I love it when we’re pointed to information initially meant to destroy our argument that the one percent are needed to make socioeconomic change a reality and that the one percent will gladly assist, once a viable alternative surfaces. PopularResistance.org recently published an article claiming to show dramatic differences between elite interests and public priorities. Looking at the tables, a casual glance would confirm their point: elites care far less than the “public” on a range of issues including government support of the poor, job and income programs, government spending, progressive taxation and health care and social security. Look closer though and a different story emerges. Examples:
- “Government must see that no one is without food, clothing or shelter” – 43 percent of elites agree with this statement.
- Almost half the elite respondents also agreed with “Minimum wage should be high enough so that no family with a full-time worker falls below official poverty line”.
- Interestingly, 17 percent of elites agree with the government redistributing wealth.
- Another 13 percent agree with this: “Responsibility of the government to reduce the differences in income between people with high incomes and those with low incomes.”These last two stats total to one-third of elites supporting wealth redistribution.
- There’s more: Forty percent said they would willingly pay more to provide health coverage for everyone.
- A third of elites favor single-payer healthcare.
I don’t claim all of the one percent gladly supports ridding the world of debt-based economies and domineering government systems. Nor do I say we need all the one percent to make change. We only need a few. Seems to me the PopularResistance.org piece proves there are quite more than “a few” elites who agree with changes that would make our civilizations better for all people. We at Copiosis don’t focus on the world as it is. Rather we prefer focusing on what it can be. Viewed from this perspective, the data reported in this article encourages optimism.