Category: Common Good Page 3 of 5

Civic Service Sustains the Common Good

On September 7, 2018

In Civic Virtue, Common Good, Domestic Service

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Image: wikipedia.org

Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman as he walked out from a hundred days writing the Constitution, “Doctor, do we have a Monarchy, or a Republic?” He warned, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin’s point was to ensure the new American government would endure, citizens had to get involved, participate in civic pursuits and be concerned about their government.

From Aristotle’s time when civic virtue was proclaimed as an attribute of the good citizen to today’s activists all civic participation is rooted in service. How do we foster ‘otherness’ in our citizenry? Starting from birth, a child receives support and love from its mother and father. Closer to the mother at first, experiencing the nurturing and selflessness of the mother in the home. Families provide a way for children to learn to support their siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. They learn to do chores that support the family, certainly this was a requirement in farm based families.

Today, most families are in urban centers with the mother and father likely to be both working, and chores are less clear with household machines and the Internet. Kids spend more time on electronic devices than talking with family members. So, how do children learn to be selfless? Volunteering at school, participating in local charities, with their mother and father taking the lead in initiating family service are all good ways to learn service.

Yet, what about our urban core areas or poor areas where families are just trying to survive day to day, do they have time for service? Or where there is only one head of house to provide or raise the children? They need support, plus as a society we are so segregated by income and residence there is rarely a mixing of classes, ethnicities or cultures.

Domestic service, sponsored by the federal government for all young people 18 – 24 years of age for two years in programs patterned after Americorp is a good start. Americans from all walks of life have an opportunity to serve their communities, states or travel to other areas of the country to provide necessary support services in areas they would otherwise never live.

We have fewer life experiences where we work with mixed classes working toward a share goal, resulting in a highly divisive and abusive civil discourse. If we start working together to support our communities, our states, and our country maybe we can discover that we have more in common and build on those common interests in our civic affairs.

The Internet Connects Us All in Common

By Patrick Hill

On August 24, 2018

In Common Good, Corporate Power, Democracy, Heartland Economics, Internet, Network Neutrality, Public Interest

Image: Your Little Planet

We all enjoy the connectivity the Internet provides us today with instant messaging, email, hyperlinking, websites and news. It was built by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contracting with universities and research centers to build a powerful internetworking protocol and network for the Department of Defense beginning in 1969. The network evolved with more research centers and government organizations using the system for communication and joint projects. By the mid 1990s the Internet was opened to the public primarily for email, though soon websites and messaging systems were established. Commercial common carriers were offered government contracts to provide more communication network support and services. In 1993 the Internet provided 1 % of all two way communications, by 2000 51 % of all communications were over the Internet, then growth exploded to 97 % of all telecommunications information in 2007.

Built by taxpayer money by DARPA for military communications, next universities and research centers, then open to the public and commercial enterprises. So, why do companies like AT & T, Verizon, and Comcast think they should control how Internet is offered to our people? We paid for it, as it evolved the Internet was envisioned as a wonderful new way to engage citizens in the political process and to level the playing field for new companies.

We certainly, have seen how innovation with a plethora of new services has emerged in the last 20 years, yet now a few giants run the content side: Google, Facebook, Netflix, Disney and the network side run by AT &T, Verizon, and Comcast. As the content companies merge with networking companies we have huge companies deciding how to make more money from a network entity that is actually a public trust built by taxpayer money.

One way we see inequality growing is access to the Internet for many in poor, or rural regions of the country is limited in speed and services. Without Internet speedy Internet access or innovative services for universities, hospitals, and companies in these regions it is difficult for the working class to gain the skills to get a better job, or companies to compete with their high speed competitors. Investment is declining in some regions of the Midwest and South due to poor Internet infrastructure which means fewer jobs for people living in the area.

The Internet is really a Common Good. It is a utility, not a platform for companies to make profits and not take responsibility for equity in access, speed and content which was the original purpose in designing the Internet as a peer to peer protocol rather than hierarchical.

The present GOP administration installed a company lobbyist as chair of the FCC who immediately decided that the network neutrality doctrine of the Obama administration should be overturned, giving control to for profit entities to charge whatever they wanted for speedy access or content. It is as if we turned the interstate system of freeways over to GM, so GM could give special lanes to GM cars and the others would have to go in slower lanes.

No, we don’t see the Common Good being protected by a for profit doctrine, it just can’t do the job. Recently, when firefighters in the California Mendocino fire went over their mobile data plan limit, Verizon throttled their data transmission to 1/200 of the speed. After the outrage over such predatory practices Verizon relented and will now offer all western state first responders standard data plans without throttling. Why should they even be able to throttle? If a user needs more data then just charge more over a certain limit – but throttling their network speed is coercive.

Network neutrality for all content, all websites, all messaging is the just doctrine for a Common Good like the Internet built with public funds. The fact that corporations think they should be able to do whatever they want shows once again that The Elite has control and power over the public interest. Their position needs to shift to supporting the public interest as priority one, not profits. We need to have the common carriers see they have a public trust, and social responsibility in operating a public Internet utility.

Verizon Shows Its More Interested In Revenue Than Firefighters

By Patrick Hill

On August 22, 2018

In Common Good, Corporate Nation State, Corporate Power, Corporate Reform

Image: theverge.com

During the Mendocino fire in California last month, firefighters using the Verizon service went over their data plan limit. So, instead of helping to alleviate the problem, Verizon made it worse by throttling down their data rate to 1/200^th until they switched to a new higher cost plan. Plus, they made the firefighters do the work to switch plans – doesn’t Verizon get the fact that the firefighters are a little busy saving lives and property?

Santa Clara County Fire Chief, Anthony Bowden explained, “Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost, and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the department that handles billing and switched to the new data plan,” Bowden wrote up the incident to support a law suit filed by 22 state attorney generals to stop the net-neutrality policy from being implemented by the FCC for the major carriers. Bowden noted that Verizon had throttled firefighter data rates in the past when fighting fires. A company spokesman said the throttling was a ‘customer service mistake’, and they would try to respond without throttling in future firefighting crisis situations.

Version is a huge wireless company with over 30 % of the wireless market:

Source: Statista – 2018

By size alone they command significant market power over users. With this market power comes community and public interest responsibility. When Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and others lobbied for a waiver of net neutrality provisions they said they could be trusted to protect the needs of the public and small internet users. Clearly, Verizon can’t be trusted to be a part of the community and put the Common Good over profits.

Next Steps:

First, Verizon needs to make restitution to the Santa Clara County firefighters and any other group involved in fighting the fire, by giving a credit for any increased costs and to make sure there is a hot line in place to an executive who can cut through all the bureaucracy and do the right thing. Verizon has demonstrated they are using people, even at the cost of lives and property to make a profit. Last year, the communications giant announced a $5.4 billion stock buyback program until 2020 to goose their stock price resulting in soaring executive compensation and shareholder returns. They could use some of this stock buyback money and help out all first responders!

Second, net neutrality provisions need to be restored so that common service providers are required by law to treat all users fairly no matter their size and not use predatory tactics like throttling to force users into upgrading plans. Verizon and and other common carries did not build the Internet, taxpayers did with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) funds in the 1970s. DARPA built a breakthrough set of communication and HTML linking technologies with a number of universities to establish the Internet channel backbone in the United States. The government built it, it is a public service and we should not be turning control over to private companies that are not serving the public interest.

It is about time huge corporations started solving the major problems we face in protecting the security of people and build the Common Good rather than being a major obstacle when the community is facing a crisis.

Update: August 24, 2018 – Verizon announced that it would not throttle first responders to wildfires on the West Coast including Hawaii. The backlash was so strong from the Mendocino fire the firm had to respond. Too bad management did not take the opportunity to be proactive about supporting the Common Good. We appreciate the late data rate support move by the company.

EPA Relaxes Coal Burning Regulations Endangering People and Economies

By Patrick Hill

On August 21, 2018

In Climate Change, Common Good, Corporate Nation State, Corporate Power, Environment, Families, Health, Public Interest, Renewable Energy

Image: agriland.ie

The day after that EPA announces relaxation of coal burning regulations scientists announced the first time in all recorded history the ‘last ice sea’ north of Greenland has thawed twice! This assumption that ‘last ice sea’ would not thaw due to climate warming is no longer proving to be true. One scientist described the iconic ice thawing discovery as ‘scary’.

Sources: The Polar Science Center, The Guardian – 8/21/18

At the same time, global warming is causing the seas to rise by 8 inches since 1900 of which 3 inches was since 1993. Scientists predict the sea level will rise another 3 to 7 inches by 2030. Today, rising sea levels are sending property values in low tidal areas spiraling down. University of Colorado and Penn State University researchers found that homes within just one foot of being flooded from a sea level rise were selling at a 14.7 % discount compared to homes on higher ground. Analysts have totaled property price losses since 2005 for Charleston at $265 million and Miami- Dade County at $465 million. Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg when considering all the coastal properties in the U.S. – losses are in the billions of dollars.

California has experienced the highest number and most acreage of wildfires in its history. Japan sweltered under hot July summer temperatures making new records. During the summer large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes the heat is to blame for at least 54 deaths in southern Quebec, near Montreal, which sweated under record high temperatures. The worldwide list of new high temperatures goes on and on. The chart below shows extremely hot temperatures worldwide in a model at 2 meters above ground.

Sources: University of Maine, The Washington Post – 7/5/18

The relaxation of Obama administration clean air restrictions would possibly kill from 470 to 1,400 people per year the EPA admits. The policy shift would move enforcement responsibility to the states, and allow them to relax regulations on coal burning plants even when installing new equipment. Utilities would be allowed to use old standards when installing new equipment without having to meet higher air quality regulations. The Obama era policies were never enforced because the Supreme Court found in favor of the states who sued to overturn the tighter regulations.

Next Steps:

Enough is enough, the federal government is here to protect American lives not kill more people as a result of policy. The government’s position makes no sense, it’s time we as citizens take a stand.

As we have said in a previous post:

“we may need to look to how to make duty more of a core value in our culture and in particular business culture. As we have observed our country is essentially run by Corporate Nation States, they must change their attitude, behavior and operating practices focused on their duty to all the people not just their executives and customers. Everything a corporation does in some way impacts the Common Good. We are the people these corporations serve, and we should expect nothing less than socially responsible behavior from the executives running these huge Corporate Nation States.”

We would like the executives of these coal companies to think about the people that will get ill or die because they wanted to make more money and be ‘efficient and affordable’. What if their daughter died? How would they feel. It seems that we are back to the point we made in last week’s Common Good post we ‘use people, and love things (money)’. This policy is dead wrong, and should never be implemented. Instead, these corporations should be coming to us with proposals on how to save people’s lives and speed up the process of reducing climate warming. Maybe, these executives need to look themselves in the mirror and ask ‘who am I serving?’. Time is running out, people are being killed in the heat, economies are being destroyed. All these forces will cause civil conflict unless we act now to reverse the course of climate warming, before it is too late.

Families Are the Place to Start Building the Common Good

By Patrick Hill

On August 17, 2018

In Common Good, Consumer Squeeze, Corporate Power, Corporate Reform, Families, Health insurance, Millennials, Public Interest, Stock Buybacks, Wages

Image: sleepingshouldbeeasy.com

We all have a mother and father, and may have brothers and sisters. We come into the world born of our mother with a bonding to her, and if all goes well the father is there to raise us too. We can all agree that families are a priority – when things get tough our families come first.

Bo Lotzoff, philosopher and counselor helping many prisoners and poor people turnaround their lives, observed about American society that we ‘love things and use people’. It should be the other way around, ‘love people and use things’. Think about this insight. When we look objectively at what has happened to family life in the past 30 years, the slice of time devoted to family versus work has progressed in reality to not much time, or invested engagement by the working parent.

In Silicon Valley, the heart of technology innovation world-wide, it is the standard expectation for most workers at top companies to be at work until 8 or 9pm, just leaving barely enough time for fathers or mothers to read a story and tuck their children into bed. Management expects knowledge workers to check for text messages at least 19 hours a day and email before coming into the office, responding to work requests on weekends too. Even, on vacations, if project reviews are planned workers are expected to phone in for the key meetings and ‘stay on top’ of what is happening. When global conference calls are involved, the calls may start at 6am to Germany and continue to 7 or 8 pm to Japan or China. What all this connectedness means is that the company owns the mind and emotions of the worker 24 by 7. At one startup ‘all hands’ meeting just prior to the Christmas holiday the CEO thanked everyone for their hard work over the past year and declared, “have a fun Christmas or holiday rest for a day, then let’s make our numbers!” He made the statement kind of in just but half serious, the workers got his point, see your families and friends but stay connected 24 by 7.

Corporate life is destroying family life and our connectedness as a community. Being totally connected to the corporation is more important if we want to maintain our standard of living is the message. Corporations are using people and loving things (sounds like high tech).

Nourishing, sustaining and building stronger families would do a lot for solving our societal and economic issues. Crime would go down as young men who are left to live on the streets would be learning skills, playing a team sport or having a family supporting his life, and where after school programs were funded and staffed well. Groups like Thread, in Baltimore actually use the family structure with Parents and Grandparent surrogates to support youth in poor parts of the city where there may be only one parent and that parent is not home much of the time working two or three jobs to support the family. Today we are missing millions of our youth to crime, opioids and dead end jobs that could be active productive members of our labor force. Our labor force is declining with the aging of baby boomers, we need all the paycheck workers we can to support our aging population and for young workers to save for their futures.

So, let’s look at the policies of our federal government using the family yardstick which most people right or left, Republican or Democrat agree:

Family Separation – recently we saw that there was consensus that children should be kept with their parents – even immigrant children
Health Insurance – a Pew Research survey showed that 58 % of all Americans believed that every person should have affordable health insurance for which the government is responsible
Childhood Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – most Senator and Congressmen agreed and renewed the CHIP bill to protect children caught between Medicaid and being too poor to afford an individual health insurance plan in this past December’s spending bill.
Flexible Job Definition – more social and family counselors see a need for men and women to have flexible time jobs meaning that when a family emergency comes up like an illness or doctor appointment the worker can take time off and make the appointment without repercussions in job performance, salary or benefits.
Parental Leave – Federal law of 1997 requires private employers to provide maternity leave up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected parental leave to bond with a new child within one year of birth, adoption, or foster care placement (parental leave). The US is the only country in the developed world that does not have paid leave for parents.
Wages – real wages (after inflation) for the 80 % of workers in the U.S. have basically been stagnant for the last 30 years. Instead, corporate executives use excess profits to juice their stock prices with stock buybacks instead of raising wages. They are wasting nearly $810 billion that Goldman Sachs estimates is being spent in 2018 on stock buy backs. That $810 billion could go a long way to providing decent wages for workers. Analysts estimate the S & P 500 index is at least 20 % higher from what the prices of company stocks would be without stock buybacks. The reality is that workers and their families suffer having to work two or three jobs because of the greed of executive management.

We could add to the list, our point is made, when we have a consensus that families need to be placed as the first priority, not the second or third or thirty-fifth, then our legislative priorities are clear. Other countries seem to make a thriving economy and support of families work. Germany has paid parental leave, a net export economy, good wages, employee councils and at least 4 weeks of paid vacation for most employees. Most German families feel secure. This author asked a co-worker from Germany if he considered working in the U.S., he noted, “I would get sharper, get closer to engineering and innovation, yet, there is no real recognition of families, In Germany, I have paid leave for a new child, four weeks of vacation every year, a good guaranteed retirement program, health insurance and I participate in our employee council…I don’t want to live under constant stress in America.”

Families are the basic economic building block of our country. When corporations take control of our government and run our families into oblivion we all are hurt as a country. In the end corporate executives need to wake up and support family sustaining policies in their company, their management culture, wages and in Washington to build strong families. Otherwise, someday corporations will discover as is beginning to happen today, that young women having the fewest babies ever since WW II, the lowest level of family formations ever and lowest number of millennials buying homes will lead to shrinking markets, falling margins and reduced sales. We need to monitor what is happening to the health of our families to know if our societal values, economic values, government policies and corporate behavior are strengthening or weakening families.

Corporations Have A Responsibility for The Common Good

By Patrick Hill

On August 10, 2018

In Common Good, Corporate Power, Corporate Reform, Social Responsibility, Wages

Image: Your Little Planet

Corporations provide the economic foundation for the common good in supporting a community. Air, water, and land need to be kept in good stewardship by companies using these natural resources and returning them as they found them. Yet, there is an economic responsibility too – good jobs for fair pay while keeping the social contract with the worker.

The New York Times returned to the Carrier site in Indianapolis that 20 months ago President Trump ‘saved’ from being moved to Mexico. Today, the furnace plant is plagued by absenteeism and concerns that the plant will be shut down when the political light is gone. Management has not helped when the CEO of the Pratt and Whitney that owns Carrier said that there would be lost jobs and automation would help to reduce costs. Unfortunately, the Carrier situation is true for many blue collar workers in America, always looking over their back, with a cloud hanging over their job future. There isn’t a cloud hanging over executives careers.

How can workers make commitments, to their families, pay mortgages, make car payments are send children to college when there is economic uncertainty hanging over them.

It used to be that corporate management was concerned with the future of their workers in a deep and personal way, which was reflected in their policies. All too pervasive in executives suites throughout America is the focus on profits, stock price and how to make more money – with worker security and careers taking a second place or not at all in the financial plan. Certainly corporations have extreme competitive pressures worldwide, government regulations and personnel laws to adhere to. Yet, when companies announce automation plans, they seem to forget the people losing jobs to robots are unlikely to get another job that pays as well.

Automation is a social concern, damaging the common good that workers can’t be just flung out of work while all the executives left make more money. There is something intrinsically unfair with this model.

People are the most important resource in our economy, we need to be thinking of how we treat people when economic storms come. When companies automate workers out of job they need to take the social responsibility for ensuring the worker thrown out of work and still progress positively in their economic life. While, a capitalist democracy supports corporations as private property and run entity, with the onslaught of automation corporations can’t just run the other way after giving the laid off worker a small severance check and say ‘good luck’ That approach is just not enough, the corporation profits the worker loses. We need to end the spiral down for workers, they need to be guaranteed a productive economic life just the same way an executive who is left with the benefits of an automated factory.

Weaving Together a New Social Fabric for the Common Good

By Patrick Hill

On August 3, 2018

In Common Good, Democracy, Education, Public Interest, Social Responsibility

Image: meritsolutions.com.au

One of the major problems we face in our society is isolation quite often brought on by inequality and poverty. It is hard to be ‘in the social mainstream’ when you are out of the economic mainstream.

As we have noted we need common experiences, social connections and collaboration toward shared goals to overcome isolation. Often for a person not moving up the economic ladder there is a lack of feeling connected to the community or a network that can assist them during a rough patch in life.

Education is a key to moving up the economic ladder. For young students in poor neighborhoods, without school resources, overworked teachers and rundown school facilities getting a good education is especially challenging. An group that is meeting the challenge of isolation head on is Thread, a social fabric weaving organization in Baltimore. Thread connects students with up to five volunteers who do things that a family member might do. The volunteers are coached by an experienced volunteer called the Head of the Family. The Head of the Family is coached by a Grandparent, and Grandparents are supported by Community Managers. Community Managers are paid Thread staffers. Offering complimentary help are Collaborators who provide special assistance when needed for example in: legal help, SAT tutoring, mental health counseling etc. Thread replicates the family connections and support networks, while providing key links to volunteers who can help with connections to colleges and universities or other resources.

Thread works with 415 high school students, more than 850 volunteers and over 300 collaborators. The results are impressive:

87 % of students who have been in the program for 6 years have graduated from high school
84 % of students in the program for 5 years have been accepted to college
83 % of student alumni have completed a 4 or 2 year college degree or certificate program

The Thread example is one for policy makers to review, and examine in detail for the elements of what makes a social fabric weaving organization work.

Education is the Fifth Estate, an essentially building block of our democracy providing opportunities for all to move up in life. Programs like Thread, provide insight into how to create the underlying support village for those that are isolated or have limited family support to change their life and shift into a productive path leading toward self-respect and self-esteem. Our society benefits from adding productive citizens to our economy, while building safer and more democratic communities. Certainly, forming organizations to rebuild the lives or our isolated young people in both cities and rural areas is critical to strenthening the Common Good.

The Truth Will Set Us Free

By Patrick Hill

On July 27, 2018

In Common Good, Democracy, Factions, Public Interest, Truth

Image: Your Little Planet

It seems this Administration has a problem with facts, and the truth. Simply the truth is what will set us all free to become all we can become and continue building this country and world. Yet, as of June 1^st the Washington Post has counted 3,251 misleading or false statements by our POTUS. As the leader of the Executive branch he sets the lead for his staff, they feel comfortable making misleading statements and creating ‘alternate facts’. There are not ‘alternate facts’ when it comes to what is actually happening in our government.

The news media is the Fourth Estate, with special protections inscribed in the First Amendment of the Constitution declaring ‘Congress…shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press’. We need the press to monitor government officials and ensure they are doing what they say they are doing and telling us the truth. Without knowing how our public officials are discharging their responsibilities to serve the public’s interests and build the common good we cannot make decisions on the correctness of their behavior or who to vote for or against. Madison and Jefferson were distrustful of a powerful federal government that was not under constant surveillance by the press, to ensure a faction or tyrant could not confuse the public and run wild over the people with their power.

The most alarming aspect of this Administration is not that it lies about policy and actions, it is that it lies constantly and changes the focus to undermining the press to new levels of bullying, intimidation and threats. This barrage of constantly calling the mainstream press ‘false news and enemies of the people’, is to delegitimize the press to give the Administration the policy room to do whatever it wants. A guest on the PBS News Hour this past week, Peter Wehner, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, succulently described this unprecedented dishonesty as ‘pathological lying’ – a disease. A disease that is eating away at the foundations of our democracy.

Every major religion on this planet places a high value on honesty, truthfulness and integrity. The truth is not a new concept – except for this Administration. Madison had great faith that when a well-educated and informed public made decisions they would be able to make the right decisions in the interest of the common good. Let’s rededicate ourselves in all our interactions with each other, our families and in our democratic institutions to be honest, truthful and transparent. Only with consensus around the facts can we move together and solve the problems ahead for our children and future generations.

Make America A Democracy Again

By Patrick Hill

On July 23, 2018

In Common Good, Corporate Nation State, Corporate Power, Debt, Democracy, Wages

Image: civicsacademy.co.za

Memo

To: Oli Garchy, CEO, The Elite

Subject: Meeting – Make America a Democracy Again

Time: Lunch

Place: The Lawn in Front of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC (It helps to have Honest Abe watching over the mixed group)

Date: Soon…before it’s too late.

Oli,

Ok, we recognize you and your team since Ronald Reagan have built an Oligarchy that stands out (not outstanding for the 90 %) as a model for the history books, based on government statistics:

1. President is a billionaire (first one) – and holds title to all his properties while in office, making money while in office (first time)
2. Cabinet of largest number of billionaires in history of U.S.
3. Corporate tax rate lowest in 50 years
4. Corporations have the most cash ever sitting in banks and offshore shelters at over $1 trillion
5. Top 1 % taxes are the lowest in 50 years
6. Top 1 % received 90 % of income gained since the Great Recession
7. The 80 % working class real wages have declined in the last 30 years – while CEO pay is 300 times the average worker’s
8. Home ownership is at lowest level in 40 yrs – renting at the highest level in 15 yrs (you’ll own more residential real estate than ever)
9. Student debt highest ever at $1.5 trillion – because:
10. Spending by state and federal government on public education secondary thru higher education is the lowest ever as per cent of GDP
12. Healthcare services costs more per person in US than anywhere in the world with life expectancy lowest of all developed countries – due to all the built in middle profit layers of insurance, drug price gauging and stock buybacks 13. Stock buy backs were at the highest level ever last quarter $431 billion, not one dime to employees or workers directly in wage increases
14. Last year had the highest average global temperature, yet the administration wants to end car emissions standards by California, drill for more oil on the coasts – fossil fuel executives are getting what they want and more 15. Tax receipts from U.S. corporations hit a 75 year low 16. The Top 1 % have 40 % of all U.S. wealth, the highest concentration since 1929

You’ve wrapped Congress around your little finger with the Tax Cut bill where 70 % of the tax cut proceeds went to executive salaries, stock buybacks, and dividends, very little into research and development, increasing productivity or job training. You promised to raise wages and very few companies did.

The American people care more about the environment and its stewardship then you’re team, 60 % in a recent Pew Research poll say that preserving the environment is more important, even if there is an economic cost. Oli, think about it, your profits won’t last long if your customers are unhealthy or dying due to pollution of the water, air or land.

Professors Gilens and Page at Princeton and Northwestern reviewed opinion polls versus legislation passed over the past 30 years and found of 1779 laws passed 90 % did not support popular opinion, seems you own Congress.

Your 30 year old oligarchy has come at great cost, look at the debt increased by a magnitude from the Tax Cut you wanted and the public did not:

Sources: The Congressional Budget Office, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 7/23/18

You’ve just mortgaged your children and our children’s future for good jobs, owning a home and good health care just to give you and your friends a huge tax cut. You and your team have the lowest corporate tax cut on record, but at great cost!

Oli, here is the issue for your team; without a thriving Working Class the value of your assets will go down. Consumer spending will spiral down unless the Working Class get a fair piece of the economic pie. When consumer spending goes down, your businesses begin losing money, their value drops and if the spiral keeps going like it did after 1929, you could lose everything.

The way to build a Working Class that you need is via a democracy – remember that from your textbooks. It looks like this: a government ‘by the people, for the people and of the people’ – Lincoln had it right.

Think about it Oli, meet with us before it is too late. In the future, there maybe hostility with the wealthy elite, but there is still time.

Next steps:

How about lunch? How about our people meeting with your people? Our folks; Senators – Warren, Sanders, Booker and Harris, Representative Pramila Jayapal, Nick Hanauer, and Robert Reich.

Let me know who on your team you would like to invite, maybe the Koch Brothers, The Devos – as couple, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, and five more would be a good size group.

Our luncheon wrap up takes place in the Jefferson Memorial where on the south east portico Jefferson observed we must make progress together:

“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.”

Please read our posts on the Common Good in a Democracy as a refresher on what it is and how we all need to build it again. Frankly, Oli, the Common Good seems lost right now, yet it provides the beacon to keep the ship of state on course for all the people. We need to work together to build the Common Good. Let’s – Make America A Democracy Again.

The Common Good Beacon Keeps the Ship of State On Course

By Patrick Hill

On July 20, 2018

In Common Good, Duty, Social Responsibility

Image: Your Little Planet

Sometimes it helps to be pragmatic about building the Common Good, here are 10 points that all Americans can agree on proposed by Ann B. Diamond in a letter to the editor of the NY Times:

1. We deserve a president who tells the truth.

2. Cabinet members should be advocates for their agency.

3. Americans want clean air and water and believe in climate change

4. Every citizen should be encouraged to vote.

5. No child should go to bed hungry.

6. Canada and Mexico are not our enemies.

7. Russia is not our friend, and is trying to undermine democracy

8. The press is not the enemy.

9. The tax cut benefits corporations and the wealthy, not the middle class.

10. Children belong with their parents.

Two years ago, most Americans would have said about these ten points: “These shared ideas are all obvious, what is the big deal?” It shows how far our ship of state has gone off course.

We have been blown off a common course by a GOP Administration, violating value after value, norm after norm and majority opinion after majority opinion. No precept can be taken for granted anymore. If a poll were taken today on these 10 Common Good precepts – 60 to 90 % of all Americans would agree with their core values.

America is founded on principles of justice, equal opportunity and individual freedom balanced with the Common Good. We all need an understanding of the Common Good or, for example, we couldn’t drive our cars on public roads if other drivers decided to disobey traffic laws implemented with a simple red light ‘because it’s my right’. Here the Common Good is clear – you can’t crash into another person’s car. While, the ten points are not as obvious, their core assumptions about our humanity, Constitution and common history must be our duty to understand, protect and sustain. Duty to our Common Good values is crucial for them to survive, and provide a beacon of light ahead to keep our ship of state on course. We are all on deck, not just the captain, sometimes it is good to let him know there are rocks ahead he does not see!