Disclaimer: The Public Economist does not necessarily agree with the views expressed. It is final in the series of five pieces which Gary has generously agreed to share with TPE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A prosperous society, that can support general affluence for EVERY citizen, is achievable because, fortunately, in the near term, we can begin to grow our way out of the lingering, if not swelling unemployment and underemployment by increasing our investment significantly as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) resulting in double-digit growth, while simultaneously broadening private, individual ownership of future income-producing productive capital investments, thus initiating the process of empowering EVERY child, woman, and man to build, over time, a viable capital wealth estate and reap the income generated. Such investment would, in the short term, generate millions of new \u201creal\u201d productive jobs. The result would not only be that the GDP would dramatically grow but tax revenues from the high rate of economic growth would enable us to balance the federal budget, fully fund Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, provide universal health care, universal tuition-free public college and university education, lower tax rates, and maintain a strong military, all simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have the opportunity to free\neconomic growth from the \u201censlavement\u201d of human labor and from the financial\nmechanisms that are based on the slavery of past savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technological progress, though, is no\nlonger dependent on the number and quality of human workers. This fact will\nbecome obvious eventually to anyone who can think and analyze as they realize\nthe reality that human labor will cease to be the primary source of wealth\nproduction in the future. As a result we can expect over the long term that\nunemployment and underemployment will remain high indefinitely. But the\ndifference will be that people will drop out of the labor force voluntarily\nbecause they will be able to live off their dividend earnings via their\nownership portfolios. This will create swelling demand for human workers who\nwant to continue working. And with both dividend and wage and salary incomes\nfor everyone there will be more customers to purchase the products and services\nproduced, which in turn will create further dividends and earnings, which will\ncreate more \u201ccustomers with money,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the future holds less promise for\nuniversal job employment due to the ever-progressing contribution of\ntechnological-driven production using human-intelligent machines,\nsuper-automation, robotics and digital computerized operations, the jobs that\nwill be in demand will require some mastery of technology, math, and science.\nAs long as working people are limited by earning income solely through their\nlabor worker wages, they will be left behind by the continued gravitation of\neconomic bounty toward the top 1 percent of the people that the system is\nrigged to benefit. If we don\u2019t re-chart our economic policies to broaden\nprivate, individual ownership of new productive capital formation, then more\ntroubling is that the continued stagnation of the American economy will further\ndim the economic hopes of America\u2019s youth, no matter what their education\nlevel. The result will have profound long-term consequences for the nation\u2019s\neconomic health and further limit equal earning opportunity and spread income\ninequality. As the need for labor decreases and the power and leverage of\nproductive capital increases, the gap between labor workers and productive\ncapital asset owners will increase, and the conditions will become very\nfrightening and very chaotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, our leaders are not prepared and\nare not preparing the American people for the coming economic collapse and the\nnext Great Depression, due to their lack of wisdom and foresight to understand\nthat full employment is not an objective of businesses and private sector job\ncreation opportunities are constantly being eroded by physical productive\ncapital\u2019s ever increasing role \u2014 as the use of human-intelligent machines,\nsuper-automation, robotics, digital computerized operations, etc. replaces\nlabor workers to produce products and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This scenario has never been thoroughly\ndiscussed on the national stage. Nor has there been the proper education of our\ncitizenry that addresses what economic justice is and what ownership is.\nTherefore, by ignoring such issues of economic justice and ownership, our\nleaders are ignoring the concentration of power within the 1 percent through\nownership of productive capital, with the result of denying the 99 percent of\nour citizenry equal opportunity to become productive capital owners. The\nquestion, as posed by binary economist, corporate tax lawyer and investment\nbanker, Louis O. Kelso is: \u201chow are all individuals to be adequately productive\nwhen a tiny minority (capital owners) produce a major share and the vast\nmajority (labor workers), a minor share of total goods and service,\u201d and thus,\n\u201chow do we get from a world in which the most productive factor \u2014 physical\ncapital \u2014 is owned by a handful of people, to a world where the same factor is\nowned by a majority \u2014 and ultimately 100 percent \u2014 of the consumers, while\nrespecting all the constitutional rights of present capital owners?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, pursuing economic\ndemocracy has been frustrated by the systemic concentration of economic power\nand exclusionary access to future capital credit to the advantage of the\nwealthiest Americans. The so-called 1 percent rulers of corporations have\nrigged the financial system to enable this already wealthy capital ownership\nclass to systematically further enrich themselves as capital formation occurs\nand technological industrialization spreads throughout the world, leaving\nbehind the 99 percent to depend on income redistribution through make-work\n\u201cfull employment\u201d policies, government boondoggles, excessive military build-up\nand dependence on arms production and sales, and social welfare programs due to\nthe lack of an alternative to full employment and the growing economic\nhelplessness and dependency. The unsatisfied needs and wants of society are not\nin that 1 percent or for that matter the 5 percent; those people are not the\nones who are hurting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The political power that can be wielded\nas a result of concentrated capital asset wealth ownership has resulted in a\nrigged system that ensures the present-day wealthy capital ownership class will\nget richer and essentially own and control the future, while the vast majority\nof Americans will suffer increasing economic inequality and fall further and\nfurther in terms of earnings and quality of life. How the system is structured\nmakes a big difference in whether or not individuals have an equal opportunity\nto succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The formation of this \u201cOwn The Future\nPlan,\u201d a modern-day \u201cMarshall Plan,\u201d should be a national effort on the part of\nEVERY citizen, with the best ideas for fulfilling the goals of establishing\neconomic democracy incorporated into the plan and implemented. That should\nentail academia and political discussion, with the purpose of generating\nactionable policy solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The end result we\nshould set as our nation\u2019s goal for our future should be that citizens would\nbecome empowered as owners to meet their own consumption needs and government\nwould become more dependent on economically independent citizens, thus\nreversing current global trends where all citizens will eventually become\ndependent for their economic well-being on the State and whatever elites\ncontrol the coercive powers of government, using job dependency, the police,\ncourts of law, prisons, the tax system and so on as their means to control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A prosperous society, that can support general affluence for EVERY citizen, is achievable because, fortunately, in the near term, we can begin to grow our way out of the lingering, if not swelling unemployment and underemployment by increasing our investment significantly as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) resulting in double-digit growth, while simultaneously broadening private, individual ownership of future income-producing productive capital investments, thus initiating the process of empowering EVERY child, woman, and man to build, over time, a viable capital wealth estate and reap the income generated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":44165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,92],"tags":[40,139,137],"class_list":["post-58599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-economy","category-social","tag-capitalism","tag-economic-equality-in-usa","tag-usa-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n