Forum Post: Proposed demand for Government in order to establish better financial equity

This is just an idea and it is a first draft. The idea is to impose a personal wealth cap. If the Government insists on a trickle-down economic policy, then we should at least have a system in which it does more than trickle. Perhaps it's a bad idea, any comments criticism welcome:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and their Happiness.”

We the people herein believe our personal Liberty, Safety, and Happiness, to be in recession. As such, we no longer provide consent to our Government to continue to govern in the manner that has prevailed until now. United, and in solidarity do we demand that the individual income of any citizen of this Great Nation, be limited to 500,000 percent that of the average income of his fellow citizen.

We the people recognize that in the course of human events, the greatest threat to any democracy has not been armed aggressors, for the people’s desire to live free and without fear for oppression is a greater shield than any munition. The ancient Greeks, the creators of democracy, repelled and endured invasion after invasion of Persian despots despite overwhelming odds. United in their desire to live free, they successfully resisted what was at the time the most powerful empire in the Mediterranean. The fledgling Roman Republic withstood the campaigns of Hannibal Barca, and despite horrendous losses, they fought on guided by their banner S.P.Q.R. and eventually brought an inclusive Republic to all the Mediterranean. Our own nation has bore testimony to this truth, we endured the British invasion of 1812, and a long and violent conflict against our own brethren that saw this nation split in two. We also recognize democracies will emerge from even the most oppressive and militarily capable of regimes, as the Arab Spring of 2011 has demonstrated to the world and the American people alike. Our forefathers also knew this concept when they dared to and did defeat Great Britain to win for ourselves a nation in which the will of the people is realized.

What we unanimously recognize as well, is that the threat that is greatest, the threat that has consistently undermined the will and desires of the people to have equal representation in Government, is when the wealth in a democratic society is amassed in the hands of the few. Indeed the great Roman Republic represented its people through the senate for much of its history. But as the wealthy patrician elite of Roman society grew ever more wealthy and interbred to become ever more influential, the Republic fell to the exclusive desires of these wealthy few, and the line of Roman Emperors emerged. One does not have to look far into history to see further examples. Iraq was supposedly a nation with representation for people as it had a parliament, yet the very fact that the source of all government decisions and all distribution of wealth lay with Saddam Hussain, meant that it was a hollow democracy and subject to his whims. Our nation was created with the desire that we would never again know as a people what it is like to live under a ruler or a monarchy, and yet that is the very thing we are threatened with at the present.

Man must know limits. Just as the Great Creator put mankind on a single planet amidst and an infinity of space, that we may know the Creator’s divine power and our limits as mortals, so too must an individual man on earth be made to know limits that he may not come to see himself as a false god. In the present circumstance, any citizen is free to acquire as much wealth as they so desire. Though this concept stands true to the ideals of freedom, it allows for the freedom of others to be infringed upon, and it allows for the possibility that one extremely wealthy person may attempt to force their will upon the other citizens of this nation. It leaves open the possibility that a single person could amass so much wealth, that they would completely negate any of the people’s representation in Government. Wealth is the single greatest corrupting force throughout human history, and it is very dangerous to allow a select few individuals in a democratic society to amass so high an amount as their vote will inevitably be regarded more highly by Representatives than would the vote of an average citizen.

The founding fathers implicitly expressed that the American people should be ruled by a government that represents them, and though we may still be called a Democratic State, if we allow the current situation to carry on unregulated, if we allow a wealthy elite to further differentiate from the rest of the population, then we will simply be unofficially governed by them. As the recession demonstrated, the American people come second to corporations in this country. While businesses were receiving money from government in the sums of Billions, average American’s were going bankrupt over sums in the mere thousands. Clearly the voices of the masses did not speak as loudly to politicians as the lobbyists of the corporations.

The current model of “trickle-down” economics is simply unsustainable. The belief that the pioneering few entrepreneurs will row up the golden river of wealth, whilst we the people bob idly in the current and lap at the wakes sent back, does not work because there are no limits. At what point does a person decide that they have too many luxury yachts, that their house is big enough, that their wife’s boobs are big enough? At what point, if ever, does their conscience remind them of the American people, of our great society of equals, equal not in wealth but in value to society through our vote. We cannot simply claim that a system in which a few become wealthy is permisible because they will enrich the others. Every year Americans watch as the gains by the 1% become greater and greater, and every year the Americans watch as little if anything trickles down. What has developed is a society in which wealth is spread across so great a spectrum that an Aristocracy has emerged. In Aristocratic England whilst the wealthy few polished their china and ate with silver, the majority of people barely had a house to their name. The same situation is beginning to develop in America. While many average citizens work hard and spend many hours at work, time that could be better spent with family, or in the pursuit of happiness, there is a wealthy upper echelon that does not know the meaning of stress, that do not live nearly as demanding a life as their fellow citizens.

The economic well-being of America’s citizens should not be decided by the threshold of generosity for a mere 1% of the population. We cannot count on these individuals to turn around and enrich their fellow man, for as Benedict Arnold demonstrated, not all Americans bear strong morals. Rather there should be a stated limit on wealth, so that Americans can know when to expect their fellow citizens to follow through, just as a farmer knows which time of year to expect rain. In this way will they know when they can expect their lives to be bettered by the few who have been given the privilege and opportunity of living a life of luxury. This way Americans know when to expect more jobs to be added to the market, or more money to be donated for the betterment of their condition.

We the People therefore propose, for the betterment of our great nation as a whole, and in order to prevent the ascension of a false dictator or aristocracy, that the individual income of any citizen of this Great Nation, be limited to 500,000 percent that of the average income of his fellow citizen. This is indeed a modest request as it allows for an individual to be 5,000 times more wealth than the average citizen, or in other terms to be valued at the equivalent of 5,000 of his fellow Americans.

This is not an attempt to establish a communist society, as communism expects all individuals to be equal. Rather this is simply an attempt to limit the citizens of this nation in the power they can amass, this is to stay the hand of corruption and welcome representation, whilst allowing America’s economy to remain free and democracy to be presreved. If a person reaches the imposed limit of personal wealth, then all other money earned by them will be for them to invest whether it be to establish a new company or to donate to an organization or charity. As a result, more jobs are likely to form, and if the wealthiest members of society wish to be allowed more wealth, then they must ensure that the average income level rises. We as the people cannot let a wealthy few live in the clouds like false gods while the rest of us toil on the earth. We the People are adamant in this request for a limitation on wealth and we will not in any way shy away from our demand.