I know you’re angry. You’ve done everything right, but you can’t get ahead. If you’re anything like me, there may be periods of your life when you didn’t know whether you were coming or going. You were so busy working, raising a family, getting your education, or a combination of these things. Yet, the American Dream seems out of reach. One chronic illness, accident, divorce, death or other life-changing situation derailed your whole life. Or, you gradually sank into more debt, only to find yourself barely treading water financially.

Extreme hardship has become a way of life for millions of us in the wealthiest country in the world. I have been exploring reasons why this is the case. In 1776, Adam Smith formalized the concepts of capitalism, the economic model which we’ve adopted. Over his lifetime, he warned us about some of the downsides of capitalism. He warned us that our Congress would be answerable to corporate executives instead of We The People, that wealthy individuals would gain too much wealth while the working class would be destroyed over time, just as in the game Monopoly. In other words, capitalism leads to poverty for the masses, while the few at the top exploit our labor, our natural resources, our very lives– for their own gain.

We The People must act if we are to turn things around. I dissolved my law firm because I could no longer stomach the status quo, which continues to get ever more challenging to navigate–more cut throat, more intolerable for many of us.

Together we can turn things around. Write to me at tina@yeshope.org and let me know what you can do to be part of the change our world so urgently needs. Let’s channel that anger into lasting solutions.

Tina Gehres

Lincoln