Must be nice, that view from the top.

So in the last few years, the economy hasn’t been well in the aftermath of 9-11 and the 2 crusades that we are currently in. Oh, sorry, I meant to say wars on terror, to kill them and their innocent people on their land instead of ours and on our land. Oh wait, nevermind, that’s the same thing. I digress.

Back to my main point, the economy hasn’t been doing too well, though there are some slight signs of recovery, it’s far from where we were a couple of years ago. Yet, with the majority of the population hurting and unsure of their financial futures, according to the new Forbes list, the combined net worth of the nation's wealthiest climbed to $1 trillion, up $45 billion in 12 months. There are 313 billionaires (up from 262 last year).

Does that seem right? While the majority of Americans are hurting with record job loss, with the only jobs “created” being underpaid or unskilled jobs, and with record debts and bankruptcy filed in every corner and demographic group in the country, how did the nation’s wealthiest acquired $45 billion dollars?

Yes, the president may be sending you a tax cut check for whatever dollars (I personally have yet to receive ANY tax cut check), but think what these tax cuts are doing for those people. Those people who have acquired $45 billion dollars. Obviously it’s not from the economy because the money’s just not there. So it’s probably something else. Something to do with them not having to give back as much.

Please think. Think of the bigger picture before you so quickly jump to the conclusion that tax cuts are always good. Yes, you may pay a little more, a few percents, but those few percents from the nation’s wealthiest will greatly help the country as a whole, and probably in parts of your life. What they don’t pay, you will end up splitting the bill with them. Them who has billions of dollars, yet pay the same as you.

Of course, someone will surely accuse me of being prejudice against the rich here. Why should they pay more? They’ve earned it.

The thing is, whatever they pay will have very little effect on their lives. Even if it was in the millions, their lives would not change. It would be the equivalent of a normal person paying 10 more dollars on their taxes. These people are beyond the scale of needing money for basic survival, or even good living. It's just not possible to spend THAT much money that they possess. Also, since there is a finite amount of wealth out there, that 45 billion had to come from someone that did need the money for basic survival.

I understand that a lot of people in this group does a great deal of charity work, and donate a lot of their money. But that still does nothing to close the basic problem of a huge wealth gap in the society. A wealth gap that’s the origin of so many problems. The basic concept of a government is to take care of its people. To equally value the lives of the poor along with the rich, the powerful along with helpless, and the strong with the weak.

People came together to form a society in order to have a better chance at survival. A chance of survival for everyone. Somewhere along those lines, some of these people began to rise above the others. That's fine. There will always be those that are better. It is in our nature to follow the concept of 'survival of the fittest', but at this juncture, it is being taken to unreasonabl levels. There has to be a point when the government steps in to help close the wealth and power gap.

To recreate a middle class. It has been repeatedly shown throughout history that any society with only 2 classes will not work. A society simply cannot survive much less evolve with only a extremely rich and extremely poor classes.

Why can’t either one of our presidential candidates talk about this? Oh right, they’re probably on the list too.

Pup for Pres 08’
Happy Friday and a Fun Drunken weekend to you all.