This is a stream of consciousness. I am not a writer that does well with edits and rewrites and I don't participate much in this community anymore, as I've become so cynical that even incremental change is good anymore. But there is a kernel of an idea here (copied from a facebook note I wrote) that perhaps some here can turn into an actual campaign. The entire note is below, but the basic gist of it is this:
The government in this country has benefited the rich for far too long. The transfer of wealth in the last 50 years from the "middle," "lower," and "under" classes to the rich is unprecedented. Now our government is facing a debt crisis of unbelievable proportion. Many of our billionaires, those who benefited from US policies, could wipe out the debt by making the IRS a beneficiary in their wills. And if they could do it in death, they could do it in life.
If you're intrigued, read on.
Our government needs a bailout. And (it pains me to admit this) even Obama wants a bailout that takes yet more money from the backs of the working poor in order to bail it out.
But there is plenty of money out there to bail out the Government and wipe out America's debt. It could be wiped out immediately, without any sacrifice on the part of the average citizens of this country, those decent folk who work for a living.
The problem is all this money lies in the hands of 400 very, very rich people.
Michael Moore pointed out this weekend in Wisconsin that 400 people hold as much riches in their hands as 155 million Americans combined. Read that again.
Now, I'm not trying to demonize the rich. There are many, many rich people that give to charities and support environmental groups and even fly to impoverished countries and help out however they can on a global level.
But when NOT ONE rich financial executive has gone to jail for the massive heist that was the taxpayer-funded bailout, we are no longer living in a society with "high moral values." We basically gave the amount of our deficit to the rich, AGAIN, in that bailout, and we mortgaged our children to do it.
BILLIONAIRES, if you have any conscience, you won't give $2 million to your dog in your will. You won't give your children more than $1 million each in their wills - more than enough to pay for a life of privilege, access. You won't even give a large portion of your wealth over to the charities you love and have supported your whole life.
IF YOU WANT TO HELP and GIVE BACK to the country that helped you protect and grow your wealth, the workers who worked so you could have your wealth, the entire community of freedom-loving Americans, you will give a gift to the US Treasury. You will make the IRS the biggest benefactor in your will.
If you have spent your whole life trying to get out of paying taxes, maybe the bill is due upon your death. I am not just talking about "estate taxes," or as you may prefer to call it "the death tax." I am talking about a check to the government out of the goodness of your heart. Rescuing quite literally millions of children and unborn children, generations of millions from a burdensome debt that they will never be able to pay off. You can lift millions born into poverty out of it with a simple stroke of a pen.
You will do more for more people by this action than any charitable contribution you could ever make. You know this to be true. If you have any guilt about how you have used your wealth in your lifetime, you can make amends by this simple action. And if you can do so in death, why not do so in life? Why not receive the gratitude of millions of people right now, while you can still enjoy it?
Why should those who struggle every day to make ends meet bear the brunt of bailing out our government? Why not those who have benefited the most from the policies enacted by monied interests? Instead of going on television to be a "secret millionaire" for one week and help one organization, you can help literally EVERYBODY. Let me tell you a little bit about my reality... EVERY MONTH there is a question of whether or not my wife and I will be able to stay in our home. And I'm supposedly in the great "middle class." There are too many far worse off - my wife and I sometimes (not enough, never enough) help feed people IN THIS COUNTRY for whom every single day there is the question of whether or not they will eat. Have you ever visited Skid Row in Los Angeles? Think of the good you can do.
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, George Soros, I'm not just talking to those Conservative rich who have the most reason to be guilty (the Bushes, the Rockefellers). I'm talking to you as well. Appealing to you. Some of you have done great things with your money, why not do something even greater? Why not do it now? Prove to the rest of the world that you have a conscience!
If you are not a billionaire, and you read this and agree with me, please forward far and wide.
It is a fact; current legislation in this country disproportionately benefits the rich. Why should the poor be made poorer to save the government, when the poor have gotten less and less benefit from government?