Born on Third Base 1

The first half of Chuck Collins’, “Born on Third Base” covers the possible ways to take steps towards an equal society by wealth redistribution. The heir of the Oscar Meyer fortune donated half of his several million-dollar trust fund in effort to live a more equal life. He breaks down exactly who the one percenters are and the fact that most of the world’s wealth lays in the hands of about 550 ultra wealthy people. He writes (and speaks) on topics that are especially difficult to discuss as the wealth gap grows.  

He writes in a frank style giving many anecdotes to support his assertions. The book is a good source of information of the history of government subsidies throughout generations and how they are affecting today’s world. However cracking inequality is a discussion that takes years of understanding the past and hard analysis into the future. This is impossible to do in 200-something pages, thus Collins’ book scratches the surface of the issue, but offers necessary baby steps to reaching greater equality in the US.

Though I agree with his supporting the estate tax and giving effort where effort is due, I think the situation is more dire. He says the reason the redistribution of wealth doesn’t happen sooner is because people are acting with more hate rather than understanding against those who hold the greatest wealth in America. He believes if either party wants to make progress we must do things like “crack open hearts” and tell the one percent that they are valid; This and only this is the way to putting the “I gained my wealth all on my own” dialogue to rest according Collins’ book.

Though I agree with what Collins supports, I believe his premise for how we get out of this mess is misconstrued. Even if wealth is redistributed, the greedy will always bend the rules in their favor. Once power is given, more is always craved. The reason we are all in the mess of this wage gap is because of institutional complexes that hold back minorities and push forward those who are already wealthy (mainly white men). There was no moral backing to those systems then and I don’t understand what makes Collins the system will change by ‘cracking hearts.’