JON FREDA

An American Provolution

Engaging our social conscience into action

By

Jon Freda, PhD

Harlem, New York

        

SECTION ONE

Where We Are Now: Runaway Greed, Political Noise, A New Day

         In the second decade of the twenty-first century, Unfettered Capitalism, Knee-Jerk Consumerism and Compartmentalized Hate coalesced to Dis-unite the States of America. Unfettered Capitalism continues to exponentiate itself within a legislative structure that provides the least amount of regulation of the profit-exchange economy which favors the largest share of collective wealth (and control of the economy) to a small percentage of Americans, and its continually rising Debt to GDP ratio places a greater burden on mid to lower income groups. Knee-Jerk Consumerism distracts enlightenment by promoting ongoing reactive acquisition to products and services based on external exhortations from media. Compartmentalized Hate has festered into an extreme compression of charged emotions based on fear and an incomplete analysis of the facts, and fuels racial and ethnic injustice and inequality. This results in a lack of common social purpose to address the wide disparity of income inequality which creates the bed rock for this distraction and hate.

         Free markets do not determine who owns the majority capital, very rich persons and corporations with a great deal of political influence do. Demand is manipulated by imaging and marketing. During election time, controllers of the media markets are paid by wealthy groups to shape their political agenda. Media markets reap increased profits during election time. The laws about the election system are skewed to allow this. Money drives political messaging. Particularly so if there are no truths being told, but rather deceits, distractions and demagoguery. This is where it becomes particularly dangerous for our country. Political Noise is spewed to no end until attitudes are confused or shift enough to dilute opposition to an agenda for the benefit of the people.

 

Overview For Government And Education: Evolutionary Constitution, Provolution

         One way to create order out of this Political Noise is to view the Constitution as an imperfect evolutionary document which through the will of the people propels changes via amendments towards an economic democracy that addresses the inequitable hoarding of collective wealth in this country. The founding fathers had the macro sense of realizing that society changes over time, and that this experiment of the United States requires tweaking through amendments and legislative processes over time to counter current political, cultural, economic and psycho-social pressures that threaten our democracy which is the petri dish for our republic.

         Skewed wealth distribution

         Distribution of wealth in our country is heavily skewed to the largest hoarders of wealth and has been true since the 1700s in our country. And was given a boost in the 1980s with the de-industrialization of the United States to offshore countries paying lower labor rates and the drastic reduction of taxing upper income brackets from 71% to 38% while taxing Social Security in the process. Whenever people are making money off of others in particular services or industries, the hoarders of wealth seek to gain control of that service or industry while maintaining cash flow from the consumers of their activities. This wealth is hoarded and warehoused in investments which prioritize individual profit over the reinvestment in the national workforce. This wealth distribution is manipulated by the hoarders of wealth in conjunction with congresspersons and media spins. Until there is legislated distribution of hoarder wealth back into society through its local, regional and federal programs, and  legislated ease of access to the creation of wealth, the current economic model based on present day laws and loopholes will continue to perpetuate the myth of unfettered capitalism as the vehicle for progress of self and society. In reality, it just skews the curve more to the few wealthy hoarding groups. This is particularly noticeable in the greed grab along the supply chain during the Covid pandemic where rising prices are not mainly due to real increased item unit costs but the desire to add to those costs (because everyone else is increasing costs) in order to take advantage of decreased supply with increased demand, the hallmark of unfettered capitalism that favors individual hoarding over social responsibility. That is, making money during perceived scarcity trumps an equitable modal pricing structure for the locale. A modal pricing system which can be negotiated in good faith between the government at all levels and the companies involved.

         Distraction is the norm in unfettered capitalism which inundates consumers with repetitive choices and dilutes group motivation to question the current economic model. Individual and group political movements in this economic system approach Brownian Movement buffeted about by a smaller handful of uber-wealthy groups, organizations and corporations (the hoarders of wealth). This buffeting in our society has dissolved any major social grouping strong enough to retrench these forces. At best, over our history, the hoarders of wealth have given in on some points to keep their system intact and appease the opposition.

        

 

         Provolution

         What is needed, I believe, is an enlightenment of our history, our future, and our present-day values which we imbue in human self-worth and social dignity. This enlightenment needs to be transformed into legislation which becomes part of our culture. In short, we need a new Renaissance. A Renaissance of the mind and emotion and behavior.  In today’s terms, we need a political provolution. A provolution that vitalizes our social conscience to gain insight and appreciate the greater purpose of the individual besides themselves to the whole of society. This provolution in social conscience can be measured by insight obtained from facts, which changes our understanding of past socio-political agenda into a fresh and insightful onward view guided by facts and two major principles: concern for the person and concern for the general welfare to which commerce and property are in service. The person can be viewed as an individual and/or an intimate family/social grouping. General welfare should focus on people thriving in their society and how society encourages a person’s growth. We should start at the front end by understanding how and why people motive themselves in our country and proceed to provide the educational and training alternatives throughout the life cycle to reward engagement in our society and leave a legacy for others to follow and improve upon.

         Maslow

         I offer a framework to organize this provolution through a forward order movement of motivational development, adapting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a federal funding guide, an example is based on proposed 2022 discretionary funding across federal departments. This Hierarchy views what an individual developmentally strives forward for, as needs to accomplish, starting with physiological (e.g., health, basic sustenance), and after some satisfaction then towards safety (e.g., security to thrive), social, (e.g., belongingness with groups, fostering social engagement/interaction), ego/ esteem (e.g., recognition, business success, accolades), self-actualization (e.g., achieving one’s potential, self-development into legacy), and transcendence (search for meaning and a world-view, concern beyond one’s own needs.).

         I posit that this Hierarchy can be applied as a funding guide to allocate wealth of a society to meeting these objectives for its people. This process does not have to be linear, but multi-occurring, e.g., not straight-line trajectories, but rather like moving slides of different frequencies in an audio equalizer during the playing of a song over time. Legislation would allocate wealth and services to meet the stages of needs of the populus voted on through local, regional and national elections. Similar analogies have been made in modern versions of recapitulation theories where the biological development mirrors the psycho-social development of a person. And thus, as a person stays motivated, so too society. As long as the laws are tweaked to synchronize personal needs and benefits with social opportunities over the life span of an individual, then more people are motivated to stay engaged in society through work and thus flow money in the economy for a longer time.  

         Blackstone

         I believe that the application of Maslow’s model can be adjusted by Blackstone’s observations of how the Blackfoot Nation frames social and individual responsibilities.  Specifically , in the Blackfoot belief, self-actualization is the foundation on which community actualization is built.  So, the individual is born to be nurtured to  self-actualization from the start, and basic needs are part of the cultural base which promotes cultural actualization and cultural perpetuity.  Blackstock describes cultural perpetuity as what her Gitksan people call the breath of life.

         Blackstone writes: “We have been given the ancestors’ teachings and the feelings and the spirit. We can do a couple of things with that. We can say that what we know is inadequate and that we’re not Indian enough and that we don’t know enough about it, or we don’t want to pass it on. And we hold our breath, and our people stop. Or you can nourish that breath. You can breathe in even deeper the knowledge of others and understand it at a deep level and then breathe it forward. That’s the breath of life,”  

         One way to see how a society gives reality to the “breath of life” is by examining how a society spends their wealth in areas that foster this development. We do it by allocation of federal monies to different departments.  For example, the Chart below reflects Proposed 2022 Budget Discretionary funding (per year). It does not reflect mandatory spending (long-term, multi-years) and debt costs. Discretionary spending, in my opinion, reflects the values currently aggregated for the society, whereas multi-year expenditures and debt are commitments to maintain the programs and cycles put into place to provide a sense of stability and moral responsibility to the people.

 

 

 

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs      Federal Departments/Programs FY22

6. Transcendence        Peace Corps/AmeriCorps    $0.431/1.2 billion (bn)        

5. Self-Actualization   National Endowments for the Arts  $0.201 bn

4. Ego/Esteem             Small Business Administration   $762 bn

3. Socialization           Dept. of Commerce   $11.5 bn

                                    D.O.L   $11.1 bn

                                    Dept. of Education  $64 bn

                                    Dept. of Transportation  $11.5 bn

2. Security                   D.O.D.    $715 bn

                                    Dept. of Justice  $35.3 bn

                                    Dept. of State/A.I.D.   $58.5 bn                

                                    Dept. of Energy   $7 bn

                                    Dept. of Homeland Security   $90.8 bn

                                    Dept. of H.U.D.    $44.1 bn

1.  Physical/Health       Dept. of Agriculture/HH$198.1 bn/131.8 bn

                                    V.A. $268.4 bn

        

With reference to the above, the current federal budget is heavily allocated towards safety needs and ego/esteem needs but lower on physiological/health needs, social needs and self-actualization/transcendence needs. Granted that there is overlap between needs within departments (i.e., DoD allocation towards personnel retirement costs vs weapon systems), the budgets per department do give us a snapshot on macro values of society via political compromise.  A review of domestic and global needs could reassemble national budgetary priorities based on where we are in development for our citizens and for our society. Rewards for promoting these behaviors would be in the form of legislation, programs, stimulus funding and tax incentives for achieving these outcomes. Examples include financial entities would be incentivized to create wealth which would be feedback looped into the society. Tax incentives would promote reinvesting wealth rather than hoarding it. The military budget would be reallocated to achieve a level of protection necessary to protect the country but also to help it in times of non-military crises. A paid National Service with choices across federal/state departments, not only military, would provide opportunities to persons from 18 to 26 for two years, which would be rewarded at the end of their service with a new type of “G.I. Bill” benefits, plus give your younger citizens a sense of investment in their country by knowing something of its inner workings on the federal and state levels. A basic income would be guaranteed to every citizen to meet a minimum of physiological and safety needs (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, education, childcare, healthcare) to cover economic downswings and allow people to thrive.

         Howard Gardner

         To ensure our society evolves productively and economically to create wealth, we have to offer opportunities and jobs which address a wider range of skill sets than have been done in the past. This can be done by appealing to the diverse abilities of each person, as organized by Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, where traditional training and education are broadened to a wider set of priorities, from technical, academic, mechanical, to the arts, spiritual, body/kinesthetic and moral/philosophical career paths, to name a few. This would align with the provolution of not just the individual but with society toward developing, rather than plateauing when meeting new challenges and opportunities. For example, not every person gravitates towards S.T.E.M. education (science, technology, engineering and math), but rather others gravitate towards body-kinesthetic learning (athletics, dance), emotive (performing arts), visuo-spatial (sculpturing/visual arts, film arts), language (English literature, foreign language and cultural learning), empathetic/caring (social, psychological, healthcare leanings), etc. So, why not provide a life-long education that addresses a person’s strengths and desires and mode of learning which can be converted into satisfying careers over time.

         Erickson and Joseph Campbell

         These education and training programs could take into account the developmental stages and age range of a person, along the lines of Erickson’s psycho-social stages of development which focus on challenges and growth  that a person deals with by age range, and also alluded to in the Hero’s Journey delineated by Joseph Campbell. Erickson’s focus on the challenges at different age ranges could be used to adjust and incorporate cultural and social factors into curriculum of education and career growth with respect to competence as we age. So too Joseph Campbell’s point of view of the person changing today as the fragmented individual (e.g., digital nomads) requires a challenge in itself to separate from and re-engage in a  new way with our group/tribe/society/country; reminding us of the importance of defragmenting  to contribute to our group and individuals, and extend our legacy.

         Work as self-development.

         To pay for this front-end education/training model which is based on income distribution/earnings of GDP (or GNP), I believe that if one views work as a journey of self-development from ego/esteem needs towards self-actualization and eventually self-transcendence, this could lead people to contribute to the economy longer; a key indicator of cash flow for the country to provide benefits and opportunities, particularly in a post-scarcity world. This journey begins with the young in education where a wider palette of offerings has to be offered which synchronizes with the skills and abilities of the learner and continues throughout life.

        

 

         Earnings

         The journey of earnings can begin in middle to high school and onwards. Earnings obtained along the way will vary depending on where the journey takes the person. So, there will be inequity of earnings between people over time. As long as the GDP (or GNP) covers benefits, services and costs plus surplus, this inequity is tolerable to a wide degree. However, if certain groups skew surplus to themselves by ascribing widely disparate values to their worth at the expense of others or by hoarding wealth (morbid capitalism) allowed through favored legislation, there will be a deficit in benefits and services. And this will be especially noticeable when there are economies of scale; producing more with less people.

         Disparate values of worth

         Therefore, disparate values of worth need to be evaluated across all values of worth. Outlier values of worth could be transformed into a range commensurate with current GDP (or GNP). Legislation can rein in extremes of hoarding of wealth through reinvestment incentives, employee-centered companies, and/or equitable income tax structures. These legislative changes affect the earnings paths people choose for their journey. And will continue to earn over the years. Only when we invest heavily in the young and develop a life-long educational/training cycle will people have a greater chance to pursue that which they feel best matched at where they are in their lives, and in turn, earn in that path. As long as there are paths to satisfy, one can keep earning while pursuing their paths throughout life.

         But incentives have to be in place for this redistribution, allocation and creation of wealth in order to provide these benefits/opportunities in an economic democracy. What follows in SECTION TWO is a blueprint to provide the context for this change.

 

SECTION TWO

Towards An Economic Democracy: Addressing Extremes of Wealth

         I believe in Common Sense, and the Rational distribution of wealth based on the efforts of Americans. I believe in the accumulation of personal wealth and private property through work, savings, ownership and investments in so far as it does not monopolize nor allows undue economic, environmental, social, spiritual and/or political dominance over others in our society. I believe in managed capitalism so that individual or group ownership of companies does not exploit employees, the regional community or the country in which the enterprise is based.

         I believe in balancing self-interest with community responsibility and legislation. This will involve transitioning in certain cases individually, privately group owned, or small majority shareholder enterprises to employee participation or owned companies or nationally/regionally managed businesses based on size, sector, gross revenue and/or when such enterprises exert significant economic, social, spiritual or political influence regionally or nationally.

         This is not an easy change for people. And the speed and process of this change have to be synchronized with a willing majority of voters. The head and the heart of each of us have to be working in concert to agree upon how much wealth is enough to satisfy one’s needs versus wants. “I earned my money, why should I pay more taxes to help lazy people” has to broaden to include the legal, political, social and economic contexts which allowed for the inequitable accumulation of wealth that skews benefits towards the haves, have-mores versus the have-less and have-nots. A baseline of benefits and services has to be crafted on a federal level and particularized for each state based on local economic realities.

         Unfettered Capitalism

         Unfettered Capitalism currently rewards obscene profits to a select number of individuals and families. Capitalism as currently practiced skews priority towards businesses and entrepreneurs with ensuring a return on investment that justifies a large take off the top of net profits by the relatively few (CEOS, owners, large shareholders, etc.) which is justified because workers have been paid off already.

         Employee’s Return On Investment

         However, this model does not reciprocate to the employees’ Return On Investment - How much does it cost for employees to just come to work taking into account their expenses. What is their True Cost to work. What is their return on investment? Capitalism as it is practiced now is skewed to the business perspective of profit, not to the employee perspective of their own profit when the employee takes into account their true costs of providing that work.1, 2, 3.

        

         Value for Work

         The owners of the capital rent labor as a unit production cost and take a relatively greater percentage of the surplus (net profit) due to the higher value ascribed to the owner over employees. So, the idea of to each labor to each due with respect to productive output requires a reciprocal consensus between individual credits and social credits. One way to look at this is what the federal government did when they established a 40-hour workweek and government service schedules from GS1 to GS15. And they have step raises within each grade level which provide progressive increments and stability on earning power for recycling of money within the society. 

         A question comes down to as a society are we willing to engage in the concept of individual credits in service of or interactive with as socialized credits?  How much/do we accept the rationing of services/products by capital markets influenced by favorable legislation? In short, what hierarchy of value and worth do we accept that requires our effort and defined as work?

         Alan MacSimoin

         Alan MacSimoin, the Irish social activist, may be on to something. If we perceive the giveback from society to be equal or greater than that which we gave to society, then there is “no need for money” for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But some want more than others. This is handled presently by the have mores exploiting scarcity and hoarding of products/services from the haves less which leaves the rest to distribute among the haves enough.

         Provolution approach

         I think to approach this type of society requires provolution of the majority of the people of the country in social conscience both locally and at the federal level to realize that for many things we are all in this together in terms of educating children, ourselves, buying food, transportation, ease of access to initiate the businesses housing, etc.

         To do this requires a re-evaluation of the total wealth produced in this country and how we reciprocate and reinvest in our country for the betterment of our people. A shift is called for away from providing legislation for families and/or corporations who hoard advantaged wealth or consume that which they hoard, and towards incentivizing net profit give back/investment which would benefit the members of the company, the shareholders and the local community. people of the country from which they made their wealth. I believe this would be best initiated by taxing up at 70% all major wealthy individuals including all their wealth not their nominal salary. And up to 70% of large corporations’ net profits which are not focused on the benefit of the company including their members and shareholders and local community.

         Economic democracy

         Ideally, an economic democracy views work and entrepreneurship which can be profit-oriented activities in service of its people and society. Going from “The business of America is business,” to “The purpose of America is to promote the well-being and progress of its populus.” Going from “laissez-faire” government to “enlightened government management” where satisfaction of basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, health, transportation, etc., are met to allow educational/training/discovery paths which synchronize one’s potential with satisfying work, creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation.

         Obviously, we are not there yet. We currently assign more economic rights to a business entity than to a human being. And there will be a certain number of people who cannot or will not achieve their potential due to their circumstances or beliefs. But if we can make this change showing others who are adamant against it, that there are benefits for them, then we can focus on how best to improve these changes for all. We can do better than what we have now. As currently practiced, capitalism eats away at basic needs for a vast amount of people because the current political climate allows it to operate on paying the least amount for labor by renting employees as a commodity. And allowing this commodity conceptualization to linger dehumanizes people over time within the context of business to just a number, a unit, that produces products that make profit, some of which may be shared to the workers, while a greater ratio is shared with the upper echelon of management and CEOs.

         All countries practice capitalism at some level to exchange services and benefits, and recoup profits whether they are democratic, republic, monarchy, socialist, communist or a dictatorship. But Unfettered Capitalism is not conducive to providing people access to a path towards a more equitable distribution of wealth in a democratic society. Capitalism without fair common-sense guard rails results in a skewed distribution of wealth, where the relatively few control the majority of wealth. This is due to legislation and government business welfare since the 1700s which took the form of land giveaways, inflated bonds, tariffs, military assistance for strike breaking, allowing monopolies, favorable trade terms and tax reductions.

         Lawmakers who support Unfettered Capitalism make laws to promote greater value to commerce, property and profit than to the populus who provide these profits, and a lax tax system that rewards the hoarding of wealth. However, “I’m not going to tell a company how to spend their money” can be shifted to “Companies are responsible stewards in their community and region and abide by laws which incentivize profit reinvestments in that company to their employees and growth structure.” One example of a specific noticeable change would be to reduce the ratio of CEO benefits to the average company wage from 300 to 1 to below 30 to 1. Another would be to legislate increased employee control, participation and equity within companies.

         Expectations of extreme wealth

         Expectations of extreme wealth are outlier values that are maintained in Unfettered Capitalism. “It’s always been that way because the market decides.” No, people decide, and if we allow Hoarding Owners and Executive Boards to maintain this inbreeding of extreme wealth expectation, then economic inequity persists with patch quilt legislation to keep the masses temporarily satisfied.

         Presently legislation is skewed towards business over people, money over well-being. Unfettered Capitalism prioritizes profit over worker benefits and services, and over country. At best, the hoarders of wealth act as a benign monarchy which doles out rewards on a piecemeal basis; at its worst it promotes fascist and oligarchical growth and expression to survive as an entity for the chosen few in power. This leads to a Morbid Capitalism which allows the very few to hold onto accumulated wealth based on the work of others which extremely exceeds one’s living standards or fails to put it to work in productive investments for society while paying the least amount of taxes.4

         Legislation changes

         A solution to curb the excesses of capitalism is to change legislation as to who owns outlier amounts of capital and to provide an equitable tax incentive system to funnel profits from this capital into society and growth. This capital can be both tangible (e.g., a product, brick and mortar factory, etc.) and intangible (e.g., digital services, software, etc.) We need to democratize our economy by widening the ownership of business capital where all employees earn income from the capital as well as from their work. There is compelling evidence that economic freedom is linked to the extent of employee ownership.5,6.

         Employee ownership

         This approach assumes that expanding employee ownership in the decision making of medium to large business outcomes will balance the community good with profit, improve fairness and financial equity, when compared to previous decisions made solely by an individual, family or small cadre of owners of medium to large enterprises. This approach also reduces large scale inequity but allows for individually perceived improvement when comparing oneself to another in terms of bettering one’s own situation, although the extravagant range of economic inequity that exists today should diminish over time through legislation.

         So how do we democratize our economy without stifling the creative potential of individuals and businesses in a market-based system, while meeting the needs of our people so that they may flourish, and fund all of this?

         First, only when the majority of voters think this way can economic democracy proceed (i.e., head and heart are together). Grass roots efforts must address specific issues of the rural poor, factory workers, fossil fuel labor, small farmers, urban poor, ethnic/racial justice concerns, shrinking middle class, outsourced manufacturing, service industries, knowledge-based professionals, and small business owners. These efforts will need to result in majority political votes to initiate legislation to democratize our economy and improve our political system.

         Second, political power must be shared which addresses concerns of opposition viewpoints and disenfranchised groups. When the party in power has its needs met does not preclude meeting the needs of the opposition or disenfranchised group within a framework of shared goals. There has to be a raised consciousness and consensus of the interdependence of all our needs.

         To this end, the transition to an economic democracy will require managing capitalism as a series of breakpoints based on economic indices such as size, gross revenue, sector, etc., which allow individuals, families and small groups to startup and maintain businesses to cultivate new ideas, products, services, technologies, etc. Legislation can codify where these breakpoints occur to transition to employee equity, cooperative and employee ownerships of businesses, and/or national oversight or ownership of large corporations that rise to the level of national influence and security of the country.

 

 

SECTION THREE

         The following goals are based on a belief of compassion, promotion for all of basic economic and social benefits for thriving in our society, and the just application of laws for all citizens. The specific programs or suggested legislative goals that are cited are based on references mentioned by others in their previous writings but aggregated here as a blueprint for change. These goals are put forth as a continuation of the great experiment of the United States to advance our well-being and our society within an economic democracy. These goals can be viewed from the perspective of:  Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.

For Life:

Universal Healthcare:

         Health care for all from cradle to grave (e.g., childcare, family leave, neonatal care, wellness checks, medical care, elder care, etc.) regardless of income and the right to choose, keep and/or change one’s health provider.

         The goal of a Single Payer National Health Insurance program with minimal need for private insurance options would be developed. Currently about 70% of health insurance is managed in part or in whole by private insurance companies that mainly run on a for profit basis with overhead costs averaging four times greater than Medicare/Medicaid, not counting about 15% of the population with no health insurance.

         In the references based on the work of the Physicians' Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance, a single payer distributed risk tax-based program is proposed which will reduce private insurance company reliance by individuals to below 20%. Legislation can kick start this program over a 4-year period to attrite insurance companies at 25% a year and embed health insurance taxes within a graduated income tax revenue stream, so that over a ten-year period this will amortize health care costs on a break even or better basis compared to the for-profit inequitable care that is prevalent today.

         This plan would cover every American for all medically necessary services. As in the Medicare program, private insurance duplicating public coverage would not be allowed. Patient co-payments and deductibles would also be eliminated.

         Payment for Hospital Service would involve paying each hospital a monthly lump sum to cover all operating expenses - that is, a global budget. The hospital and regional and national fund agencies would negotiate the amount of this payment annually.

         Payment for Physicians/Health Care Provider and Outpatient Care would include three payment options for physicians and other practitioners: fee-for-service; salaried positions in institutions receiving global budgets; and salaried positions within group practices or HMOs receiving capitation payments. Investor-owned HMOs and group practices would transition to not-for-profit status (see wage earner funds and converting to employee-owned business later in this article.)

         Disabled Americans of all ages would be covered for all necessary home and nursing home care. Anyone unable to perform activities of daily living would be eligible for services. Regional or local agencies would coordinate care.

         All medically necessary prescription drugs and medical supplies, based on a national formulary, would be provided. An expert panel would establish and regularly update the formulary. The plan would negotiate drug and equipment prices with manufacturers, based on their costs (excluding marketing or lobbying). Where therapeutically equivalent drugs are available, the formulary would specify use of the lowest cost medication except for medical necessity. Suppliers would bill national/regional agencies (for the negotiated wholesale price plus a reasonable dispensing fee) for any item in the formulary that is prescribed by a licensed practitioner.

         This plan would pay long-term care facilities and home care agencies a global (lump sum) budget to cover all operating expenses. Home caregivers such as family and friends would be assisted through training, respite services, and financial support. For-profit nursing homes and home care agencies would be transformed to not-for-profit status. Doctors, nurses, therapists, and other individual long-term care providers would be paid on either a fee-for-service or salaried basis.

         Funds for the construction or renovation of health facilities and for major equipment purchases would be appropriated from the plan’s regional budgets. 7

 

 

Universal Basic Income:

         A minimum average $1000 per month per person to increase to $2000 a month per person over a four-year period adjusted for age, income, the GDP’s growth and regional cost of living indices.8,9 This amount can be floor income when a person or family has difficulty in working or health needs.

         Local or regional assistance is provided for follow-up.

Safety from Violence, including but not limited to weapons, war, and domestic violence by:

         Federally mandate safety training, licensing, insurance and age requirements of personal protection weapons across states.

         Restrict weapons of war to military use only.

         Reduce domestic violence through enforcement of strict laws against violence, judicial review improvements, and education of respect and de-escalation training.10, 11.

Renewable sustainable non-fossil fuel usage:

         We can generate most electricity from renewable energy by 2050. An 80 percent renewables future is feasible with currently available technologies, including wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, biopower, geothermal, and hydropower.12, 13.

         Provide stimulus funding and/or management of industries to promote electric mass transportation, and quick charge portals across the country for individual electric cars. Increase the electric power grid to accommodate the rise in electric transportation and usage.

         Legislate reduction in all fossil fuel industries (e.g., oil, coal) over a specific time frame to phase into renewable industries. This would include concomitant retraining and employment in other sectors for all employees currently in the fossil fuel sector. This entails industry wide working groups to refit or emerge innovative technologies to ease transition to productive new business sectors.

         Promote federally funded startups and small businesses to innovate in renewable energy production.

         Realignment of national budget priorities to domestic and infrastructure concerns and away from military overspending and reduction in military foreign commitments and excursions:

The military federal budget eats up over half of the federal discretionary funding. In order to legislate and fund economic laws to promote general welfare, a reduction of discretionary funding of the military budget over a four-year term from 30% to 50%; reallocating monies into economic and social programs including infrastructure. 14, 14A, 14B

         Provide crossover training for military personnel transferring into the civilian sector based on attrition, bonus incentives or retirement.

         Promote using domestically based military to help in civilian infrastructure improvements in addition to projects with off-base military installation benefits. 15

For Liberty:

Unfettered domestic movement, including:

         Reduce random roadblocks or on the street stops by police, state or federal authorities except for investigation established by law for specific public safety. 16

         Increase funding through reprioritizing the federal budget and access to reasonable cost national mass transportation systems across the country. 17

Promote diversity, and tolerance in daily transactions:

         Ensure a representative mix of qualified men/women/transgender/other identified gender on all employee-owned/corporate boards taking into account local demographics.

         Allow all persons the right to have access to and to transact business in all establishments and organizations as stated by law. 18, 19

For The Pursuit Of Happiness:

Universal Education:

         Promote increased funding for preschool, elementary, middle and high schools, community colleges, universities, vocational/trade training, online training programs at federal and local levels. Once a certificate or degree is obtained through universal higher education programs, then federal/local assistance can be provided to those who seek to maintain or seek new learning opportunities so that no debt is obtained.

         Ensure that teacher and professor unions and citizen boards regularly meet with regional/federal government bodies to adjust salary requirements based on regional cost of living indices.

         Legislate equal access, integration of and sufficient funding for public schools across residential areas. 20, 21

Affordable and Basic Housing:

         Promote housing as a right, via Federal and regional funding for public housing, housing assistance and tenant protection integrated across economic strata where basic income and work do not provide for renting or buying a home, particularly for those where housing costs exceed 30% to 50% of income.

         Develop, fund, and assist community land trusts/banks, and community-based lenders for regulated mortgage rates for home buying and/or housing assistance.

         Implement a plan from regional funds for refurbishing abandoned housing or housing not used for local benefit but let sit without improvement for extensive amount of time.

         Improve efficiency and renewable energy in housing construction community. 22

         Revamped Justice System to promote ethnic/racial/citizen equality:

         Prioritize reduction of selective enforcement, ethnic/racial prejudice and violent police action.

         Provide education and social skill training for police with a priority for racial sensitivity and de-scalation techniques.

         Hire police officers who reflect local demographic and diversify across sex, orientation, transgender, etc.

         Eliminate private for-profit prisons.

         Eliminate bail requirements for non-violent, non-felonious, non-flight risk persons.

         Conduct nationwide sentence review, reduction or release of those incarcerated for non-violent offenses with purging of records as appropriate.

         Legalize, license, regulate and tax recreational drugs (e.g., marijuana, etc.) and sex workers.

         Reclassify non-violent drug use offenses as a health problem, and purge the criminal records as appropriate, with designated federal funding for treatment and follow up. 23, 24

         Unfettered assembly, unionization, and associations within the law:

         Promote through legislation expanding employee-ownership based on codified size requirements of a business, with unions involved in the transitions to employee/community owned businesses.25

Universal Employment access:

         Job banks can provide opportunities over a wide range of industry sectors to match employee interests. If a mismatch exists, job counseling/training can help an individual to initiate training, a startup business or other project based on their personal interests, qualifications, and motivations. There will be a certain percentage of persons who do not or cannot take part in this benefit, but it is considered to be less devastating than the wage inequality and poverty which exists today.26, 27.

Employee livable wages:

         Regional labor boards can index Base Income and Individual Expenses to reflect hourly worker’s cost to come to work. This will determine minimum livable hourly wage rates as reflected in nationally/regionally owned or employee-owned businesses. Currently this amount should be in the $20 to $35 per hour range.28

Compassionate immigration reform:

         Ensure that legal paths to citizenship of immigrants and undocumented immigrants adhere to our national values and United Nations Human Rights.

         Streamline legal immigration policy based on asylum seeking or job qualifications, decrease length of required residence in the United States, widen demand for skills, and taking into account non-violent, non-felonious criminal records.

         Establish equitable quotas based on geographic regions rather than country of birth origin, given today’s globalization of migration.

         Integrate and streamline guest worker programs into legal immigration policy for those who seek such status based on quota guidelines.

         For undocumented immigrants, establish criteria taking into account non-violent non-felonious criminal past, and reasonable waiting times greater than for those who entered legally but without unbearable bureaucratic backlogs.

         For legal and undocumented immigrants establish local/regional citizen group sponsorship programs to ease integration into communities, including English and citizen classes without fear of reprisal.29, 30, 31, 32.

         Priority streamlined funding for individual startups and small businesses:

         Establish a general innovation fund to promote startups in technologies, the arts, manufacturing, services, knowledge areas, etc.

         Redesign the Small Business Administration to disburse funds based on regional and local needs to assist persons or small groups with startup businesses.

         Provide auditing services and partial/full funding matching with accredited investors.33, 34.

Proposals on how to fund these goals:

         Legislate a progressive taxation bracket system where the more you make financially, the more you pay incrementally in taxes. Currently the highest tax rate is 37% (over $523,600 a year for one person, over $628,300 a year for a married couple filing jointly).

         It is suggested that one can start with a baseline taxable range from lowest income to highest income of 0% to 65% (for income, payroll and capital gains) based on incremental tax brackets adjusted by regional cost of living indices and business conditions/sectors. One would pay only that percentage within each income bracket for that range, rather than all or none.

         One suggestion follows in the chart on the next page. This suggestion would need to be reviewed by economists who can determine if this direction of income reimbursement is feasible compared to the present system. The thesis of the proposed tax table is that the more you make the more you pay in federal taxes, minus deductions allowed by law.

 

 

 

 

 

Proposed tax table:

% Rate per Income Bracket One person’s annual income per year ($)

0       up to $15,0000 16th percentile -1 standard deviation

0       up to 20,000 (or current poverty rate)

5          up to 30,000

10     up to 43,000 50th percentile median (or current median)

12     up to 50,000

15     up to 65,000 69.2nd percentile +0.5 standard deviation

17     up to 70,000

20     up to 99,000 84.1st percentile +1 standard deviation

22     up to 110,000

24     up to 130,000

26     up to 150k 93.3rd percentile +1.5 standard deviations

30     up to 170,000 (Congressperson’s starting salary)

35     up to 250,000 97.7th percentile +2 standard deviations

40     up to 500,000

45     up to 1 million

50     up to 5 million

55     up to 10 million

60     up to 15 million

65     over 15 million

 

         Taxes would be reduced considerably if pretax revenue is reinvested in productive domestic business ventures or community/regional/national projects.35

         Legislate value added tax on certain goods and services including but not limited to financial and wealth services; with an incremental tax burden based on what you earn or produce.36

         Legislate regional/local salary level caps based on multipliers from highest executive positions to average wage workers (e.g., maximum of 30 to 1) on all employee controlled/cooperative businesses and/or nationally managed large-scale corporations.37, 38.

         Establish wage earner funds of selected large businesses to transition from individual ownership where the voting shares of existing majority shareholders are reduced by a certain percentage over time (e.g., 20% per year), until voting shares of employees or public are in the majority.

         Funds are distributed through legislation; regional industry board and/or local employee control with a share sent to a clearing fund to provide expertise training for employees to manage their own companies.39

         Establish a capital assets tax when large corporations do not have wage earner funds. This is a legislated flat-rate property tax on all businesses. These revenues constitute a national investment fund. All of these revenues are reinvested in the economy. They are not used for other governmental services. (A separate income or consumption tax will fund ongoing governmental expenses.) These publicly generated funds are allocated in a manner that combines planning at the national, regional, and local levels with market criteria.40

         Legislate “break points” of size or gross revenue and profit when an individually owned small business evolves into a business requiring employee-owned controlling interest. Start with and then revise as needed the criteria of a small business (currently a business making between or below $750,000 and $35.5 million and have between or below 100 and 1,500 employees depending on the industry.) Take into account size, sector, revenue and how much that business influences the local community and region to assess when to expand employee ownership.41

         Legislate a carbon tax on fossil-fuel heavy industries who refuse to initiate a transition over to renewable energy industry technology while providing tax breaks and economic stimulus to help those fossil fuel industries to convert to renewable energy sources and provides for their employees.42

         To help fund universal basic income, aggregate tax credits pertaining to Social Security, earned income credit, child tax credit, home ownership tax expenditures, married filing jointly preferential tax treatment, tax break on pensions, fossil fuel subsidies, and treating capital gains differently than ordinary income. 43

         Promote a collective wealth fee and “Sky Trust” modeled similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund to help fund Universal Basic Income.

Economic Democracy In Practice:

         Currently there are over 300 employee-owned successful community wealth building efforts putting economic democracy into practice.45

         These include cooperative development financial institution s(e.g., credit unions), cooperatives (e.g., one member, one vote as in The Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative which is a partnership of the USW and the Mondragón Cooperative of Basque, Spain), public trusts (e.g., The Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund), multi-anchor partnerships (e.g., the University of Chicago engages 15 situations to use their purchasing power to strengthen local communities), community development corporations (e.g., Thunder Valley CDC on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota developed a sustainable community), community land trusts (e.g., Dudley Street Neighborhood in Boston for affordable housing), land banking (e.g., 170 communities in 20 states have bought vacant land for productive community use). The use of “commons” promotes reclaiming space, such as parks and “sky rights” (e.g., nine northeast states have established cap and trade program covering carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.).

What the above enterprises have in common for a viable economic democracy are:

• employee cooperatives/ownership

• democratic financial institutions

• participatory investment structures

• a regulated market system where trade is managed and planned for community/regional/national economic stability.

Suggestions For Political Change:

         It starts locally. Go to voters in all the voting precincts in states for local, midterm and national elections. Hold in-person, virtual, town halls and/or local community meetings to listen to their concerns and fear.

         Explain how expanding employee ownership and equitable income revenue distribution in an economic democracy can best meet their local needs.

         Compare the past with the present and show what is possible. Validate differences of opinion, and work through compromises.

         In an economic democracy, this is a democracy in action, one person, one employee, one vote. They elect their employee representatives who develop business policy in conjunction with hired executives who are answerable to them.46, 47.

         Address young voters concerns and the need to learn from older voters that they should vote in all elections or else their views will not be represented.48

         In state and federal election, legislate that citizens vote much like a jury duty responsibility, with legislated exceptions.49

         Legislate a bill to allow a minimum of 48 consecutive hours for people to vote up to a week ahead of time by mail, in person, or to-be-determined electronically via internet, and to improve technology to allow voting online and/or establish holidays on major voting days.50, 51

         The main problem with politics is politics. Just like with morbid capitalism, the hoarding of power far longer than is productive for the majority of the country leads to an impotence of change. Therefore, one way to nip the addiction of power is to promote 12-year term limits on the House and Senate; where previous Senators and Representatives can serve as advising “backbenchers” for experience, as needed.52, 53  This would also require insightful and prescriptive writing of legislative bills so that the hoarders of power can’t do a procedural run around the process to maintain their hold on the electorate.

         Promote portable pension plans for members of congress; no pension for life as Universal Basic Income would be provided.54

         Being a congressperson should be a service like going in the military or serving in a federal civilian agency. Unfortunately, this service mentality can erode very quickly once elected. Currently, members of congress, once elected, jump to the top ten percent of all wage earners (e.g., over $170,000 a year).  To help with the complaint, “I need the money because I have to pay for two residences,” provide free or reduced rates for congress persons to live on military base housing in the D.C. area. Freeze and review salary limits for members of congress in line with the Federal and Military Pay Schedule. Right now, a congress person makes over four times the median individual income once they are in office. This salary shelters them from the effects of the economic consequences of their voting. To prevent congress persons from voting on increasing their own salary, increases would be governed by cost-of-living indices; any increase over that would be voted on only by the People during a presidential election.55, 56, 57, 58, 59.

         Presently the size of the checkbook drives legislation more so than the power of ideas to make laws. Remove “Pay to Play” requirements for committee and leadership appointments in the House and Senate through legislation.60

         Maintain the popular vote and eliminate the Electoral College for presidential elections.61

         Eliminate gerrymandering by multi-seat districts with some form of proportional representation, direct court scrutiny of redistricting lines, and/or use non-political algorithms to readjust districts by population shifts every 10 years.62, 63, 64.

         Promote strict campaign spending limits for contributions to congressional and national elections. One way to do this is to ban dark money and limit dollar amounts which can be contributed to each election, so that a PAC, super PAC, corporation, business, and/or tax-exempt organizations (or any of their derivatives) would be limited to the spending limit of an individual. This amount should be small enough so that politicians won’t feel particularly beholding to one group/individual. These amounts can be matched with public funding budgets that exist per state.65, 66, 67.

         Fair time media exposure would go hand in hand for congressional and national elections.

         Promote a restricted time period for campaigning (e.g., six weeks) and require all major broadcast and internet platforms to provide pro bono media time for all major political candidates (based on voter percentages). 68, 69

         Promote an amendment to require presidential candidates to reveal income tax returns for the past seven years at a minimum to run for that office, reform and improve the independence of the Attorney General, and prevent self-pardoning by presidents.69A

         Promote reforming lobbying of congressional officials. These suggestions include reducing or equating transparent times lobbyists have with congress compared to individual citizens, barring/limiting former government officials from lobbying, preventing lobbyists taking money from foreign groups, disclosure agreements of which officials’ lobbyists are contacting and for what issues.70, 71.

         Promote term limits for Supreme Court justices. Some have suggested 18 to 24 years, others 15 years, with staggering appointments of judges, so that their end terms would be in a middle of a presidential term, allowing the president to appoint one judge, but allow turn over in other terms thereby precluding stacking of the court by any one political party.72, 73, 74, 75 Also, since people are living longer now compared to the 1700s, the idea of a lifetime appointment becomes questionable for all judge appointments. Perhaps 10-year terms could be promoted as a starting point for discussion.

         Legislate a time period in which social security and basic income are merged and paid for. During this merger, stop taxing social security benefits and remove earnings cap for social security tax. Based on actuarial projections, we can achieve 100% solvency of social security by removing the earnings cap and set a 7.6% payroll tax rate which allows increase in benefits.76, 77, 78, 79

         Encourage participation in federal or state services by passing a National Services Act, which would require 18- to 28-year-olds to be employed in one of the military or other civilian federal or state agencies for a two-year term with a sign on bonus which would be set aside for education or further training, housing, etc.80, 81

         The above suggestions are just some of the issues that need to be addressed.

Where To Go From Here:

         The above suggestions are broad goals for the 21st century of the United States. To meet these goals will require us to reconcile how co-operative (economic democracy) and/or how competitive (unfettered capitalism) we want to be with ourselves as a nation, and how to translate these cooperative and competing self-conceptions into legislation. It will also require a collective trust in regional and federal government’s ability to spend public money fairly and wisely to meet the stated goals. And in so doing, the income stream to fund these goals in terms of taxes and/or reinvested profits needs to be specifically assigned to these goals so that voters can judge if the distribution of wealth benefits our society in an equitable manner.82

         Only by being specific can the benefits of economic democracy be framed in a comprehensible manner for voters, rather than in an abstract notion which can be framed by the opposition into confusion to maintain the status quo. Expanding employee ownership in large businesses, stimulating startups and small businesses, community bankers, land trusts and lenders, and regional distribution of funding for health and wage benefits are just a few of the specific aspects of an economic democracy which can be tied to local concerns about how distribution of the federal revenue stream would be managed.83

         Two swaths of Americans whose concerns need to be made salient are the small family farmers and Appalachian workers. For too long, these Americans have been glossed over by progressive interests and should not have been. Caricaturized as uneducated, racist, parochial, suspicious and easily persuaded, on the contrary small family farmers and Appalachian workers are hard-working people who over the past several years feel abandoned by what they perceive to be elitist progressives and gravitate towards a skewed version of conservative politics. These skewed politics hype a nationalist patriotism which fosters an “us versus them” mentality that spills over into racism, armed fear and a biblical reliance for truth, while making promises to better their lot. The truth of the matter hasn’t. Agri-business and large fossil fuel corporations have been the major beneficiaries of these promises across presidential terms.

         So why do small farmers and Appalachian people continue to vote against their own interests? Because progressives haven’t put in the work needed to let them know that there is a way forward without attacking their roots. An economic democracy in action in these areas would benefit them. For example, for small farmers, tax incentives, financial safety-nets, an equitable playing field compared to agribusiness, family farmer trusts and co-ops with flexible farm to table distribution contracts, and worker-shared benefits in these farmer co-ops are just some ways which an economic democracy can help their needs. For Appalachian workers, federal infusion of investments in the transition of the fossil fuel industry to renewables, paid training in these new industries, economic safety-nets during transition, plus entrepreneurial startups in new and unforeseen industries, products and services would comprise economic zones that cut across the thirteen state boundaries known as Appalachia. 84,85,86

         We The People need the youth and older voters to evolve this country forward. We must resist the urge to go back in time and distort our memories of how good it was. Our country is changing, and the few who hold political power over the many currently do not want to give up that power. Who can blame them? They are afraid of change and losing their “good life”. There are benefits from historical change as evidenced in our constitutional amendments which were made to address and rectify major problems we had in our country during different periods of time. But there was, and is, a slip back to a new status quo every time a major constitutional or legislated change comes about. A certain amount of righting moment is needed for sure to become accustomed to the new change but if the underlying issues are not fully addressed and don’t reach favorable consensus to be put into law to solve the major problems, then we have not advanced.

         We must vote to make these progressive changes and show those in power that what they fear are themselves and not us. Agile political skills and consensus on “what’s in it for them” interests shall be needed to move forward with these changes. But we should not let lopsided political power grabs and monetary greed take over in these matters. To blunt these attempts, we need to bring into the political process all of our mixed immigrant society with their wonderful palette of skills, desires and dreams. Let us not give into fear. Let us vote to make change happen for the better of our country.