...in our search for the good life.

I want the good life. Without having to make money. Lots of money, that is. Just a tidy little sum. All I need are a few basics. A decent education. So that I can exercise my mind. Good health care. So I can exercise my body. A shelter. And it doesn't have to be fancy. A loving relationship, too. I don't have to be monitarily rich to be happy. The basics and a bit of leisure time. That's all it takes. I don't have to be a fat cat hauling in oodles of money on Wall Street, or on Main street, for that matter. So, that's what I want. And I suspect that many, many in the middle class would settle for essentially the same. As an American, I want the government to make this sort of existence possible. And that probably requires less of a gap between the rich and the poor. A better distribution of wealth. That can be achieved, in part, by higher taxes on the rich. By putting some limits on profits. Yes, it may require some amount of socialism blended with capitalism. Yes, I want a sense of decency and fairness to prevail in America and in the world. We don't have that under the present capitalist system. We're allowing too much exploitation. Too much extremism. Politically. Economically. Socially. Of course, what I am proposing may seem extreme. To the capitalist. But I guess that's the nature of change. I want change that some day will no longer seem extreme. I, for one, would have no difficulty adjusting to it. And I suspect that would go for most of us in our search for the good life. --Jim Broede