I am writing to you in a time of great social injustice. The economic inequality in America has soared to great heights in the last three decades. The gap between the wealthy and the poor has widened greatly yet the government has done nothing to seal the crack in our society. Money has blinded both government officials and the rich from acknowledging the problem and solving it. Greed has motivated them to continue expanding the gap. So it is without a doubt time for people, more specifically the youth, to stand up and cause “friction to the machine.” It is time to dissemble the pillars of establishment and create a more economically equal society.
The aphorism “Youth is not immortality, youth is the power to make choices.” is quite fitting. The youth have a choice whether or not to make change. However, it is fundamental that they do because they have a lot to lose if they don’t unite to improve the current economic conditions. They risk living a life of economic burden and struggle that may very well carry on for generations.
Helen Keller once stated, “It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted.”
The power of youth to change society has been witnessed before. They traveled to the deep South to register African American voters and educate other youth on how to organize their communities to help grow the civil rights campaign in the 1960’s. The youth have the ability and the chance to make change again. Personal finance website NerdWallet estimated that today’s college graduates will not retire until about 73 because of student debt alone. It is imperative that the youth take an active role in this issue because if they don’t, they risk slaving away at a job for the rest of their life, crushed by debt, never to enjoy a dignified retirement.
Moreover, George Santayana once said “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The Roman Republic fell due to the growing divide between the plebeian groups and the equestrian classes, the wealthy elitists and the lower classes. The rich got richer and the poor get poorer. Eventually, the Roman Republic was unstable and collapsed. It isn’t a coincidence that America is in the same position, as we share very similar governments. Furthermore, inequality is worse in America than it has ever been before and it is much larger than that of Ancient Rome’s.
We can either learn from the mistakes of Rome or repeat them. If we want greater access to the American Dream, something we have lost in last few decades, we need to make lawmakers liable. The American Dream is what allowed past generations of Americans to get a good job, buy a house, raise a family, and live a nice comfortable life but this dream has become a nightmare. The best way to civilly disobey would to protest. In addition, according to a poll taken by USA Today, 60 percent of Americans feel the current economic system unfairly favors the wealthy. A more extreme response would be to follow the footsteps of, Henry Thoreau, and not pay into a government and economy that is morally unjust and does not serve the people. When the richest one percent owns 46 percent of the nation’s wealth, there is a problem which cannot go on ignored.
The divide between the rich and the poor is only widening. In time, this gap can become the reason for our nations downfall. When the government and its economy begins to favor and rule with bias it is time for change. America’s future rests in the hands of the youth and the lower and middle class citizens because without economic equality the future seems grim. It is morally unjust for the rich to just prosper and the poor to flounder. The needs of many outweighs the needs of the few. When this fails to happen, it is time to rise up and disobey.
–Jaden Morales
