How to Fix Wealth Inequality Based on California Law
You may have heard about California’s Proposition 47: The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. This proposition was passed several years ago, and it made many previous felonies — drug possession, petty theft, forgery, etc. only misdemeanors if certain criteria were met. This was done as California prisons were becoming overcrowded, and too many people were getting arrested for complete BS like “breaking the law.” So, as California is the leader of great, new ideas, this proposition made many crimes misdemeanors, which means offenders will not be arrested if caught for crimes that don’t really hurt anyone. For theft, this meant as long as you don’t steal $950 or more in value, it’s only a misdemeanor, and you will not go to jail. To many people, this might sound like a bad idea, but I’m here to tell you it was actually a great move to help fix California’s wealth inequality.
I must admit, the videos of people blatantly walking out of stores with stolen goods confused me at first, and even angered me. I was angry to miss out on such a great deal, because we all know, it doesn’t get any better than free! I argue that such thievery is not hurting local California businesses, as those people own a business, and therefore have more money than everyone else. So, stealing from the businesses is California’s way of allowing a “criminal” to be a modern day Robin Hood. Take from the rich businesses and redistribute to others! This certainly re-balances some of the wealth inequality we see in California because the taxes clearly aren’t high enough. The government is always running out of money somehow, and there’s no way a huge institution like the state government would mismanage money. The only solution is to let the people earn their goods by taking it off the shelves as they please.
This redistribution of wealth is working okay enough, but certainly we can see more rapid change sooner. So, I propose an amendment to Proposition 47. Let us make our neighborhoods and schools truly safer by changing the criteria to be $5000 in stolen goods. Currently, if a good citizen wants to earn $5000 in goods from their local business, they have to make 6 trips! That’s ridiculous. What if they run out of gas in between? They might be too poor to fill up the gas tank. So let us all agree that misdemeanors and stealing $4999 in goods isn’t really hurting anyone.
As an empathetic, caring American, I truly believe this is the solution to wealth inequality, and I hope all states implement similar laws to California, which has never been doing better.
