Time for a course correction on Spaceship Earth……

Ya know, when I started this blog, I sort of told myself that I should keep away from things political….the world is just too damned polarized these days….whenever you try to offer what you think is a voice of reason, you get beaten up by folks who feel you’re somehow on the opposite side of the so-called political spectrum from them. Really, what I try to offer, is indeed a voice of reason. And I guess I can’t hold off any longer, so here’s my take on the way things are currently working on Spaceship Earth….

First, you’ve gotta proceed from the premise that this economic thing we call “capitalism” is, in reality, just a really big pyramid scheme…..in case you haven’t noticed, all the wealth on the planet is concentrating in the hands of fewer and fewer folks all the time…..we’ve already got a whole bunch of multi billionaires on the planet and, soon, my guess is we’ll have our first trillionaire…..sooner or later, somebody like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is going to end up owning the whole damned planet and everything and everyone on it….Why don’t people get that.

And, right, now – at this specific moment in history – most ordinary people on the planet are worrying how our various governments are going to pay down the enormously ginormous debts they are racking up battling the economic impact of the pandemic….How indeed? Literally trillions of dollars are being doled out by the governments of the world and wealth is sort of being redistributed – at the moment, the redistribution is from government to the people, but at some point government is going to have to get that money from somewhere. And they better not be expecting to get if from the so-called middle class – because we don’t have it. We’re broke already.

Money to pay off our pandemic debts has to come from rich folks….that’s the only answer. The redistribution of wealth has to be from the rich to the poor – it can’t be from the middle to the middle….or from the middle to the bottom….it really is time for the people who have most benefited from the societies that have allowed them to become vastly wealthy to pay those societies back….it is time, indeed!

Since the late 1940’s, the taxation system throughout most of the Western world has been wildly skewed in favour of those with wealth. And it is time for that to change. It’s time for the rich to pay up….it is their turn to pay the piper. We have carried the load for far too long and it is time for that to ease.

A friend of mine said he watched a news program recently and that it reported that in Canada alone -a tiny country – there is something like $440 billion owed in delinquent tax accounts – and the vast majority of this money is owed by rich people and large corporations. And the government makes only a scant effort to collect this money. And the reason is because the rich people and the large corporations wheel out batteries of lawyers and such and tie the whole thing up in court for years – or decades. The government simply can’t afford the cost of collecting these taxes…instead, if you or I get behind on our taxes, they threaten to take our stuff – and there is no escape….

For reasons I can’t understand, most wealthy people and big companies won’t willingly pay even their fair share in taxes….they spend amazing amounts of time, resources and money trying to take advantage of a system that has allowed them to amass huge quantities of wealth and to live fabulous lifestyles. What is wrong with this picture….? Even though I have been branded a socialist – or worse – by most people who judge me politically, all I’ve ever asked is that everybody pay some semblance of a fair share. No socio-economic sector of our society – especially the wealthy – can avoid their financial responsibility to the society to which they belong, or the whole damned system will come crashing down – which, by the way, is what is currently happening….

We need a little equity in the system. That’s all even the most ardent of revolutionaries usually want out of a system that has become bloated and corrupt over time. It’s what happens to all societies over time. It’s just the way it is but it’s time for a course correction. It’s time to guide Spaceship Earth in a different direction. Anyway, there’s a bit of a political rant for you…try not to do that too much…

Be well and stay safe…..