Counts can corrupt education. As long as Counts have their own access to Public Knowledge for self gain, they don’t have to care whether there are public options in education for all Americans.
And this violates
fundamental
American values.
Education is how Americans secure equal opportunity to pursue the American Dream. All Americans deserve equal access to Public Knowledge, and with it a chance to contribute and thrive.
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:
- Limit the potential of Contributing Americans. Counts lecture Americans that we need to better ourselves. But when Counts hoard Public Gains, Americans lose educational opportunities we need to build wealth and to realize our full individual potential.
- Cause our schools to decline. When we cycle less of our Public Gains back into our schools, those schools degenerate. Lower test scores, more disciplinary problems, fewer options for young Americans. We fail to deliver our Public Knowledge to the next generation.
- Warp education goals. Education is about curiosity and exploration across the full range of human knowledge and experience. But extreme money gives Counts an outsized influence on America’s system of education. Counts can push a narrow focus on money and business.
- Push extreme agendas on our kids. When our public schools struggle, they’re more vulnerable to the whims of any Count with an agenda. He can use extreme money to push that agenda on our kids with marketing, addictive technologies, and flawed and biased materials.
- Sideline public education with AI. AI is a new tool Counts use to lay claim to America’s heritage of Public Knowledge. Count-controlled AI is Count-controlled Public Knowledge. That’s a threat to our ability to transmit Public Knowledge through public education.
- Make Americans more dependent. Counts withhold the money we need to fuel public options in education up to American standards. Without equal access to our heritage of Public Knowledge, all of us are more dependent on knowledge controlled by Counts.
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.
