Written by richard hoffman   

Are you upset about your present economic condition? Are you fed up with your government and the mess it has made of this country? Are you worried that your country is more and more being ruled by the Very Rich? If you are, then you should read this letter to find out why this has happened and what you can do about it.
You are suffering economically because the Very Rich in our country have been taking advantage of you and depriving you of your American Dream by getting rich at your expense. Congressional Budget Office figures, adjusted for inflation, show that from 1979 to 2007, the average yearly income of the bottom 90% of American households hardly grew, whereas, it more than tripled for the top 1% of households. In 2007, these over 1 million wealthy households took home incomes that averaged almost $2 million apiece, whereas the bottom 90% numbering over 100 million households averaged only about $60 thousand. This means that 50 million households had to exist on less than $60 thousand.
Another fact is that the Top 1% own about 40% of our country’s wealth and in the last few years, 95% of the increase in the country’s income has gone to that top 1%. An illustration of this is that in 2012, 40 hedge fund managers amassed almost $17 Billion for themselves.
The Very Rich have been able to accomplish this by swindling you. First, as business owners and executives, they have been compensating themselves with inordinately outlandish salaries, bonuses and stock options, and paying for these excesses by reducing your wages. Secondly, they have been laying a “tax” on you by adding a substantial percentage to the prices their corporations charge for the products and services that they sell to you. This “tax” produces their companies’ huge profits, which ends up in their pockets as stockholder dividends. Another source of their great wealth is derived from deals and manipulations of the financial system, aided by Wall Street institutions. Such manipulations have been aided by the relaxation, at Wall Streets insistence, of government business laws and regulations, which permits them to complete many shady unregulated transactions. A momentous consequence of this was the recent housing disaster.
The Very Rich have also profited enormously by being able to “buy” our government apparatus by financing the elections of partisan politicians, mainly Republicans, who then repay them by legislating favorable laws and policies in Washington and in the States. This is happening under the direction of some Very Rich families, like the Koch brothers. The State legislatures are influenced by a nationwide lobbying organization, called ALEC, which is financed by large corporations and the wealthy.
This economic and political state of affairs has led to extremely serious consequences for our country over the years. It is responsible for our poor economy, mass unemployment and millions of people losing their homes during the past 6 years; for the decline of the Middle Class and an increase in the number of people in poverty; for the opposition to an increase in the minimum wage, or worse yet, elimination of it; for cutting nutrition programs for the needy; for not protecting our environment; for shrinking and devastating our children’s education programs; for the opposition to the implementation of Obama Care; for benefiting arms manufacturers by expanding the military budget far beyond what is necessary for our defense; for creating difficulties with immigration reform; and for obstructing the voting rights of minorities, who tend to vote for their opponents.
It is very clear that the Very Rich have taken advantage of you and don’t really care about you. They seem to care only about their own ruthless efforts to increase their wealth and power at your expense. Their long range objective is to have you become their ECONOMIC SLAVES by creating a feudalistic society like the ones that existed centuries ago. This single mindedness is what is responsible for our paralyzed Congress, since the Republicans insist on achieving the single objective of the Very Rich without compromise, whereas Obama is trying to improve your existence, which is what is creating the stalemate.
There have been many arguments put forth by the Republicans against placing limitations on the acquisition of wealth, which they characterize as “class warfare”. However, the issue is not so much the wealth itself that is crucial, but it is the USE of that wealth by a handful of families and corporations in running the country and in exerting significant control over your economic and political lives. What’s worse is that, in the process, they have deprived you of what rightfully belongs to you.
A good example of that is occurring now in the state of North Carolina. Republicans hold the governor’s mansion and both houses of the legislature as a direct result of the funding and influence of one person, a billionaire named Pope. His government is favoring corporations and the wealthy and harming everyone else, economically.
The role of the Republican hired hands is to advocate legislation and regulations that their backers, the Very Rich, want, namely those which increase their corporate profits and wealth. They never reveal that this is the real reason for their votes; instead, they manufacture misleading and false arguments that are designed to trick you into believing that their proposals will be good for you, whereas, in reality, they are only good for their backers. So, arguing with them is a waste of time. A good example of this was the trickledown theory they put forth in past years to justify the reduction of income taxes for the Very Rich. Their argument was that lower taxes would lead to increased spending by the Very Rich, which would improve the economy and create more jobs for you. Their taxes were reduced substantially, but this had no effect on improving the economy. Tricked again!
As you can see, they have been successful in gaining control over you and your government. But, you have the means to fight back….. You can VOTE against them.
The only thing the Very Rich fear is your vote. That is why they spend billions on financing the campaigns of the politicians who will carry out their orders. It is an investment that has paid off with huge returns in the past. That money is mostly spent on media advertising that has been designed to fool you into falsely believing that their political candidates will make things better for you. They use the same devious methods that you are accustomed to seeing when they advertise their commercial products.
It should now be evident that a vote for one of their candidates is a vote for making the Rich richer and Yourself poorer. So, it does not make sense for you to vote for anyone who is accepting campaign money from the Very Rich. Vote, instead for those who will work for your benefit and are not being paid off.
Pope Francis recently pointed out “that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality” and he called for nations to narrow the wealth gap…saying “that the poor are getting only the crumbs.”
It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Well, your vote is mightier than the dollar. The Rich may have 95% of the wealth, but they are entitled to only a very small percentage of the vote. So, it is up to you. You have the power to determine which course our government will take— creating economic improvement for you or economic slaves for them.