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One approach to a solution for America's massive inequality would be to declare that we all, everyone of us, own both a portion of the natural resources of the nation and also own a portion of the productive capacity. The first could be achieved by undoing the concept, at least in part, of a grabocracy (my word) whereby those who manage to grab America's resources wind up owning them, paying only modest fees to the govt. Trillions of dollars are taken out of the ground in the form of minerals, oil and natural gas** without the broad population benefiting directly (except in Alaska, which makes annual payment to residents). Why do we have this system? Why can you "own" all of a millions year old resource like oil and gas just by putting down a well? Because that is how the system here was manipulated to benefit the few.
America's corporate earnings could be partially nationalized by having a national wealth fund buy into all major, publicly traded corporations. In this way, every American would own a share in America Inc. These shares could be cashed out at set times in each person's life. Yes, some would waste it and wind up just as broke as before (the rich do that, too), but no one in the country would be truly asset poor.Â
We have a system that has been set up by the few for the benefit of the few. Their objective now is to keep that system working for themselves and to angrily fight off any claims on it. Time for examining other ways.
Doug Terry
**One example of the resource grab exists in the tiny town of Petrolia , Texas, where my mother was born and generations of her family have resided. (Get the name “Petrolia”? Yes, derived from petroleum. Couldn’t get any closer to oil than that.) In any case, billions of dollars and billions of gallons of oil have been taken out of the ground in the plains west of Ft.Worth/Dallas, but the residents of the area, in general, have benefited only marginally. Those who leased their land to the oil companies for drilling have gotten payments down through the years and some of them have gotten rich. Otherwise, the oil money flew right out and over Petrolia to places like Houston, New York, Boston and Chicago. To this day, Petrolia remains a tiny town with unpaved streets, save the two main roads that cross through and make up the central intersection of the town. One of the dirt/gravel streets in town is called Morgan Avenue. How can a dirt street be an avenue? Only in Texas, I guess. If you’d like to take a satellite look at the town, please click here.
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