We need a bold economic vision that will both reclaim lost capital and put money back in the pockets of hard-working Americans, and create millions of new jobs for those who have been left out of the workforce.
- Green New Deal. Scientists are sounding the alarm on climate change. Communities are fighting back. It’s time to drastically and immediately move away from fossil fuels, develop the technologies of the future, and create prosperity for all of us — not just those on top. The Green New Deal is a mass mobilization to dramatically expand existing renewable power sources and deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources. The Green New Deal will also provide all members of our society, across all regions and all communities, the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one and ensure a ‘just transition’ for all workers, low-income communities, communities of color, indigenous communities, rural and urban communities and the front-line communities most affected by climate change, pollution and other environmental harm including by ensuring that local implementation of the transition is led from the community level and by prioritizing solutions that end the harms faced by front-line communities from climate change and environmental pollution.
- (See also the State Environment Platform)
- (See Carbon Reduction)
- (See Environmental Repair)
- Secure a Living Wage and tie it to Inflation. This is about justice and basic human decency. If you work hard and you work full time you shouldn’t live in poverty. Furthermore, we support strong unions and collective bargaining.(This is included in the state-suggested Work and Money section, below.)
- Enact a Federal Jobs Guarantee. A federal jobs guarantee program would establish a floor for wages and benefits for the nation’s workforce. This program would provide a baseline minimum wage of $15 an hour and guarantee for public workers a basic benefits package, including healthcare and childcare. By investing in our own workforce, we can lift thousands of American families out of poverty and get people to work doing the work that needs to be done.(This is included in the state-suggested Work and Money section, below.)
- Work and Money (State Platform)The overwhelming majority of people in this country either work at a job and get paid for it, or are supported by someone who does. That is why this section is called ‘Work and Money’ – there’s no intrinsic reason for monetary policy and labor policy to be linked. However, it has always been done that way on a historic basis, and history is real, so we need to cope with it.For the last half-century, talk about monetary policy has almost universally centered around stimulating the economy. Since Reagan adopted “trickle-down economics” in 1982, this has in turn centered around giving more money to industry leaders, on the premise that they would then hire more workers. This has since been proven to be nonsense. If we give lots of money to people who are already wealthy, they will put it in their banks and save it until they feel like retiring to another country that doesn’t have extradition treaties with the US.Instead, we propose stimulating the economy by giving money to people we are sure will spend it – poor people, who need to buy food and clothes, rent homes, and put their children through school.As an additional good, the combination of an Unconditional Universal Basic Income program with Universal Healthcare means that all personal-assistance programs can be consolidated, leading to substantial savings from reduction of overhead. While this will mean a lot of temporarily-unemployed clerks, affiliated programs such as Environmental Inspiration will help them find new and much more fulfilling (have you ever seen a joyous clerk?) work, while the UUBI keeps them from going broke while they find it. While there will be an additional class of newly-unemployed – multi-million dollar-a-year insurance executives and such – they typically already have enough in savings to live in luxury to a very old age, and are thus not in need of additional concern.Another economic impact of the UUBI would be the evening of real estate values – bringing values up in previously undervalued exurban and rural areas, and lowering them in overpriced city centers. This is because having truly portable incomes means people no longer have to live near where they work.People *want* to work, they want to participate economically in their society, have pride in performing a constructive function, and have a purpose towards the good of their society. We have two programs for meeting these needs. The first is a Federal Program Management office, which exists to devise, create, and track projects that are useful to the country, and match those projects with people who want projects to perform. The second is a modern equivalent of the Civilian Construction Corps and the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s – putting these people to work creating the infrastructure we actually need for the Third Millennium. It is not yet clear to us whether this is an intrinsic part of the FPMO, or a project within it.
- Rebuild Our Crumbling Infrastructure. Our infrastructure gets a grade of D from the Society of Civil Engineers. The government should invest trillions in rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, schools, levees, airports, etc. There’s no reason why we can’t have the world’s #1 infrastructure.
- Block Bad Trade Deals. Americans have lost millions of decent paying jobs due to unfair trade deals. It’s time to end the race to the bottom and renegotiate these rigged deals that only benefit elites. We should not sacrifice our sovereignty. The only people who are allowed to make laws for the United States should be the American people, not multinational corporations.
- End Tax Dodging and Loopholes. Corporations dodge $450 billion a year in taxes by using offshore tax havens. We should end this injustice, as well as chain the capital gains tax to the income tax, increase the estate tax, and implement the Buffett Rule so that no millionaire CEO pays less in taxes than his or her secretary. It’s time for a tax system that benefits the middle class and the poor, and makes the top 1% and multinational corporations pay their fair share.
- End Unnecessary Wars and (Begin) Nation Building. The United States maintains 800 military bases worldwide at a cost of $100 billion a year. This is money that can be spent at home creating jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, and investing in the future of the people. The disastrous war in Iraq cost trillions, the war in Afghanistan is going on 17 years in with no end in sight, and we’re currently bombing 7 different countries. We spend more on our military than the next 8 countries combined. It’s time to end the wars and the perverse monetary incentive structure that makes politicians flippant about sending young men and women to die. Unilateral U.S. military force should only be used as a last resort to defend the nation. The current budget could be cut drastically if we used our department of defense for what it was intended — defending us, instead of waging interventionist wars.See Also: Reducing Wars: