The democratic-republican model of government.
The Constitution.
A rebirth of prosperity and independence. And capitalism that works as hard for workers as workers do for capitalism.
Civic virtue. The middling virtues.
Racial economic convergence. Upward mobility. Family values. Universal patriotism. Domestic tranquility.
The liberty and happiness of our children. Security and dignity in old age. Reason. Sanity. Moderation. Accountable government. Depolarization.
All these are united upon the object of:
MIDDLE-CLASS PRIMACY.
This means we must save as many households from falling out of the middle class and raise as many people from below into the middle class as possible, until the middle owns half.* Today, the American middle class owns barely a quarter of America’s wealth,† depriving ordinary Americans of about $35 trillion of their rightful share of national prosperity.‡
We are animated by the simple belief, which has been true since Classical Antiquity, that in order to have a commonwealth, the commons must have the wealth. Let us forever redeem what was best about America’s founding and finally repair what was worst, by scaling capitalism’s own device of the long-term incentive plan from the level of enterprise to nation. Let our national economic philosophy be:no gains for the middle, no gains for the top. And let us implement this plan through the legal form of the constitutional amendment which it is our mission to advance.
The name of our plan? Operation Abigail. Fall in.
The Constitution is a brake that can’t stop the wheel.
As the middle class declines, upward mobility dwindles, racial disparities persist, pessimism intensifies, political faction escalates, elections lose credibility, the people turn against capitalism, socialism gains appeal, violence looms, and mob rule and demagogues and authoritarianism come to destroy popular government, just as happened in the Roman republic.
From our description of the historical circumstances which have brought our republic to the brink of ruin. Click here to understand the problem in more depth.
We must empower the Constitution to rebuild our middle class.
The goal: roll back America’s social aspect ratio to 10,000:1. The method: tether the outcomes of America’s top households to the median such that their outcomes rise and fall lockstep in proportion to the middle class. The mantra: no gains for the middle, no gains for the top.
From our description of Operation Abigail’s main feature: median tethering. Click here for a brief summary of the solution, or visit Operation Abigail’s dedicated website for a complete description.
To the People of the United States of America:
The Constitution is exceptional, but the erosion of our founding egalitarianism reveals that it only ever guaranteed the LEGAL FORM of our democratic republic. It must now be empowered to guarantee its POLITICAL SUBSTANCE. That political substance resides only in an upright and independent middle class, continually refreshed by upward mobility. We can save our middle class, but not by means of political faction. Political salvation will not be found in any charismatic leader, in the alternating conquests of one political party over another, or in the absolute dominion of a benevolent custodian. Instead:
AMERICA’S MIDDLE CLASS SHALL BE RESTORED BY THE DUTIFUL ENFORCEMENT OF AN IMPARTIAL AND INCORRUPTIBLE MATHEMATICAL RATIO BENCHMARKED AGAINST THE NATIONAL MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD NET WORTH.
From our first essay No Gains for the Middle, No Gains for the Top.
Read all our essays here.
We are leading the way in constitutional political economy.
I endorse the Adams Institute’s median-top household net worth tethering plan, both as a way to reverse extreme wealth concentration and rebuild America’s middle class, and to enhance the productivity, rationality, and sustainability of American capitalism.
From an endorsement, by John R. Taylor, Jr., Founder and former Chairman, FX Concepts and Trustee Emeritus, Franklin University Switzerland, for whom the John Taylor Institute was named to generate innovations in business theory and practice.
What I appreciate about Operation Abigail is that it’s not a conventional tax-and-spend redistribution plan. Its goal is not to take from the rich and give to the poor. Its purpose is to promote wealth de-concentration through market actors themselves, by making it in their direct financial interest to support a thriving middle class. That’s a fundamentally conservative and capitalist idea.
From an endorsement, by Mike Ball, Former U.S. Marine, Retired Alabama State Trooper & ABI Investigator, Member, Alabama House of Representatives (2002–2022) (as a Republican) and Author of Alabama Constitutional Amendment No. 8 (2012) (which tethered state legislator pay to the state median income).
The positive feedback loops that would arise from renewing our middle classes – both from the standpoint of promoting the general welfare, and more specifically in liberating our democratic processes and our scientific minds from the faction and polarization which cripple them – would be infinite.
From an endorsement, by Michael O’Callaghan, PhD, DVM, scientific expert in the fields of gene therapy, surgery, electrophysiology, pathophysiology, and radiology.
Do you want to get involved? Reach out us!
Notes
*That the middle class should own at least half the wealth, see Aristotle, Politics, 1295b, stating: “It is clear therefore also that the political community administered by the middle class is the best, and that it is possible for those states to be well governed that are of the kind in which the middle class is numerous, and preferably stronger than both the other two classes.” That ordinary Americans intuitively agree that the middle class should own half the wealth, see Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely, Building a Better America – One Wealth Quintile at a Time, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Association for Psychological Science, 2011.
† That the middle class owns about 29% of national wealth, see Federal Reserve data. When defining the “middle class” as middle three wealth quintiles by income percentile, the middle 60% owns $46.44 trillion of the $161.38 trillion total, or 28.8% (Q3 2023). When defining the “middle class” as the middle 40% of wealth by wealth percentile group (between the top 10% and bottom 50%), the middle class owns $43.89 of the $142.42 trillion, or 30.8% (Q3 2023).
‡ The ~$30 trillion damage model is achieved by averaging the delta between 50% and the actual middling share of the total aggregate national wealth numbers cited above.
Property monopolized, or in the Possession of a Few is a Curse to Mankind. We should preserve not an Absolute Equality – this is unnecessary, but preserve all from extreme Poverty, and all others from extravagant Riches.
Property monopolized, or in the Possession of a Few is a Curse to Mankind. We should preserve not an Absolute Equality – this is unnecessary, but preserve all from extreme Poverty, and all others from extravagant Riches.
