LONG’S ADDRESS ANALYSIS: Share Our Wealth

Huey P. Long, senator of Louisiana in 1934, insisted that there should be a cap of 50 million dollars over the personal wealth of individuals in the country. This was proposed in his ‘share our wealth’ plan where he said, “We propose to limit the wealth of big men in the country”. Long argued that the money that would emerge above the capped limit would be sued for social services and public funding methods so as to promote societal benefits in the country, such as increasing education and living standards of the common people, while simultaneously reducing the income gap between the wealthy and the poor. Long shows his grief of income inequality by saying, “they think it is necessary that they own everything”. The paper will argue how the ‘Share Our Wealth’ plan intended to benefit general public.

Long wanted to see a better world in the United States of America and made it clear that he hated the wealthiest people of America. He was against the methods that allowed the wealthy to earn more while the poor suffered. This is quite apparent since people at the time had seen the New Deal reforms and the income inequality gap had not reduced significantly. The financial reforms in the New Deal were a joke as they did reduce the income gap but not significantly. However, the Share Our Wealth plan by Long indicated a change in the current system of financial gains in the country by limiting personal wealth and allowing the common people to benefit from revenue that exceeded the capped amount of 50 million dollars.

Long had predicted that the revenues would be far greater than the taxation revenue that is earned, and would allow the country to prosper since the revenue could be used to provide beneficial services and programs for the common man of America. While the New Deal reforms were directed at allowing beneficial solutions to the economic downturn of America, they were more focused at avoiding repeated economic depressions, and did not specifically look at solving the problems of the common man. Long’s plan, on the other hand, would focus on solving the problems of the common man, and in turn, end up solving the economic depressions and problems that had risen in the country before the plan was proposed. Finally, Long’s plan also looked forward to allowing social reforms through the revenues that were generated, so that prospects, such as education, employment and inflation, would remain in beneficial terms for the general population of the country rather than for the rich only.