Guest post by Frank Heiberger, author of The Feud
Mahatma Gandhi spoke one of the greatest truisms when he said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
Absolute power corrupts absolutely as the love of wielding power overwhelms any prior altruism in a person. An allegory exists for wealth as the love of amassing riches overwhelms any prior sensibilities. People forget where they came from. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins, the vices that extinguish the grace and charity within a person, for this very reason.
I fear that it has become deadly for our economy as well.
I believe it’s obvious to most people that “trickle down” economics is a farce. When a rich man’s cup overflows, he gets a larger cup. Picture a pyramid of champagne glasses four feet high. Pour a bottle of champagne into the top one and it will trickle down into those below it and further as the glasses fill. Yet, the bottom glasses will remain empty and dry as the bottle of champagne runs out, having filled only the first few tiers at the top.
Unless I am mistaken in remembering my history, the minimum wage was enacted to help keep people out of poverty and Social Security was to allow people to retire at an age when they could still enjoy life after having contributed their part to society. The intent was to value ordinary people for what they gave to our nation. Today it seems that this goal has been lost.
In some cases, we seem to have bought into it. When someone says fast food workers don’t deserve $15 an hour because EMTs and soldiers make less, what I’m hearing is someone saying, “You should accept your oppression, because I have accepted mine.” I want to ask them, “Why aren’t you fighting for $20 or $30 an hour? Why aren’t you fighting for what you deserve?”
Every last one of us who is working and contributing to make our economy work deserves to be able to afford the cost of living. They shouldn’t have to rely on handouts that come from other people’s taxes. In effect that’s paying each other to be able to afford life. We shouldn’t be doing that. Employers should be doing that. It’s the reason we get jobs after all.
You could say it’s a conspiracy by those in power fostering our infighting to keep us distracted from the real source of the problem; those in power. It seems that politics have been divide and conquer for ages now. I won’t debate that point here. I will say that we have been divided and are becoming a culture of hate, of pure loathing at anyone that is different from us.
This divisiveness is mind boggling to me. Is it just easier to fight amongst ourselves rather than join together and demand what we deserve? How can we say we are a proud people, when we won’t even stand up for ourselves?
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Books by Frank Heiberger
The Feud ~ View on Bookshelves | View on Amazon