If you want to find out whether or not “America,” (i.e., The United States) is truly the land of equal opportunity, watch what happens to group or family dynamics when you propose a very simple plan: Make it illegal to inherit money!
Maybe a limited amount of “wealth” could be passed on (sentimental stuff like photos, clothing, furniture, etc.).
And something like $1000 – $2000 should probably be set aside per family for emergencies like unexpected medical bills, car expenses, or home repairs, since evidently only 40% of American families are prepared to cope with such events. (Another 20% of families said they’d probably finance the emergency by using their credit card, or increasing their debt.)1
What’s left over would go into a large pot that every child born that year would share equally. This could go towards camps, trips, education, stuff like that, maybe even braces, music lessons, and sports equipment, as long as it’s the same amount for every kid.
Yeah, it’s kind of unlikely that’ll happen any time soon, considering the total wealth of this country is currently hoarded by the top 1%, but it’s something that will definitely liven up really boring family feasts and get-togethers.
I’m not sure what reaction you’d get if you add on landed property. I’ve never inherited any. But in the spirit of disclosure, I want to acknowledge how surprised I was to be left $1500, along with each of my dozen or more cousins, by my childless paternal aunt. This glorious sum allowed me to attend the first conference in the USA on creating community housing that challenged the usual “placement” in large institutions for children with severe disabilities. The conveners thoughtfully chose Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the location, rather than snowy New Hampshire where their offices were located, since costs were the same. Brilliant!
But back to the present. We need to start objecting to filthy rich people being “worth” obscenely huge amounts of money, as in the obnoxious American habit of describing someone, usually male, of being “worth $_Billions.” I doubt it!
Perhaps because my favorite Bible chapter is Acts 4. Did you know it contains the original communist manifesto??!!:2
32 All those who believed were together, and had all things in common.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
That’s pretty clear. What happened!!????
Obviously things got really screwed up and it’s still going on!!! Blue Dog Democrats have been railing against “ungodly communism” for decades because they need a strategy that subconsciously defines the idea of communal goals, ideals, and goods as way off the charts, something to stop young people from following Jesus’s really, really radical instructions to the rich young man:
Luke 18:22 “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
So even back then it’s pretty clear things weren’t going well for most folks.
Just before the US invaded Iraq I was teaching a media education class in a well-run but academically challenged public high school in Oakland. Students were anxious, since several of them were considering “going into the Military.” But it hadn’t occurred to any of them to question yet another “Great War,” despite being in the Law Academy. (Turned out only one of them had chosen this option. She wanted to become “an Entertainment Lawyer” since “they make great money.” (I bet!) The rest of her classmates had been assigned by default so the school could have this distinguished option.) So I brought in tapes from The American Civil Liberties Union, so they could watch archival footage of The Red Scare and conscientious objectors. When a student questioned whether this was “Communist Propaganda,” I referenced the above quotes from Acts. Which she evidently lost, so her grandmother couldn’t find it and sent her back the next day to tell me I had no business telling the class that “God Was A Communist!”
Well, God might not have been, or he probably wouldn’t have figured we’d need the Tenth Commandment, “And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”3 (Rather odd considering he self-identifies as being jealous.)4
Anyhow for the past 2000 years things haven’t gotten much closer to being fair and equal when it comes to oxen and asses, and houses. Definitely not worldwide. But there’ve been some fascinating experiments, and even whole cultures that were much better job at sharing. I’ll save those for another time.
Meantime, one thing at least is clear about communists: Jesus and the Early Church that followed after him definitely were!
You can find more of Marilla Arguelles’s polemical Blogs on redefining education at www.WholeNewTake.com. Her fascination with history began, not at the University of Chicago, where she majored in Medieval and Islamic Civilization, but earlier in the back rooms of her father’s rare bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. Marilla is currently finishing her upcoming survival guide and workbook for under-valued, over-pressured teens, How To Matter – Now!
Email her at info@www.wholenewtake.com.
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1According to Bankrate’s latest financial security index survey, 34 percent of American households experienced a major unexpected expense over the past year. However, only 39 percent of survey respondents said they would be able to cover a $1,000 setback using their own savings.
2, 3The Old Testament, English Standard Version
4— Exodus 20:2-6 (WEB)
Copyright@2018 Marilla Argüelles WholeNewTake – All Rights Reserved.
