I could say a thousand things, but serious question…
Why are people walking around with hundreds of billions of dollars, while we have over a hundred million people homeless, nearly 10% of the world in poverty, people going without adequate healthcare, and people not eating?
Explain that to me because I cannot make sense of it. I know that the typical response to this is “They worked hard for that money.” Don’t try and justify that bullshit.
Honestly, just shut up if that’s your answer. That doesn’t make it okay. There’s no reason anyone needs or should have that kind of money. I don’t care what they did. It is illogical to let people amass that kind of money. And it is inhumane to allow people to have that kind of money while other people starve to death or die from the terrible conditions that come with homelessness, poverty, or lack of adequate healthcare.
There are over a 100 million homeless people in the world. In 2015, Habitat for Humanity found that there are 1.6 billion people in the world who don’t have adequate shelter.
Jeff Bezos is worth 188.8 billion dollars. Amazon got rich off of the people. He doesn’t give a fuck about the people. No billionaires really do because if they did there wouldn’t be a single homeless or hungry person in the world.
This is a huge part of why I believe there should be an income cap. Not an income cap that stops them from making more money, rather an income cap that diverts that extra money made to help other people and everyone as a whole. No one needs to have over a billion dollars. Period. They don’t even really need that much.
I believe that people should be able to own businesses and make money. However, there needs to be a limit so that the world is fair for everyone. There is no fairness in someone having that much money. I am not saying to go full socialism. Or to give all the power of production to the government. I am saying change is necessary for the world to be a better place for everyone. This is a way for an immediate and effective start.
By capping income, it would solve a lot of the world’s issues. It would also make it so specific individuals have less power and influence. No one man should hold so much influence over the world and production. It’s ridiculous to me that people don’t see how easily we could make positive change in the world by doing something like this.
Here is an example:
If we capped the top 5 richest men in America at 1 billion in total net worth (obviously this would apply to everyone though), 550 billion dollars would be immediately put into the economy to help out homelessness, hunger, lack of adequate healthcare, poverty, etc. Think of all the positives that could come from capping income. And that is just 5 people. There are so many people with over a billion dollars in the United States.
CAP THAT SHIT! It’s completely unnecessary. It is selfish to think you need that kind of money. There is absolutely no justification. It’s entitlement and greed.
Not to mention, Jeff Bezos alone makes like $2500 a second. Yes, you read that correctly, $2500 a second. Why should anyone need that? Or be allowed to have that. That is insane. That would be billions of dollars a year from just one person that could help those who a struggling.
Capping income and then putting it back into the economy would allow us to all have free healthcare. It would allow there to be programs to get people out of poverty. We could make becoming a citizen in the United States free, which would in turn stop the government from using taxpayer dollars to rip away immigrants from their families. I don’t even like using the word “immigrants.”
They are people. Stop dehumanizing everything America.
Technically, every American is an illegal immigrant, unless you are a Native American. Shit, ICE is literally deporting immigrants who are veterans that fought for this country. They are reporting them for minor offenses like getting a speeding ticket. It’s insane. Half of them have done more for this country than most citizens. The other half works ten times as hard as most citizens.
Honestly, I wish someone would deport Trump.
I will never understand why so many people think it is okay to be selfish and narcissistic in this world. Life is a gift. The world and the people in it are something we should take care of, yet we have so many problems that could easily be solved if we worked together. Every problem could be solved close to instantly if the people who have the most money and influence would stop being so selfish and greedy. Open your heart. Learn to feel empathy.
Equality is in the promise of America, but it’s never been fulfilled. I don’t really care about the opinions of the greedy. If you don’t care about humanity as a whole, you lose the right to argue on these issues in my opinion.
I am not jealous of any of these wealthy men, if that is what you are thinking. In fact, I am happy and grateful for the life that I have. I am not rich, but I am not in poverty. I am healthy and I have everything that I need.
I want everyone to be healthy and have everything they need. I strongly believe in fairness. I strongly believe that no one should have to go without basic necessities, especially while some people walk around with enough money to feed entire countries.
It is unbelievable to me that this is still an issue. No one should ever go hungry or be forced to live outside. You don’t know what they have been through or what led them there. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. People make mistakes. No one deserves to go without food or shelter or any basic necessity. Nobody needs the amount of money Jeff Bezos has either. It is absurd and also brings entirely too much influence and power for one man.
Shut it down and cap the income!
Why do you think rewarding high achievers is more important than making sure everyone is taken care of in a humane way?
I say fuck capitalism. Capitalism is a system built for the rich to continue getting rich. It was built to keep certain people powerful. It is the perfect system for systematic racism to exist. It is the perfect system to create massive income gaps that result in massive poverty levels. Capitalism is not perfect for creating prison systems that enslave minorities, such as the mass incarceration of black people and mass deportations. These prisons and immigration detention centers make so much money off of HUMAN beings. It is literally slavery in 2020.
Let’s take away the power from the people who can’t handle the responsibility of making sure everyone is okay.
We can do better.
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This post was previously published on Medium.com.
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Photo credit: Matt Collamer on Unsplash.
William, I totally agree with your very well written words. The reason for all this is sadly simple, as you have said. The United States encourages only greed, power and money being more important than life itself. The powerful & wealthy only care about getting more power and money. No amount is ever enough for them. It’s the rare few who do not. We all must as caring human beings do what we can daily to uplift the life of everyone we touch and encounter. Everybody’s actions are within our control to make a difference in whatever way we can.… Read more »