America is one of the wealthiest nations in the world. In raw numbers, the amount of money the United States creates, exports, imports, invests, divests, saves, spends and moves around is staggering. It’s no wonder we talk about national budgets and deficits in terms of trillions, and the rest of the world watches us to see what will happen to the world economy.
Despite this wealth, America faces high unemployment, higher underemployment, the worst infant mortality rate of the first world, consistently low ranks in most other medical statistics and a growing number of Americans in debt and poverty. More than 1 percent of our population is in prison. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow. America has a lot of money, but every year more of it is in the hands of fewer people.
We need to reduce this gap. Taxes are part of the solution, but redistribution will only solve some of our problems. It might shrink the income gap, but America’s problems are much more fundamental. We need to change how we think about wealth.
We need to stop thinking about wealth on an individual basis. Having a lot of rich people does not make America wealthy. We need to think about wealth in terms of the health of our communities and nation. True wealth in a nation shouldn’t be measured in money, it should be measured by the number of citizens who are starving, who don’t have adequate medical care, and who don’t have a chance to work satisfying jobs in safe conditions with adequate benefits.
There isn’t much point in being wealthy in an impoverished community. Poverty makes communities less safe, increases crime and is bad for the country. Increased poverty means America is less wealthy, even as the rich become richer. Why live in a gated community surrounded by poverty? The growing gap between the rich and poor hurts the wealthy just like it hurts working-class Americans.
Money won’t make America rich. Americans who are healthy, happy and have their basic needs met will make America rich. And that means we all need to stop striving for personal wealth and start working to improve the nation, starting with where we live. Closing the income gap is part of this: More even distribution of wealth means less poverty. But we also need to start addressing some of our basic needs at the local level.
Cities need to work to end homelessness and small towns need to work to end hunger and poverty. This will make everyone in those communities wealthier — wealthier because there is less crime in their community, less drug use and less violence. Working to end poverty in America is not just a moral imperative, it’s in every American’s self-interest.
Capitalism is good at generating money and creating a strong economy. Now we need to take the raw materials of our capitalist system and turn them into wealth. That means ensuring every member of our society has their basic needs met: adequate food, health care and happiness. Until that happens, our country can’t be truly wealthy.
Max Bartlett can be reached at [email protected]