Fixing Extreme Wealth Inequality
This article was written by Beverly Pestel and published in the Spring Green Valley Sentinel 08/24/23. Now that I’ve begun attending, I feel this important topic and opportunity needed to be shared further in our local community:
“A lot of us in Richland County received an invitation to get a free meal in exchange for listening to talks about the economy. The invitation came from a group called Patriotic Millionaires, the members of this group have an average yearly income of at least $1 million or have assets of over $5 million. I’ve been aware of this group for several years, so I was anxious to attend. A lot of other folks had never heard of them and were very skeptical of the whole thing. However, the banquet room at the Phoenix center has been full, and after feasting on some really good food, we’ve heard from Erica Payne, the women who started the group, and several other members of the organization.
Erica began the first night with: “Raise your hand if you think the economy is rigged in favor of the rich.” Kind of a strange thing to ask a bunch of middle-class working folks – of course we think it is rigged, every hand in the hall was raised. But do these millionaires think that as well?
What we’ve heard about is “The Great Economy Project”, given the opening question, the well-fed group seems anxious to hear what the speakers have to say. I think what we’ve heard so far has caught a lot of folk’s attention.
According to the presentations and their literature, the top priority of the Patriotic Millionaires is “fixing the problem of extreme wealth inequality” and their single-minded focus is on “money, money, money.” In that vein, the primary topic to be addressed by them appears to be taxes, taxes, taxes. Taxes, as in millionaires, do not pay enough taxes, and the effect on the economy is not good for anyone, especially the middle class. Well, that was a surprising thing to hear from a group of millionaires.
The Patriotic Millionaires have been around for 13 years lobbying Congress for tax laws that more equitably tax the rich so that a better economy can be built for everyone. The Great Economy Project is a new grassroots initiative to approach their goals by activating the middle class.
The Patriotic Millionaires focus is mostly on federal taxes, but since we have just gone through a budget season in Wisconsin with taxes on the agenda, using the tax plan proposed by the Wisconsin Legislature and the one signed by the Governor seem a logical place to start talking about taxes.
The flat tax priority of the Republicans sounds fair on its face – everyone gets taxed at the same rate. Let’s simplify and say the flat tax is set at 10% across all income levels and income types. A person making a million dollars gets to keep $900,000. A family making $50,000 gets to keep $45,000. The millionaire has enough money to meet the family’s needs and some to spare to reinvest to make more money. The family making $50,000 has only $45,000 left to make ends meet and may actually end up in debt. Sound fair now?
The message from the Patriotic Millionaires is: “You have more power than the billionaires do – if you use it.” My response is: “If it will help us meet the needs of all of us – tell me what that power is and how to use it!”
As I’ve emphasized in other columns, one force we do have is the power of our vote. Maybe the message we need to send to our political representatives is: “Tax the rich or we toss you out, because we all deserve nice things.”
For more information go to The Great Economy Project Finds Common Ground – The American Leader”
All are welcome…come join us for a free meal and the last two sessions remaining here in Richland Center at the Phoenix Center @ 5:30:
September 7th — A Screening of “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” by Patriotic Millionaires member Abigail Disney
September 21st — Best and Worst of Working in America with Kaitlyn Henderson of Oxfam America
Spiritual Meditation: The greatest to humanity is man’s indifference to it. – Daily Medicine