It’s important to look at society as it really is, as contrasted to simply blithely believing whatever that is being sold to the American public. While America loves to extol the virtues of its capitalism as well as the inherent greatness of its institutions, the bottom line is that a nation should be evaluated upon how its people, in whole, are actually doing. Further to the point, the direction that this nation is going in, reflects whether that nation is progressing or regressing in its affairs. So then, what we so find is that in the 21st century, we have distinctly moved into a new gilded age, in which, those that are at the elite top in wealth, have all of the wonderful benefits and accouterments exclusively attached to their respective names and businesses; whereas, those that represent the middle class of America, find themselves, instead, working ever harder to just maintain their position, and are thus ever more vulnerable to losing their respected status, to those that have relentlessly squeezed them from it.
Now then, since there are so few that have so much, and because there are so many, that don’t have all that much, one would think that in a governance in which the people clearly have the vote, and of which, in theory, the representatives of those people, have the people’s best interests in mind, that this government would make it its point and principle to thus utilize its power and its authority to see that the people got their fair benefits, and lived thus within a construct in which they would always have fair opportunity, and equal justice. Yet, that is seldom the case, in America; for the decisions made at the highest echelons of governance, at the present time, consistently match up well with the actual desires of the rich and powerful, while leaving those without such access to that power and influence, with nothing but scraps to live upon, instead.
The upshot is that vote or no vote, democracy or no democracy, progressive taxation or not, is that our eyes do not deceive us, for a significant portion of Americans have to continually tighten their belts, as well as to suffer from their lack of fair opportunity, debilitating discrimination, unsecure employment, poor educational facilities, and a general hopelessness that their lot will not soon improve for them, or for their progeny. The fault for this being the present case, lies at the feet of our governance, for whenever that governance favors the rich, connected, and powerful and thus kowtows to their desires – then all those that are not part of that favored class, will suffer the effects of being cheated out of their fair share.
The only entity that could conceivably match up well against the rich and powerful, is actually a strong and determined central government, and when that government consistently acts at the behest of those that are the rich and powerful, then there is little or no hope for the improvement of the conditions of the people, in whole. Regrettably, in this nation, we find that so many of those in government, while certainly talking a good game, have with their subsequent actions, fairly reflected that they have sold the people out, and done so, deliberately, as well as for their own personal benefit.