Forum Post: Bensdad....Bensdad..... Here the Work I've Done On Initiatives and Constitutional Amendments
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 10, 2011, 3:12 p.m. EST by puff6962
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The minimum wage should be a living wage. All imports should be traced and NONE allowed into this company unless the related factories, mines, etc. comply with safety, environmental, and wage standards. We should no longer allow the "race to the bottom" by foreign and international corporations that prey upon desperate people and our own desire for cheap products. Pay a few more cents for that pair of underwear and you may end up saving the world.
Constitutional Amendments affirming collective bargaining a right, the availability of health care a right, and social security a function of our democracy. Powerful forces have aligned themselves in discrediting and destroying each of these aspects of our society. Clean air and water, as well as food safety, should be regarded as basic rights and should be enumerated as Constitutional rights.
Student Loans should be treated as any other debt during a bankruptcy. They should not be an endless yoke to those who chose to invest in their future.
Reconciliation bills should be fashioned by representatives of both parties.
Representatives should be barred from any form of lobbying for a span of five years following the end of their tenure.
The Equal Time requirements of media should be reinstated and frank errors, misrepresentations, and lies in reporting of the news should again require sanction. The news media serves a vital function in our Democracy and it is rotting on the vine. News has become entertainment and it must again be treated as a service to the public. Newspapers and investigative journalism are dying and our federal government must adopt every incentive, tax break, or subsidy to preserve them. I cannot stress this one enough. If our ability to find truth is allowed to perish, our ability to govern ourselves is lost.
We must once again be a nation of builders. At the end of World War II, returning GI’s were faced with a bleak job market. Our federal government anticipated their plight and, in order to shrink number of excess workers, offered the GI bill. This insight allowed millions, who otherwise would lack adequate financial resources, to attend college. This investment bred a generation of entrepreneurs, engineers, intellectuals, and scientists. The investment was returned tenfold. We are once again faced with a crisis that has left millions of Americans without work and unqualified for a transitioning economy. Our federal government should again take measures to shrink the surplus of workers without viable employment in our economy. A national endowment should be created that invests in what our country needs most; engineers, entrepreneurs, and experts (“the three ‘E’s’”). Scholarships, grants, and generous financial aid should be granted to students participating in approved programs advancing the three “E’s.” The effect would be a new generation of professionals proficient in science and the business opportunities of the future. A wise investment in our future will occur while abating, somewhat, the plight of the unemployed.
I was reading about Initiatives/Amendments this morning here http://www.cusdi.org/index.html I also like the approach of the 99% Declaration. Maybe both approaches should be pursued.
Force all 501's to divulge their contributors during (by email link) their advertisements.
Require that all derivative contracts be codified, standardized, divided in units, and traded on an exchange. Additionally, require all financial institutions to completely reveal such contracts and counterparties to shareholders.
Require all medicare payments to pharmaceutical and medical appliance companies be below or at par with numbers agreed upon by these companies with foreign national health care plans. (ie. Medicare and Medicare D recipients should pay the Canadian rate and not a penny more).
No corporation should be allowed the ability of concentrated influence over our political process. ALL corporate donations to campaigns should cease and contact with representatives or their staff should be commensurate with that of individual constituents. Essentially, all corporate contact with government should be written and lobbyist should be turned into opinion writers. If the supreme court stands in the way, then enumerate the language in a Constitutional Amendment and lets have a vote. Lobbyists should not be allowed to donate to campaigns and lobbyists should have no direct role in writing legislation.
A military draft should be reinstated, but should require equal numbers of draftees from each 10 percent increments pf income levels in our population. This would provide a military that is a crossection of our population, but would mean that those who had parents in the top 10 and 20% would be more likely asked to serve. I think that alone would place a damper on any more stupid wars (I could be wrong). But, the powerful don't usually send to kids to war. Also, it would revive some semblance service by all to our country and shared sacrifice. It's simply disgusting that many GI's have rotated 4 tours through Iraq or Afghanistan, or have been "stopped out." This can simply never happen again.
All trade pacts should be ended and transformed into a system of import and export certificates. Such certificates would be issued for both imports and exports. If a distributor desired to import 1 million dollars worth of widgets, then he would be required to produce a counterbalancing export certificate for the transaction. These certificates would be unitized and traded upon an exchange. The result would quickly be fair trade. Think of America as a large, landed, estate. Now we, the gentry, are spending more each year than we produce and, to make up for the shortfall, we are selling off pieces of our estate. Eventually, we landed gentry are left as renters on what was once our own estate. That is America. If we continue to carry yearly, massive, trade imbalances, we are gradually selling off a piece of our wealth and earning capacity. Abolish the electoral college and replace the election of our President with the popular vote. The electoral college has become an enormously sophisticated method of gaming the system and allows disproportionate voting representation by “swing” states. Every vote should count and the current system alienates voters in “non-swing” states.