Draft
Proposed Universal Agenda and Roadmap
for a Peaceful, Prosperous, Just World
(Revised August 18, 2010)
(Readers - please provide critical comments and additional items for each of the below areas to info@WeThePeopleNow.org)
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction,
is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
--Thomas Jefferson
This document provides a draft Proposed Universal Agenda and Roadmap for a Peaceful, Prosperous, Just World. It includes a Vision for All Mankind and open-ended, comprehensive lists of:
I. Bold Goals for All Mankind.
II. Problems and Roadblocks that stand in the way of attaining this vision and the bold goals.
III. General underlying causes of these problems and roadblocks.
IV. Proposed solutions, tactics, reform, change actions, legislation and mechanics which must be accomplished to address and correct both the problems and their underlying causes to realize the vision and goals. Unless the underlying causes of problems are identified and corrected, the problems are likely to reoccur.
By providing a comprehensive list of solutions, cooperative efforts can be found. For example, deteriorating roads and bridges could be repaired by an underemployed workforce using funds and manpower now being wasted on wars, occupations and unneeded offensive weapon systems.
Introduction
It is an absurd injustice that in this world of plenty, thousands of children die each day from malnutrition and preventable, curable diseases while the U.S. Congress has appropriated and the Administration has spent over a trillion dollars of taxpayers’ money fighting illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before the invention of the steam engine and other technologies a little over 200 years ago, it took over 95% of the world’s population to barely provide the food, clothing and housing for all the people of the world.
Today worker productivity, new technologies, methodologies, education, training, etc. make it possible today for less than 5% of the world’s population to provide food, clothing and housing for all the people of the world.
As proof of this, according to Forbes, a couple of years ago:
A. The aggregate annual sales of the world's 2000 largest public companies, was $24 trillion. This amounted to about 41% of the world's gross domestic product (approximately $59T) that year.
B. These 2000 companies employed about 68 million employees, which was less than 1.1% of the world’s population (6.45B) that year.
Assuming that each of the employees, on the average, is the breadwinner for a family of four, it also means that these 2000 corporations pay wages that support about 4.5% of the world's population while selling about 41% of the food, goods, fuels, housing, services, etc. to the entire world.
Since this is a world of plenty, there is no reason that we the people can’t have and realize a very meaningful vision and bold goals for all mankind.
A peaceful, prosperous just world where healthy, happy, free, secure individuals
care for and cooperate with one another
I. Bold Goals for All Mankind:
1. World peace with a peace economy
2.Meaningful employment opportunities at living wages, at work of their choice where possible, reasonably close to their residence. Attaining the vision and these goals will provide opportunities for employment and investment.
3. Affordable:
a. Decent residence/homes
b. Healthy food
c. Clean water for homes, businesses and industry.
d. Clean energy for heating, cooking, manufacturing and transportation
e. Comprehensive public transportation
f. Personal and commercial community banking, savings, and loan services
g. Broadband access
h. Recreation, sports, entertainment, theater, art, vacations, etc. (live and via multimedia)
4. Free (publicly supported) quality, comprehensive,
a. Health care (physical, dental, emotional, vision, hearing) and long term care)
b. Meaningful, pre-K through college education and lifetime vocational training
5. Social security which provides protection against poverty, old age, disability and unemployment.
6. Safe, stable, secure, clean, protected and preserved environments, natural resources, water and air.
7. Protected civil and economical rights including freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
8. Equitable, humane restorative justice for all.
II. Problems, Roadblocks, Concerns, Challenges and Issues
1. “Poverty in the midst of plenty” was the problem of the 20th Century [and now the 21st Century] according authors, Willard and Marguerite Beecher, in their outstanding, 1981 essay The Problem of the Twentieth Century, in which they state:
" ... the Age of Abundance is upon us. Man need never again go hungry or cold unless he wishes to do so. Natural resources abound, machines necessary to convert them into goods exist, and men are trained to operate these machines. Furthermore, we can manufacture as many machines as we desire
... Nevertheless, many people today are still cold, hungry, and sick.. In the past, when men starved, they did so because it was impossible for them to produce enough to eat. The Twentieth Century was the first, however, to see men cold, hungry, and idle in the midst of plenty!"
2. Wars, conflicts, empire building, violence, using military force to coerce resources from and find markets in other countries, etc. .
a. Iraq and Afghanistan occupations
b. Illegal US, threats, covert operations, and/or attacks against Pakistan and Iran
c. Other wars and conflicts, e.g. West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Darfur and Kosovo
d. U.S. history of use of force and violence
e. Nuclear weapons and fissile material proliferation
f. The United States government spends as much on weapons, munitions and a standing army as all the rest of the world combined.
g. The United States arms industry exports more weapons and munitions than any other country in the world. Some of the explosive material in these munitions are used by adversaries in improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
h. Large numbers of U.S. troops are needlessly stationed in Germany, South Korea and the Middle East with detachments in over eighty countries.
i. The U.S. spends considerably more on foreign military aid than on foreign economic aid.
j. Israel says Gaza is no longer occupied; yet it denies Palestinians access to jobs, travel, commerce, education, and medical care. Its military has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air concentration camp controlled by land, sea and air. In the past year, the people of Gaza have barely had enough to eat, as Israel withholds food and energy in an attempt to starve them into submission.
3. Lack of employment “opportunities” that pay reasonable wages, i.e. chronic worldwide unemployment and low and stagnant wages for many workers with jobs.
a. Worker productivity, automation, education and training, worker productivit make it possible today for less than 5% of the world’s population to provide the food, clothing and housing for all the people of the world. Businessmen have not increased wages commensurate with the increases in productivity.
b. Employment opportunities also being lost due to consolidations and mergers, outsourcing and free trade versus fair trade agreements.
c. This has resulted in decreasing tax revenues and social security deposits and hurt the nation’s fiscal health increased unfunded obligations (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.), budget deficits, balance of payment deficits.
d. Without job opportunities and employees being paid reasonable wages, there will be less customers to buy goods. With less purchases there will be more lay-offs and lower wages, loss of tax revenues, etc., and the economy will spiral downward with increasing budget deficits.
4. Money in Politics
Corporation executives, special interest groups and lobbyists exercise excessive control over legislation and policy decisions with bribes in the form of campaign contributions and job offers.
As payback for these bribes, our public servants:
a. Have put individuals in the government who are plundering the Treasury.
b. Have illegally and unconstitutionally given or committed $23.7 trillion to stockbrokers and bankers which they have used for massive bonuses, to acquire other banks and financial institutions and for risky investments, which are being guaranteed by the federal government.
c. Are rewarding defense contractors with profits from:
i. Two illegal, unconstitutional wars/occupations and illegal attacks on Pakistan.
ii. Manufacturing massive sells of unneeded weapons.
d. Have repealed aspects the Glass-Steagall Act and other regulations and are inadequately enforcing hardly any regulations on commodity, trading, the stock market and insurance companies.
e. Are rewarding insurance companies by not providing single payer or a public health insurance options
f. Are awarding bankers by allowing predatory interest rates and unconscionable late fees by banks.
g. Have allowed corporations to violate anti-theft laws.
h. Are not enforcing the rule of law.
i. Have turned over major aspects of health care systems to big drug and insurance companies and energy policy to big oil companies.
5. Wealth divide. The exponentially increasing wealth and property in the hands of a very few rich individuals and corporations
a. Regressive tax systems
b. Increasing poverty
c. Decreasing personal savings
6. Out-of-control spending on the wrong things.
a. Congress has in effect surrendered its responsibilities for appropriations in a large part to the executive branch, special interest groups and the Federal Reserve, has loss control of the process and is avoiding direct accountability.
b. Failure to grapple with the difficulties of maintaining constant and adequate oversight.
c. Pork-barrel spending and earmarks. Much of the funds for earmarks comes from the Department of Defense and Services O&M (operations and maintenance) accounts which would normally be used for such things as body armor and hardening vehicles against roadside bombs
7. Interest on the national debt is huge and rising.
8. Party politics. The majority of career politicians from the two major parties:
i. Are unwilling to address and solve the issues of war, health care, environment, education, immigration, trade, net neutrality etc.
ii. Answer mainly to campaign contributors and special interest groups and their party leadership, not to the people.
iii. Are unwilling to fix our electoral process in ways that make it fair for all to participate.
9. “Citizens’ faith in government officials is failing everywhere.”
10. Instead of protecting individual’s rights, government officials are violating the rights of many people.
11. Congress has passed unconstitutional laws and laws with unconstitutional including:
a. The Patriot Act
b. The Joint Resolution on Iraq
c. Military Commission Act of 2006
d. FISA Supplement
e. The War Authorization Act
12. Shortages of affordable housing/shelter
13. Chronic water shortages for drinking, hygiene, irrigation, industry, etc.
14. The stock market, instead of being a means to raise capital for businesses and provide investment opportunities has become more like a gambling casino where insiders and the rich take money from small investors.
15. High percentage (90%) of mass media owned by five major companies
16. Election campaigns and elections:
a. Divisive politics
b. Individuals putting parties ahead of the people and the country
c. Campaign finance
d. Endemic gerrymandering so that “politicians can pick voters instead of voters picking politicians”
e. 50% of all elections have only one name on the ballot
III. Underlying Causes of the Concerns and Challenges
1. Lack of an understanding of such things as human nature, democracy, practice of ethics,
2. Deficiencies in early child development and education for example
a. Stern parent versus nurturing parent approach
b. Cooperation versus competition
c. Pampering versus child solving own problems
d. Ostentatiousness
3. Lack of understanding of:
a. Semantics, linguistics, framing, communications, etc.
b. Reasoning, human nature, character, ethics, values, principles, integrity, accountability, teamwork, courage, humane instincts including cooperation, civility, caring for others, etc.
c. The U.S. Constitution, international treaties, rule of law, civil rights, meaning of sovereignty of the people, democratic processes, the legal system, restorative justice, etc.
4. Individuals spending considerable time on electronic media (the average grade school student 6.5 hours per day) at the expense of socially interacting with each others, sports, exercising, etc.
5. Individuals, primarily the rich, obsessed with financial and material wealth/comfort, and are supporting and helping to elect and reelect leaders using taxpayer’s money and military force to coerce resources from the rest of the world.
6. Negative traits: vindictiveness, bullying, apathy, greed, etc.
7. Waste, abuse, fraud
8. Corruption
9. Bureaucracy
10. Debt
11. Deficiencies in democratic skills
12. Lack of educational opportunities
13. Personnel errors
14. Lack of or improper education or training
15. Poor or faulty information, rules, regulations, documentation, legislation
Work to be done to accomplish reform and change actions which address concerns, problems, issues and their underlying causes.
Table of Contents:
What Our Public Servants Must Do:
1. End U. S. Wars and Help Secure a Peaceful Middle East.
2. Put America and the World to Work
3. Reform Financial Systems and Resolve Economic Crises.
4. Phase Out Nuclear Weapons Worldwide.
5. End the so called "war on terror."
6. Eliminate Offensive Weapons
8. Provide Medicare and Enhanced Social Security for All
9. Protect Civil Rights and Enforce the Rule of Law
10. Enhanced Education Programs
11. Enhanced Environmental Protection
12. Provide Humane, Fair and Constitutional Immigration Policies, Practices and Legislation
13. Provide an Affordable Comprehensive Nationwide Transportation System
14. Reform Corporation Legislation, Policies and Practices
What Our Public Servants Must Do:
1. End U. S. Wars and Help Secure a Peaceful Middle East. Demand that Congress and Administration refine and execute Outline of What Must be Done to End U. S. Wars and Help Secure a Peaceful Middle East. (http://www.wethepeoplenow.org/secure_peaceful_mideast.pdf)
2. Put America and the World to Work. Refine and execute What Must be Done to Put America and the World to Work (http://www.wethepeoplenow.org/secure_peaceful_mideast.pdf)
3. Reform Financial Systems and Resolve Economic Crises. Refine and execute the What Must be Done to Reform, Regulate and Revitalize Financial Systems and Resolve the Debt, Foreclosures, Mortgages, Derivatives and Banking Crises (http://www.wethepeoplenow.org/reform_financial_sys.pdf)
4. Phase Out Nuclear Weapons Worldwide. Nuclear weapons are illegal [also immoral and no longer a deterrent] as stated in the book Nuclear Weapons are Illegal, The Historic opinion of the World Court and how it will be enforced, edited with an introduction by Ann Fagan Ginger, Executive Director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Berkeley, California. Congress and the Administration must:
i. Resolve the United States-Iran situation and commence the phase out of all nuclear weapons
ii. Cease any and all U.S. threats to attack Iran, conduct any clandestine or offensive operations against or invoke economic sanctions against Iran or any other country unless Congress has specifically declared war on that country.
iii. Assist in maintaining the Middle East WMD/Nuclear Weapons Free Zone and insure that there are no nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction on any U.S. Ships or in possession of any other U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East as required by Article 14 of UN Security Council Resolution 687 (1991). This resolution calls for "establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery."
iv.Take the lead on the cessation of the nuclear arms race and complete disarmament as required by Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which requires: pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.
v. Cease expending any funds on any nuclear weapon development programs or to improve or refine existing programs.
vi. Build on ongoing initiatives and develop a comprehensive Plan for the United States Role in Global Nuclear Disarmament which includes identifying obstacles and the underlying reasons for these obstacles and proposes short and long range solutions.
vii. Provide full funding and attention to securing all nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon materials as rapidly as possible.
viii. Conduct meaningful negotiations with all of the world's nuclear powers and Iran on the phase out of all nuclear weapons.
ix. Immediately remove all U.S. weapons of mass destruction including any nuclear weapons from the Mideast as required by Article 14 of UN Security Council resolution 687.
x. Eliminate funding for nuclear weapon development and improvement programs including bombplex/"complex transformation", the reliable replacement warhead (RRW) programs and any other nuclear proliferation initiatives. This is required by Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
xi. Eliminate all funding for anti-ballistic missile systems and their deployment anywhere in the world.
Accomplishing the above will strengthen the U.S. government's position when requesting that other states such as Iran and North Korea not develop nuclear weapons and will encourage other countries to help with other serious problems.
5. End the so called "war on terror." Congress and the Administration must:
a. Cease use of the metaphor "war on terror," eliminate specific funding for the war on terror. Treat acts of terrorism as crimes and use police forces, not armies, to resolve terrorist threats.
b. Identify the underlying cause of acts of terrorism and proposes short and long range solutions including in particular supporting wide spread economic development and education and training programs all over the world.
c. Develop a comprehensive Plan to Address and Reduce/Eliminate Acts Of Terrorism
Terrorism.
6. Eliminate Offensive Weapons
a. Establish Department of Peace & Non Violence.
b. Conduct comprehensive world-wide negotiations for reducing and ultimately eliminating offensive weapons.
c. Drastically cut the bloated wasteful military budget by:
i. Rescind All War Supplementals.
ii. Modify Defense Appropriations Acts to eliminate/reduce spending on offensive weapon systems. e. g. convert aircraft refueller tanker to wild fire fighting planes.
iii. Conduct a phased conversion of a large portion of the armed services to the National Guards, Reserves, and the Civil Conservation & Engineering Corps, as the world disarms.
iv. Do not design or deploy weapons in space.
7. Reform Congress. Congress and the Administration must:
a. Get money, corporation executives and their lobbyists out of politics and insure that the people have control over their government.
b. Reform and reorganize Congress and the Executive Branch. Eliminate duplicated authorization and appropriation committees/subcommittees and departments, organize by function and hold individual legislators and officials responsible. For example, everyone on the Agriculture Committee and the Department of Agriculture should be responsible for insuring that everyone in the country has access to affordable, healthy food. Similarly, there should be health, clean water, clean air, affordable housing, etc. committees/subcommittee and corresponding Departments, agencies or sections of .
c. Eliminate pork, wasteful or unnecessary spending, and "pay backs" to special interest groups.
d. Enact the Twelve Step Program”from “Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security”, by Winslow Wheeler. Get money, corporation executives and their lobbyists out of politics and insure that the people have control over their government.
8. Provide Medicare and Enhanced Social Security for All. Congress and the Administration must:
a. Provide nationwide medicare for all
(comprehensive, universal, physical, dental, mental
health), long term care (LTC) and free prescription drugs under a streamlined medicare system.
By enacting a refined United States National Health Insurance Act, H. R. 676 or substantially
similar legislation.
According to the report, Single Payer /Medicare Healthcare for All (http://www.calnurses.org/research/pdfs/ihsp_sp_economic_study_2009.pdf)would:
i. Create 2,613,495 million new permanent, good-paying jobs
ii. Boost the economy with $317 billion in increased business and public revenues
iii. Add $100 billion in employee compensation
iv. Infuse public budgets with $44 billion in new tax revenues
b. Make hospitals like Walter Reed (which is scheduled to be closed and other city, county, state and federal hospitals/clinics and community health centers) into government owned, not for profit contractor operated (GOCO) Medicare/Medicaid, hospitals/clinics that educate, train and qualify doctors, nurses, dentists, nurses aids and other health care personnel.
c. Build 1000 new modern hospitals and clinics equipped with the latest technology
d. Pay family and friend care-givers as who are taking care of disabled, mentally retarded or elderly needing long term care.
e. Improve effectiveness and reduce cost of health care:
i. Study and implement lessons learned from health care systems in other countries and Medicare/Medicaid and Tri-Care for Life programs which are “single payer” systems
ii. Publicize and employ best practices
iii. Promote healthy lifestyles and preventive care
iv. Use Tele-medicine and other modern technology
v. Phase out the use of Latin terminology
vi. Pay:
(1) Reasonable salaries/wages for doctors, dentists, nurses, medical and dental clinics, emergency rooms, trauma centers, emergency response/ambulance personnel, etc. for the time they spend providing single payer health care rather than by individual patient appointments/treatments
(2) Prorated share of the cost of supplies, rent and equipment usage based on the portion of the time spent providing single payer health care.
vii. Use management type contracts
viii. Repeal the Medicare Part D pharmaceutical legislation and have Medicare negotiate drug prices along with the Veterans Administration and Department of Defense
ix. Prohibit corporations from owning patents
x. Eliminate unconstitutional patent extensions
xi. Forbid government funds, including medicaid and medicare, being used to buy health insurance from private companies. Approximately one-third of all money that goes into insurance companies is not used for health care. These companies make more money when they deny coverage
xii. Oppose forcing individuals to buy health insurance from for-profit companies.
xiii. Incorporate auxiliary services such as radiology, anesthesiology, pathology in the hospital with one bill.
xiv. Oppose stock market investments from individual social security accounts.
xv. Reward individuals who practice preventative medicine, eat properly, exercise, control their weight, etc. expanding the number of individual eligible for free prescription drugs under Medicare/Medicaid.
9. Protect Civil Rights and Enforce the Rule of Law
a. Enforce the rule of law with civil, human, economic, etc., rights observed for all the people of America and the world.
b. Strengthen and make the United Nations, UN Agencies, UN peacekeeping forces, etc. more functional.
c. Strengthen and make the International Criminal Court more functional.
d. Oppose restrictions on Habeas Corpus and other rights, overturn the Military Commission Act (MCA) of 2006.
e. Overturn the U.S. Patriot Act.
f. Implement restorative justice programs based on confining only those who are a threat to society or themselves, restitution, contrition, keeping detainees busy, etc. throughout the criminal justice system.
g. Cease the use of the metaphor "war on drugs", and reform many aspects of this program.
h. Oppose the death penalty.
i. Break up media monopolies by enforcing anti-trust laws and taxation.
j. Retain Roe v. Wade, while taking actions to reduce unwanted pregnancies.
k. Close prisons at Guantanamo immediately.
l. Insure detainees are treated humanely, their rights are observed and end "advanced interrogation techniques", warrantless arrests and searches, secret detentions and renditions.
m. Rescind the FISA Amendment Act and insure warrantless wiretapping of people is not done.
n. Oppose constitutional bans on same sex civil unions and marriages.
o. Support the right to same-sex civil unions.
p. Support the right to same-sex marriages.
q. Insure Internet neutrality.
r. Oppose Presidential signing statements as unconstitutional, null and void.
10. Enhanced Education Programs
a. Provide meaningful, publicly supported pre-k through college education and vocational training for all for life.
b. Immediately provide publicly supported universal pre-kindergarten programs that ensure all children 3, 4 and 5 years old have access to a high-quality full-day, full-calendar-year pre-kindergarten education, H.R. 4060, the "Universal Pre-kindergarten Act" ("http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.4060:"), or equivalent.
c. Rescind certain features of "No Child Left Behind" including emphasis on test results, necessity to "teach to the test" and punitive measures based on low test scores.
d. Use encouragement and nurturing to decrease/eliminate school drop outs and suspensions.
e. Create more vocational education opportunities in high school for everyone and in particular for students who do not intend to immediately go to college.
f. Track students after their graduation to obtain feedback for schools.
g. Students who do not master grade level reading, writing and arithmetic should receive special attention and encouragement.
h. Encourage parents to be involved in children’s schools, attend parent-teacher conferences, PTA meetings, etc.
11. Enhanced Environmental Protection
a. Attempt to observe the Kyoto Protocols and immediately hold a follow-up Kyoto conference.
b. Support development of clean, renewable energy sources
c. Do not permit ANWR or off-shore drilling at this time.
d. Freeze the sale or lease of off-shore drilling areas.
e. Oppose Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
12. Provide Humane, Fair and Constitutional Immigration Policies, Practices and Legislation. The current problems with immigration have resulted primarily from the lack of job opportunities in the U.S. and all over the world. Congress, the Administration and Courts must:
a. Implement and provide humane, fair, and constitutional immigration policies, legislation and, practices
b. Set-aside and/or repeal Arizona SB1070.
c. Take measures to reduce the underlying causes of increased immigration, replacing free trade agreements with fair trade agreements, eliminate subsidies for and ban dumping of corn, wheat and other commodities ban, including increasing foreign aid and assistance so that countries/areas can produce what they need.
d. Rescind funding for the immigration border fence
e. Pass the USA Family Act (HR 440 or equivalent) which will:
i. Offer immigrants a clear road map to legal status in the United States.
ii. Grant legal permanent residence to immigrants who have been living in the U.S. for five or more years
iii. Offer conditional legal status and work authorization to all law-abiding immigrants living in the United States for less than five years.
iv. Revoke current laws that bar certain people who live abroad from re-entering the U.S. for a period of three to 10 years, as well as portions of the law that place immigrants at risk of deportation for having committed minor, nonviolent offenses in the past.
f. The U.S. cannot continue with a system in which millions of workers and their families live in fear and are subject to economic exploitation. There is no place in our country for second-class status.
g. Protect the rights of all the people including immigrants protected and fair and constitutional policies and practices put in place for all its people including immigrants. These policies and practices should recognize that the U.S. is an immigrant nation and affirms that we are a nation of the people and for the people not just these citizens. Constitutional and other rights apply equally to all the people of the U. S. not just citizens. Certain immunities and privileges such as voting are reserved for citizens.
13. Provide an Affordable Comprehensive Nationwide Transportation System
a. Trains and trolleys including high speed interstate rail, light rail and city metro systems along existing right-of-ways
b. No privately owned toll roads and toll lanes for example around the beltway
c. Dedicated bus lanes on highways and in cities
d. Natural gas powered and hybrid buses.
e. Develop comprehensive open ended integrated international, national, regional, state, district, and locality plans that consider global warming, energy prices and progressing technologies.
14. Reform Corporation Legislation, Policies and Practices
a. End corporate personhood.
b. Indict corporation executives who commit unlawful acts and not the corporation
c. End corporation ownership of patents.
a. Ban assault weapons
b. Require background checks for all gun purchases
c. An amendment to the Constitution should be considered to update the 2nd amendment: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
a. Following is paraphrased from a description of the proposed National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 introduced in the Senate on March 26, 2009 by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia.
1. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses 25% of the world's reported prisoners.
2. Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980. Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals.
3. Approximately 1 million gang members reside in the U.S.
4. Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society.
America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.
We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration.
Humane, restorative justice and reconciliation as outlined here can play a major role in fixing the system.
17. Government Spending Adjust current and planned government spending.
a. Reduce/eliminate unneeded nuclear and other offensive weapons, corporation subsidies and other unnecessary government spending.
b. Drastically reduce Department of Defense budgets and spending.
c. As required by the Constitution return control to Congress of all Federal government appropriations, loans, grants, expenditures, and all other distribution of funds, including those made by the Federal Reserve.
d. Oppose the Federal Reserve providing grants, loans, guarantees etc. to bond dealers, investment banks, stock brokers, etc. without prior, express Congressional approval.
e. Eliminate corporate welfare/subsidies.
f. Eliminate funding for the School of the Americas.
g. Use management and services type contracts that in general pay by the hours, day, or month instead of fixed prices and profit as a percentage of the gross amount of the contract.
h. Drastically reduce government spending on other programs that do not promote the general welfare.
a. Enact very progressive taxes on personal income, businesses revenue and “net asset” property taxes on individuals and businesses with very reasonable (high) zero tax thresholds and generous deductions for contributions. Income should include all offshore and onshore revenues and income, including inheritances, capitol gains, stock dividends and minereal rights. Note: This is necessary to raise the required revenue, make taxes fair, reduce the wealth divide and because individuals can hide income and property taxes in businesses and vice versa.
b. Provide very generous tax deductions up to almost tax credits for contributions for worthwhile causes that promote the general welfare . Encourage well-heeled individuals to take on important projects that promote the general welfare. For example T. Boone Pickens could fund and help manage the development of wind power. Others could take on water, solar power, prison reform, clean air, power distribution, adopt cities, entire countries, etc.. These projects should roughly mirror the committees and departments/agencies in a newly re-organized congress and executive department organized.
c. Phase out/eliminate the inheritance tax, sales taxes, the many minuscule taxes that show up on phone and cable bills and other digressive taxes.
d. Provide very generous tax deductions up to almost tax credits for worthwhile contributions to non-profit causes, . Encourage well-heeled individuals to take on important projects that promote the general welfare. For example T. Boone Pickens could fund and help manage the development of wind power. Others could take on water, solar power, prison reform, clean air, power distribution, adopt cities, entire countries, etc.. These projects should roughly mirror the committees and departments/agencies in a newly re-organized congress and executive department organized.
e. Eliminate unjust tax loopholes
f. Fair, progressive individual and corporation income/revenue and property taxes.
a. Determine and implement ways to identify, nominate and elect/confirm cooperative, ethical public officials, legislators, judges, executives, etc. throughout the public and private sectors who care for all people, promote the general welfare, follow the rule of law, protect peoples rights, etc.
b. Eliminate gerrymandering, Use contiguous democratic logical districts (see www.fixthelines.com)
c. Uniform, fair ballot access for federal candidates.
d. Loosen third party ballot restrictions.
e. Universal voter registration.
f. Elect the President by popular vote(http://www.nationalpopularvote.com). Get rid of the Electoral College.
g. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) which allows voters to rank their choices. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote – over 50% - then the lowest number of first place votes is eliminated and the second place votes are counted. This continues until a candidate secures a majority.
h. Extended Election Hours. Either hold elections on weekends or move it to a holiday like Columbus Day in October.
i. Media Access for third party contenders to include broadcast time on public airwaves and inclusion in debates.
j. Secure the Vote - Ensure the security of our voting instruments whether it is via a paper trail or some better method. Six years since the Florida debacle should have provided secure voting machines. Electronic machines subject to manipulation are not the answer.
k. Public Campaign Financing - Instituting a fair and equitable method of public campaign financing that reduces taxpayer burden. Here's how: It costs the country more now under the current system that forces candidates to raise exorbitant sums of money from corporate and private donors (read: elitists). The winner is then beholden to the group of financiers that paid for that victory which creates a corrupt system of pay backs (no-bid contracts) and legislation (energy bill subsidizing oil and gas; prescription drug bill favoring pharmaceutical companies) that raids our Treasury at an enormous cost to the taxpayer - the real owners of our country.
l. Voting representation in Congress for the citizens of the federal District of Columbia (which also gives them an Electoral College vote).
m. Recruit and encourage citizens to run for office as Independents because career politicians from the two major parties have proven themselves incapable of solving the complex issues of war, health care, environment, education, immigration, trade, net neutrality etc. which the current members of the two major parties are not willing to address. who only answer to campaign contributors.