A Call for Empathy and Economic Justice

There is a passage in the Bible, “There arose a Pharoah who didn’t know Joseph”. No one in Egypt remembered the man that saved them from massive starvation and expertly guided the nation through turbulent times by deferring consumption in the good years in order to have resources to survive in the hard times. Ultimately Pharoah lost his workforce and his army in the Red Sea as God’s punishment for his stupidity.I just finished reading a book “There is No Place For Us” about people that are called working poor but homeless because places that they could rent consume nearly 65% of their take home pay. It just takes a moderate event such as sickness, car breakdown or back to school kid expenses for them to be late on their rent payment and to be evicted onto the street. Then their children become the next generation to fall under the bus.When I was young, listening to the old men at the Cotton Gin Store in conversation, their highest respect went to people who worked. My father used to describe with respect some man down on his luck with the phrase “that man works and takes care of his family as best he can”. Fast forward 75 years and our respect goes to billionaires who know how to work the system and spin magical tales of how their technology companies that don’t make any money are worth quintillions and the general public believes it.In another life I’ve been at a high dollar luncheon where one party berated a waitress because the food wasn’t to his liking without ever thinking about how physically difficult her job was. He didn’t realize how small he looked to others.One theory of economics is that you get more of what you subsidize and less of what you tax. How about we increase the tax on the uber wealthy and expand the work income credit to people who actually work. We have a choice to not be as stupid as Pharaoh and have some empathy for those who keep the wheels of this nation turning.