List of Goals
This is a list of CONCRETE GOALS to include in the survey for NatGat 2013.
[!!! FINAL LIST OF OBJECTIVES posted to NATGAT 2013 can be found HERE!!!]
Please add/edit.
It's intended that the categories will roll up and become "the goals", and the details will be targetted milestones under a specific goal. It's envisioned that each will be prioritized as short, medium, and long term objectives.
We've moved some items to:
− [Common Items] For items to be consolidated into "The Commons".
− Brainstorm Bank for raw ideas that need flushing out
- Second Wave the next phase
I. Enviro
A. Land
- Mandate a certain percentage of public commons (land) to be farm, park, or nature conservation areas. [See Commons Items List of Land Use Policies] TF, PL, BW
- Use rooftops for renewable energy (gardens, wind turbines, solar) BW
- Offer tax credits to sustainable farms that give away food BW
- Lease commons (locally owned/controlled land) to local organic growers
- Institute development policies that favor REAL affordable housing tied to lowest wage earners (not "average" income)
- Offer community and individual "tax" of less bureaucratic form of
encouraging local gardens and food sharing. public space food swaps. etc. BW
B. Food
What: Our food supply is made up of natural organic food. It is a food supply which follows humane practices. All people have regular access to nourishing food from all the food groups. This food is free from GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), from pesticides, from herbicides and any other non-organic chemicals.
How:
- Tax credits to food providers that offer food for free (pay-what-you-can cafes, etc) BW
- Replace the food stamp/agribusiness grand bargain with a [basic income guarantee] TF BW
- Before being allowed on the market it is required that all products including food additives, packaging, cosmetics, and cleaning supplies be tested to show they are safe by multiple independent non-governmental agencies and governmental agencies and academic institutions whose data will be examined and re-tested till there can be an agreed upon scientific consensus of whether or not to allow these products to the market.
- Free school lunches - no unhealthy food in schools
- Easy access to fresh produce and nutritious food in poor communities
- End all subsidies in the Farm Bill to corporate farms and processed food companies; add subsidies, and increase those on the books, for organic farms. Incentivize wide variety of crops not including corn and soybeans BW
C. ESTABLISH A "STRONG COMMONS"
- Amend the constitution to end the corporatocracy and restore inalienable natural rights to individuals [Corporate Rights Reading Materials] TF AC PL BW
- Amend the corporate charter to subordinate responsibility to shareholders to responsibility to prevent harm to people, wildlife and the environment.
- Establish a strong "commons", to include the following Commons Items BW TF
- Declaring Inalienable Rights for the environment AC
- Establish local rights-based ordinances, so communities can say no to polluters, and give right to enforce commons to small municipalities End Corporatocracy: Time Frames & Actions TF PL BW
- President Franklin Delano Roosvelt's 1944 second U.S. Bill of Rights, a U.S. Economic Bill of Rights. TF PL
- Extend Public Education to College AC PL BW
- Government incentives for manufacturers to compete with Germany rather than China. Competing with Germany's higher quality products -- as opposed to China's cheaper products -- offers higher paying jobs at home. It also encourages innovation to make high quality even higher and also cheaper; as opposed to encouraging crap to be made crappier and cheaper. BW
II. Economy
What: An economic system where corporation are not granted personhood rights and where corporations are held legally accountable for their actions. This economic system promotes fair trade and fair working conditions. This economic system is one where the many benefit and not just a small few. Banks and corporations are required by law to act responsibly. We support the workers right to organize and form labor unions End Corporatocracy: Time Frames & Actions
A. SHIFT TAX BURDEN
What: A tax system that creates the basis for an homeostatic economy; one that discourages waste and fraud, rewards frugality and environmentalism. This tax system will tax activities that are harmful to life systems at a higher rate.
How:
- Minimal income: everyone gets a check, Basic Income Guarantee: http://www.usbig.net/index.php TF, AC Cato Insitute Report
- Tax "resource use" NOT just on income (including Carbon Tax, including high taxes on companies that are not "zero-waste" and those who do not adhere to "Extended Producer Responsibility" standards TF
- Zero-Sum Budget the Title 26 as recommended by the US Tax Payer Advocate (Tina E. Olson); start with no exemptions or credits and democratically decide (on line or w/town meetings) which credits to include or exclude. Use "just the brackets" during a five year planning process and then implement during an additional two year implementation period. [See Discussion] AC
- Popular vote on each provision of the Title 26. TF
- Give economic/tax incentives to local producers TF PL
- Flat Tax on Revenue (no deductions) too easy to cheat TF
B. MONETARY/BANKING REFORM
- Serious Derivatives Regulation (Reinstitution of Dodd-Frank (get it done!) been in committee controlled by derivatives industry forever!) TF PL
- End the Fed (put the soverienty control back in the hands of the people) TF
- Reinstitution of the Glass-Stegall Act TF PL
- Reinstitution of the [Bretton woods system]TF
- Abolish corporate rights End Corporatocracy: Time Frames & Actions VOTE FOR THIS ITEM UNDER "C"
- Create state-owned banks for each of the states where public funds are invested, like the Bank of North Dakota.
- Create Alternative Currencies and Banking structures (crowdfunding, etc) TF
- Replace the current federal low income housing program with one that sells small net zero rental properties to inner city low income owners who agree to occupy them. No middlers, direct sales from government to citizens, with the fed having right of first refusal.
- Thirty hour work week for all employees w/10 hours/week on community service.
- Corporations that register outside the US are not American companies PL
III. Freedom of Information
A. free and open communications
- All airwaves publicly owned, leased not sold to private enterprise, but with strict requirements to provide prime time airtime to candidates on the ballot. PL
- End to intellectual property, such that there is free and open sharing of information so people aren't threatened into hoarding IP -- OBJECTION: this ignores the needs of content providers (authors, composers, etc) to make a living. even left-leaning press like huff rips off its writers
- Copyright law amended to limit coverage to the lifetime of human author/s. Corporate copyrights, return to the original term of 27 years PL
- Extend public education through college PL
- Certain amount of the airwaves is public every day, primetime
- Certain amount of airwaves is devoted to publicly funded elections
- Extend Open Meeting Law to include private personal conversations between government personnel AND other government personnel and the public, so that they are documented, and there is a trail of influence that is accountable to the public. TF
B. Universal access to data
- Keep requirement for universal access on telephone companies, to make sure low income and remote people can get access.
C. Journalism
What: Truth in journalism/ We support independent media NEEDS WORK - truth has to be defined in terms or ethics/law
How: Public funds are awarded to independent news agencies for accuracy and fairness in broadcasting
III. NO WAR: PEACE AND SECURITY
A. What: Peace, nonviolence
- We support our troops
- We support bringing our troops home
- We support, as the first step toward a greater reduction in defense spending, an expeditious return to the defense spending from 1998.
(The 1998 level of defense spending is a 45% reduction in defense)
- Require people who are found guilty of domestic violence to volunteer in community service
- We support ending private prisons
B. Free Universal Healthcare
How:
- Nationalize the US healthcare system TF AC PL BW
- Deploy national healthcare system
- End fee for service & require that clinicians be salaried.
- Health as a major topic in public education system and in state sponsored adult education programs
- Make gyms/health clubs part of the healthcare system
- Drug treatment
V. Summer of Change/Electoral Sea Change
A. Goal: Get Money Our of Politics
How:
- Amend the constitution to abolish corporate personhood & declare that money is not speech End Corporatocracy: Time Frames & Actions VOTE FOR THIS ITEM UNDER "1.C"
- Full public financing of all elections, incl $50 in-district/per person limit plus free primetime airtime for ballot candidates TF AC PL
- Proportional representation, instant run off voting (popular vote decides President, abolish the electoral college TF AC PL
- Complete ban on all private contributions to campaigns AC
- Absolute ban on gifts to elected officials and their families
- End two-party system by opening debates up to all candidates on the ballot
- re-districting by non-partisan groups PL
- Minimun 5-year revolving door from legislative to lobbying, including congressional staffers PL
- End filibuster, pocket veto and other obstructionist procedures PL
- Term limits for Supreme Court justices. Lifetime tenure was instituted when life-expectancy was shorter and cultural shifts were far less frequent. Generation based cultural biases of justices increasingly raise the risk of reactionary decisions. PL
- Corporate lobby access to legislators must not exceed that of local issue-oriented group. PL
- Monet out of politics BW
B. Goal:local community control
How:
- Declare local rights-based ordinances (you can organize this today, in your town)
C. Goal: consensus based democracy
What: A democratic process that works for all, minorities have power and voice (rule by diversity).
How:
- Free/equal prime time airtime w/major broadcast stations, as a permit condition , for all candidates on the ballot
- Crowd source public policy decisions
- Give the public a percentage of the votes on any decision, via the internet.
- Voting days are holidays
- All public financials downloadable in Excel format
- We support the practice of using paper ballots throughout all elections with receipts
- Consensu-based Democracy BW
E. Legal System, just and fair
- Make rehabilitation, not punishment, the goal of the penal system
IDEALS and IDEAS and PRINCPLES
That may not be concrete goals for the "roadmap", but may be treated as principles, or very long term ideals that we can strive for.
- Global Peace
We can do ACTIONS NEXT. Let's keep this list to GOALS?