Our Financial Mess

A Socialist Suggestion for a Solution

Before erasing this as a crazy idea, try reading it. Then you can erase it.

It should be fairly obvious to this over-populated world that things are running out of control. Much of the blame for this can be placed on religious addicts who believe that humans can go on forever reproducing themselves on a finite planet. If, on the other hand, you think that the problem can be solved by usurping other planets from their occupants, that’s a long way off. Even more important is that such a usurpation is sooo Human and immoral!

You true believers can now erase what I have to say, and I’ll talk to the rest. As for the rest of you, this plan might help a helluva lot of you without making anyone penniless.

To begin with, the economic experts must figure out how the wealth of the country can be divided up to make each of us comfortable. There must be a way to arrive at actual equations for this. Before this has been arrived at, the American citizens must be reeducated as to the new values. America is not a democracy, with freedom and the right to live a comfortable life. It is, instead, a Christocapitalocracy in which greed and religion join hands in excluding those who don’t fit their requirements.

The right to achieve enormous wealth at the expense of those beneath you, even to the point of extreme poverty, which exists in this country as well as in the rest of the world, is immoral. No amount of going to church and praying to God can change that. And the charity of some cannot make up for the stinginess of so many others. Those who are poor are not necessarily lazy or stupid, just as the rich often are lazy, stupid, and avaricious. Much of the difference in lives depends on who your parents were, what your education was, what jobs were available to you, etc., etc. Even presidents with wealthy families and a world of connections, reach the pinnacle whithout the intelligence to be where they got. (This time, by God, we hit the jackpot of luck.)

What I’m trying to say is that no one deserves to live in luxury, and no one who is able to work and does so deserves to live in poverty. Therefore, these are my suggestions:

1. A level of wealth beyond which a person needs to live a pleasant and valuable life should be determined by+ economic wealth and needs by an inclusive and highly qualified panel.

2. The level below which a person cannot live a sustainable life for which he receives recognition for his contribution by society must likewise be determined.

3. The panel must select one or more levels in between these two extremes to be determined on the basis of difficulty, physical danger, relocation, physical or mental ability, etc.

4. The excess wealth in the nation should be divided among any of those on the lower levels. Some on those lower levels may live comfortably as they are, thus allowing more funds to go to those most in need. And funds may change hands or levels as needs change.

5. This level is reserved for those capable of working at something, but unwilling to do so. This level should not include people who have been psychologically destroyed by circumstances, as are so many veterans.

After some semblance of equality has been reached, it will be incumbent upon all of the citizens on the first four levels to pay taxes to support the needs of the country as a whole, thus also rewarding them with pride in their citizenship.

These are not meant to be punitive suggestions. They are offered as a possible partial solution to the hole in which we find ourselves.

ARW
2/1/09