Editorial
The latest Justice Department report has revealed that 150 years after the formal end of slavery a new kind of race based profiteering is alive and well in Ferguson, MO. To the police department and town officials of Ferguson the lives, well being, livelihood, dreams and bodies of the descendants of African slaves are nothing more than little pots of money waiting to be harvested via traffic tickets, dog bites and noise complaints. All so that business as usual could continue as usual, so that the poor would stay poor–or get even poorer—and the rich could stay rich. What Ferguson officials and all like them want more than anything else is for nothing to change. No one, but especially not a Black someone, can be allowed to work their way out of the muck not when court fees for minor infractions multiply exponentially and anyone Black can be arrested at any time for just about anything, all for the enrichment of the 1%.
But things cannot stay the same; things must change. And the change must be economic. The only way to stop the capitalist system from finding new ways to divide us along race lines and make a profit from those on the wrong side of the line–the not white side–is to tear down the system, starting with the financial system.
Why is the town of Ferguson—like all other municipalities, the states, and the federal government–not able to meet its financial obligations from tax revenues? Why are the tax paying citizens of Ferguson, an everywhere else, not able to make enough money to keep their town a float? Why does it always seem like there “is not enough” to go around?
It’s the bloody 1%. The bankers; the financial services industry (which serves no obvious social utility); insurance and more insurance; the layers of bureaucracy that make all our lives hell by putting six fingers in every deal and six salaries in between our tax dollars and the services they are supposed to procure, are the problem. Not the least of these are plasma sipping cretins that own the health insurance industry and suck every health insurance dollar dry before it reaches the clinicians–who unlike the overlords–actually work for a living.
Hit ‘Em Where They Live
What is most needed is vast, far reaching and radical simplification of how the federal government takes in and distributes money. Our world is too complicated and that complexity hides dishonesty. We have a tax system that compels lying and economy where half the jobs are either “make work” funded by the government, about to be zapped away by technological innovation or both. We must do what we can to eliminate the expensive complexity that hides avarice and bigotry and clear the way for a simpler more honest world. That means a much straighter line between money coming in and money going out.
Abolish Corporate Personhood.
Replace All Entitlements With A Basic Income Guarantee and Healthcare.
A New Tax Code for A New Economy.
Direct government production of housing.
Single Payer Healthcare.
Why and Wherefore
Abolish Corporate Personhood
All the worse evils start with a lie. This lie is the first erroneous postulate in a argument meant to deceive. All if proves is that the people making the argument have something to hide. Corporations are not people and money is not speech.
Replace All Entitlements With A Basic Income Guarantee and Healthcare
In the immortal words of Jennifer Aniston in the movie, “Friends with Money”, “Why don’t they just give the money to poor people?” Why indeed. If every tax paying resident of the US received a Basic Income Guarantee of $21,000/yr, there would be no need for a Department of Social Services and labor really would be free from the demands of capital. Secure in knowing that they could purchase goods to fulfill the majority of their basic needs on the open market, workers would be free to move out of dying industries and chart new economic territory. You could call this “A Trust Fund For Everybody.”
A New Tax Code for A New Economy
The 17 volume federal tax code is so complicated and changes so often–changes to the tax code are type of legislation most often passed by Congress–that it is not possible to actually put your hands on a copy of it because by the time you touch it, it has been altered to fit the needs of the 1%. It must be re-written from scratch and become a vision; not a chicken wire and duct tape escape hatch for people who don’t work for a living.
Direct Government Production of Housing.
Housing is expensive because there are too many suits lining up for their “taste”. The federal government should produce small, multifamily units itself and sell them itself so that landlords who occupy their land are able to collect rental income from their units. The founding fathers believed that the country would prosper if it were a country of small farmers/slave owners. The knew that property is the key to prosperity, although they displayed a cruel streak when defining “property.” Today in the city and suburbs the family farm is the owner occupied small multi-family residence. In Boston those are the triple deckers that let the Irish prosper.
Slavery, as re-invented by Ferguson and many other town officials, we could do away with if our tax dollars went to the pockets of people who actually build housing. Instead we feed bankers, insurance companies, real estate agents and the countless pencil pushers and fundraisers now paid to development “non-for-profit” single family housing, the cost of which is barely affordable, offers no way out for low income workers and no new source of income.
Single Payer Health Insurance.
Countries with socialized systems, like Canada and Britain report administrative cost of a third of what we suspect the 1% is making off people who are sick and dying. We don’t know exactly what the overhead costs are for the major health insurance companies, because like all things truly shameful, that’s a secret. Our health insurance system is the laughing stock of the developed world and a moral abomination.
Another world is possible, let’s start by throwing out the old stuff.
A.