Poverty is a crime, but it is not a crime to be poor. As murder is a crime, it is not a crime to be murdered. The person who is poor is not a criminal himself, but a victim of a crime for which others or maybe himself are responsible. Poverty is not the result of God, but because of our own injustice, our own selfishness, our own ignorance and it is unnecessary. The cause is the appropriation of property by a few, of the natural elements on which and from which all must live.

President Franklin Roosevelt said that the solution to poverty is a good job. After all, isn’t it the working people who labor all day long, who put out the effort doing the physical as well as the mental work in order to make a living and produce goods and services for the rest of society. The waitress who spends all day on her feet. The carpenter who does physical work to build a house. The farm laborer who toils in the hot sun all day so others can eat. Teachers who educate our children. Nurses who care for the sick and injured. These are the people who spend the money they make (consumers) which creates demand and jobs. These are the “makers,” the job creators. Wouldn’t you think that these working people would be the ones who would live in the finest houses and have the most of everything that work produces?

At the founding of this country, the Boston Tea Party revolted against the East India Company, which was trying to force them to buy tea made in another country, not home grown. Cotton was grown in the south, with slaves, then sent overseas to be made into clothing and then sent back to America to be consumed. Today, citizens of the United States are being forced to buy goods from foreign countries, not manufactured in the United States. 

Alexander Hamilton knew that real wealth doesn’t exist until somebody makes something. Adam Smith, who wrote “The Wealth of Nations,” used the example of a tree branch being formed into an axe handle. The value added is creating wealth, but it also creates wages, which working people spend to drive demand, which drives the economy. Over 50 years ago, manufacturing was 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; now it is about 10 percent. We are buying manufactured products made in low-wage countries, thus creating wealth for them, not us. 

Ever since the U.S. began to engage in free trade agreements, our status as a global superpower has been in decline. Through NAFTA, CAFTA and the soon to be TPP, we have become dependent on foreign debt and imports for our day-to-day necessities. We are more focused on appeasing giant multinational corporations that get Congress elected, than on the American public. The corporate media should be reporting on the harmful effects that “free trade” is having on the economy, but instead the media brainwashes the public into thinking everything is all right. Our country is collapsing around us. Cities are shutting down due to job losses and the decimation of entire industries.

We have a labor surplus here in the U.S. We need incentives to manufacture goods here in the U.S., to create wealth and jobs to employ working people, producing jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs.

Brosten is a resident of Bigfork.