Of Wealth and Fairness

I’ve been contemplating the greatness of the wealth we live in, along with the complaints of poverty. I’ve also been contemplating the complaints about fairness. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. The rich don’t pay their fair share.

Yet, when I look at the wealth around me, all I see is the wealthy paying. I am certainly not among the wealthy. The benefits I get, in roads, in social services, are way beyond anything that I pay into the system. The same is true of most of the people of this nation. They don’t really pay anything of consequence for the services received.

They had a referendum in Kansas City about getting rid of our 1% earning tax. They made a big deal about how the wealthy got out of paying their share. But hey, I get way more services than my 1%, and most of the people do.  All those people that are “not paying their fair share” are still supporting the system.

We need to face the fact that our society rests on the backs of the wealthy. They are the ones that pay the way. True, the workers and middle classes are essential, the labor that keeps everything running, but it is the concentrations of wealth that enables everything to run.

So I don’t trust the wealthy any more than the poor, or vice versa, but I don’t envy the wealthy, or say that they aren’t paying their fair share.