These are desperate times for Americans, who are overwhelmingly miserable. Meanwhile, the happiest people in the world are found, according to worldwide polling, in Scandinavia. It is time for Americans to confront the fact that America is a profoundly savage place compared to the much more humane Scandinavia. Compared to America, Scandinavia is an absolute paradise with free, universal health care, paid family leave, free education and five weeks vacation.
It is time for a second American Revolution. The grim reality is that the top 10 percent of Americans own 90 percent of America’s wealth. That is an absolute scandal. In America, so few own so much and so many Americans have very little. That is why Americans are miserable. One of the most obscene things about America is this repulsive deference that many Americans show the rich. The rich have turned America into an oligarchy of, by and for the rich. It is time for Americans to rise up and overthrow the tyranny of the rich. Wouldn’t it be great to see Donald Trump and his family forced to apply for food stamps? The money seized from the evil rich should be used to provide universal health care coverage for all Americans. Paid family leave should, also, be covered with the proceeds from the takings of the 1-percenters. Depending on how much money is raised from the takings, free, higher education for all should be offered.
As a result of the first American Revolution, America achieved political democracy. The goal of the second American Revolution should be to achieve economic democracy. America can no longer continue to be such an unequal society. Actually, America is growing more unequal by the day with growing economic inequality. Remember, the Bible condemns the rich. The Bible says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Throughout the Bible, the rich are condemned. Yet many Americans seem to worship the rich and show shameful deference to the rich in the expectation that they may become rich themselves.
The reality is that very few Americans will become rich. There is very little economic mobility in America, certainly less than in Europe. Thus, the goal of the second American Revolution should be to bring about a much more equal society for the vast majority of Americans and ensure that America no longer caters to the few. The only way to end the misery of Americans, in contrast to the happiness of the Scandinavians, is to make America more like Scandinavia.
It is especially the duty of America’s college students to overthrow the tyranny of the 1-percenters and bring about economic democracy. College students should organize, hold rallies and demonstrate. College students are the vanguard of American society. As such, they should be in the lead in addressing the widespread misery that is rampant in America.
Redistributing the ill-gotten gains from the 1 percent and making America more economically equal is the moral issue of our time. The American people are miserable in today’s inequality. It is time to make the American people happy by restructuring the America financial structure. No longer should so few own so much while the vast majority live in misery. The 1 percent pose the greatest threat to America. Their vicious tyranny must be ended. It is time to end the misery of the American people. Rise up, America!
Keith Watkins
Brookhaven