Counts can inflate the costs of living in America, to the highest possible prices any American can bear. Counts benefit from higher prices, while the rest of us watch the American Dream slip away.
And this violates
fundamental
American values.
America is founded on the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one has the right to drive the price of the American Dream out of reach of Contributing Americans.
Extreme money can turn any regular problem in America into an extreme threat. Elite, entitled Counts endanger America by wielding extreme E8, E9, E10, E11 Money Counts to:
- Price Americans out of prosperity. For any necessity or luxury in demand, extreme Money Counts mean inflated prices. Counts have far more dollars to use to buy the same fixed set of things. The Counting Class can leave Contributing Americans priced out of prosperity.
- Hold life essentials hostage for higher prices. Counts can use extreme money to lay claim to anything essential to life. They can control a life-saving drug and then inflate the price to “what the market will bear.” And who wouldn’t spend everything to save the life of their child?
- Push expensive debt on Americans. When America is artificially juiced with tens of trillions of dollars from national debt, there’s more money for Counts to target and collect. But Americans pay the costs of a weaker US dollar and higher interest rates on any more borrowing.
- Target the price protection of public options. Public options protect against predatory pricing by Counts who have cornered a market. And so Counts target any existing public options: public schools, public healthcare, public transit, public mail, public security.
- Make Americans pay more for the damage Counts cause. Counts wield extreme money to pursue their whims and wants, leaving Americans with the costs. Climate damage means higher insurance costs. AI data mining plants mean higher energy and water bills.
- Put a price on more and more of America. The Counting Class uses extreme money to claim more of America and sell it for more money. Left unchecked, Counts will make AI a new subscription cost, charging Americans just to use our own Public Knowledge.
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Big Woods Declaration (BWD) renews the call for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from the corruption of extreme money.
The BWD is a First Amendment petition to the American people and our government. It is not limited to any political party or group.
The BWD is a total of 60 pages: the Core Declaration (4 pages), the 13 Notes, the 27 Dangers to America, and the 16 Solutions for America.
The BWD may be shared and reused under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. View a copy of this license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The BWD was created without the use of any AI, opinion polling, or focus groups. The BWD draws on many core American ideas as well as the work of Thorstein Veblen, America’s visionary from the Big Woods of Minnesota.
All photos in the BWD were taken in the Big Woods. The BWD was framed by Erik Christopher Sahlin with Alyssa Beth Wulf.
