People Needs NOT Corporate Big Money Needs #2

By David R. Sonneborn

There are several critical economic justice needs, such as middle class jobs, especially green jobs; fair trade not free trade, out of poverty, progressive tax structure, affordable higher education, and more - much more!

This position paper is about economic justice issues. It is well documented that the gap continues to grow between the few very wealthy - the "haves" - and the increasingly populated lower income many. It is well documented that the increases in the "have nots" have continued to come from previously middle class people falling down into the have not category. There is ample historical precedent, ancient through recent, where this concentration of wealth, once reaching an unbearable threshold, has extremely dire consequences for communities, nations and, yes, global economies.

We the People must act before this threshold is reached. Our elected officials must constantly and consistently hear from us that there are urgent actions that need to be taken to address the ever growing inequalities in wealth before it is too late. They, as well as Corporate big money interests, must understand that the survival of the free market system depends upon people having jobs that allow them and their families to afford a decent living. This requires that all people, and especially all children have access to affordable comprehensive health care (Position paper #1). It requires that all have the opportunity for post high school education and that engaging pre-school and after-school programs are available to all. It requires that elected officials and business leaders incorporate that needed incentives for environmental protection and global warming control provide an enormous potential for both training and obtaining middle class, "green" jobs.

We the People must reach out to our fellow citizens, elected officials and business leaders to recognize and act on the extremely wealthy few not contributing their fair share toour society. Especially when the inequality of wealth becomes so increasingly extreme, "trickle down" economics simply cannot succeed. Elimination of tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, closing of corporate tax loopholes, elimination of tax and budgetary breaks to multinational corporations shipping jobs abroad, and raising the upper threshold on Social Security tax rates are four obvious necessities.

Lastly, there is much more to the current free trade, rather than fair trade, agreements than only the shipping of jobs abroad, customarily at lower wage levels. There is much more than just that sweatshop labor practices result in reduced costs of imported merchandise. The loans for the "free" trade" agreements are from the WB,WTO and/or IMF lenders who, in turn, engage the multinational corporations to draw up the the loan contracts. The contracts are such that the indigenous economy of the recipient countries are taken over by the corporate multinational contract makers. This is one of the most challenging, largely unspoken factors resulting in much of the immigration traffic, most of the failures to relieve poverty and most of the failures to curb human atrocities.