To a certain extent the world of finance is an imaginary construct. By that I mean that it is what we think it is. We can change the way it works by changing the way we think about it. We can change how money is moving within the system. We can make things more fair.

Our banking system is not real in the way Global Warming is real, or the way the emerald ash borer is real, or that we are in the middle of the sixth great extinction event in our planet’s history.

It doesn’t matter if you believe in Global Warming or not. Storms are going to continue to get stronger and more erratic. Plants like sugar maples that like a cold winter are moving north. We can grow fruit trees here that we couldn’t 50 years ago. Insects and birds are moving north. Unless we shift gears very quickly we are making our planet into a desert.

The emerald ash borer came in on a rotten pallet. Our maple trees are in danger from insects we haven’t even named yet. We can do something by regulating that all shipping be done with composite materials. Yes, that will increase the cost of this toaster from China but that will make American goods more competitive as well as keeping us safe. This is the kind of common good that the preamble to the Constitution refers to. Our politicians are not addressing the danger to our maple trees.

We can see insect extinction on the windshields of our cars. Forty years ago the windshield would be covered in bugs. Now they are mostly clean. The Audubon estimates we have lost 30% of our bird population in the last 40 years. We are the top of the food chain. We depend on everything below us.

Our financial system depends on faith. Your money is not actually in the bank itself. You can’t go there and take a wheelbarrow full of cash. The bank makes money by loaning it to other people at an interest rate. If all the depositors are afraid all at once there could be a run on the bank. Confidence in the system is key to maintaining the system. That’s why they get bailed out. That’s why we have to have tight regulations so that banking is boring and they don’t need help.

At the same time we would be more prosperous if our system was more fair.

The way it works right now income from wages is taxed at one rate, but income from investments is taxed at a lower rate. If you are a big company with a team of lawyers you may not pay any taxes at all. You may even get a rebate depending on how good your lobbyists are.

If we changed the tax structure so that capital gains were taxed at the same rate as wages we would make the system more fair. If large corporations paid the same taxes as Sara’s Salon or Joe’s Garage we would have money for things like universal basic income, a single payer healthcare system and trains.

A single payer healthcare system would make us more prosperous by eliminating medical debt. Money that services debt is money that is not working on growing the economy.

This is the same argument for student debt. Money servicing student debt would be converted into money servicing housing, entertainment or industry. Forgiving student debt frees up that money for other things.

Right now we have a situation where a very small group of people control way too much of our system. They are working in their own short term interests to the detriment of our entire planet. Global Warming is happening whether or not you believe in it.

How to get power away from this small group of people is the challenge of our time. We can start with the tax system because we still live in a democracy. Let’s exercise our right to strive for a better world.

Democrats are by no means perfect but Elizabeth Warren has put forward a plan to make our tax system more fair. Where is the Republican plan to get the rich to pay their fair share? There isn’t one. This alone tells you which side they are really on.

Profits are higher than they have ever been. The wealthiest people have seen their wealth grow astronomically while their taxes have been cut and cut again.

We need to return to the tax structure and social programs of the 1960s when we visited the moon and launched the Great Society. We were wealthy in the 1960s because we taxed the rich and put our money into social programs. We can be wealthy again.

Marie Tomlinson is a Fredonia resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com