Six Blind Men and the Elephant

There's a fairy tale about six blind men describing an elephant. Each man touches only one part of the elephant and describes what he believes the elephant looks like by what he felt. Each man disagrees with the others and they argue and argue without coming to any agreement. Each believes that his description of the elephant is the only right one.

Government leaders and factions throughout the world refuse to listen to one another, believing that they and only they are right. When persuasion fails they often resort to deadly force to annihilate any opposition.

My Experience with Income Inequality

I donate $500 to $600 monthly. Not bragging here, just putting the facts up front. By the way, my annual income places me in the lower middle class. I'm barely over $50,000 a year.

I like being able to chose where some of my donations go, so when I hear that 92 million Americans are outside of the labor force I begin to worry quite a bit. I don't have any tax shelters. Most of my income goes to pay for my housing, food, medical, and charitable donations.

Even though I've had minor cost of living increases over the past five years, more money is withheld each month than I received five years ago. I repeat - I actually receive less money today than I did five years ago.

When the federal government starts talking about increasing minimum wages to $15/hr. and extending unemployment indefinitely I begin to worry a bit. I'm hoping they're talking about getting this money from wealthy liberals, but I doubt it.