Yalies for a Fair, Sustainable Society
Editor’s Note: This is the first instance of organizing a “shared interest group” (SIG) within Yale 1969. (More about SIGs on Yale1969.org here.)
Please read Doug Leonard’s proposal below … to form a discussion (and action!) group of Yale ’69 classmates who want to have a real, positive impact on society.
Join discussion group to formulate action plans to transform society
19.6 trillion in 2008 for Wall Street and another 4+ trillion in 2020 (to start); 0.5 trillion today for the rest of us with millions unemployed. Same old, same old, since mankind transitioned from hunting/gathering to big time agriculture.
It’s not that wealthy people are worse than the rest, just that they are not any better. Following human nature, some will inevitably use personal wealth to influence society to their benefit, including financially (translating into even more power).
They will accumulate more and more power unless they are restrained by a greater power – the rest of us utilizing lawful mechanisms inherited from our founders. Can we honorably do anything less for ourselves, our children and our only planet?
Join us in an inaugural conference call to discuss the problem and fashion action plans that might be effective in restoring a better balance of power for the greater good.
Click here to register for our Zoom meeting (learn more about Zoom meetings for Yale 1969). You will get an email with all the meeting details and reminders! I look forward to seeing you soon!
Doug Leonard
Conference Organizer – Doug Leonard, Timothy Dwight
Great idea. Do you have some specific areas of concern (e.g., healthcare system) that might focus discussion? My issue is helping “essential” nonprofits in rebound and survive the next few years.
Hi Louis — Discussion is open on any topics that participants want to bring up that relate to limiting the adverse effects of the concentration of wealth. For my part, in view of the pervasiveness of the damage being caused by the current system, I am most interested in strategies to float all boats by making the tide rise. Regarding that pervasiveness, you might want to access the following NYT article by selecting, and then choosing to open, the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/10/opinion/coronavirus-us-economy-inequality.html?referringSource=articleShare. Thanks. — Doug
cf Jacinda Ardern
Audaciter!
Sounds great. Pandemic has turned the spotlight on the fragility of our society, all based on the grotesque level of wealth inequality. Oligarchs will of course seek ways to enrich themselves from human misery. We must find ways to resist. I look forward to the May 13 zoom.
Some efforts are underway in communities to examine the ways in which the COVID-19 crisis is exposing the highly inequitable nature of one after another of the features of our society — both within this country and around the world. We can learn a lot about how systems really work (despite what they like to think of themselves) when we witness them falling apart.
See, for example, the way in which the inequities of the global food system have been stripped bare for everyone to see at this point. “The Vulnerability of the Global Food System and the Strategies Needed for a Sustainable “Recovery”” at: https://environmentaljusticetv.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/the-vulnerability-of-the-global-food-system-and-the-strategies-needed-for-a-sustainable-recovery-ev-n-345-cctv/