We’ve been brainwashed ever since we set up our free market lemonade stands on the sidewalk, charging parched passersby an excess of a quarter for a cup of juice.
We’ve been told capitalism makes us great. It makes us better than everyone else, especially the socialists and communists who don’t know how to manage their money.
And we rarely ever question it. Until now.
Census figures released this month show the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the poorest is growing, not shrinking.
In fact, the disparity is at the widest, most unequal gap it’s ever been.
According to the data, the top one-fifth of America’s wealthiest citizens make almost half of all income in the country compared with only less than 4 percent generated by Americans who live below the poverty line.
This accounts for the largest disparity in income among all Western industrialized nations.
This is capitalism at work. This is the free market. This isn’t fair.
At a time when the wealthiest Americans are getting even richer and the poor are getting even poorer — 6.3 percent of Americans now live below the poverty line — we can’t help but wonder if our system of money-mongering is the best it could be.
Sure, we’re all for making the most money we possibly can. We’re not about to go out and burn effigies of supporters of the free market. But these statistics really make us wonder, would our lemonade stands have worked better if the wealth was shared equally among children in the neighborhood?
