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As we know, the barons of Wall Street have not hesitated to raid our public treasury and haul off trillions of dollars worth of government bailouts and special tax breaks to subsidize their “free market” ventures. So guess who has been the major force pushing policymakers to slash federal spending and kill programs that improve opportunities for regular people?
Bingo – the barons! Through their lobbyists, front groups, and the politicians they’ve purchased, these high-finance royals have gained a stranglehold on policy, choking off the public investment that lifts up the poor and middle class. As a result, these millionaires and billionaires are shortchanging America itself, reducing our can-do spirit to their won’t-do minginess.
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Think of the progress we could be making. The USA ought to have the TOP public education system, not one of the worst among wealthy nations. Improve Obamacare to Medicare-for-All. Let’s re-establish our technological supremacy, from building the green economy of the future to reaching again into outer space. Rather than succumbing to a bleak future of low-wage, part-time, temporary, no-security jobs, let’s publicly invest in full employment, world-class skills, and technology that works for workers. Restore democratic power with public financing of all election campaigns, enact labor law reforms so workers themselves can democratize the workplace, and encourage the development of co-ops as an alternative to corporate control of the economy.
That’s an America that is worthy of us, an America we can build. But to do it, we must first create a new political movement that directly confronts the narcissistic nabobs who’re knocking down our people and our country. With such a movement, we can rally the increasingly-restive workaday majority to come together in a populist effort to cut off Wall Street and Re-fund America.
“America isn’t broke. There’s plenty of money to build an economy worthy of our ideals and can-do spirit,” hightowerlowdown.org, December 2013.