Counts can limit the wealth of Americans. They support a rigged system in which the Money Counts of the Counting Class increase much faster than the wealth of the Contributing Classes.
And this violates
fundamental
American values.
Americans have a right to equal opportunity to pursue the American Dream. It’s not OK for one group of people to take an outsized share of wealth while they limit chances for everyone else.
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:
- Leave Americans falling behind in invested wealth. Only Counts can afford to leave extreme Money Counts untouched for decades, protected from short-term losses, protected from taxes. Contributing Americans have to use more of our money for everyday life needs.
- Keep the biggest gains for themselves. Counts can start young and can afford to wait for 10% average yearly gains in the US stock market. That’s Free Income that doubles their Money Counts every 7.2 years.
- Leave Americans dependent on slow-growing wealth. Many Contributing Americans count on our homes as a main form of wealth. But a house is a poor long-term investment. Houses gain value at a lower rate, are vulnerable to unexpected problems, and make us pay the costs of insurance, utilities, maintenance, and repairs.
- Exploit America’s wealth tax on American homes. Property tax is America’s only annual wealth tax. But it targets more of the wealth of the Contributing Classes than the Counting Class. That wealth tax goes up with any increase in assessment, year after year. And it’s a tax a homeowner pays in full, even with a mortgage.
- Starve American communities of Public Gains. When Counts collect the Public Gains of America as Free Income for themselves alone, they leave American communities starved of the money they need. And so local wealth taxes (property taxes) have to fill the gap.
- Let the wealth of Americans get wiped out. Counts keep generational wealth, while Americans are always a step from having their wealth wiped out, whether by a health crisis, a natural disaster, or end-of-life care.
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.
