About three decades ago, an idea swept into power: The notion that if we unleashed the chains of government from the capitalist beast, we would all be better off. That is to say, “a rising sea floats all boats.” The reality became, as someone quipped, “a rising sea floats all yachts.”

This is also called “trickle down.” If we consider that wages have virtually been frozen for the past 40 years, we have to wonder exactly what it is that is trickling down.

For example, in 2006, 15 million Americans earned the minimum wage, then $5.15 an hour, while the CEO of Goldman Sachs investment bank earned a $53.4 million bonus.

The truth is that unfettered capitalism has created one debacle after another, from the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s to the present derivative disaster. The government has rescued the finance sector, time after time.

For those of you who cling to the belief that the Republicans are the party of business, think about this: the financial sector, which in terms of percentage of GDP now dominates the economy, contributes more to the Democratic Party than to the Republican Party.

My pop used to quote the axiom, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” And, the financial sector gets what they pay for in rescues and bailouts and lack of regulation. The reality is that the capitalism could not exist without the state.

In addition to this, private and public debts have skyrocketed. Do we want to tax wealthy individuals and corporations in order to cut the deficit, or cut services to the elderly, students, and the poor?

As an aside, those of us on Social Security have not had a cost of living increase in two years, even though our expenses have gone up.

How did this happen? Increases in Social Security are tied to the Consumer Price Index, which is based on the prices of “a basket of goods.” The government “cooked the books” by not including essential, rising-cost items in the basket.

Meanwhile another catastrophe is coming: peak oil. This is the notion that there is less oil on the planet than what we have already taken out.

What this means is that, sooner, rather than later, we will run out of oil. We already import way more than we produce, and that is why we are fighting “resource wars.” At the same time, the demand in Asia grows.

It gets worse: as we are running out of oil, we are also running out of planet due to global warming. So, there is a race to extinction. These facts would seem to indicate that we need an incredible concentration of brains and resources to wean us off carbon fuel. Hopefully, we can use the same brains and resources that we are now using to kill people.

The finance sector needs to be limited to providing credit, and kept from devising exotic schemes with dizzying returns that end in debacles. How do we accomplish this when elections in America are now advertising campaigns: focus groups are formed to find out what we want to hear, and then that is what candidates tell us. (Remember “hope and change,” which became “more of the same”?).

So, the question for us all is this: Will we accept reality and mobilize to deal with a changing world, or, will we go from crisis to crisis and war to war?

Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.