Tom Hartmann - We’re told by the Declaration of Independence that our nation was formed to provide every citizen with the basics of what government can and should provide:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
The “governed” in today’s America, however, aren’t getting the “happiness” they want or even, frankly, that they need:
— Poverty and homelessness stalk our land: more than one-in-seven Americans live in poverty today
— Millions have no access to affordable healthcare and families suffer over 500,000 medical bankruptcies every year
— Higher education is increasingly just for the well-born and well-off
— Most non-unionized workers have few rights and little say in the workplace: only 10.8 percent of non-government American workers have a union
— Cynicism about politicians is so widespread that only 62 percent of Americans eligible to register to vote have even bothered to do so
— Our wealthiest pay virtually no taxes: For example, America’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, paid less than 1 percent and NBC reports “The 25 richest Americans paid little to no federal income taxes…”
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