What President Obama Should Have Said In The 2014 State Of The Union Address (Demo)

In his fifth State of the Union address, President Obama essentially said that he is going to go it alone. His major policy plan for 2014 is to bypass Congress altogether and use targeted executive orders to get things done.

A flurry of executive orders is obviously better than nothing, but it’s hardly the kind of bold leadership and change this country needs to undo the destruction caused by decades of wealth concentration at the exclusion of the vast majority of Americans and policies that facilitate economic inequality. The real state of the union is precariously fragile.

While progressives should support President Obama as he works to make his “year of action” a reality, we should demand more than just a jobs focus and policies that protect and enhance the interests of the richest Americans at the expense of all other Americans, and demand that equal opportunity is extended to EVERY American to accumulate a viable wealth-creating, income-producing asset-based estate to provide both income and financial security.

The speech President Obama delivered offered nothing that could plausibly reverse the trend of widening income gaps and economic injustices. As with so many of the politicians who supposedly represent the American people, President Obama appears to lack the leadership necessary for our nation to deal with the “technology age” and the impact that the non-human factor of production will have on widening economic inequality and the systemic workings  of our private-property market-based economy in the future.

President Obama needs to embrace and use the kind of bully pulpit to advance ownership-broadening policies. He will need more than just executive orders; he will need our efforts to start organizing from the ground up.

Given this preface, I have edited and modified President Obama’s State of the Union speech. Below I present the revision of the main body of the speech that deals with economic inequality, that I believe President Obama should have presented. The italicized words are President Obama’s; the non-italicized are my edits.

My hope is that the policy provisions I have presented will generate a national discussion for creating a truly unique, global-leading just and environmentally responsible Ownership Society that fosters personalism, creativity, and innovation.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans:

….Tonight, this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent: it is you, our citizens, who are the foundation of our union.

While the statistics add up to the lowest unemployment rate in over five years, real employment opportunities have been out-of-reach for far too many Americans. Participation in the labor force is the lowest since 1978.  In the 1960s one in twenty of men between the ages of 25 and 54 was not working. The figure is now one in seven. The typical male worker made less in 2012 than in 1987 in real terms (adjusted for inflation). The contribution of labor to the value of production of products and now services as well, is constantly shrinking and the contribution of physical productive capital, now in the form not just of machinery and equipment of all kinds but in such areas as computerized conceptualization modeling and advanced super-automation and robotization continues to rise.

While the manufacturing sector has added jobs for the first time since the 1990s, tectonic shifts in the technologies of production are resulting in greater productive efficiencies requiring less and less human labor. This trend will continue to create technological unemployment with labor replaced by non-human productive means.

As a result, income is increasingly concentrated in those who have the training and education to design and operate such productive capital assets and the owners of those assets. The social and political consequences of this undeniable development are enormous.

Over past decades we have lost our way and as a result we are creating a large underclass of “state” serfs, which will support those political forces who promise to maintain or increase public income transfers and populist political movements that promise to penalize the professional and financial elites perceived as being greedy and obnoxious exploiters.

In the most advanced of the advanced economies, the United States, almost one-half the population now depends in whole or in part on taxpayer-supported “entitlements,” while the top one percent of income earners are receiving a far greater share of total income because they are the owners of our nation’s productive wealth.

While the housing market has somewhat rebounded, housing prices are still not within reach of many Americans, who simply do not have sufficient income to qualify for mortgage loans.

While more oil is being produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world – the first time that’s happened in nearly twenty years – we continue to be far too dependent on fossil fuel to power our economy and lifestyles.

While our deficits have been cut by more than half, the national debt continues to spiral out of control.

While for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest, we need to incentivize investment in our own country and grow our economy in ways that enrich the lives of EVERY American.

That’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America. While after five years of grit and determined effort, the United States is better-positioned for the 21^st century than any other nation on Earth, we cannot succeed in building a FUTURE economy that can support general affluence for EVERY American without first reforming our system of wealth finance and taxation.

The question for everyone in this chamber, running through every decision we make this year, is whether we are going to help or hinder this progress, and fundamentally reform the system to operate inclusively for ALL Americans rather than exclusively for the wealthy ownership class. For several years now, this town has been consumed by a rancorous argument over the proper size of the federal government. It’s an important debate – one that dates back to our very founding. But when that debate prevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy – when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the United States – then we are not doing right by the American people.

As President, I’m committed to making Washington work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here. I believe most of you are, too. Last month, thanks to the work of Democrats and Republicans, this Congress finally produced a budget. And while it undoes some of last year’s severe cuts to priorities like education, it is far from what we need to move forward to build a FUTURE economy that can support general affluence and quality choices for EVERY American. Nobody got everything they wanted, and we can still do more to invest in this country’s future while bringing down our deficit in a balanced way, and over time pay off the national debt. But the budget compromise should leave us freer to focus on creating both broadened personal ownership of wealth-creating, income-producing physical productive capital assets and new jobs, not creating new crises.

In the coming months, let’s see where else we can make progress together. Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Americans want – for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. And what I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, with the necessary financial tools accessible to you, you can get ahead.

Let’s face it: that belief has suffered some serious blows. Over more than three decades, even before the Great Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on, while enriching the concentrated productive assets of the wealthy ownership class.

Today, after four years of economic growth, though anemic, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those wealthy owners, especially at the top, have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled as technological shifts in production have dampened job opportunities, except for those with the necessary skills, and devalued the worth of many wage earners. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all, which when a job is their ONLY means of income, is tragic and dehumanizing.

Our job is to reverse these trends. It won’t happen right away, and we won’t agree on everything. But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity for EVERY American to become a productive capital owner in our FUTURE economy. Some require Congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still – and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.

…The point is, there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments, and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth and inheritance, but the strength of our work ethic, personal endeavors, ownership participation and the scope of our dreams. That’s what drew our forebears here. It’s how the daughter of a factory worker is CEO of America’s largest automaker; how the son of a barkeeper is Speaker of the House; how the son of a single mom can be President of the greatest nation on Earth.

Opportunity is who we are. And the defining project of our generation is to restore that promise.

We know where to start: the best measure of opportunity is access to ownership of wealth-creating, income-producing productive capital assets. We must reform our system to provide equal future ownership opportunities to link every consumer to the new productive technologies that add at least 90 percent of marketable increases in what our economy produces. By doing so there would be more balanced upward growth, with the production side of the economic equation (supply) in greater balance with the consumption side (demand) of the economic equation.

While in the past our vision and rhetoric has been limited to creating jobs, this alone will not suffice if we are to build a FUTURE economy wherein EVERY American can become affluent. While companies say they intend to hire more people this year as the economy picks up speed, we need to ensure that we finance our FUTURE growth using financial mechanisms that will empower employees of corporations and EVERY American to acquire full-voting and full-dividend payout ownership shares in the corporations that are growing our economy and producing FUTURE productive capital assets. We need to reform our tax laws to make investing in America and manufacturing at home our focus in the years to come.

So let’s make that decision easier for more companies. Both Democrats and Republicans have argued that our tax code is riddled with privileged subsidies and wasteful complicated loopholes that punish businesses investing here, and reward companies that keep profits abroad. Let’s flip that equation. Let’s work together to close those loopholes, end subsidies that concentrate capital ownership, end those incentives to ship capital investment and jobs overseas, and lower or eliminate tax rates for businesses that finance their growth by issuing and selling new shares of full-voting, full-dividend-paying stock to their employees, who can finance their acquisition of stock using interest-free insured capital credit mechanisms repayable with pre-tax earnings. Not only will this dramatically stimulate economic growth, but jobs will steadily be created here at home. With two sources of income opportunity, Americans will be far better “customers with money” for the products and services that a growth economy can produce.

Moreover, we can take the money we save with this transition to tax reform to create expanded ownership opportunities and jobs related to rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes, revitalizing our cities – because in today’s global economy, both business investment thrives and jobs gravitate to first-class infrastructure. We’ll need Congress to protect more than three million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer, while simultaneously broadening ownership among workers employed as a result of government contracts. But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, with the contractual requirement that government contractors demonstrate that their companies are employee-owned, so we can get more construction owner-workers on the job as fast as possible.

We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech manufacturing investment and the jobs that will result. My administration has launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh and Youngstown, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies. Tonight, I’m announcing we’ll launch six more this year. Bipartisan bills in both houses could double the number of these hubs and the jobs they create. So get those bills to my desk and put more Americans back to work and empower them to become capital owners. Private sector companies benefiting from the innovation produced by these hubs will be required to demonstrate that they are broadly owned by their employees and other Americans.

Let’s do more to help the entrepreneurs and small business owners who create most new jobs in America. Over the past five years, my administration has made more loans to small business owners than any other. And when ninety-eight percent of our exporters are small businesses, we must carefully protect Americans in new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia-Pacific to assure that ownership of our productive output is broadly owned by Americans and will be protected and enhanced along with creating more job opportunities for Americans. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment, and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the USA” by “American worker-owners.” China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines. Neither should we.

We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender. But this ownership must be shared by EVERY American, not just a few who are presently wealthy as a result of their ownership of the economy’s productive assets. Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions behind Google and smartphones. That’s why Congress should undo the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery – whether it’s vaccines that stay ahead of drug-resistant bacteria, or paper-thin material that’s stronger than steel. Let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation. And let’s make sure that companies in the private sector that benefit from taxpayer-supported basic research are required to be broadly owned by their employees and other Americans.

Now, one of the biggest factors in the FUTURE growth of the economy and bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The technology for mass conversion to renewable energy exists, and systemic change now would avoid the worst extremes of global warming. The reality and thus political and economic challenge is that changing the status quo would decrease profits of powerful corporations with vested interests in current technologies that threaten environmental renewability and sustainable viability. When politicians continue to serve their interests above all others, regardless of the laws of physics, they compound the problem for future generations.

The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.

One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories that use natural gas. I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas. This should ALL be financed using insured, interest-free capital credit loans repayable out of the FUTURE earnings of the investments. My administration will keep working with industries to sustain broadly owned production and job growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, and our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.

It’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar, too. Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don’t need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of the future that do, while stipulating that those industries are broadly owned by Americans.

And even as we’ve increased energy production, we’ve partnered with businesses, builders, and local communities to reduce the energy we consume. When we rescued our automakers, for example, we worked with them to set higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars. In the coming months, I’ll build on that success by setting new standards for our trucks, so we can keep driving down oil imports and what we pay at the pump.

Taken together, our energy policy has created jobs, but as we move forward our energy policy also must create broadened productive capital asset ownership opportunities for ALL Americans, and lead to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.

But to be successful, we will need to do much more than what is presently being pursued. Through what is known as Capital Homesteading, we can achieve green growth in which Americans would be better able to afford more food, clothing, shelter, health care, transportation, education, communication, and provide the necessary demand for green technologies and production processes that produce green products. As Capital Homesteading policies and programs that I and my administration will lead, along with Congress, takes hold, Americans would not only become stronger consumers and “customers with money” but also gain stronger property interests in the environment and be better able to afford the greener choice.

Finally, if we are serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, and law enforcement – and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted. I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same. Independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades. And for good reason: when people come here legally to fulfill their dreams – to study, invent, and contribute to our culture – they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate, flourish and create ownership opportunities and jobs for everyone. So let’s get immigration reform done this year.

The ideas I’ve outlined so far can speed up growth and create significant productive capital ownership opportunities and more jobs. But in this rapidly changing economy, we have to make sure that every American has the skills to fill those jobs.

The good news is, we know how to do it…So tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now while simultaneously creating new capital owners. That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life. It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill their specific needs. And if Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs, all the while ensuring that the private sector companies contracted are owned by their employees and other Americans.

I’m also convinced we can help Americans return to the workforce faster by reforming unemployment insurance so that it’s more effective in today’s economy. But first, this Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance you just let expire for 1.6 million people as an emergency measure until ALL Americans are benefiting from both dividend income and income from wages and salaries and are no longer dependent on this social insurance program.

Let me tell you why.

Misty DeMars is a mother of two young boys. She’d been steadily employed since she was a teenager. She put herself through college. She’d never collected unemployment benefits. In May, she and her husband used their life savings to buy their first home. A week later, budget cuts claimed the job she loved. Last month, when their unemployment insurance was cut off, she sat down and wrote me a letter –– the kind I get every day. “We are the face of the unemployment crisis,” she wrote. “I am not dependent on the government…Our country depends on people like us who build careers, contribute to society…care about our neighbors…I am confident that in time I will find a job…I will pay my taxes, and we will raise our children in their own home in the community we love. Please give us this chance.”

Congress, give these hardworking, responsible Americans that chance. They need our help, but more important, this country needs them in the game. That’s why I’ve been asking CEOs to give more long-term unemployed workers a fair shot at that new job and new chance to support their families; this week, many will come to the White House to make that commitment real. Tonight, I ask every business leader in America to join us and to do the same – because we are stronger when America fields a full team.

Of course, it’s not enough to train today’s workforce. We also have to prepare tomorrow’s workforce, by guaranteeing every child access to a world-class education and to FUTURE financial security resulting from steady acquisition of wealth-creating, income-producing physical capital assets over their lifetime… The problem is we’re still not reaching enough kids, and we’re not reaching them in time. That has to change.

Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education. Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old. As a parent as well as a President, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, thirty states have raised pre-k funding on their own. They know we can’t wait. So just as we worked with states to reform our schools, this year, we’ll invest in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for our youngest children. And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.

Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years. Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit.

We’re working to redesign high schools and partner them with colleges and employers that offer the real-world education and hands-on training that can lead directly to a job and career in a company and industry in which they can also be a share owner along with other Americans. We’re shaking up our system of higher education to give parents more information, and colleges more incentives to offer better value, so that no middle-class kid is priced out of a college education. We’re offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to ten percent of their income, and I want to work with Congress to see how we can help even more Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt. And I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach their full potential.

The bottom line is, Michelle and I want every child to have the same chance this country gave us. But we know our opportunity agenda won’t be complete – and too many young people entering the workforce today will see the American Dream as an empty promise – unless we do more to make sure our economy honors the dignity of participation as a productive capital owner-contributor and as a worker contributor where job opportunities are availed and created.

Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. This year, let’s all come together – Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street – to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds.

Now, women hold a majority of lower-wage jobs – but they’re not the only ones stifled by stagnant wages. Americans understand that some people will earn more than others, and we don’t resent those who, by virtue of their efforts, achieve incredible success. But Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty, and NO American should be denied opportunity to acquire over time a viable, income-producing capital estate.

In the year since I asked this Congress to raise the minimum wage, five states have passed laws to raise theirs. Many businesses have done it on their own. Nick Chute is here tonight with his boss, John Soranno. John’s an owner of Punch Pizza in Minneapolis, and Nick helps make the dough. Only now he makes more of it: John just gave his employees a raise, to ten bucks an hour – a decision that eased their financial stress and boosted their morale.

Tonight, I ask more of America’s business leaders to follow John’s lead and do what you can to raise your employees’ wages and empower them to become capital owners. To every mayor, governor, and state legislator in America, I say, you don’t have to wait for Congress to act; Americans will support you if you take this on. And as a chief executive, I intend to lead by example. Profitable corporations like Costco see higher wages as the smart way to boost productivity and reduce turnover. We should too. In the coming weeks, I will issue an Executive Order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour – because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.

Of course, to reach millions more, Congress needs to get on board. Today, the federal minimum wage is worth about twenty percent less than it was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. Tom Harkin and George Miller have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It doesn’t involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise.

But while raising the minimum wage is a necessary emergency measure, the minimum wage level is at best a sedative to ease the pain of deteriorating livelihoods because of the reliance on jobs for the majority of Americans who have no other viable opportunity to earn income. Increasing the minimum wage, on its own, is not the solution that is necessary to significantly address income disparities between the wealthy ownership class and the proeprtyless, non-capitalized and under-capitalized American majority.

There are other steps we can take to help families make ends meet, and few are more effective at reducing inequality and helping families pull themselves up through hard work than the Earned Income Tax Credit. Right now, it helps about half of all parents at some point. But I agree with Republicans like Senator Rubio that it doesn’t do enough for single workers who don’t have kids. So let’s work together to strengthen the credit, reward work, and help more Americans get ahead.

Let’s do more to help Americans prepare for retirement and build a viable wealth-creating, income-producing capital estate. Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security check, earned over one’s employment, often isn’t enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t help folks who don’t have 401ks and who are speculating in existing tradable securities. That’s why, tomorrow, I will unveil my formal proposal for enacting the Capital Homestead Act. I will submit this proposed Act to Congress and direct the Treasury to create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings: MyCHA. CHA stands for Capital Homestead Account. It is a super-IRA or asset tax shelter for citizens. The Treasury will start creating an asset-backed currency that will enable every child, woman and man to establish a CHA at their local bank to acquire a growing dividend-bearing stock portfolio comprised of newly-issued stock representative of viable American growth corporations to supplement their incomes from work and all other sources of income. We can create new asset-backed money for investment through the existing but dormant Section 13(2) rediscount mechanism of each of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks that would be backed by “future savings” (that is, future profits from higher levels of marketable goods, products, and services).

I will submit tomorrow to Congress The Capital Homestead Act, which will process an equal allocation of productive credit to every citizen exclusively for purchasing full-dividend payout shares in companies needing funds for growing the economy and private sector jobs for local, national and global markets. The new issued shares will be purchased on interest-free credit wholly backed by projected “future savings” in the form of new productive capital assets as well as the future marketable goods, products and services produced by the newly added technology, renewable energy systems, plant, rentable space and infrastructure added to the economy. There will be no prerequisite requirement to qualify for an annual set capital credit loan other than American citizenship.

I will encourage the insurance industry to expand their product lines to market Capital Credit Insurance to cover the risk of default for banks making loans to Capital Homesteaders under the proposed Capital Homestead Act. Under the provisions of the Act, risk of default on each stock acquisition loan will be covered by private sector capital credit risk insurance and reinsurance issued by a new government agency (ala the Federal Housing Administration concept), but will not require citizens to reduce their funds for consumption to purchase shares.

The end result is that ALL American citizens will become empowered as owners to meet their own consumption needs and government would become more dependent on economically independent citizens, thus reversing our country’s trend where all citizens are becoming more dependent for their economic well-being on the “state,” our only legitimate social monopoly.

The CHA will function as a savings and income account that effectively will build a nest egg over time, using interest-free, insured capital credit loans. A CHA will be offered to EVERY American, whether employed or not. Of course, those employed may also have additional opportunities to acquire personal ownership in their companies using an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) trust financial mechanism.

And since the most important investment many families make is their home, send me legislation that protects taxpayers from footing the bill for a housing crisis ever again, and keeps the dream of homeownership alive for future generations of Americans.

I’m going to pull together another coalition of elected officials, business leaders, academia and our country’s wealthiest capital owners to forge policies to make productive capital property ownership an inalienable right of American citizenship, and create a truly unique, global-leading just and environmentally responsible Ownership Society that fosters personalism, creativity and innovation. Embarking on a new path to prosperity, opportunity and economic justice will expand growth of our market economy in ways that democratize future ownership opportunities.

This is the critical challenge before us. We must unite on how to lift existing barriers to full and genuine equality of future ownership opportunities through productive credit repayable with “future savings” to accumulate the power and profits from asset accumulations for EVERY American and do so without violating private property rights of existing owners. Creating asset-backed money is the key to a more democratic, just and free market system…

…Our freedom, our democracy, has never been easy. Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged. But for more than two hundred years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress – to create and build and expand the possibilities of individual achievement; to free other nations from tyranny and fear; to promote justice, and fairness, and equality under the law, so that the words set to paper by our founders are made real for every citizen. The America we want for our kids – a rising America where honest work is plentiful and communities are strong; where prosperity is widely shared and opportunity for all lets us go as far as our dreams and toil will take us – none of it is easy. But if we work together; if we summon what is best in us, with our feet planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow – I know it’s within our reach.

Believe it.

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

[Two references to the proposed Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm andhttp://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm.]

http://www.nationofchange.org/what-president-obama-should-have-said-2014-state-union-address-1391439544