It’s all about the money and how it is used. The reality is that most people earning over $1 million/year invest it to build and preserve their wealth, where it then grows at a rate faster than the economy and workers’ salaries. They can wind up accumulating much more wealth than they or their families will ever need. Often this money is used to protect and serve their own financial interests, and not invested in jobs, education, improving infrastructure, reducing healthcare costs, balancing the budget, or other issues important to our country.
Some of the wealthiest people in the country contribute a great deal of money to the major political parties and their candidates. This has been called legal bribery, and both major political parties are caught up in this system. It costs a huge amount of money to run for federal office, and the current federal election system essentially forces our national legislators to take the money to be re-elected. The result is that budgets and laws often favor the big contributors over the average person. Deals are being cut and nearly all of us are losing.
Large corporations and special interest groups that donate large sums to the political parties are able to advance their interests by blocking legislation or reversing executive orders intended to help the people or the planet. We now see from the president’s budget proposal the clear intent to decimate agencies designed to protect citizens, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor; and to increase the profits of corporations in the defense and other industries in the guise of making us safer. Not surprisingly the new tax cut proposal strongly favors corporations and the rich over everyone else.
If you would like to learn more about how we got to this point, click on this link: How did this happen?
If you’re ready to do something about it, click on this link: What can I do?