In the U.S. nearly ninety-percent of the wealth is owned by ten-percent of the population. This is the same as saying one person has nine apples and nine people are left to share one apple. If you imagine ten people going to work and at the end of the day one person walks away with nine apples while everyone else is given just one-ninth of one apple, you can see how unfair our current economic system is. If the guy with nine apples were to take home just eight instead, the standard of living for ninety-percent of the population would double. Nine out of ten people would have twice their present income.

Ask yourself a question. Would you still do what you do for a living if you didn't need the money? If the answer is yes, then for you it would be possible to live in a world where money was not necessary. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all have the things we need and want and get rid of the monetary system altogether? Perhaps some day that may be possible, but I can not imagine it happening in the foreseeable future. Too many of us do the work we do only because we have to in order to survive and be comfortable.

Fairness means that those who work harder, or contribute in ways which benefit more people, deserve to acquire greater rewards. Communism fails because its fundamental ethos is, "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." In such a system the greatest rewards vs. effort belongs to those with the fewest abilities and the greatest needs. It is necessary to reward people according to their level of contribution, otherwise no one will want to contribute.

This can be achieved without allowing greed to dominate by applying reason, fairness, freedom and opportunity. People need the freedom and opportunity to pursue their financial ambitions but they need to do it in a fair and reasonable way. Business must be regulated in order to protect the people from unfair or unsafe practices, and a fair system of taxation (described in the next section) will insure that greed doesn't harm society.

But the capitalist idea of prices being naturally regulated by supply and demand falls apart when the demand is constant and the supply is controlled, which is what happens when items of basic necessity are involved. Items of basic necessity are those which are necessary for reasonably comfortable survival, so the idea that a few individuals should be allowed to make huge profits while others are forced to endure price gouging is unfair.

Items of basic necessity include food, clothing, housing, energy, communications, education, transportation, medical care, etc. Since everyone needs these items, it would benefit everyone equally to create a system where they were made available with good quality at the lowest possible cost. This would extend to natural resources, which are part of the Earth and therefore belong to everyone, including wildlife, equally. Natural resources should be made available to all manufactures at the lowest possible cost, while at the same time it is necessary to manage natural resources in ways which protect the environment.

It should also be made clear that privatization of essential services is not in the best interest of the people. Corporations exist to make profits, which means that providing benefits to society is a secondary function which doesn't exist at all when profits can be made through other means. Profits are increased by charging more than is necessary to provide the service, avoiding environmental responsibility whenever possible, and by reducing benefits to employees. Essential services such as water, power, sewer, firefighting, police, prisons, and health care can all be provided at higher quality at less expense when the providers are not required to make a profit. Privatization of these services should be avoided. Other areas of basic necessary, such as communications, education and renewable energy might benefit from competition by private enterprise.

On the other hand, items which are not necessary to "reasonably comfortable" survival should be marketed without price restrictions. The only exception to this is when a person would be forced to purchase something, i.e., repair parts needed in order to maintain the usefulness of a previously purchased item. Price gouging is a form of force, and force would not be part of a society where individuals do not exert force upon others.