of sciences and humanistic social evolution. It can benefit the lives of all people and serve as means to end disease, world hunger, slavery, and increase cooperation amongst nations. This is “moral capitalism”, which is not based on greed, favoritism, or birthright. It does not seek to profit off of others so that they cannot afford the basic needs of shelter, food, or clothing, and provides ample opportunity for rising in social and economic standing.This type of capitalism requires a healthy, large middle class in society who have the means of the power to purchase. It also requires a government which is not influenced by the financial power of big business to pass strict consumer protection legislation, vigilantly observe business practices and their ethics, and requires harsh penalties and punishments to those companies which violate the laws.

It is fair to argue that man is inherently greedy – especially when it comes to the lust for money. It would be in his very nature to selfishly hoard resources

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and he would be likely to thwart the economic and social success of his competitors. Since greed is an intrinsic, integral part of human nature, one should understand that no system can overlook it, therefore, it will play a role in any social structure. The kind of role which it plays is determined by the particular structure of the society. Because markets confide in trust and cooperation, pure greed has the power to ruin a free economy. The economic system best equipped to funnel greed into a constructive force through providing opportunity for a society to profit through the production and trade of goods, rather than stealing them, is capitalism. Greed, it could be argued, is less destructive under capitalism than other economies, but still not “good.” Greed is not a virtue since it seeks rewards and benefits at the expense of others.

It is common to erroneously identify self-interest for greed, and the two are not mutually exclusive, and one doesn’t necessarily preclude the other. Self-interest, a fundamental proponent of capitalism, promotes a sense of community and the support of neighbors, often out of necessity, to further one’s own gain. Self-interest can be looked at as prudence – the use of skill and judgement in managing resources. Because self-interest uses judgement and decision it implies that the needs of other individuals are not ignored – it is, therefore, a virtue.

For centuries, the early Catholic Church contended that extravagance and profit were unsuited for Christian life, but clerics eventually revised this belief, enabling the way for Western progress. We are free to pursue economic and social improvements in our lives, with the provision that we are not excluding this same right for others. If we understand self-interest in this way we can make sense of law, ethics, economics, international relations and the realities of the human experience. The argument that capitalism is based on greed is not only inaccurate, but also implies that alternative economic systems (socialism, communism) are somehow more benevolent.

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Changing this misunderstanding was essential in reconciling Christian values with the goals of free enterprise.

Many philosophers such as John Locke, Adam Hume, and David Smith argue that self-interest is the underlying motivation for most human actions. It is a part of human nature — a fact recognized and redirected by capitalism. It is self-interest which motivates us to go to work, and earn an income; to tend to our homes and family; piques our curiosity about the world, hence we seek knowledge; and follow the instructions given by our doctors, hence we heal and continue to provide for our family. In this sense the driving force behind human motivation and action is a desire to improve one’s status or

condition. A sustainable free economy is based on individuals pursuing their interests, with goodwill and social responsibility constantly taken into consideration. The justification for capitalism is incomplete without this often overlooked but vital point. Human nature is implicit in capitalism leading to economic expansion, but it also usually tends to eschew excessive greed. To be sure, it is in the interests of the innovative and creative individuals who capitalize on their inventions to maintain within society, a healthy middle-class, which has the power to purchase – thus, it is not capitalism based on greed, rather, it often results in technological advancements, scientific knowledge, and an improved human existence. Capitalism is essential to a distribution of resources and services throughout society. It promotes education, scientific discoveries, healthy competition and acts as a force for the individual to work harder and induces creativity. It promotes the social evolution of the human species and can guide us on a path in solving real world problems that are threatening the planet itself and humanity as a whole. It provides opportunity and should be driven to create healthy competition. Capitalism forces the human mind to think creatively and is a conscription to not only self-interest but also directs humankind on a path of progress and enlightenment. It cultivates a plethora of products and services and it also tends to decrease their cost through the provision of

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competition. It procures a society to experience a higher standard of living due to the variety of services and products offered and in the sense that the economically weaker segments of society are still able to enjoy these goods and services. It leads to personal incentives, rewarding the innovative, creative and hard-working individuals. Thus it is enticing us to invent, to tinker, to modify, to experiment and to put it simply, be a productive member of society.

When capitalism is lacking in a moral character, selfishness is encouraged. As big government culminates more power, personal liberties and individual independence decreases. When the government of a society takes on greater powers and more responsibilities and the individual challenges of self-interest and desire for self-improvement decrease, that society is likely to experience a decrease in charitable acts. The price paid by the citizen is a loss of personal freedom. When a society’s political, economic, and social framework is uncertain, it is common for the citizenry to also exist in a state of uncertainty, confusion, and caution, therefore accepting less risks and exhibiting conduct that is more selfish than self-interested out of desperation. Politicians need to establish priorities when implementing agendas without selling out their ethical values, and the virtue of the Constitution.  Compromising in principles is more apt to manifest societal relapse as opposed to positive achievement.

The major issue facing the United States today and its capitalistic economy is that oportunity is not equitable and is rapidly becoming increasingly skewed so that a very small number of people enjoy real opportunity. Since the elitist and wealthiest Americans own and control most of the resources. They afford to themselves a much greater chance for experiencing financial growth and business success at the expense of the masses. With their greater amount of capital, they can easily buy out competition and even prevent competitive entities from springing up which might threaten their wealth. Instead of rewarding the worker, those that are apt to gain most

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financially are the individuals at the highest levels of the company even though they are probably not directly involved in product manufacture, marketing, research or advertising. Instead they are the CEO’s and executives that may own a sizeable amount of stock in the company and work disproportionately less than the average worker. This great divergence in wealth exemplifies true greed. Despite that such super-wealthy individuals may occasionally participate in charity, their behavior increases the social, economic, and political inequities between themselves and the ordinary citizen. It has been reported that the wealthiest Americans donate 1.3 % of their income to charities while the poorest Americans give 3.2%.[4]

To be sure the super-wealthy inject their financial resources into the political landscape buying the votes of politicians who in turn violate the terms of the consent of the governed and this results in despair, apathy and a sense of hopelessness within the general public.

Occasional acts of charity alone do not justify an immoral stance towards personal advancement when that advancement results in the gain of enormous wealth through profiteering off of large numbers of people to the extent that they suffer from poverty and withdrawal from participation within the vey democratic society which is supposed to protect their interests. Indeed, this exemplifies greed at its crux, and the acts of charity are performed to cloak an intention to rob mankind of his natural, human rights.

The number of children that go hungry, the number of people who live below the poverty level, and the infant mortality rate in the United States are all distressingly high in comparison to other developed nations. At the same time, the wealth disparity in the United States is increasingly and exponentially in favor of the one percent wealthiest Americans. As the rich get richer, the poor grow poorer. The top one percent of people, in terms of income, own more wealth in this Nation than 50 % of the remainder of America’s total population. Not very equitable – in fact, disgustingly appalling and precluding a precarious scenario for the equal representation

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of all citizens of this Nation which is exactly what a democratic society is charged to accomplish – that no one individual or group of individuals will trample on the rights of others simply because they have more resources and are able to financially intimidate people into submission.

The Super Wealthy have no natural right to the access of such a high proportion of resources that a vast number of individuals suffer at their expense. As they grow wealthier they are likely to become greedier as their uncontrolled lust for wealth spirals out of control to the extent that they unethically force large numbers of people into a state of poverty at their expense. Many do not even recognize that they have a negative impact on the economic sector of society as a whole and do not acknowledge the hardships they force upon the working class as they profit off of buying out companies, laying off American workers and hire foreign workers abroad at a lower wage – contributing to unemployment within the very country which permitted them the opportunity to gain wealth. They justify their actions as profitable and beneficial to America has a whole, yet even though they themselves may demonstrate an increase in charitable acts such as scholarships, donating money to medical research, or investing in the construction of theaters and music halls, the average working class American sees little benefit from this charity.

Wall Street, large companies, and the banking industry should not be permitted to make campaign contributions to politicians running for office as this creates an unethical conflict of interest within our democratic framework which is likely to places the interests of corporations ahead of individual citizens. The contributions made by such organizations lead to corruption in all spheres of the political arena in which a politician is compelled to attend to the agendas of their corporate campaign financiers, even if their agendas have a negative impact on the American People, out of concern for losing large sums of money which allow them to competitively run for re-election

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Too frequently does the corporate, industrial and financial sectors of society hold a sway over political decisions in military interventions abroad to protect American financial interests. It is unethical and hypocritical for the United States government to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign nations because a failure to do so would jeopardize the financial well-being of American corporations. Military intervention should only be a last resort against a country or group of countries which threatens democracy and human rights in the world, and not to secure the financial health of a group of companies at the expense of American lives and under the cloak of falsified justifications portrayed by the media to garner public support for such military intervention. Our founding fathers were amongst the most enlightened and humanistic of leaders in the respect of individual rights and the role each citizen plays in the establishment of a government that represents their individual interests and need for security. Intervening in a costly military campaign for the financial benefit of such a small segment of society in which many American lives are lost over the greed for economic superiority would most likely be dismissed as such an action poses no real threat to the liberties of the American people.

Some aspects of globalism cannot be thwarted and if the United States is to be competitive it must play a central role in ensuring that the sovereignty of the poorer nations is maintained and recognize and not interfere in the internal operations of any democratically elected government, even if it is harmful to the economic interests of the United States. Money and power must be viewed with more caution and the people and elected officials must act in ways which prevent its ability to corrupt and prostitute the world’s resources and the risk of war and terrorism from excessive and careless fiscal policies and denial of world climate change which has squarely placed a large proportion of Americans against the majority of people in other nations. Corporations which disseminate false information designed to influence public opinion should be severely punished, in a similar fashion to a

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nation that commits war crimes against humanity. Such falsehoods do nothing to benefit the American People and only increase the contempt other nations have for the United States in the sense that it acts hypocritically and violates not only its own Constitution, but has illegally and covertly acted in manners which ignore international sovereignty – hence it is committing crimes against humanity.

There are countless examples in history of how money has been used in unethical ways –from the betrayal of Jesus by Judas for thirty pieces of silver, to banks loaning money out at interest when they don’t even possess the money to begin with, to the government making profit off of student loans. As the economist John Maynard Keynes is said to have remarked, “capitalism is the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds”.

Money, as a potential destructive force which leads to corruption, has been a concern since as early as the times of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. The Ancient Greek philosophers expressed concern that a desire for financial gain reduced the civil human commitment and resulted in great inequality within a society. Jesus chased the money changers out of the Temple of Solomon and accused them of poisoning fellow Jews, and St. Paul believed that money was the root of all evil. Julius Caesar may have been murdered by his contemporary, wealthy Roman elite due to his policies of making money plentiful and readily available to the plebs of Ancient Rome – indeed under Julius Caesar Rome prospered financially. Cato drew a parallel between murder and usury in his writings. The Roman Catholic Church, in Medieval times especially, viewed money with caution - as a necessary evil that facilitated trade. The early Church, staying true to Jesus’s teachings recognized the grave injustices that a lustful greed for material wealth would have on human spirituality and actively shunned decadence. Many medieval monarchs in Christian Europe avoided ostentatious displays of materialism recognizing the lack of virtue in great wealth and it wasn’t until the

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Renaissance period, specifically during the papacy of Rodrigo Borgia where the rulers of many European States began to construct lavish and ornate palaces which led to a drive for competition amongst them through colonialism, warfare, slavery, oppression, and influence. At this time, the Catholic Church became the most hypocritical and ironically anti-Christian of institutions going so far as to accept financial contributions as penitence for sins through the granting of indulgences. The Protestant Reformation was set into motion through the writings of Martin Luther who recognized the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church and criticized the Church for its abuse of this practice.

Money lodges mistrust between individuals, it turns allies into foes and destroys friendships. It corrupts human nature as a motivation for greed and leads to inequality and enslavement. The value of money to life is fictitious as it itself cannot be used to sustain life and only holds value based on human perception. We cannot use money solely on its own, without its assigned and perceived value, to supply our basic survival needs for shelter, nutrition, protection, sense of accomplishment, and self-worth, and the need for love. Psychological and behavioral experiments have consistently concluded that money encourages mankind to covet, lie, cheat and steal. As Karl Marx, the father of communism, noted, ‘‘Money then appears as the enemy of man and social bonds that pretend to self-subsistence.’’ Despite the clarity and triteness in recognizing the potential for money to have a negative impact on the human spirit and individual character, we often seem to be less certain on exactly what it is about money that corrupts us. Is it simply greed? Does a desire for the perceived, more comfortable life that “money can buy” drive us over the line? Do we lose sight and clarity in our actions that the competition and lust for it, in the end creates a false gap of wealth – that material acquisitions become more important than the more real and less abstract contributions we individuals bestow upon humanity – through the rearing of children, the passing on of information between

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generations, and our ability to reason and use logic in solving problems for ourselves as well as our families? Does money diminish the value of human spirituality? Does it ensnare us into a trap like the song of a siren?

The fiscal predicaments of the past several years in the United States have resulted in more and more people taking an active interest in economic policy and in the Federal Reserve System. Many people possess an underdeveloped sense that there is a connection between past monetary policy and our current financial state. Since money has become of increased interest to the people of the United States, it may be worthwhile exploring some of the moral issues surrounding it. The current monetary system of the United States fails to comply with even the most basic Christian ethical codes, such as the acts of thievery and fraud. The great Christian philosophers of the late medieval and early modern period typically condemned the kind of monetary degradation that has occurred, and continues to occur, within the current economic policies of the United States of America. This deflation of its value has tainted our economy because the currency we possess has no precious metal backing – it is worth no more than the paper upon which it is printed and a perceived, false value based on faith. Indeed, economics is a form of organized religion which seeks to set standards of conduct for mankind all the while also robbing humanity as a whole of its natural rights and placing divine likeness of power in the hands of a very select few who understand it, control it, manipulate it, and thereby oppress and cheat a far greater number of people into submission at their own expense.

A 2013 study by researchers in organizational behavior from Harvard University and the University of Utah[4] applies an entirely different approach: the simple idea of money changes how we think. The researchers performed a set of experiments on several hundred undergraduates. First they exposed some of the subjects to phrases, like “she spends money liberally”, or pictures that would conjure thoughts of money – and others to images and

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phrases that had nothing to do with money. The subjects in the study were subsequently asked to respond to propositions to determine whether their morals would falter through exposure to temptation, and how they justified their own behavior to themselves. To be sure, students who had been primed to think of money consistently displayed weaker ethics. More intriguingly, they also supported their decisions on the basis of conducting a personal cost-benefit analysis, by which they accounted for their behaviors. In other words, they were able to side-step themselves out of morality. The same subjects were more likely to lie for financial gain and rationalize the lying as “a business decision.”

For instance, they were more likely to answer that they would steal a ream of paper from the university’s copying room. They were “Social relations, which we assume are the fundamental basis of morality, can become de-emphasized so that moral considerations are obscured,” the researchers wrote. “A cost-benefit analysis follows that focuses on the self to the exclusion of others.” Money, in other words, places us in the same frame of mind of those individuals associated with organized crime.

The economic challenges of the past several years in the United States have resulted in more and more people to take an active interest in economic

policy and in the Federal Reserve System. Many possess a falsified sense that there is a connection between past economic policy and our current, stagnant, monetary situation. At a time when economic matters are attracting much scrutiny, it is appropriate to consider moral dimensions of present economics. Current monetary policy leaves much to be desired when evaluated against the Christian moral tradition of not lending on interest. The great Christian thinkers of the late medieval and early modern period consistently condemned the type of currency mishandling that has transpired, and continues to do so, in the current economic policies of the United States of America.

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This economic devaluing of currency contaminates our present monetary state primarily because the currency we use is not backed by precious-metals. In 1933, the federal government removed the gold backing from our currency (which until that time had been convertible into gold) and forced people to turn over their stocks of gold. This was nothing other than a massive act of confiscation. The paper currency continued to circulate, but it had become convertible into nothing. Its lack of convertibility made it what economists call “fiat money,” as opposed to the “commodity money” we had when our currency was exchangeable for gold. This is an inoffensive way of saying that the government, without shame, transgressed upon God’s commandment not to steal.

Money is something we all require, at least superficially, and spend on a daily basis. It is used in place of simply bartering for goods and for payment of services. We compete with one another over it. Money is so valuable it leads sometimes to stealing and even murder. It can lead a country to declare war. It has been, hypocritically, used by the Catholic Church as a payment of sin and a means to safeguard one’s entrance to heaven. Money creates a state of despair for those who don’t have enough of it. It can drown us in its wake or carry us afloat. The presence of money provides opportunities for some, while the lack of it leads to helplessness for others – they become concerned on a daily basis with how they will be able to buy necessities and pay bills.

Ethics, morals, virtue and human dignity seem to take a back seat to capital gain. We bail out bankrupt bankers, in spite of the knowledge that they and other business leaders are unqualified to solve the economic crisis. Politicians and policymakers have to obey their desires. No wonder then that our government is completely inept in the creation of economic stability and wellbeing of all people. It appears that social, political and educational values exist for the sole purpose of stimulating economic growth, and that this growth goes almost exclusively to the one percent wealthiest members

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of our society.

THE SUPER WEALTHY AND INCOME INEQUALITY

The “super-wealthy” consist of any individuals, group of individuals, institutions, corporations, or government entities that economically profit off human beings from any country, not just our own, to a degree that they acquire extraordinary wealth. This wealth is acquired at the expense of the massive number of people living at or near the poverty line, in addition to, in some circumstances, as with pharmaceutical companies, the middle classes and the wealthy. The difference between the wealthy and the super-wealthy is that the super wealthy profit at the expense of the well-being of other, far less wealthy citizens; they are multi-billionaires who become intentionally involved in the workings of our government to push through their economic agenda which benefits them. They create a huge gap in wealth, even between themselves and the wealthy which puts a great deal of stress on all other classes, but especially the poor, essentially denying them housing, food, affordable higher education, an equal voice in the government, and the ability to rise above their status on the basis of merit. In a sense the super wealthy are denying masses of people world-wide their basic human rights

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so that they are able to control more wealth than all the other classes combined.

The super-wealthy, in most cases, are not a product of typical, ordinary capitalism, but exist because a virulent, vampire-like form of capitalism has been allowed to flourish in a nation which has not fairly balanced financial rewards for innovations and originality with the well-being of all citizens in this country. This group is intent on destroying American democracy through watered down education, through the repression of truth and knowledge, and exposure to their own controlled media which is deceiving and dishonest. They are traitors to the American citizen and to democracy and should be treated as such, as they are guilty of crimes against all Americans and all of humanity.

They seek to establish an oligarchy, which benefits them at the expense of the human rights of all other citizens. It is necessary this immoral group be dismantled by force, if necessary, through the reclamation of all they have taken from us. The destruction of this group is absolutely necessary as the first step in reformulating the humanistic and democratic principles of this nation and for international stability and natural law. To start somewhere else would be futile because of the amount of power this group has within our government its sway on the media’s diversion tactics in reporting the news which is really essential to any human being, and its influence on the American educational system. If we cannot convince the government to voluntarily cleanse our nation of these greed-stricken, sick, diseased individuals, the American people should do it themselves, through any means necessary! The government would be, by de facto, criminals themselves, since it has refused and continues to refuse to do anything about the inequality the super wealthy have created in our society which has resulted in the precarious point we find ourselves at today.

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According to a recent Pew Research study sixty-five percent of Americans believe our economic system unfairly favors the elite. Not surprisingly, only thirty-eight percent of wealthy Republicans, those earning over $100,000 per year, believe the economic system is unfair. Indeed, our Founding Fathers fought passionately for freedom from the oppressive centralized bank of England which had greatly diminished American prosperity after passage of the Currency Act. Hypocritically, the non-governmental, independently controlled, and foreign influenced, Federal Reserve Bank has created inequality amongst American citizens today to the extent that the level of inequality is even worse than that in which colonial slaves experienced by 1774.

To prevent the collapse of the global financial system in 2008, the U.S. Treasury committed 245 billion in taxpayer dollars to stabilize America’s banking institutions. Today, banks that were once “too big to fail” have only grown bigger, with JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs holding assets equal to over 50% of the U.S. economy. The nation’s biggest banks are a perversion of capitalism and pose a grave danger to the economic health of the nation.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2009 to 2013, Kurt Campbell noted, “Other countries have long emulated aspects of the American Way in designing their own development models. Having access to higher education, creating conditions that support innovation and allowing for greater upward mobility have all been deeply attractive qualities to many nations. But it is the construction of a durable U.S. middle class that has been perhaps most compelling to highly stratified societies across Latin America, Asia and Africa. Now, however, the United States is moving in the other direction, toward an unstable society divided between astronomically rich elites and everyone else. This undermines a critical component of U.S. soft power and is a model for societal engineering that few [foreign powers] would choose to emulate.”

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As a Nation we have alarmingly moved towards shifting the base power of the government from resting with the Constitutionally guaranteed citizen population, in its entirety, to a much smaller group of individuals, representing the financial elite which comprise the ultra-capitalistic segments of society involved in commercial activity which is most likely to stem from greed. America has drifted, in retrograde fashion, towards feudalistic conditions in Middle Aged Europe in which wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few and the power of the divulging of news and dissemination of knowledge was entrusted to a small number of ultra-powerful, special interest segments of society that required conformity and control of power (in the case of Medieval Europe, Organized Religion).

Indeed, there has always been – from the onset of the birth of our Nation, to the precarious situation it is in today - great controversy, and disagreement over the creation of a centralized Bank of the United States. Many believed a centralized bank would wield too much power over the citizens, and that this power would lead to corruption and eventually to the fall of democracy itself. Others, such as Alexander Hamilton wanted to create a central bank for reasons such as: allowing the federal government to absorb the States’ debt from the Revolutionary War, establishing credit and international confidence in our economy, and to print a common currency for all thirteen colonies.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." – Thomas Jefferson

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” – Benjamin Franklin

The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the Revolution. – Benjamin Franklin

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“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” – George Washington

“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.” – James Madison

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” – James Madison

“Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.” – Thomas Paine

“In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.” – John Adams

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.” – Thomas Paine

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” – John Adams

“With freedom comes a personal responsibility to manage, maintain and police it.  Freedom does not come free.  It is we, the people that must insure the American experience continues on and that is by reading the words of our founders to understand where our freedom came from and how to protect it.” – Thomas Jefferson

It was certainly not the intention of the Founding Fathers to establish a small, wealthy and powerful elitist class that could use their influence to sway national policies in directions from which they benefited at the expense of a much larger group of Americans. Such a class would surely tear the fabric of the Republic apart where the vast majority of citizens would lose their power in terms of government sovereignty. Great inequities between rich and poor exist not only in sheer number, but in wealth. Since the 1980’s wealth accumulation has been growing rapidly within the wealthiest one percent, whereas the majority of citizens have seen a very small, disproportionate growth in wealth. The greedy, super-wealthy use their clout to control the government – they can buy votes and act as if they are above the natural laws of ethics. When a small percentage of people profit to such an extent

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that a large number of people are below the poverty line they are committing perhaps one of the greatest sins against their fellow Americans and acting in a treacherous fashion towards the concept of democracy itself. They destroy small businesses by buying them out, thereby reducing competition. They over-utilize resources, disproportionately, and by doing so they impoverish a much larger number of people whom they are parasitically feeding off of. This is capitalism at its worst – a vampire-like economic system in which the greed for money, land and other resources is to such a high extent those that do not fit into this elitist class are severely impacted financially and socially. A large proportion of citizens are either sucked dry of the blood of liberty and opportunity, or are placed in a situation which limits its flow. They are unfairly placed in economic and social situations which limit their potential as human beings – robbed of their “un-alienable, God-given rights”. Despite this reality, many people are either ignorant of, or apathetic to, the elitist favoritism, corruption, and hypocrisy that is rampant throughout our system of government today. Americans are not taught, either through schooling nor through societal customs, the ability to think critically, to solve problems, to recognize injustice and knowledge of their rights as the sovereigns of the Nation is severely limited. Instead of a means for social and economic mobility, education has become a tool to maintain the status quo and benefit the elitist segment of society.

Since the 1970s, the super-wealthy in the U.S. have approximately doubled their amount of total income (to nearly 20 percent from about 10 percent). This increase in wealth is easily the largest in comparison to other developed countries. Rather than pay a higher percentage of their income to taxes than the middle classes, the super-wealthy in the United States have seen a 45% decrease in their taxes over the same time period! The Republican Party has made the point numerous times that lowering the taxes on the wealthiest Americans will create jobs – yet this has been shown to be utterly false, in fact, having a negative effect on job opportunities in the United States

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through outsourcing them to countries with lower wages. How are the super-wealthy becoming even wealthier? Obviously tax breaks are a big factor but there is another player in this game – the same politicians who have been lowering taxes on the super-wealthy also have been deregulating Wall Street and the banking system - in effect, allowing the financial sector to swell to bloated size and soak up more income while simultaneously contributing less back to our economy!

Despite that worker productivity has increased 33% between 1971 and 2008, that same worker is taking home 18% less money taking inflation and cost of living adjustments into account. The rule of thumb appears that the harder you work; the less money you make. It becomes increasingly harder on the middle and lower classes, especially to continue to afford to live the lifestyle they’re accustomed to when the price for food, gasoline, health care and other goods and services considered. While the vast majority of Americans experience little or no increase in standard of living, the super wealthy are enjoying an unprecedented growth in liquid assets and lavish lifestyle at the expense of the American people. This is a treacherous act against the American people, the Constitution, and against the democratic and egalitarian principles upon which this nation was founded. The super wealthy are profiting off of the hungry and the homeless while making it increasingly impossible for the middle class to make ends meet. Their wealth and power influence the government to pass legislation which benefits them; while our government willingly agrees to increasingly represent the interests of the super wealthy instead of representing the American people, the vast majority of which are persons living in poverty, lower-middle class, the middle class and the upper-middle class.

This very selfish and greedy miniscule segment of American society hold enormous amounts of power and are the single most important reason that the American Dream has become the American Myth. Typically, this group owns large corporations or businesses and hire cheap labor from outside the

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USA rather than having to pay the American worker more. Isn’t it time we reward American companies for job creation in the United States and place a high tax burden on those that use cheap, outsourced labor? But even those corporations that do hire American workers tend to pay them poorly and or give insufficient benefits to their employees.

Some entrepreneurs, while most arguably are an essential component of creative capitalism, should not be profiting at a level which oppresses the financial status of the average citizen; this is especially an issue of morality when it comes to medical research and pharmaceuticals. Many of the super-wealthy own multiple homes (both within and outside the United States), luxurious cars, and live lavish lifestyles. A good number of them pay less than one percent of their gross income to Federal taxes due to loopholes in the tax code as well as they have experienced a thirty percent federal tax reduction since 1970, despite their income rising, on average, some four-hundred percent over the same time period! The super wealthy are becoming increasingly wealthier and the gap between the haves’ and have nots’ in this country is exponentially increasing. Despite being the wealthiest nation in the world, we have a disproportionate level of those who are impoverished. Equal access to higher education amongst the rich and poor has never been so alarmingly skewed.

Often we hear candidates talk about raising the minimum wage. I believe a better solution exists – a maximum wage – say one billion dollars per annum– anything earned above that would be distributed amongst the people in an equitable manner improving the standard of living for all people. An individual making one billion dollars per year can spend $170,000 every waking hour for an entire year and still have $7,000,000 left over at the end of the year! The average employee in the United States needs to work over an entire month to make what a CEO makes in an hour! In 2009 when the United States emerged from the great depression over 95% of the economic gains were reaped by the wealthiest 1 % of Americans. This wealth

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inequality is most un-American as it directly influences the dynamics of our politics and creates an unconstitutional balance of power skewed highly in their favor. A 2014 study conducted by researchers at Princeton and Northwestern concluded that government policies reflect the desires of the wealthy and the vast majority of Americans have a “miniscule, near zero, statistically insignificant impact upon public policy”. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the French economist, Thomas Piketty argues that high levels of wealth inequality, is incompatible with the principles of social justice, essential to modern democracies. He further contends that the risk of a drift toward oligarchy in the United States is real and gives little reason for optimism about where the United States is heading. Addressing the wealth inequality that exists in this nation is perhaps the most important and defining issue for the United States at this time.

The inequality in wealth and income is also apparent in continued gender and racial gaps in income. While the gaps, to some extent, have narrowed they have not come close to reaching a level of equality which should be acceptable. The gender gap in wages is closing significantly more rapidly amongst whites, while with Hispanics the gap has actually increased. The racial gap in income between black males and white males has shown the smallest increase, while Hispanic men and women have had the largest increase between 2006 and 2010.

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