Inside from the Inside

Few phrases bring apoplectic rage to the free market loving social contract averse than “redistribution of wealth”. How dare some bleeding heart  take from me and give to those undeserving, too lazy to earn their own. But there is an unacknowledged piece of this distribution equation. Every time we open our wallets we are redistributing wealth. It ebbs and flows in eddys and rivulets through the economy. But no one ever mentions the metaflow, the vast movement of wealth from bottom to top, so deeply and historically ingrained in our economic DNA we no longer even see it. For two hundred years this country engaged in the most efficient system of wealth redistribution ever devised by humankind- Slavery. Destroying unions, not raising the minimum wage for decades, regressive tax codes, unaffordable health care are among the many wealth redistribution techniques used to insure that this river flows in only one direction. Not to mention treasonous war profiteering and multi billion dollar corporate bailouts.  So pause long enough in your righteous indignation at being asked to help your fellow citizen and ask- did some higher power dictate this, did my God write in stone that wealth is only distributed in one direction?