(cross-posted from
Music for America)
Sunday afternoon was beautiful in San Francisco. I took my bike up some hills to one of the hilltop parks, sat there on the grass looking out at the city in the sun, thinking about how it aught to be.
The United States and the rest of the world are in trouble on numerous levels. I'm not being pessimistic. I still think humanity's chances are decent, but I'm not willing to cheapen the gravity of the situation. The way life works now can't go on; cementing the status quo is not an option. I'm a big one for saying, "we can do better than this." Here are some of my specific ideas.
It's a tall order. My idea of what a 20-year agenda might look like, but that's the level I think on. At some point I want to have children. This is the world I want for them. Let me know what seems interesting to you; there's a lot of thought behind all of the enclosed proposals, and I can expand upon any of them in future entries.
The Economy: We should get together and do something along the lines of
The Apollo Project, which would wean us off foreign fossil fuels, create jobs and replace badly taxed infrastructure. We should also give the internet -- along with the equipment and training to use it -- to everyone, free of charge. You can do both of those things for significantly less than the portion Bush's tax cuts which affect only the tippity top income bracket. Imagine the ripples.
Health Care: Extend federally-managed health care, the kind proven to be more cost-effective than private systems, to all Americans if they desire it. Children up to the age of 18 should be covered no matter what. Adults living in poverty should also get it for free. For all others, the system should be available in return for a percentage-slice of income, not an arbitrary fee.
Drug War: Recognize the "war on drugs" as an institution of racial and cultural oppression, and the prime driver of a cruel and unnecessary prison-industrial complex. End the madness by repealing mandatory minimums and "three strikes" laws, decriminalizing drugs with a similar level of physical harm to alcohol, instituting treatment instead of incarceration for non-violent offenders, and allowing judges to use jurisprudence when sentencing those who turn to crime to support their habits.
Government Reform: Repeal the PATRIOT act. Institute a new standard for transparency. Make instant run-off voting (IRV) as a federal mandate. Allow voters to register online, but keep voting with paper ballots. Institute a study to increase the level of proportional representation in the House. The number of House Seats was capped for no good reason -- mostly fears that immigrants would take over the government -- in the early 1900s. Opening it up would provide badly-needed freshness in ideas and energy.
Foreign Policy: The US must get back in step with the rest of the world. This will require movement from all quarters. International institutions are the future of humanity, and the obvious institution is the UN. However, the UN was designed to keep the cold war cold. It did a pretty good job, but now the cold war is over, and adjustments are necessary or else it will end up irrelevant and disbanded like the League of Nations before it.
Education: Education to any level should be free to anyone who can manage to work part-time -- be it on an undergrad work-study program or as a graduate student instructor -- and keep their grades above a certain level. Educated people should be able to walk out of school with no debts tying them down. This will mean both investing heavily in the existing public school infrastructure, including building brand new schools, as well as calling upon a renewed commitment from private institutions.
Trade: Fair trade with basic standards for labor and environmental rights. We should not allow the products of slave labor onto the global market, and the only way to address this is with a clear global standard which would prevent other unscrupulous nations from taking unfair advantage. Aid could be given to developing nation so as to entice them not to allow labor organizers to be beaten, to provide education/child-care instead of child-labor, and so on. Also, assigning a task-force to the creation of a frictionless (cost-free via taxpayer subsidy) means of making (micro)payments to allow true p2p economics to emerge.
Civil Rights: This country is still racist and bigoted in some ways. Legislating thought isn't a good idea, but institutions should live up to national ideals. The legal definition of "marriage" should be changed to "civil union" for all people, and any two consenting adults should be permitted to form one. America must recognize the debt of our legacy as a slave-owning nation, and the more recent shame of "redlining." Affirmative Action programs should be expanded, and grow to include grants for property purchases and business startups.
Environment: Expand the national and state parks system and service. Tie in with energy policy (as in the economy section) to create lower-impact decentralized power generation. Every city should recycle (this makes economic sense too). The meat industry needs reform, both for safety and environmental reasons.
Culture: Roll back the media ownership regulations to pre-1998 levels. Expedite the low-power FM licensing process. Re-fund the NEA to the tune of $1B with an emphasis on micro-grants for emerging artists and community-based creativity. Re-invest in public broadcasting and public internet content.
Tell me what hits. What am I missing?