This essay assumes three things are true:

(1) Climate change is a real crisis caused and exacerbated by humans.

(2) Income inequality on a scale of billions is a human rights violation.

(3) Healthcare, when needed medicine or technology exists, is a fundamental right with no inherent cost or financial access point if one has consented to being governed.

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As with all my writing, I used no AI in this essay even though it would have been way better!

I also admit that as the administration fights back against a middle-class strike, there will be more and more problems that people smarter than me have to solve.

I see myself as cannon fodder.

What we don’t want is our children looking back and asking, “Why didn’t anybody do anything?”

So, how about we fire a warning shot these first two weeks of July?

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When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the idea that a few people’s greed could outpace the planet’s ability to heal itself was about as far-fetched an idea as one of his own slaves becoming his commander-in-chief, or the proliferation of nuclear weapons, or Netflix. When Jefferson reflected on the U.S. Constitution, he realized the future was unknowable, and each generation would need to adapt the founding documents to meet its needs.

Greed outpacing the U.S. Constitution is what brought capitalism into its late stage, where wealth is concentrated in a toxic community of bad actors engaged in purely selfish ambition. Technology shredded the social contract, and America finds itself at a pivotal moment where the “pursuit of happiness” of these few privileged people irrevocably harms everybody else and denies them their own pursuit of happiness. Jobs previously done by people are now taken by machines, but the profits go to the owners of said machines, not the workers who were displaced. The gap between rich and poor has grown beyond that for which a governed people can, in good conscience, consent – an alarming girth that threatens the very existence of life on Earth.

Under these dire circumstances, and emboldened by the spirit of the nation’s founders, the people of these United States (one nation-state of many, but the global leader since the Second World War), for whom climate change, income inequality, and access to healthcare are a concern, are supremely responsible for demanding a redress of grievances or a new constitutional convention that establishes an individual’s pursuit of happiness cannot exceed the limits of what a habitable Goldilocks planet can provide and cannot encroach on others’ pursuit of happiness. Succinctly put, a billion dollars within one person’s defined assets is an abomination to humankind and must be codified as such in the U.S. Constitution before civilization can endure.

Roughly half the country is supportive of the current administration. That doesn’t change the fact that on January 6th, 2021, the current U.S. president perpetrated seditious acts to overthrow the government that had been elected by the will of the people. The middle administration between then and now did not choose to levy treasonous charges for reasons that will elude historians of the future. After returning to power, the current administration intensified its anti-science rhetoric to dampen the population’s understanding of climate change, income inequality, and available healthcare.

Many on the right now believe climate change is a hoax or a profit endeavor concocted by counterparts on the left, income opportunity is evasive to them because of immigrants or needless bureaucracy that promotes a trans agenda, and that the science of vaccines is debatable or even dangerous, potentially leaving them microchipped and at the mercy of their perceived enemies. Henceforth, proponents of positive change will be referred to as the people. The administration, going forward, will mean the government and its citizen supporters.

The people now tasked with bringing a redress of grievances against the administration, as expected of them by Thomas Jefferson and the other founders, have but one absolute course of action:

A general strike. Make no money. Spend no money.

Participating in the 8-to-5 model of compensated labor creates an incomprehensible geyser of wealth that blasts up from the middle class to the upper echelon of corruption. In a best-case scenario, turning off the tap will trigger negotiations where the topics of climate change, income inequality, and healthcare can be proactively addressed, mitigated, solved, fine-tuned, and resolved.

When the middle class flexes its power and denies the administration its ICE funding to abuse immigrants or unrestrained capital to further enrich wealth hoarders at the expense of the planet, the lines are redrawn, and bad actors (a universal constant) can only scheme to steal millions for themselves – not billions.

Retiring fossil fuels, providing universal basic income and guaranteed housing, and single-payer healthcare are all achievable in the post-scarcity environment made possible by eliminating billionaires. The wealth to afford everybody a good, healthy, educated, and secure life is already in existence. In a fair marketplace, those who define their pursuit of happiness as acquiring wealth and knowledge beyond the redefined universal basics are free to do so and can be as successful as they are satisfied (up to the limit that preserves the planet and its inhabitants).

In a worst-case scenario, the administration escalates to violence and creates a fight worth having because the current system of infinite profit for a minority of beneficiaries built atop a planet of finite resources has to end before it kills everyone. The greatest victims will be the children of this generation’s children, who will suffer the untold horrors of eking out an existence inside a hot, dying world. Therefore, violence from the administration will not be tolerated, and the people will hold a new constitutional convention and solve climate change, income inequality, and healthcare with known options. The founders were very clear on what to do if the government acted violently toward its own people (as is already happening).

One obstacle to the general strike worth mentioning is that the people for positive change represent a spectrum. When posting on social media, the unemployed persons, minimum wage workers, doctors of many disciplines, lawyers, and engineers can all make progressive bedfellows who see images of atrocity on their screens and experience a shared desire to do something. However, “something” also exists on a spectrum. An unemployed person with nothing to lose might be quicker to commit to shutting everything down than the business professional with a nice house and a comfortable 401(k), who might instead wish to sit back and hope a blue wave washes over the midterms. Except, the blue wave isn’t coming. Fascism is already here.

The administration loves liberals with upper middle-class paychecks. Blue states contribute more to the federal budget than red states. A liberal that goes to work Monday through Friday then protests throughout the weekend provides seven days of profits to the government. Those liberals more than likely bought the poster boards and markers at Target or Walmart. They probably had to put more gas in their cars. On the way home, they got something to eat at McDonald’s. Before bed, they uploaded photos of the event to Facebook – all of which are activities that generate wealth accessible to the administration that has aggressively circumvented checks and balances. The style of dissent previously used to ignite change now guarantees more money to abuse immigrants and reward degenerate billionaires. To the reticent, this is the point where the Continental Army went on with promissory notes because the war with the empire was worth fighting.

There’s no profit-based solution to the egregious crisis of climate change, income inequality, and access to healthcare while all fiat-backed activism is piped into trickle-up economics. Fortunately, this administration has shown that institutions are only as powerful as the power given to them. That’s a two-way street. Just like there’s a weakened Supreme Court now, there can be a weakened Starbucks later. Shut everything down. Rip this model of capitalism out by its roots. In this country, at this moment in time, oligarchs and full-on fascists need to immediately face a general strike from the people being exploited. Safety, food, water, and supply chains will be temporarily disrupted. That will need to be solved – as will other problems. The best time to have this fight was on January 6th, 2021. The next best time is right now.

While impossible to predict what Thomas Jefferson would say of the spectacle of planet-destroying greed, or whether he would align himself with billionaires once he was made aware of their existence, he not only consented to this generation governing itself, he expected it. DOGE is not an expression of self-governance. Nor is a presidential crypto scam that leverages Russia’s interests over everyday Americans. Anyone who claims a founder’s opinion would match their modern take is insincere, but Thomas Jefferson said the government belongs to the living. The people alive today are threatened by climate change, income inequality, and lack of access to healthcare. A general strike for redress of grievances or, if necessary, another constitutional convention is the correct response to the present administration’s abuse of power.