From Here to Prosperity: An Agenda for Progressive Prosperity Based on an Inequality-Busting Strategy of Income for Me, Wealth for We

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, they cannot save the few who are rich." John F Kennedy, Inaugural Speech, Jan 1961 

 

Economic inequality has reached historic highs worldwide. Almost half the world’s wealth is now owned by just 1% of the population. Disparities in the distribution of wealth have grown far more extreme compared to disparities in income. This is the result of a broken ‘system’ and no amount of business-as-usual will solve it, the author argues.

 

Burgess gives voice to the widespread frustration at the failure of partisan politics and traditional economics to end this toxic inequality. Rather than dwelling on these grievances, however, he charts a path to greater social justice. He articulates a reform agenda and a strategy to provide rapid and substantial relief to millions of people struggling to make ends meet through a tax reform that is both efficient and equitable. 

 

He avoids the usual political pitfalls that can derail proposals aimed at minimizing economic inequality. From Here to Prosperity is not an invitation to a zero-sum class struggle. His approach is both more original and less divisive. While it aims to provide relief to the people who need it most, it also enlists the support and consent of the wealthy, who would also benefit under a fair and sustainable approach to the creation and distribution of wealth - where the wealth produced goes to the wealth producers. 

 

Instead of rebuking policy elites and elected officials for their assorted sins - corruption, fraud, ineptitude, etc. - Burgess formulates a new model of political leadership and challenges the higher echelons of power to jettison obsolete habits of mind and shift to the path of prosperity for all. 

 

Burgess addresses all participants in the shift to shared prosperity - the wealthy and the poor, people at the centre and the margins of power. But the shift must begin, he argues, with the individual, the independent thinker, the human being with a voice and an easy access to social media, the citizen demanding change.

Thomas J Burgess has had a long career as an entrepreneur, an international public relations consultant, an advertising executive, a specialist in technology marketing, a journalist, a newspaper editor, a lecturer, a disc jockey, a broadcaster, and a politician. He founded and built international marketing firms that worked in 80 countries for clients such as Acer, BICC, BT, Dell, Fujitsu, Novell, Regus, and Sage as well as governments including Ireland and the State of California.