When we look at the state of the world and our country we are terrified. Between the assault on America’s democracy, the climate crisis, wealth inequality, racial inequity, the oppressive and counterproductive criminal "justice" system, and the lack of affordable healthcare, education and housing, we think that our country needs to make some really big changes, and that we need to make them soon.
We worry that if Donald Trump gets re-elected, or even if Biden wins but Republicans retain control of the Senate, it's going to cause irreparable harm to our country and all the people and creatures on this planet. We are worried about what it would mean for the future of our lives, our children’s lives, and the lives of all of our loved ones. We believe all of our lives will be dramatically worse if Democrats do not win in a very big way in November.
Obviously, Democrats are not perfect. And there’s a huge range within the Democratic party. But the GOP has surrendered themselves to Donald Trump and that has created an even starker contrast between centrist Republicans and centrist Democrats. The GOP has given their blessing to Trump’s attacks on our democratic institutions and his blatant attempts to disenfranchise millions of Americans and abuse his power for personal political gain.
So while no politician is perfect, almost all Democrats are going to be better than their Republican counterparts. Any Republicans that remain in office are going to use whatever power they have to resist and obstruct any serious efforts to solve the problems we need so desperately to address.
So we've been giving a lot of thought to what we can do to help Democrats win this election. And we think there are three main resources that we have to contribute to this cause: time, money, and inspiration.
Before we go any further, we would like to acknowledge that these are scary and challenging times. We are writing this from a place of privilege and we recognize that. There are a lot of people in America today who don’t have any time or money or energy to spare. There are too many Americans who are struggling just to survive. If you are among them, then your first priority must be to take care of yourself and your loved ones.
But we should all be thinking about what we can contribute to this cause. It’s not just about money. Time can be a valuable resource as well. So can your social connections. We all need to step up right now. The stakes are too high to sit on the sidelines.
Every person and every family is different. We have different resources, different strengths, and different limitations. But we can all find a way to contribute, and right now, it’s absolutely critical that we all figure out how we can best contribute, and that we ask the people we know to do the same.
This will be more fun and more effective if we do it together with the people we love and care about.
MONEY
Money certainly isn’t everything, but it can be a very powerful thing. If you have money to spare, it is a very easy and convenient way to make a difference.
The more money you have, the more money you should give. We believe this is true for moral reasons, and also for reasons of rational self-interest.
As a result, we think that it’s better to think about monetary contributions in terms of a percentage of what you have, rather than a dollar amount. The value of a dollar varies greatly depending on how many dollars you have. As a percentage, 1% may sound like a small number, but if you have a lot of wealth, it can be a very sizable amount.
We believe that extreme wealth inequality is an injustice on its own. Currently, the three richest Americans have as much wealth as the bottom HALF of all Americans. 1 in 10 Americans live in poverty. This is a bad way to distribute wealth if we’re trying to maximize happiness, because the more wealth a person has, the less likely it is that additional money is going to increase their happiness.
If you are living in poverty, $100 can buy a lot of happiness. If you are a billionaire, $100 is meaningless. Once you get to a certain level of wealth, you can already afford to buy all of the stuff that will reliably make you happier. At a certain point, additional wealth is no guarantee of additional happiness. At this level of wealth, happiness is derived from behavior, relationships and a sense of purpose.
If you are wealthy and progressive you are probably worried about this election. Investing money in the future of America, but donating it to Democrats for this election will feel very good at a time when there is a lot to feel bad and anxious about.
There is nothing that feels so good as being part of something bigger than ourselves, something noble and historic. We are presented with that opportunity now.
It’s also important to think for a moment about where America’s wealth has come from. We love America and we think this is an amazing country that has done some wonderful things and made some invaluable contributions to the world. We are, in many, many ways, proud to be Americans.
But we are also aware that some terrible things have been done by Americans, and that those terrible actions were a big part of our country’s founding. America could not exist today, with all of its wealth and power, without the genocide of millions of Native Americans and the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of Africans.
And we are also aware that there has been a lot of injustice in the policies and practices that have governed America over the years. And we are aware that those injustices have not been rectified, as evidenced by the huge differences in the distribution of wealth in America today between races. The average Black American family has 1/10th of the wealth of the average White American family. That’s a terrible injustice.
To be clear, we do not think that wealthy Americans are bad because they are wealthy. Many Americans are rich because they worked hard and built something valuable. One of the wonderful things about America is that it is possible to become wealthy by being smart, talented, hard-working, or lucky, without having to do anything unjust or exploitative.
The problem is, a certain level of injustice and exploitation was baked into America from the very beginning, and has been a part of the system of American capitalism in many ways for a long time, so regardless of what any one individual has done to accumulate wealth, all wealth in America has been tainted by a certain amount of injustice.
So what should we do with this information?
We believe this knowledge means that those with more wealth than their fellow Americans have a responsibility to use some of their wealth to try and right the wrongs of America’s past.
We believe that this election is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use wealth to elect leaders who are serious about taking bold steps to solve some of America’s worst injustices, and try to reverse the rising inequality and polarization that is tearing our country apart. This is a chance for America to follow through on some of the lofty promises and ideals that make this such a special country, a country that we love.
America was founded on some very admirable and noble ideals about freedom and equality. Those are the principles that make us deeply proud to be Americans. But if we want to make those ideals into a reality for all Americans, we have to fight for them, and we have to do it right now!
TIME
Everyone gets 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week. Of course, the amount of free time that each of us has varies wildly. If your job requires a lot of your time, or you care for young children, or elders, or people who are sick, you may have very little time to spare.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a job, or you don’t have other people that depend on you for care, you may find that all of your time is free.
We both have small children and full time jobs and limited childcare/school, so our free time is pretty limited. That said, we’re still trying to dedicate 1% of our time to this cause.
We live in California so our options for helping Democrats in crucial swing states are limited. If you live in or near a swing state, you have a lot of other options about how you might invest your time. Check out Swing Left to find good actions based on where you live.
If, like us, you don’t live in a swing state, one easy thing you can do is write letters or postcards that help get out the Democratic vote in swing states. If you’re interested in giving this a try, but you don’t have the resources, please send us an email (Act4Nov3@gmail.com) and we will help get you the supplies you need.
1% of a day is 14 minutes. 1% of a week is 100 minutes. We think that’s a good place to start, but feel free to adjust that number according to your capacity.
INSPIRATION
Whatever contribution you can make is wonderful. But whatever contribution you make is going to be inconsequential on its own. Unless your name is Jeff Bezos, you can’t write a check that's going to tip the scales.
If you really want to make a difference you have to magnify your contribution with the most potent resource you have, you social connections and your ability to inspire.
Even if you gave 100% of your time and 100% of your money, it wouldn't make a difference in this election. But if you give 1%, and then you convince a handful of people to join you, and you ask those people to ask others to join us, and so on, then maybe we actually can make a difference.
Especially if we all make an effort to ask the wealthiest, most connected, most progressive people we know!
DO WHAT YOU CAN
We understand that these are challenging times. Financially, emotionally, physically, life is hard right now in a lot of ways. Even for the most privileged among us. It’s easy to feel apathetic. It’s easy to feel depressed and worried. It’s easy to feel fatalistic. But these feelings are not going to help us. This is a big moment in history. We’re not going to get a second chance at this. If you can contribute to this cause with time, money, inspiration, please do so. Please encourage your friends and family to do so as well.
It will make you feel better. Especially if you do so with the people you care about.
With all of this in mind, we created this document. We’re going to use it as a tool to start some conversations with the important people in our lives. We hope that you will consider doing the same.