On February 1, 2014, Laura Flanders writes on Nation of Change:
President Obama got one thing right in his State of the Union address. “It is [we] the citizens who make the state of our union strong.”
Just look at his speech. After years of saying the word “poverty” fewer times than any president in memory (and talking about the middle class more), here was Obama talking about inequality and workers stifled by low wages. That’s thanks to public activism.
Many Americans are already creating worker owned co-ops, community-owned businesses, and public services that feed the stomach and the soul.
“Inequality has deepened”; “No one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty.” The president’s best applause lines were lifted from protest signs. Now “citizens” (and would-be citizens) will have to come up with solutions too, because his won’t take us very far.
Take that minimum wage hike for federal workers. Ten dollars and ten cents an hour is nice, but $20,000 a year is hardly a ticket out of poverty, even if you can find a full-time job in the public sector. The demand on the street, in case the president missed it, has been for $15 an hour, and the right to bargain collectively so workers have some power. (On Twitter that’s #Fightfor15 or #raisethewage.)
Yes! Magazine held a live Twitter-fest during the president’s speech. Among the messages that flew in were the following suggestions.
To stop the shrinking of the public sector, the president needs to bring jobs back home, said union members. The feds spend a reported $1.5 billion a year buying camo pants and TSA uniforms from companies overseas. Obviously the government needs to set labor standards for overseas procurement and stick to them. But instead of subcontracting to sweatshops why not buy #Americanmade? In fact, why not shop locally at all levels of government? (For more on the local procurement issue, follow #shoplocal or #localbiz on Twitter.)
The president talked about speeding approvals for infrastructure repair and high-tech “hubs.” Why not do away with the middleman? Hire those workers directly and pay them a living wages with good benefits?
Good Jobs First (@GoodJobsFirst) has documented that tempting profitable businesses into “hubs” with tax breaks and incentive cash is wasteful. If government’s going to invest in private businesses, why not demand an ownership share for the taxpayers? Create anchor institutions that are connected to the local economy. Better yet, invest in the businesses that are already there. (In a recent report, @GoodJobsFirst shows that ending corporate subsidies and loopholes could end state pension crises.)
Antifracking activists responded to President Obama’s support for natural gas as “a bridge fuel.” It’s a bridge to nowhere, several said. Invest now in wind and solar and it’ll pay off handsomely down the road. And why not keep those companies public, so the profits, not just the risks stay with the taxpayers?
The tweet that sticks with me most came from George Goehl at National People’s Action.
President Obama said, “We all owe it to the American people to say what we’re for, not just what we’re against.” There’s also a responsibility to listen. Many Americans are saying loudly what they’re for, and they’re making it happen: creating worker owned co-ops, community-owned businesses, and public services that feed the stomach and the soul.
At Yes! Magazine, I’m calling it “Commonomics”—as one follower described it, “people-centered economics.” That’s economics that serves local people and the planet first, not ever-increasing profit. As Goehl suggests, it’s possible to make a fairer economy, but not if policy makers only tinker, and not if “citizens” wait for someone else to do it. As the president said, the strength of the union is built by we the people.
See http://www.foreconomicjustice.org/?p=11554 for my response.
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.
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.
