Inequality Matters
Next principle:
The total wealth (all assets) of an individual is limited to $500,000 and households are limited to one million dollars.
My friend replied, “A million dollars doesn’t buy what it used to.” Yes, but think about the majority of the world that live on nothing and you will realize that a million is more than fair. The interest alone on a million dollars ($50,000) is what the average American family now lives on. The tax system in place today wouldn’t have to be modified. Only families with assets over a million (which is only 5% of the population) would have to submit a statement of net worth to the IRS and either give the excess (over a million dollars) to the government or to a worthy cause.
My philosophy is probably closer to egalitarian then socialist, and on an international level embodies humanitarianism. It is more about deep, lasting fundamental truths than modern day economic or political reform. It really comes down to the egalitarian principles of all people are created equal and that all human persons are equal in fundamental worth.
David Callahan, the author of The Cheating Culture, said that movements against inequality aren’t long lasting in American culture and suggested many solutions to reform the current political, economic and social systems instead of addressing the issue of inequality directly. Bill Moyers in his Inequality Matters speech seems to think equality probably isn’t achievable but fairness might be. I highly respect both of their writing but I disagree, equality is the real and lasting solution to the problem.
I agree with Callahan in that we are an extreme in America history and we will bounce back like we have before (more than once) in the last century. I absolutely agree that we have become a cheating society. But what will that ‘bounce back’ be? Economic and political reforms that don’t address the real problem of inequality or a revolutionary social change like the civil rights amendment? All indicators point to an awakening to the need for a social change. No bandaid of economic or political reform will halt the momentum of the true solution of equality.
A free market domestically and internationally does not have to be based on capitalism. Capitalism says we are no better than animals that compete for survival. Fair play is the capitalist way of telling you that ‘it’s okay your not given equal opportunity or rewards for your gifts because you’ve had the same shot as everyone else’. Imagine if MLK believed the best blacks could expect in American culture was ‘fair play’ and not equal rights. MLK said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” That dream is still not yet realized until we have equal rewards for gifts differing.
No person is ‘more equal’ than another; no person should have multimillions or worse multibillions, while others live in poverty. Every person should have equal opportunity and rewards for using their gifts-no matter what those gifts are. It is time to approach the Supreme Court once again and clarify the fundamental truth of equal rights. Getting the issue of equal rewards in front of the Supreme Court will probably take a mass movement like the civil rights one. The staging ground for the equal rewards movement will be on the Internet and not in the mass media.
As a global movement other countries may embrace the change quicker than the US and those countries may provide aid and support to the movement in the US. My book Where in the World Do I Belong?? determines whether a country is a feeling or thinking culture. Thinking types believe in competition and feeling types believe in cooperation, harmony and people centered values. Feeling type countries outnumber thinking type countries and will probably be the leaders in the equal rewards movement.
