Dr. King, Ambassador Young, and several other civil rights leaders based their case for equal rights on the grounds of ethics and morality — and rightfully so. But Dr. King, Ambassador Young, and their cohorts didn’t stop there. They made an economic case for civil and human rights, as well. Let’s face it — for some people, money is the only real motivator and incentive for change. While that’s a flawed way to view life, thankfully, we have an argument to support our cause just the same.
As American citizens, we’re all, on some level, playing on the same team. We spend entirely too much time fighting over racial issues and denying people their rights or a chance at winning in a free market society. Our focus should be on winning the international economic war that’s going on at this very moment.
What does that mean? It means that it is in our collective shared interest for the entirety of America to do well economically. We must remain competitive in this global economy, and we have to prepare and equip our workforce to be prepared for the technological future ahead. Instead of fighting, we should be metaphorically “arming” ourselves for the economic war that we’re in.
So rather than denying access to opportunity to some citizens to protect a few, we should invest in the economic uplift of all.