THE world is in crisis, wrought by a systemic political monopolistic oligarchy that uses proletarians to further enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and the middle class and take a toll on global warming and the ecosystem.

Is it any wonder when young workers-who must struggle to earn a living-have been told that they must work hard so that their earnings can be used to pay social security benefits to support retirees?

‘Disillusionment is high among overworked young people who have spent their lives competing against each other academically and climbing the corporate ladder, only to find little satisfaction.’- CNN. Across rich nations, from China to the US, youths have seen what the oligarchical few can do to destroy the world, such as when the pandemic caused a global catastrophe that threatened to end humanity. So, the rich nations spent trillions saving us from their excesses, and even though pandemic deaths have subsided, different versions of the virus still exist. Imagine what we could have done with those pandemic trillions to eliminate poverty if we did not have Covid 19 lurking in the wings.

Where have all the monetary contributions from those who worked hard all their lives gone, that we need to steal from young workers to support the old? Isn’t that a classic example of a pyramid scheme which is illegal?

The young workers are rebelling, and who can blame them?

The world is being destroyed from the top down, and the rich only want to accumulate wealth.

The number of millionaires and billionaires increases exponentially year in and year out, and so too is the number of poor, whose numbers disproportionately far outweigh the rich.

The pandemic has taught us that we can no longer rely on politicians who always put partisan interests before the country-the evidence is startlingly apparent that they get rich as the rest of the nation backslides into poverty.

The effects can be seen internationally: Trump and the Republican party in the US; in Russia, Putin wants to start World War III to help his nation’s faltering economy; Maduro wants all the oil profits in Venezuela for himself and his cronies, and the PNM intends to have a one-party rule for life by installing their financiers into every State-run corporation such as the EBC, Central Bank, the Judiciary, and WASA, to name a few.

The PNM, unfortunately, practises Robin Hood in reverse, where they take from the poor and give to the rich.

What T&T needs is a renewal of the legendary Robin Hood effect where the upper class is taken to task, and the resultant net effects accrued are used to benefit the rest of the citizens.

This can be done by increasing taxation on anyone earning over $1 million annually, beginning with 30 per cent and rising incrementally to 50 per cent for those making more and eliminating taxes on low-income workers. It is only fair since the rich earned their fortunes off the backs of the middle class and the poor by paying them low wages. It is time for them to give something back with a wealth tax. For example, if your annual income is a billion dollars, you should have no qualms in contributing $500 million in taxes to the treasury.

How much money can you spend in one lifetime, or is it just for bragging rights?

Rex Chookolingo