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The simple fact is that if we allow corporations and
the ultra rich to run the world, we will not survive as a
species, or at least not as civilized human beings.
It really is that simple.
Anyone
who looks with some objectivity at how things are progressing
can see that we are going to destroy ourselves either by war,
by environmental degradation, and/or by other activities that
operate within the framework of unregulated or uncontrolled
market forces.
Corporations
were invented as tools for accomplishing certain economic
goals, not as a mechanism for planning for, leading, or
insuring the achievement of humanity’s highest aspirations.
It is important to understand how markets work if
you’re running a business, but markets must work within
clear limits if they are to help us sustain life with peace
and dignity.
Sustainable
life with dignity would include an honest striving for
universal human rights, encouraging steady progress towards
greater wisdom, peace, justice,
and compassion in society. Corporations,
when confined to certain tasks can help move us in that
direction; but unconstrained, they tend to move us in the
opposite direction where greed, domination, and exploitation
diminish and frustrate such goals.
We,
the American people, are going to have to make some tough
choices if we hope to survive as a prosperous, progressive,
and sustainable free society, or maybe even as a species.
Here
is a short list of choices, which I believe our society will
necessarily make, when citizens are ready to celebrate life
and peace instead of war and death.
Until we collectively strive to achieve these goals we
will be heading in the wrong direction and if we don’t find
ourselves doing all of these at once, the great probability is
that we won’t accomplish any of them.
They’re all interrelated and interconnected.
If human consciousness is honestly striving for any one
of them, it will be striving for all of them.
And they’re all doable; and this is not an exhaustive
list. How?
If we can find the money to bail out crooks and cheats
and carry out illegal wars to the tune of trillions of
dollars, there’s enough money to help humanity sustain life
on planet Earth with dignity.
All it takes is the political will:
1.
Society will choose to create an educational system
where schools are not funded on the basis of real estate
values which gives kids from wealthy families a better
education than those from poor families, but one in which
government finds a way to provide an equal opportunity
education for all children, where every child has a likely
chance to fully develop their intellect, talents and
abilities.
2.
And the education we offer them will include solid
skills in critical thinking plus an understanding of the
importance and value of intellectual integrity, universal
human rights, and the rule of law.
3.
Society will choose to create a universal single
payer healthcare system where no one is left out and where
benefits and professional standards are excellent regardless
of any citizen’s ethnic background or economic status.
4.
Society will choose to celebrate peace and not war
and that will be reflected in the amount of money, resources,
and critical thinking we apply to creating peace in the world,
and how much we take away from perfecting the instruments and
methods of making war.
5.
Society will choose to make sure that corporations
are not considered to be persons under the law.
Society will recognize that people are real while
corporations are legal fictions; that people make decisions
whereas corporations have no brains; that people love and care
about others, whereas corporations do not love or care about
anything… they have no thoughts, no feelings, no heart, no
conscience. People
are sovereign life forms, corporations are invented tools.
Identifiable human beings are responsible for
everything that corporations do.
6.
Society will choose to do away with the Federal
Reserve System which is owned and run by private banks that
create money out of nothing on which they then earn interest.
Only governments should be allowed to create money out
of nothing and earn interest on those funds, for those
interest payments can and should be used to benefit society as
a whole.
7.
Society will make sure that no person is above the
law and that all persons will be equal before the law. Society
will look back and decide how justice will be done with
respect to crimes committed that have not yet been addressed.
Injured parties will have their day in court whether
they are American citizens or citizens of other countries.
There must be a full accounting for the crimes our
elected representatives have committed in our name.
8.
Tax codes will be revised to insure that laws are
equitable and fair. Loopholes
will be closed and everyone will pay their fair share.
Society will be pleased to find that when they
institute Item 6 above, that taxes will be drastically reduced
for everyone, even as the financial condition of all citizens
is improved.
9.
Election reform will insure that government will
not be a closed two party system controlled by an elite few,
but will encourage new entrants and ideas into the system.
People will be better informed than they are today
because all legitimate political candidates will have fair and
equitable access to the people’s airwaves.
It will no longer be “a winner take all” system but
representatives to government will more equitably reflect the
views and aspirations of many constituencies.
Funding for elections will be arranged so that there is
no incentive for candidates to spend any time in office
thinking about or trying to raise money for campaigns.
10.
Work
that rightfully should be done by government agencies, such as
military and law enforcement personnel shall be returned to
appropriate government agencies and no longer contracted out
to private industry where the incentives for making profits
are greater than the incentives for insuring justice,
compassion, good will and a level playing field for all who
interact with them.
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