the non-rich party

THE NON-RICH MANIFESTO
The end of the era of rich and poor is in sight.
The wealth/poverty system is the most catastrophically failed experiment in the history of our (or any other) species, for it has propelled us not only toward our own extinction, but the likely extinction of all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
In terms of our stewardship of this delicate ecosystem we call Earth, the rich/poor era has been an unmitigated failure. Our oceans are dying. The air and land are less lucky.
In moral terms, the rich/poor system has been a failure so apocalyptic as to beggar exaggeration. There is no level of poverty, brutality, and degradation the system will not tolerate. A million accountants could never catalog the litany of abuse and murder inflicted upon billions since the first farmer declared "This pile is mine, not yours". Our sins against other species are even more heinous.
And yet for all the fear and obedience the poor have rendered to the rich, the ultimate power of life on this planet rests now where it always has - with the poor. If every worker in the world put their hands in their pockets tomorrow and said "NO MORE", the greatest revolution in human history would be fought, won, and done.
If we are to save our tenuous existence on a dying planet, the following truths must be recognized and embraced.
Every tiniest patch of land, every cloud in the sky, every puddle or ocean belongs to all, equally.
The responsibility for every tiniest patch of land, every cloud in the sky, every puddle or ocean belongs to all, equally.
The first global human labor strike will be to establish the universal four-hour workday. This is not revolutionary, but a return to the natural human condition. Before the agricultural revolution made us slaves to our own cleverness, the average foraging human worked 2.5 hours a day - total.
The four-hour day will allow each and all to treat their work with that rarest quality - eagerness. More importantly, it will return to us our lives. We will spend our newfound freedom improving our minds, caring for others, and above all indulging in our natural needs for love and play. It is pure fantasy to think that humanity needs to work sixteen, twelve, ten, or even eight hours...a truth that only increases with each passing generation, for our cleverness has created machines of staggering efficiency, and crops that produce yields unimaginable to our ancestors.
Ultimately, we will learn that we needn't even be slaves to the four-hour day, as freedom will make us more responsible and productive. We will each define for ourselves how we can best serve our communities, and the world at large. In serving others, we will come to understand that we serve ourselves.
As a gesture of our non-violent intent, we will begin the transformation of our species within the confines of the existing system, at least in those lands that have (or claim to have) free elections. We will choose write-in candidates for the non-rich party. As the non-rich make up 99% of humanity, the odds of ever being challenged in any open election are slim indeed.
To reinforce the notion that the unequal distribution of wealth is over, particularly in those parts of the world which do not admit free elections, one or two additional global human strikes may be required.
For a generation or so, there will be a period of adjustment as we figure out how to restructure human society. There will be confusion, as humanity has become thoroughly steeped in the selfishness and hierarchy upon which the poor/rich system is based. But the transition will happen, as we'll be returning to normal human nature - a growing body of scientific evidence tells us that before agriculture, we were creatures of profound non-violence and radical sharing. Since the last 20,000 years of greedy brutality make up less than 1% of human history, we are confident our DNA hasn't been irreparably corrupted.
So send word to the farthest corner of the Earth. It's time for our fractured species to become whole again - all women, all men, all colors, all together. The resistance to the non-rich revolution will be far less impressive than you might imagine...and not only because all the military enforcers are non-rich. The rich will return to humanity, because many of their educations have not been so stunted as the people they oppress. Once the first millionaire and billionaire dominoes embrace sanity, the rest will quickly follow.
Let the non-rich party and its candidates organize. Let the first global human strike be planned. Let this gentle, caring species be reborn.