If one accepts that concept, it follows that in a so-called democratic society like the United States, individuals can vote for the person or party they feel that best represents and protects them.  Moreover they  can organize their efforts with people who share their viewpoint and seek to obtain political power to better their collective lives. 

For a democracy to work though, everyone has to vote.  And that has been a weakness of democracy in America.  The people who aren't "Already Wealthy" far outnumber those who are.  So there is something there that could be exploited by the cleaver, which is definitely better than being exploited themselves.  However the "Already Wealthy" will do just about anything - including acts of violence - to subvert this process.  Examples are efforts to intimidate people from voting, summarily declaring them ineligible to vote, and in some cases even stopping the orderly counting of the vote.  This is how much power they have and how they will deploy it to wage class warfare in their interests.  In the past it has been far worse.  The ugly brutality of racism in the southern United States engenders nightmares you don't want to have. 

But obtaining political power is a method, the method, to reverse this assembly line moving wealth h to the “Already Wealthy.” You can't really change anything by obtaining wealth.  Political organization with the intent of grabbing political power is the only way it really can be done. 

Sadly the class war has been reversed only occasionally.  In the century just ended, one thinks of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.  The New Deal went as far as it could and it really preserved capitalism by introducing a public sector into the American economy.  The ideas that implemented this were those of John Maynard Keynes who believed that the government that collects taxes should do something other than build monuments and battleships.   It should also create projects that contribute to the Common Good. 

These endeavors accomplished things like bringing electricity (Hydro electricity) to all parts of the country, building Interstate Highways, libraries, schools in the places that previously didn’t even have electricity.   The interesting thing about the public sector is that it could devote resources, spend money that at a particular moment in time it may not have.  Such spending, however, can stimulate economic growth.  So it is really something special but largely absent during the past 8 years. 

It also developed nuclear weapons, sent Americans to the moon and waged a cold war that eventually made the United States the world’s only superpower.   As it turned out, this was not an altogether enviable identity.   

But the American economy that accomplished this was generally productive and stimulated economic growth and rising income for the middle parts of the not “Already Wealthy” class through the second half of the previous century.  There was still enormous poverty that existed in a culture of historical poverty.  This was mostly an inherited economic condition as well.   There was nothing opaque about this.  It was easy to find, one just had to go to the right places.  It had and still has many of the characteristics of a Cast System. 

And nothing much was ever done about it, the poverty is still there and it has even moved into the major urban areas.  Poverty and homelessness have a lot in common but it is possible to have some kind of home, four walls and a roof, and still be living solidly in poverty.   Thinking of it as living in a place like San Quentin might be helpful, e.g., you would have walls and a roof.

So what does this all mean?  Let’s draw a few conclusions.

Wealth in America is largely inherited and passed from generation to generation.

Poverty in America is largely inherited and passed from generation to generation. 

Each of these constructs has historical antecedents which are readily identifiable.   Race, ethnicity, geography are examples; there is a much higher incidence of poverty in the rural southeast than one finds in say Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.

In addition:

Wealth and poverty are maintained and managed by class warfare.

Class warfare is waged and won through the acquisition and deployment of political power.

Keynesian economic principles, if applied, will generally produce economic growth in all sectors of the economy.

This growth in the economy will occur in the not "Already Wealthy" segments of the society but will hardly threaten the overwhelming affluence of the "Already Wealthy." 

What this is really about though is the concept of progress, what engenders progress and what hinders it.  This implies causality and is a topic that German Philosopher Immanuel Kant dealt with in Critique of Pure Reason.  One of Kant’s issues was that events perceived in time do not inherently imply cause and effect.  One only perceives a succession of events, it is not clear whether one perceived event was a direct antecedent of another.  To go beyond this one needs a point of view as for example Copernicus did when he concluded that the objects in the sky that were observable (sun, moon, visible planets, stars, etc.) did not exist in a circling globe with the earth at the center but were rather moving independently and in the case of the sun, from the viewpoint of those on Earth, the sun was at the center.  The acceptance of this paradigm has almost totally been adopted and perceived as progress from the widely held earth-centric view of the universe that preceded it.  In other words:

Kant's critical philosophytakes into account the position of the knower of the world in general and reveals its impact on the structure of his/her known world.  

The pertinent question then becomes what should be done with obsolete concepts that invoke a point of view that is no longer accepted as adequate.  Essentially what science has done is discard such concepts.  And that is what should be done with ideology that opposes improving the lives of not just the “Already Wealthy” but everyone.  Here is why: it is corrupt, it is not inclusive, it is not progressive (quite the opposite, it is reactionary) and it should be discarded.   Is so doing, how can progress and a strategy for it be connected to political theory?  I would offer this as a starting point:   

The elimination of violence, and the reduction of suppression to the extent required for protecting man and animals from cruelty and aggression are preconditions for the creation of a humane society. Such a society does not yet exist; progress toward it is perhaps more than before arrested by violence and suppression on a global scale.

While it has not historically been the case, this standard must apply to everyone and should not be hindered by an inadequate or invalid ideological front, an ongoing litany of  effects without any causes, lacking any antecedents but certainly overflowing with greed and exclusionary ideology.  Based on what we know of Christ's life on earth and what it stood for, do you really think Christ would hang around with the “Already Wealthy”, do you really think Christ would choose them?  

One wonders.  The horrible political failures of the past 8 years (there was no progress, just a massive retrograding of all things moral and good), we are still experiencing the fin de siècle of the 20th Century, the end of an era most notably characterized by war, destruction and the potential for destruction at levels unprecedented in any historical context.  In the conclusions of One-Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse wrote that “Nothing indicates that it will be a good end.”

This is still true, nothing has significantly changed since that was written.  Indeed, contention for the earth’s resources has intensified and grown as has the lethality of weapons of mass destruction.   However the ability for people to interact, share ideas, establish dialogues, participate in efforts to help each other live has also grown.  So the game is not yet over, chances for changing the existing social order still exist; however time for this to occur is still running out.  Failing to attack false and repressive ideologies for what they are – indeed giving them prominence and legitimacy – is not going to help.

Finally there are simple things that could be done to improve the lives and living conditions of middle-class and working people.  Here is a list of specific ideas.  From my experience in the corporate culture they are certainly novel and unfulfilled.

Every person will have both a voice and a vote in managing their workplace, together with all other workers who work together to produce their good or service.

Management authority will flow from the bottom up instead of from the top down.

Workers will elect their supervisors and managers, their fellow workers they recognize as the most experienced and capable in the work they do. If they fail to manage the workplace correctly, the workers who voted them in can vote them out and delegate the responsibility to someone else.

Workers in each industry — such as the different branches of manufacturing, communication, agriculture, education, transportation, distribution, and so on — will elect representatives from each industry to coordinate and manage each industry on the local, regional and national levels. They will elect their reps to a new national Congress of representatives from all industries to coordinate and manage the economy as a whole.

Working Democracy combines grassroots local control at the single workplace level with representative democracy for each higher level of industrial management to ensure the entire economy runs smoothly and efficiently.

Working Democracy is more efficient because workers manage their own work and can assess every day the effectiveness of the way it is done. They can make necessary changes without going through layers of bosses who may not even know or understand what the problem is.

Working Democracy ensures resources are used wisely and aren’t wasted. When people are working for themselves they understand the importance of making the right choices when it comes to what to produce and how to produce it.

Working Democracy directs our science and technology to producing what is most beneficial for the most people, not what is merely most profitable for a few.

Working Democracy means . . .  

JOB SECURITY:

Workers’ jobs are secure only when workers, not employers, own those jobs.

When a handful of people on a corporation’s board of directors can make decisions that destroy the livelihoods of thousands of workers, that’s not democracy.

Working Democracy puts basic economic decisions in the hands of the people.

Nobody is going to vote to eliminate their own source of livelihood unless the community of workers decides they can produce something different that has a greater benefit for the country.

Coordinating their decision with the rest of the economy through their elected industrial management councils and Congress, including the educational division that can teach workers new skills, workers and communities can adjust their jobs to meet the changing needs and wants of society. The livelihoods of workers will be preserved instead of destroyed, with added benefit for society as a whole.

 A SHORTER WORK WEEK:

As technology develops labor productivity rises, which means we can produce more in the same or shorter work time. Technology should therefore enable us to maintain the same or an improved standard of living with a shorter workweek.

Yet the opposite is true today. Americans are working longer and harder than ever, with all the personal and family stress that overwork produces.

Today technology is used by corporations to lower labor costs and increase profits, which harms rather than benefits the majority.

Working Democracy puts control of technology in the hands of the people, to be used for the benefit of people. As our productivity continues to rise, the hours of work required to produce the goods and services we need will continue to fall, and the workweek of each worker can continue to be reduced.

Work will continue to be an important part of our lives in defining who we are as individuals. But it won't be the only part.

With a shorter workweek we’ll have time to develop our other talents and personal potential. We’ll have time to be the best parents, students, friends and neighbors we can be. We will be complete, not one-dimensional, human beings.  

BEST POSSIBLE LIVING STANDARDS:

Working Democracy will provide the incentive to bring people into work instead of throwing them out. The more workers we have to do each job, the fewer hours each worker will need to work each week to get the job done. In this way the unemployment and underemployment that are the cause of poverty can be reduced to a minimum.

Today even full-time workers live in poverty because their jobs pay too little to provide a proper standard of living. Working Democracy will compensate all jobs fully, in the understanding that all useful work is equally necessary to run the economy.

Standard of living is determined not only by the level of personal consumption but also by access to social services: schools, libraries, parks, hospitals and clinics, public transportation.

Today these aspects of the American standard of living are in decline because government budgets are squeezed to help enrich the top wealth holders even more through tax cuts.

Working Democracy will incorporate social services in the overall system of democratic economic planning and administration. The people will decide the amount of resources and labor to allocate for social services. As resources are in fact not scarce but plentiful, social services can be maintained at a high level without unduly cutting back on personal consumption. 

A SAFE ENVIRONMENT:

Having a house and garage full of stuff doesn’t mean a high quality of life if the air is unfit to breathe, the water and land poisoned by industrial pollutants, the Earth’s resources exhausted, and rising temperatures threaten the very future of civilization.

The quality as well as quantity of goods produced must be considered. They should be made to last so they don’t stress the environment by being thrown away and replaced sooner than necessary. This will also reduce energy use and the production of greenhouse gases by reducing overall production levels.

How goods are produced is also critical. The time and resources that minimize industrial pollution and waste must be allocated to ensure we maintain a rational balance between consumption and preserving the environment.

Working Democracy can achieve this balance because production will be to meet the needs of people, and not to sell ever more merchandise for maximum profit through reckless and unplanned growth.

A JUST SOCIETY AND A PEACEFUL WORLD:

Economic exploitation is the underlying injustice that breeds all kinds of other social injustice.

When a few people enrich themselves by taking the lion’s share of the wealth produced by the work of the majority, society is divided into opposing interests and the result is conflict and strife.

Extreme poverty and deprivation exist in an economy capable of producing great wealth. The upper classes and the governments they control in countries throughout the world use fraud and force to suppress the aspirations of their working populations.

Rulers of different countries fight each other for valuable resources such as oil, and for control of markets and trade advantage.

But it is the poor of those countries who do the actual fighting and dying. It is the working people who are caught in the middle of rulers’ wars and suffer the most and gain the least from them.

Working Democracy promotes peace and social justice by eliminating exploitation, because as the Bible says, “Love of money is the root of all evil.”

People will work together as a unified community of workers, with common goals democratically decided by themselves. Every person will have the inalienable right to be a working member of the community and to receive full compensation for the work they contribute to the common effort. No one will have the right to profit and enrich themselves on the backs of the people who produce the wealth.

While exploitation breeds destructive competition, oppression, irrational hatreds and war, Working Democracy promotes intelligent cooperation, social equality and peace.

It may seem that bringing this about will require something as profound as the real Second Coming.   However it shouldn't.  The President and all members of Congress serve under oath.  The oath is to uphold the Constitution and is a commitment to the people of the United States.    It isn't a commitment to the Health Care Industry or any other corporate lobby that makes huge campaign contributions to members of Congress so they will do whatever it takes to enhance the corporate sector, that is, only the corporate sector.  You see they are elected to represent the interests of the people of the United States, not those of corporations, and above all the President, Congress and any others serving the Republic are expected to act in accordance with what is best for the country and ultimately what is best for its citizens.    It may require a display of personal courage to do this but that is what was anticipated.

If the President or any member of Congress is not reelected because of some wacko form of politics devoted to corporate interests whose only goal is increasing bonuses for its directors, history will view them as heroes, as those with the courage to do what was best for the nation in spite of how they were threatened by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the well financed campaign fronts that represent corporations and suppress truth. 

Those who uphold the oath they took can take solace in how history will record their actions which perhaps represent a short term personal sacrifice, but in the final analysis served the best course for the United States and its citizens.