It seems like the most popular word in this election cycle is 'inequality,' but we need more than talk to narrow the great divide between the haves and have-nots in our nation.
According to a recent article by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the pro-corporate elite have rigged the system against us, and it's going to take the majority of us standing together to change the system.
As Secretary Reich explains, Americans pay more for food, internet, banking services, airline tickets, and prescription drugs than citizens of any other advanced nation. Despite that, we give corporations the power to create their own set of rules, which ensure that we can never challenge those exorbitant prices.
Patents and trademarks and other intellectual property rights have been manipulated to benefit the largest companies, while inventors, artists, and scientists rarely see much of the profit generated by their own work.
Our anti-trust laws once promoted fair competition, but they've been weakened to allow banks, airlines, telecoms, and food companies to become giant monopolies.
Even our bankruptcy laws have been distorted to make it easy for someone to bankrupt a company, but nearly impossible to discharge debt from student loans or underwater mortgages.
According to Robert Reich, "The more basic problem is that the market itself has become tilted ever more in the direction of moneyed interests that have exerted disproportionate influence over it." And, he added, "The answer to this problem is not found in economics. It is found in politics."
That's exactly why every single Democratic candidate for president - and even some of the Republicans - has pledged to fight income inequality as a cornerstone of their campaign. But, they will need our help to make it happen.
The system is rigged and it will take each of us fighting hard to change it. Democracy is not a spectator sport and now is the time for each of us to get active.
-Thom
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