I was told I could be President. I learned that in first grade. I could see the opportunity, the trajectory, we were all starting from the same line. Now, who would want to be President? Certainly not me.

I was told if I worked hard I could be wealthy. They called it the American Dream. There were hoops to jump through. Mostly dealing with education. And if you reached the brass ring...you were comfortable, you didn't have to worry about money, you could do things other couldn't.

They never told us you would do things that were completely separate, that the rest didn't have access to. You could fly in the front of the plane, you could fly as much as you wanted, but the idea of having your own jet? That was an incomprehensible fantasy. Owning your own island? None of these were possibilities, even on the radar screen until the eighties, when those who'd professed love for everybody in the sixties got greedy.

But then came private equity. And Bill Simon's leveraged buyout of Gibson Greetings for $80 million. In only eighteen months the company was taken public with a value of $290 million, Simon's $330,000 investment yielded $66 million. Wow!

And you might not have been paying attention, then again if your goal was to make it, to be rich, to win, the line of scrimmage had been moved way down the field.

So when the dotcom era happened at the turn of the century, the hoi polloi wanted in, and they lost their savings in the financial whiplash. And then their houses in the 2008 recession. It was worse than not succeeding, you were losing, going backwards.

And you were told the banks must be saved, Wall Street was made whole and beyond and no one was thinking of you.

To keep you distracted you were sold entertainers. Who had been as rich as anybody back in the twentieth century, but no more. You just couldn't make a billion dollars playing music. Sure, today you can argue McCartney is a billionaire, but it took him a very long time to get there. As for Taylor Swift, kudos...but as much money as she's got, she's got nowhere near the assets of the techies, who used borrowed money to play in the casino. Not everybody won, but a bunch did.

However, we got computers, iPods, smartphones, MySpace, Facebook, and then we started to realize all this money was being made on our backs. That without our participation, these internet companies were worthless. But we were told their CEOs were He-Men of the Universe, and entitled to every buck. Sans a customer you're broke, doesn't anybody realize this?

And then we got Citizens United and those with money had political power beyond what we'd ever seen previously.

But we were told not to complain, after all, we had cable TV on a hi-def set. Things were better than they used to be. Wake up!

As for the rich... We were told they were the innovators...then again, why did CEOs of public companies end up with so much money? It's one thing if you started the enterprise, if you still owned it, but if you got the public to invest, was anybody worth that amount of compensation? We were told they were.

So Elon Musk takes Tesla public. He makes bank. But now he wants a trillion dollars. Cathie Wood and the rest of the myopic financial world says if he's successful it lifts all boats, investors win. But last I checked we were all part of a society, and once again, the company is worth nothing without customers, and we're the customers.

Start a new company with your own money Elon and bank the winnings. Kudos. But now you're playing with the public's money, you've got a responsibility to us.

But no, that's not how the game works anymore.

Never mind taxes...

We keep hearing that the rich pay the lion's share of income taxes. But the bottom line is the hoi polloi are paying taxes all day long...on food, gasoline and so much more. They may not be paying income taxes, but those are not the only monies the country runs on.

But the myth continues. Our country needs this cadre of men to succeed, to be profitable, we must let them run unfettered. Marc Andreessen has actually said this!

Now wait just a minute, if you're rich the rules no longer apply? That was not the American Dream I signed up for and believed in. Once again, we were all in it together, responsible to each other, but no more!

Scratch the surface and it gets even worse. The private equity majordomos whose vast incomes are taxed at capital gains rates. The fact that through financial planning a lot of these billionaires will never pay any estate tax.

And when things were good, people just buried their heads in the sand.

But in truth, things haven't been good for the general public since the nineties.

The entire country is run like a movie deal. You've got a profit percentage, but the film is always in a negative position, even if it's grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. You can't beat the system.

The system has lost touch with the general public.

And whenever the general public rises up and says so, people are accused of being socialists! People don't want the end of capitalism, they just want a level playing field.

But the game is rigged right down to education. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer, unless you've got parents with money and experience good luck lifting yourself above your station. And, it's not only about education but relationships...that's what you make at an elite institution, who you know becomes more important than even what you know.

But now they keep sticking it in our face. They don't even bother to hide it. They figure we've been somnambulant so long that it's de rigueur, that we accept it. That this is the new normal. And anybody who wants to upset the apple cart, who wants change, is un-American.

Meanwhile, you're having trouble making ends meet, getting ahead, and all you're told is it's your fault, that if you just worked harder...

But you're working a service job at minimum wage, in a nation where forty hours a week at this rate doesn't come close to paying your bills. But those who own the businesses have convinced politicians, i.e. paid politicians, to not raise the minimum wage, forecasting disaster, when the truth is at worst they'll make a little less money.

There can be no change.

For a minute there you could file your federal tax returns for free, via the IRS Direct File program...but that's gone, got to keep the tax preparers in business, after all they pay the politicians, what have you got?

And there are people who don't feel this way. Mostly those who are already wealthy. Used to be that many broke Americans didn't want rich people taxed because they planned on becoming rich too, and when they did they didn't want to be taxed either.

But now even if you're on television, on a reality show, everybody might know your name but you'll still end up broke, living back in Poughkeepsie.

You could become a professional athlete... But even the college stars don't make it to the pros.

So the doors have closed. But it's even worse, those who've passed through the gates are now pissing on the rest of us, with impunity.

And it doesn't feel good.


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