This short animated fairy tale, written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers and narrated by Ed Asner, explains, in about 7.5 minutes, the underlying source of our economic problems. In a nutshell: our nation is being governed for the benefit of billionaires and multi-millionaires.
A no-brainer solution to our economic problems is to tax billionaires and multi-millionaires at a much higher rate, close their lobbyist-written tax loopholes, and allocate tax revenue for the benefit of the 99 percent. In polls, a majority of Americans back these policies. But in Washington DC, where most politicians are influenced by the 1%, it’s not likely that these common sense solutions will be enacted (to the extent that they should be) any time soon.
One hundred years ago, the equivalent of today’s billionaires and multi-millionaires—the robber barons of the Gilded Age—were using politicians to siphon off the nation’s wealth. Americans woke up, shunned the vulture capitalists of the day and the political minions who enabled them, and demanded change. Its been done before. We can do it again.