Picture a river, flowing swift and smooth along its bed. The waters easily spin the wheel in the mill, keeping everyone well fed with the flour produced within. Then the land up stream is bought by a family who dams the river for their own personal use. As the river dries up, the crops die, the mill no longer spins, and the town begins to starve.
That is the state our economy is in. The free flow of our money has been dammed for so long that small businesses are dying off, people are working 50+ hours a week just to keep their heads afloat (and many times not succeeding), students are drowning in debt–just from trying to learn something–anything–that might help them survive, doctors are more concerned with how much they can charge than how they can help their patients–we are drowning in inches of water.
Bernie Sanders has some wonderful ideas. Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure will definitely bring a lot of jobs that we desperately need, and closing the loopholes on the corporations and the wealthy is something I have been adamant about for years, but there is so much more that needs to be done if we want to be a great nation again–such as breaking up the big monopolies. Companies should not be able to hold more than 30% of any one market. We have stifled the growth of our small businesses for long enough. We need to let the smaller stars shine, open more doors for more people, and allow more companies to give more people the opportunity to move farther within them.
So many believe that raising the minimum wage will pull people out of poverty. The problem is, it is only a temporary fix. Eventually more money will be printed, the value of the dollar will drop, and the minimum wage will need to be raised again. By leaving the minimum wage at a set number, we ensure that the fix is only temporary. To make it a permanent fix, we must tie it to the amount of money that is in circulation. By making the minimum wage a percentage of the total amount of money currently in circulation, people will always know that they will earn a living wage.
We need laws in place that prevent companies from monopolizing 70% of the market. The loopholes that allow multi billion dollar companies and elite billionaires to remove vital funds from general circulation must be closed. We need permanent solutions to our economic problems, not just temporary fixes. Until we get them, we will continue to drown.
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