Wayne D. King
I'm so tired of the Democrats in Congress acting like the Republicans who did nothing but obstruct Barack Obama. I want them to stand up and offer alternatives.
Tell the country how to fix Obamacare and try to peel off enough Republicans to pass it.
Offer a plan for infrastructure that modernizes the national grid to prepare us for the Internet of Things and the post carbon era with laterally scaled micro-grids linking homes and businesses and small power producers. The vast majority of good jobs that will be created over the next 20 years will be in building out the Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure. Let's get to it. China is already working to wrest the mantle of world leadership from us. Let's not give it away without a fight!
One up the Republicans and offer a tax reform plan that eliminates business taxes entirely (and all the special exemptions, incentives, and give aways - in 2015 fossil fuel companies received more than 82 billion dollars in tax incentives) Collect the taxes from the individuals who benefit from the profits and let the shareholders determine whether the companies should be spending money for wasteful purposes. This would also eliminate all of the onerous filings required of nonprofits and encourage the development of more of them.
Choose 10 of the most impoverished, jobless regions of the country and test ten different outside-the-box ideas for turning them around. Put some real money behind the effort. Toss out the ideas that fail and try ten more. Take the ones that work and share them with others who are experiencing similar problems. Start by testing the Guaranteed Basic Income idea providing a minimal monthly allowance to every adult (in the test area) and then allow them to build their employment and lifestyle choices around that to achieve a standard of living that is real, sustainable and fulfilling.
Create a National Service requirement. Every person who reaches the age of 18 should be required to choose between military or civil service and to serve 2 years before the age of 30. No exceptions for rich kids or people with disabilities or any other excuse. . . ok if you must have a conscientious objector status for those who object to being forced to do right - but make it hard as hell to obtain. Think about what it would do for the country to have rich kids and poor kids working side by side to make this world a better place. Think of how many kids who have grown up in abject poverty would be empowered by the franchise granted to them by two years of service to the nation. A young man or woman who has spent two years building the nation is going to think twice before he or she throws a trash can through a storefront window. From many we must be one again. This is the revolution of our time.
Just saying . . .
wdk 2017
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| The Whisper of Wind |
