Tuesday,
April 22, 2014
Yesterday
morning when I started my car, I was met by National Public Radio and the voice
of a man giving a report to a “Madame President”. The report was regarding the distribution of
wealth in the United States. The more I
listened, the “snarkier” I became. I’m
going to share what I heard on the radio but you may want to do your own
research to get verification as well as perspective. (I found
a webpage “Who Rules America?” by a Professor William Domhoff at the University
of California at Santa Cruz which shares all sorts of data and graphs. The article presented, entitled “Power in America –
Wealth, Income and Power” gave me a better understanding of a problem that isn’t
new. What’s new may be the
disappearance of the “middle” as well as a growing inequality of political representation.)
The report I
stumbled onto via NPR gave the following statistics (numbers may not be exact –
please do your own checking!):
The
top 1% owns about 38% of the wealth.
The
bottom 60% owns about 2.3% of the wealth.
1 family owns more than
the bottom 50%. (Walton Family $147 billion
-2013)
(2nd
- The Koch brothers $100 billion)
95%
of new growth goes to the top 1%.
The report (via NPR) was not only
sharing statistics regarding the inequality of wealth distribution but the
impact this inequality has on the political process and representation.
I have to admit, I was beside myself
with outrage when I turned off the radio.
And…I noticed my initial rage
was directed at the “have’s” for “having”.
(Which is interesting because I'm not sure I really care about "having"...I think it's more about power.) However, I could feel my blame was misdirected…that it didn’t match what
I really believe regarding freedom, responsibility and claiming my power. After all, who supported this imbalance? Who allowed the political system to become so
biased? I (we) did……
Most of us live our lives on
automatic pilot. We follow our routines,
make the same choices, do the same things as we follow some unconscious
patterning that resides in our subconscious.
We don’t like things…in fact, we disagree with things much of the time…but
we continue doing the same things anyway.
We rush, rush, rush…too tired to make choices to our liking…choices that
might shift the path of our experience…but we’re just…too…tired. And because
we’ve been just…too…tired…(exhausted from resisting our own truth)…we have what we have today. Luckily, we’ve
awakened…
It seems essential that we begin to
take responsibility for what’s happening.
The only way to shift “inequality” and bring about a sense of balance is
to claim our own power. (No one can give you power.) We have to make conscious choices. If we don’t like the way things are then we
have to choose differently. We have to
support things which align with what we really know deep in the core of our
being.
When we support companies that don’t
treat their employees “fairly”…companies which make billions of dollars in
profit while paying their employees the least possible…we support the growing
chasm in wealth distribution. When we vote
for representatives who are owned by
the money that supports them…who are not
“independent thinkers”...we support inequality.
When we don’t do our homework before we “vote” – as a consumer or as a
citizen – we help support and maintain that which we probably complain about on
a daily basis. All of this is absolutely
“ok”…but let’s make it a conscious
choice…let’s know what we’re
supporting…and own it.
If we really want “something
different” then we have to behave differently.
We have to claim our power
which means taking responsibility for our choices. In the end, it is We the People which have the final say. We are not owned by a government or a small
group of people. We always have a choice
where we place our “vote” and what we support.
The only way balance is reached and sustained is if each person claims
their own power, consciously makes their choices and takes responsibility. When each person follows their own inner “rightness”,
a new system is created and a natural set of “checks and balances” is
inherent. We have reached a time when
the “veil of ignorance” has been removed.
We no longer have excuses.
Much love,
Karrie
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