I drew a circle today, and put "Me," in the middle of it. Above that however, I drew a pie chart for "1%," then in capital letters wrote beneath "me," "everybody else." Nobody forgets that we live in a society where the 1% rule, its all around us . . . on the news when we see tax cuts for the wealthy, in our grocery stores and malls, and when we see gas prices hike. The lower income families know it, when they can't afford food for their kids. The middle income families feel it, when its all they can do to keep afloat. Finally, the 1% see it, when they look around at their expensive cars, airplanes and homes. They see it when they can hire the top lawyers, lobbyists, and can give massive amounts of money to their favorite candidates.
My circle represents the world we live in, the world in which the 1% can take care of themselves, and the rest of the people can either get by, or not. Three different worlds, three different classes, and three types of people. Its funny, how when were living in the world of "me," we often forget the word, "others." You see it when the republicans call for wealthy tax cuts, and then when the rest of the liberals and democrats call for tax cuts to be abolished. its funny how most of the world looks at the 1%, and says they deserve to be stripped of their wealth, to spread it for everyone else. You know what I call that? Selfishness. But then, those wealthy people look back, and tell the poor people who have lost their homes, lost their jobs--selfish for wanting just a meager thousand for a month. Selfishness again. But, its only the wealthy that are allowed to get called selfish, after all, they have everything they want, why not let them give up a bit of their pie?
Its that delicate balance between who should give the biggest piece of their pie, that politics was created. Competing interests, vying for what they want--and the mixed group of politicians and lobbyists that serve them.
Back to my circle, there's something I realized when i looked at it. If the 1% can take care of themselves, why can't they take care of everybody else? "But wait! The rich cry out, we've earned this 1%, why should we give our hard earned money away?"
Well for one, something I've learned from my philosophy ethics class, they didn't earn it alone, the government helped, thru tax cuts, thru the money it used and gave to public high schools, to colleges. . . no, they didn't do it alone, they all had help, in one way or another.
But there is something those people can claim, they are the innovators--the geniuses, who created the engine. Without them, we wouldn't have shiny toys to show off to the rest of the world, we wouldn't have facebook, we wouldn't have the PS3 or Xbox. We wouldn't have fast cars, and homes built with solar technology. America is a great place to take an idea, and run with it. But those same people need to remember that they are not the only one manning the car. Everybody else are the drivers, they take what they are given and put the car in gear, and go. The top 1% though, still receives all the benefits, an argument could be made that they deserve most of it, but what they need to realize is that they wouldn't have gotten where they are, without everybody else.
