10-04-2021, 02:36 AM
(10-03-2021, 10:53 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Was looking for a thread on likely issues for this 4T and this was the closest one I could find. Can we list the likely issues yet to reach their crescendo. You may also add extra ideas as well. In going back over the ideas and issues, which ones do you feel will get the green light, and which others may get the yellow or red light. Here are a few I have mentioned, and you can select green, yellow or red.
Legalizing or at least decriminalizing sex work.
A reduction in automobile dependency, which strongly relates to carbon footprint concerns.
Curbing the seemingly insatiable appetite of Corporate America through unbridled mergers and buyouts, with greater enforcement of antitrust laws. The end of them being able to constantly whipsaw jurisdictions to get what they want.
These are the three that come to my mind the most, in addition to moving to a saner housing strategy to bring down barbaric costs that squeeze out modest earnings families and businesses.
On many of our central issues we seem to be conflicted and unsure which way to turn. Could the best route be to take our time and re-evaluate before committing to something?
1. Educational quality. Much of the inequality of economic result comes from the difference in effort that people put into formal learning. The point will not be to get the educational winners to become slackers on education but instead to get the current under-performers to put more effort into formal learning. The (bad) school to prison pipeline needs be ended.
2. Availability of housing. As it is, housing costs accelerate as a share of income because Americans have been under-building since the financial meltdown of 2008, itself based largely upon speculation in housing. We will need more affordable housing, perhaps by replacing decrepit housing with new housing and revitalizing cities in decline.
3. Deconcentration of the economy. Once-thriving cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and St. Louis need to be made into places of opportunity again. If the jobs are there, then people will not have the need to flee to those few places that have vibrant economies (and exorbitant housing costs and commute times). We also need to make an economy suitable for small businesses that can function in small towns as once was the norm. Not everyone can live in California, Texas, and the Acela Corridor.
4. Making the transition away from the gasoline-powered automobile. The Good Lord isn't making any fresh oil reserves these days. (You said it, Beechnut!).
5. Tax reform that promotes small business instead of bloated enterprises. We also need to tax heavily those who draw gigantic salaries... and speculative activities from the outset (at the least to discourage them).
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.