Big Woods Declaration

Two hundred and fifty years after our original Declaration of Independence, Americans face a new threat to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When the United States of America was founded, the threat was the tyranny of a single king. Today, the threat is the tyranny of elite, entitled members of a Counting Class^N1 who wield nearly unlimited money power. This class of Counts waits on Free Income^N2 to inflate runaway Money Counts.^N3 Armed with extreme money, Counts upset balance with extremity and reduce American citizens to subjects. Counts break the promise of the American Dream.^N4

We the people of the United States of America can see that we are being left behind. Americans can tell that we don’t have equal say in the decisions that shape our lives. Americans know that extreme money is corrupting our corporations, our governments, our families, and our relationships with neighbors. Americans can feel the hit to our dignity when we don’t have the ability to pay for family needs and to keep up with the demands of today’s world. We can see that we are missing out on the American Dream.

Our American Life^N5 has been a great movement toward liberty and justice for all. America has generated wondrous abundance, breathtaking advances in science and technology, awesome creations in arts and entertainment, and a standard of living above anything the founders of our county could have imagined two and a half centuries ago. Our capitalist republic thrives on shared prosperity and the consent of the people.

Today, America is caught in a national crisis unlike any our country has faced before. Our American way of life is endangered by a Counting Class that throttles opportunity and cuts off the American Dream. Elite Counts hoard extreme money, retreat from the real world, and force their whims and wants on Americans without our consent.

America is held together by the strength and effort of all of us in the Contributing Classes.^N6 Contributors are the Americans who show up each day to make, grow, create, and maintain things, to help and care for one another. Contributing Americans include everyone from families working to make ends meet, to middle class professionals, to farmers and wage workers, to business executives. We’re parents, students, artists, volunteers, and caregivers.

Elite, entitled Counts are alien to this Contributing America. Counts are foreign to even our richest neighbors. Counts can choose to simply wait for Free Income to inflate their out-of-control, extreme Money Counts. They collect gains in Free Income as automatic as a clock, requiring no skill, knowledge, experience, or effort. They can stay exempt from work and taxes. Counts just keep ticking up the ranks of the Counting Class.

What Counts take out as Free Income is the value of the Public Gains of America.^N7 That’s trillions of dollars of American-made wealth. America thrives when we cycle our Public Gains back into American Life to power new growth. Then all of us in the Contributing Classes, richer and poorer, can make a greater American future.

America is an incredible engine of prosperity, formed of:

• Public Knowledge^N8 (K) All the know-how from previous generations we inherit, develop, and pass along
• Public Investment^N9 (I) All we do to provide public options up to the American standards of equal freedom, equal security, and equal opportunity
• Public Resources^N10 (R) Everything we draw on and keep healthy in the real world, environmental and human
• Public Extensions^N11 (E) All the ways we flex our power to adapt to changes, keep balance, and get things done

This generator, this KIRE Engine of Prosperity,^N12 falters when Counts capture so much of America’s Public Gains and fail to pay their debts to society. They hoard and withhold the money we need to fuel Public Knowledge, Public Investment, Public Resources, and Public Extensions. The Counting Class takes apart what Americans have put together.

Members of the elite, entitled Counting Class live in denial. They show a lack of humble gratitude. They make believe that they are “self made.” They refuse to accept their true dependence on America. They accuse Americans of their own failings: avoiding work, not earning their keep, suffering envy, and wasting resources. Counts complain about the needs of Contributing Americans and try to replace us with machines. They shirk responsibility for the extremism that they sponsor and inflame with extreme money.

The Counts of the Counting Class turn their backs on America, then rig our country for their self gain. They leave our neighborhoods behind, but tighten a remote grip on American lives. Runaway inflation of their Money Counts leaves us all worth less.

America thrives on the free and healthy competition of efforts and ideas. But America loses balance when entitled elites cross the Counting Class Line.^N13 That’s the point where the America we love falls subject to the corruption of extreme money. That’s the point where a Counting Class emerges, a radical imbalance in our capitalist republic.

Armed with lethal extreme money, Counts endanger our American way of life:

• Counts withdraw from America.^D1
• Counts keep a grip on American lives.^D2
• Counts inflate the costs of living in America.^D3
• Counts drive America into debt.^D4
• Counts prey on the wealth of Americans.^D5
• Counts hoard the Public Gains of America.^D6
• Counts limit the wealth of Americans.^D7
• Counts take the future from young Americans.^D8
• Counts reject the American work ethic.^D9
• Counts shirk responsibility.^D10
• Counts awaken crude attitudes.^D11
• Counts push extreme plans on Americans.^D12
• Counts cheapen God and country.^D13
• Counts dishonor military public servants.^D14
• Counts undercut America’s world standing.^D15
• Counts abuse America’s land, water, air.^D16
• Counts imperil the American lifespan.^D17
• Counts shatter fellowship.^D18
• Counts corrupt charitable giving.^D19
• Counts corrupt education.^D20
• Counts corrupt corporations.^D21
• Counts corrupt governments.^D22
• Counts impair American judgment.^D23
• Counts warp real debate.^D24
• Counts replace qualified leaders in America.^D25
• Counts threaten American democracy.^D26
• Counts threaten capitalist America.^D27

Contributing Americans can call out these dangers. We can say, “Enough!” to the extreme money of elite, entitled Counts. We can unite as equals in all our differences to reclaim America’s Public Gains and regenerate our American Life. We can bring America up to our standards of equal freedom, equal security, and equal opportunity.

When we stand united, Contributing Americans can save our American way of life:

• We can notice the Counts in America.^S1
• We can remember Counts are just real people.^S2
• We can trim back out-of-control Money Counts.^S3
• We can reclaim the Public Gains of America.^S4
• We can restrain the wrongdoing of Counts.^S5
• We can stop Counts from fleeing responsibility.^S6
• We can defend the values of the Contributing Classes.^S7
• We can embrace the spirit of insubordination.^S8
• We can evolve our outdated institutions.^S9
• We can decide what America’s future will be.^S10
• We can expand Public Knowledge.^S11
• We can commit to Public Investment.^S12
• We can protect Public Resources.^S13
• We can exercise Public Extensions.^S14
• We can live and let live as equals.^S15
• We can champion the American Dream.^S16

There is a deep gulf in America between Counts and Contributors. Armed with extreme money, the Counting Class wields lopsided power over all American lives. No American can live free in the shadow of a Count.

Americans can choose to stand united with our neighbors against the tyranny of the Counting Class. Americans can achieve healthy balance. We can make a future of, by, and for the people. We can renew the American Dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, with justice for all.