For many years, my husband John and I felt called to do something as people of wealth to fix what’s wrong with America’s economy. So when we heard about the Patriotic Millionaires in 2025, the decision to become members was an easy one.
I’ve seen what’s wrong with our economy at every stage of my life. I grew up working class in the ‘60s. My father never finished college, but had a decent paying union job at our town’s post office. As a sole breadwinner family, we were able to afford a house, car, TV, fridge, and other basic comforts. We certainly didn’t go on luxurious vacations or wear the nicest clothes, but we had enough to feel secure economically.
Unfortunately, the idyllic life that I had growing up is now out of reach for most families today. I worked for thirty years as a Social Worker. In my career, I encountered thousands of people with a myriad of struggles, but the common denominator amongst them came down to the lack of financial security. During the COVID pandemic, I met people in Raleigh, North Carolina, who were working two or three jobs just to make rent, or specifically worked in the food industry just so they could eat.
I witnessed this sorry new economic reality in my own family. My eldest daughter worked for a time as a long-term substitute teacher in North Carolina public schools. She loved her job, but she ended up leaving the field largely because she couldn’t make ends meet on the low salary she received. For a time, she was even living out of her car. This state of affairs is unacceptable in a country that has produced so many billionaires.
Our economy has taken a nosedive since I grew up, largely because of the assault on unions and the rigging of our tax code. I knew unions were in trouble when I personally served some of the air traffic controllers that President Reagan fired when I worked at a soup kitchen in the ‘80s. It’s not a coincidence to me that, as unions have declined thanks to hostile right-to-work laws and corporate union-busting campaigns, Americans’ pay and benefits have all but withered away. It was instilled in me from a young age that workers have a right to come together and collectively bargain for an honest share of the fruits their labor produces, and that right should be treated as sacrosanct. It’s a disgrace that it no longer is.
I also know intimately the degree to which our tax code has been twisted over the years to benefit the rich. I came into wealth through John, who made money through inheritance and his own investments. John studied investing and taxes all the time, and I learned from him the countless ways our tax system privileges people like us who already have money over those that don’t.
I’ve heard just about every excuse in the book as to why rich people like John and I deserve to pay lower taxes, and not one of them rings true. No, we don’t work harder than everyone else. No, the benefits will not “trickle down” to poor people. No, we won’t stop investing. And no, we won’t move to Monaco and renounce our US citizenship just to avoid paying taxes.
If lawmakers raise our taxes, we wouldn’t even feel it financially. We’d still have everything we could possibly need or want in life. I think the only thing that we would feel with a higher tax bill is the satisfaction of knowing that we fulfilled a civic obligation and did something meaningful to make life more affordable for millions of people across the country.
My Christian faith is an integral part of my identity. There is a famous passage in Luke 12:48 that perfectly encapsulates my feelings and beliefs as a person of wealth: “And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” John’s and my wealth do not make us better or “worth” more than anyone else. Rather, we feel it endows us with a responsibility to bring about positive change in our communities, our country, and our world.
We believe that our membership in Patriotic Millionaires allows us to fulfill this responsibility in a major way. We donate a lot to charity, and will continue to do so. But at the end of the day, we know that the only way that we will be able to make real, structural, and lasting change as people of wealth is if lawmakers finally require us to pay our rightful share in taxes like the rest of our fellow citizens.
Monica Lavery, LCSW is a retired trauma therapist and Clinical Social Work Supervisor who worked in the public and private mental health sectors for thirty years. She is involved with many grassroots development and advocacy efforts, and is a Covenant Partner of Umstead Park United Church of Christ. She is a member of Patriotic Millionaires on behalf of herself and her husband John, a retired U.S. Army Research Office Program Manager and Traumatic Brain Injury survivor.