Billionaires: It was You

It was you.

You Billionaires, CEO's and racists have a stranglehold on the economy and our political processes. You are so rich that you can do pretty much whatever you want. Apparently the thing you want is 'more'; you don't have an 'enough' button.

You use political violence and threats about crimes and minorities so we won't notice what you do.

You take our money in 1,000 ways and hope we don't notice. 

It was you.

We will understand soon that Transsexual children and ethnic minorities did not take away our hope for the future. 

You use fear about minorities to distract us from what you are really doing.

What you do is steal from us. 

It was you.

trump and other racists have introduced political violence into America. You see political violence and you are afraid.

You fear that we will come for you in your bunkers and yachts, just like citizens in other countries have done before, i.e. Bolsheviks, American Revolutionary Army, French rebellion, Chinese peasants on Mao Tse Tung's long March, etc., etc.

It was you.

We have the theoretical right in the Constitution to elect people who will correct the inequalities and give us back our hope.

But you lobby actively against government programs that help working people.

You can hope that we will be quiet and fail to notice what you are doing. 

OR, perhaps we will notice and come for you.

It was you.

This confluence of events has happened before in the United States. It is not new. 

We learn from history that we can avoid a violent revolution.

It can be you.

Here is your way out:

FDR faced a similarly divided country when he entered office in March 1933. The Great Depression was in full swing and large parts of the population were suffering greatly. Our security was compromised severely. War clouds were gathering in Europe and Asia. The Russian Revolution was just about 20 years old. The Chinese Civil War began in 1927 and lasted until 1949. US unemployment was about 25 %; Americans were forced from their farms due to the Dust Bowl and many migrated West searching for some relief.

FDR wanted to provide relief for Americans' sufferings and he wanted to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for his programs and give the people some hope. But the rich few balked at raising taxes and did not want to provide any relief to suffering Americans. Eventually FDR made a deal with the few whereby they allowed the income tax rate to go up with the proviso that there would be no tax on wealth and that taxes would be reduced when the population was better off. Keynes' book was not published until 1936 and therefore FDR was not able to suggest deficit financing to provide relief with borrowed funds.

 

It can be you.

Those higher taxes and the increased regulation on businesses paid for World War 2 and the post war rebuilding of our infrastructure. But, along about the late 1960's and early 1970's, the rich began to resent their 'tax burden and regulation burden' since the country had been rebuilt and a global peace was more secure.

They instructed their Senators and Representatives to reduce their taxes and hamstring regulations. The marginal income tax rate that was in the 79% and 80% level while we rebuilt the country was lowered to today's less than 40%.

It can be you.