I’m starting to feel embarrassed about what I have that others don’t. I’m part of the crowd that just keeps getting richer while so many others are getting poorer.
I’m not doing anything special to deserve that.
In my working prime I made money and invested it. I sent my kids to public and private schools and took advantage of good healthcare plans. Now I’m riding a wave of passive capital appreciation at historically low tax rates.
I make charitable contributions, but they don’t even make a dent in the problem.
The problem, of course, is systemic inequality. Inequality in income and opportunity. Inequality in buffers for unexpected job loss or bad health. So much inequality, covering every aspect of life.
It’s not just a few people who don’t have enough to live on, who can’t afford to go to a doctor, who can’t see that their children get good educations. It’s most.
American society today is as stratified as it has been since WW II. After the Robber Barrons, after the Depression, we made progress. Now we’re slipping back into a new Gilded Age. Our stark class differences would seem familiar to Charles Dickens and Marie Antoinette. Indeed, scenes from the barricades have been playing out these these last few nights in fiery protests in so many cities.
I'm ashamed of how we have abandoned so many of our citizens. I want to aid them through an institution that I no longer trust: the United States government. Only government—federal, state and local—can put in place the health, education and economic infrastructure to support its citizens more equally.
Not this national government, though. Our federal government needs to be rebuilt with wise, trustworthy people who care about others. Then it needs to collect sufficient taxes from me and others who are well off and use that income to support those who are less well off.
It’s that simple, really. As simple as pulling a lever in a voting booth this fall.
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