Dear Editor,
Attention young people. Baby boomers (born between 1946-64) and millennials (ages 18-35) both represent nearly one-third of the potential voting populace apiece. In 2016, people 65 years and older voted at a 71 percent rate. Millennials voted at 46 percent. That is a 25 percent difference.
The U.S. has one of lowest youth voting rates in the industrialized world. The goal should be to make it the highest. The ’60s generation and yours are the two most progressive and idealistic generations in history. Also, they are the least racist, the least religiously bigoted, the least homophobic, etc. If young people voted at the same rate as seniors, you could change the world.
The top 1 percent represents the current power structure of the U.S. This includes the fossil fuel industry, the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries, the corporate media (which controls over 90 percent of what you watch, read and hear), the military-industrial complex, etc. The three richest Americans own as much wealth as the bottom 160 million-plus Americans. The top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent.
Forty-nine percent of all new revenue generated goes to the top 1 percent. And the other 51 percent goes to the bottom 99 percent. When almost half of new wealth created goes to the top 1 percent, it is called “income inequality.”
Millennials get 3 percent of this new wealth today vs. 21 percent, the amount they got in 1989. In the 1960s, CEOs made 20 times what their average worker received. Today, it is 287-1. This is the greatest wealth disparity since the 1920s, just before the Great Depression hit.
The concentration of wealth and power by a handful of millionaires/billionaires is called an “oligarchy.” If we continue in this direction, we end up in a dictatorship. If we move in the opposite direction, however, we will be back in a democracy by majority rule, one person, one vote.
The 1 percent have the wealth and power, but we have the numbers. Now, I may not have a Ph.D. in math, but I can tell you that 99 percent is a heckuva lot more people than 1 percent.
To enact change will require nothing less than overwhelming the ballot box next year with the biggest voter turnout ever seen. Not by a little either, by a lot.
Most political experts consider the 2020 election to be the most important we’ll see in our lifetimes. The future of our country and the future of the planet will be decided next year. Please register to vote AND get people you know registered as well.
As one politician recently said, “We don’t watch the polls. We change the polls” by getting involved in the political process.
The future of this country will increasingly rest upon the shoulders of young people. Transforming society toward a bright future for them and the other 99 percent will require a record-shattering turnout.
Sincerely,
Gordon Kobayashi
Valley Springs, Calif.
ADD LINKS TO OTHER STORIES HERE
