(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A Simple Matter of Fairness [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-20 Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too. – Judge Smails in the movie “Caddyshack.” Sometimes I’ll see a Facebook profile of someone I went to high school with many decades ago. More often than not, it’s apparent looking at their posts that they’re doing a lot better than me in a number of ways, particularly financially. This isn’t a complaint. I don’t begrudge them anything, and I’m glad for their success. Still, when I look back at the money I made in my working days, particularly since I have a four-year college degree, it’s pretty pathetic. I see this as my fault, which helps explain the position here on what the ultimate goal should be in addressing the very real issue of wealth inequality and how we must dovetail short-term assistant with a long-term goal to achieve any lasting success in this area. It’s been written here a number of times that we’re in a war of the rich against the rest of us. But that may need a better explanation. It’s not about the fact that you’re rich and I’m not. It’s about the fairness of our system, because when you build a fair system, you have opportunities to earn what you need and deserve. The roadblocks in front of you can be eliminated or at least mitigated to make the playing field more level. The war is really against those who want to keep the system unfair – mostly the rich individuals and corporations that buy off our elected officials so they pass laws to protect and increase their wealth, often at the expense of everyone else. Here's what I mean. I made what I made because that’s the level of my profession that I reached. I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying that the combination of my limited ability and lack of ambition combined to keep me from reaching higher-paying rungs in my field. People with more talent and drive ended up in better-paying, more prestigious jobs. It’s not their fault I didn’t. I was given a fair chance, having grown up white in a middle-class family with all the opportunities that provided me. Like I said, I had a fair chance. The rest was up to me. But a lot of people don’t have a fair chance. That’s the key issue. I’m not sure what the ultimate goal of socialism is, but I’m for capitalism – fair capitalism –where people are rewarded for their effort, vision, and investment. The man or woman who took the risk and started the company should make more money than his employees. The question at that point is about the fairness of their compensation. So, what does a fair system look like? It starts with a tax code where the rich and corporations pay their fair share. It includes the end of the GOP’s war against unions, which are the only real leverage for workers seeking better pay and benefits. It updates and defends our antitrust laws to try to keep gigantic corporations from controlling too-high of a percentage of their market, a condition that greatly reduces competition in the areas of consumer prices and workers’ salaries. It establishes an amply funded educational system so that all children have a chance at a good education, not just the ones in the more affluent districts or whose parents can afford to send them to private schools. It offers appropriate paid leave for women employees who give birth, so having a child doesn’t financially destroy their family or derail their career; helps with the cost of child care for those kept from entering the workforce because of its cost; aids people who are struggling to have enough food to eat, a decent place to live, healthcare, and other necessities; and provides lots of training and job search help for the unemployed and under-employed who are able and available to work. And it repairs a corrupt campaign finance system that -- in large part due to the U.S. Supreme Court -- is nothing more than legalized bribery. That’s the bottom line: the huge amounts of money the wealthy pay to control lawmakers at the federal and state levels to try to ensure the system always favors them. Republicans are against pretty much anything that helps people. They see paying as little as possible in that area as a way to keep taxes lower for their rich donors. The Right wants you to see our social programs as handouts and those who receive government assistance as lazy bums looking for a free ride. The racial element is a big part of that way of thinking. It shouldn’t be a handout. It should be a hand up. It’s investing in people. It should help folks get back on their feet, with the goal that the day will come when they don’t need government assistance. It’s not about throwing money at a problem. It’s about making sure that in the richest country in the world we don’t have people suffering unnecessarily or walled off from improving their lot in life. Look, I know our system will never be completely fair, but that should be our goal. Again, it’s not about who’s rich and who’s not. It’s about having a system that at least tries to give everyone a fair shot. That’s all anyone has a right to ask for. We never want to do anything to diminish the importance of competition in this country. We want to reward those whose talent and work ethic can bring them success – often in the form of more money. Life is competitive. Without competition we sink to a level of accepted mediocrity that ensures a drop in our standing and influence in the world. One thing’s for sure, if we’re not constantly trying to break the cycle of poverty, inequality, and unfairness in this country then we’re just spinning our wheels because nothing will ever change. *** Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writing on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/20/2164922/-A-Simple-Matter-of-Fairness Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/