I’ve spent much of my career, now in its 5th decade, focused on addressing the devastating impact of the widening wealth and income inequality gap. I first recognized the problem while working for two Wall Street firms in the middle 1980s. The problem has gotten much worse lately. It is not just an issue of “fairness”. It threatens to bring down governments and trigger chaos, including here in the U.S. Last month CBS News did a great job illustrating the concept in this 6 minute video. As you can see, none of the people in the video were even close to understanding the issue. Very few people, in my observation, recognize the real social and economic effects triggered by wealth and income inequality. No longer can we tell our children that the key to get ahead and enjoy economic success is working hard and saving money. Now the primary determinant of economic success – by a huge margin – is birthright!
Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed a huge increase in efforts to push propaganda that denies this economic truth. The propaganda is apparently aimed at independent or Republican-leaning voters in the middle class to convince them that the middle class is doing better than they really are. The facts say the opposite. The facts are that most people (in this country and the world) are worse off now than in the past in terms of real relative economic standing. My conclusion studying the issue back in the 80s was simple and is even more significant today: advancing technology requires government to play a larger role in wealth and income redistribution to prevent collapse of civil society – even if that was not part of government’s original intended job!
Apparently most voters agree in theory even if they don’t see all the facts. In response to the trend to support some version of a “wealth tax”, the propaganda to influence the minds of independent or Republican-leaning voters will almost certainly intensify leading up to the election this year. The same type of propaganda and fake news that characterized the distortion of the 2018 tax law reform news will almost certainly be at work again. KNOW THE FULL ECONOMIC FACTS. REJECT THE GREAT SOUNDING BUT MISLEADING PROPAGANDA SOUND BYTES.
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