Tax the Rich to Save The United States of America

Every working person in the USA knows that the system is an appalling farce and that they have been getting a raw deal for decades. When I hired into GM to work on the assembly line in 1976, starting pay was about $17 an hour. After 90 days the pay went up and full benefits kicked in. This was before “copays” if you can believe that! Since that time the average price of a gallon of gas has risen from $0.59 to $3, beef prices up 4 times, chicken 3.5 times, rent is astronomical, so it’s clear that the cost of living has increased at least 4 times compared to what is was 45 years ago. Non union starting wages back then was about $8 or $9 an hour. It’s a no brainer to see that wages have not kept up to the cost of surviving in America and it’s time to tax the rich.

I currently live in California, where there are homeless people all over in the hundreds. Rents are high and for many places, the managers demand an income 3x the rent. That means housing is out of reach for many people here. That a huge infrastructure package is badly needed in this country is obvious to average working people who are hard pressed to survive. After 2008 the system turned against workers at the same time productivity was on the rise.

I worked in a metal fabricating shop in Denver in 1974 when the company installed a computerized metal punching machine. Most employees were amazed. Being from Detroit, I thought, oh dog here comes automation! All these years later, human beings are less important to mass manufacturing, I saw an entire line of people replaced by a robotic welding line in 1984. So what happens now? People need an income to live, you can’t just replace them all with robots. What I do know is that the super rich have been the beneficiaries of the increased productivity and profits since at least 2008 and this has now progressed to the point where the income inequality is harming democracy.

This country needs a large infrastructure bill. The corrupt Republicans are demanding no tax increases on their filthy rich masters. The same people who have become cartoonishly wealthy, like Scrooge McDuck diving into his vault of money, are showing complete resistance to paying their share. Now its all digitized but the super rich are out of control with hubris and delusions of grandeur. The best solution to that problem is to tax the hell out of the rich. It’s past time for them to cough up their fair share.

Inequality is causing the breakdown of “polite society”. Who out there really wants to see a violent revolution with Americans wantonly killing off each other due to off the hook conspiracies? Not I. But if you take a look at the big picture, or ‘”writ large” as the trendy people keep saying lately, with climate change, population increases, ignorance and denial of science, on top of conspiracy nut jobs, this country faces some real existential challenges in the coming decade. And a strong infrastructure package is needed to just get this country back on its feet. Because I’m telling you with no reservations that big trouble, violent trouble, is just around the corner if this society doesn’t wise up and become much fairer for the many, and quickly!

There are so many reasons the insurrection crowd has gone off the deep end. Some of them good, some not so good. But economic injustice is right up there at the top. The right always answers calls for raising the minimum wage with claims that prices will rise, so what’s the point of raising wages? This conveniently ignores the fact that the rich have gone from filthy rich to disgustingly unbelievably irrationally beyond all sanity rich while wages have remained stagnant. As if there’s really no correlation between the two things.

It is a lie to claim that you can’t raise wages without raising prices. The problem has been for years that the inheriting and investing class are gobbling up a larger portion of the pie and taking it from the pockets of workers. Go ahead call me a commie. But that’s a load of crap and that fact should be clear to everyone with a brain. Unfortunately, the corporate masters have succeeded in turning a large portion of the population into a bunch of ignorant morons. Advocating for simple fairness in not communism. The situation has to be rectified when the highest of the upper class has unequally benefited from a corrupt system for decades.

The super rich have too much wealth, meaning too much power. This is a danger to democratic government. The oblivious fascist crazies on the right don’t even understand anymore why they are discontented because they are disoriented by all the conspiracy theories. They won’t be pacified until the economic inequality is ameliorated. The solution is to raise taxes on the rich, not only to make up for the past, but because at this point they badly need to be brought under control. Or else it is going to be too late.