What I’d Like to See from the Next Administration
In 2020, we can return to normal or take advantage of the chaos to create a new normal. This is what I’d like to see:
Universal Basic Income (UBI) should be used to set a minimum standard of life in America. UBI gives people the flexibility to quit a bad situation. Flexibility to move, to save (hello social security), to learn new skills. It could make retirement more consistent and comfortable across all demographics. People could pay for tutors or classes to learn new skills while working their current jobs. This gives talented professionals a chance to earn more while increasing social mobility (which is not 0 sum), and, in time, exports.
A $15 minimum wage can’t do that, in fact that might reduce jobs. But that wage plus $2–3k a month can do it. If we get people advancing and learning new skills, then the people who had to fear automation can start getting paid for automating and we can all have our McDonald’s droned to us without fear for implications.
With 3D printing and other modern technologies, we can guarantee housing and make it the norm to create unique, cheap homes. Encourage these kinds of development companies to bring the cost of good, minimalist housing down in the $10–30k range. This is not free housing for everyone, but we can create real access for everyone.
As a nod to the GOP, we can slash benefits/entitlements and allow the private sector to meet most of these needs as metrics like ‘skilled workers’ and exports pick up, and poverty/health issues decrease. It is a nightmare for the needy to actually get benefits out of the current bureaucracy, so let’s save on labor and give people the money to solve their own, highly specific issues. At the same time, we tackle other major issues like reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in defense spending and, most importantly, raise taxes because some re-distribution is required for a meritocracy.
From 1930–1980 the average tax rate for the highest bracket was over 80%. For 50 years the wealthiest Americans gave back 80% of what they made. People still strove to be great. To be famous, recognized, and successful. And on top of that, the rich went to the same schools as the poor and didn’t live in their own enclaves. We weren’t Bowling Alone. That means there was more empathy, recognition, chances for mobility, philanthropy, etc… All things we need more of to move closer to a meritocracy.
We could have a flat income tax rate so you get what you “earn”, but then maybe we should have a 100% estate tax, so future generations remain motivated and parents don’t outsource duties to au pairs quite so much (not that community parenting is a bad thing!). This also incentivizes the wealthy to put their money back into the economy, which is the actual working theory of capitalism — that profits get re-invested for growth and not accumulated to the point that a handful of people have over half the world’s wealth. We can do better, and it’s easy. Rising tides lift all boats, let’s take care of the poor.
Beyond that, we can’t guarantee people’s family situations (although UBI should help people have the flexibility to find good relationships, careers and nutrition); but we can make education close to equal for all. We can change what school is about. From learning about “What We Did” to learning about “What We’re Doing”. K-6 can be about the past. Here’s science, these are numbers, this is our language, these things happened — you can read more on your own time. Then 7–12 is building skills. Learn how to code, learn how to do your taxes, learn how to use tools, electrical engineering, investing, secular and mature fitness & health education, chemistry, physics, any type of design work. Expose everyone to everything that’s going on. Our biggest long-term problems. Then they’ll have an idea of who they want to be and what they want to do, and what they’re good at.
I don’t know if healthcare should be single payer or just have a public option or something else, but I think everyone should have access to basically free healthcare in our country. I think in foreign diplomacy, we need to remain both involved and assertive. After World War I, most of Europe believed that no one wanted to do that again. They appeased, and they were wrong. Everything is situational so the past is only so useful, but it’s the basis of my better-safe-than-sorry approach to foreign policy where red lines matter. Assad’s chemicals got destroyed without launching an attack, but the specter of a fight was influential.
I also believe Teddy Roosevelt had it about right. Soft power is the best power, but we need to have muscle to back it up, be it traditional land/air/naval capacity, cyber, economic, social or otherwise. If our opponents are in these fields, we need to be on their level of understanding. Do we care if Russia is creating spam blog posts when Vladimir Putin is going to leave the Russian people dependent on a dying industry after 20 years of being a petty antagonist? Yes, we do. It should have been contained and he has at the very least impeded growth for both of our countries.
Publicly though, we should focus on bringing our low-cost housing solutions across the world. Making advances on materials, processes, technologies, designs and other valuable functions to improve life across the world, and supporting the ideals of democracy and international cooperation with serious diplomatic weight.
Innovations made across fields and industries should be patented, protected, and exported. We need to work with the rest of the world to protect intellectual property rights and I think seriously limit economic reliance on China. If they pay their workers less, maybe we’ll give our workers UBI and jobs training so we can pay robots nothing. Bring manufacturing back without the warehouse jobs, coal miners, etc… Big vertical machine farms, whatever. I just don’t want an autocratic surveillance state as the world’s hegemon and I don’t think anyone else does either; and that might require more than rebuilding our State department and signing treaties.
This is not a knock on Xi Jinping, who by all accounts appears to be a successful leader for his people. His methods are the issue. We should work to improve working conditions and wages around the world. Reduce the artificial benefit they have for paying lower wages and require complete commitment to other humanitarian changes. Determine serious international IP laws and perhaps enforce “licensing fines” for past usage of patented technology. There’s a path to a harmonious relationship here (and with post-Putin Russia and anyone else looking towards the future).
With UBI we can raise the quality of life and our economic output. Short term, there will be a lot of movement. People changing fields, quitting jobs before they’re automated and leaving vacancies across the country. That’s a feature, not a bug. We want people to have that flexibility. People shouldn’t feel stuck. Americans should be energetic and innovative, and you can’t be that way with the stress of modern debt levels and real wages and inequality.
Some companies may go under. New ones will come in their place and they’ll be focused on the problem in its most recent iteration. Not based on what the industry looked like 10 or 20 years ago. Anti-trust actions should be seriously evaluated and no doubt used on a number of occasions in the current market. Competition should be encouraged. This creates more skilled jobs: more HR and legal departments and every other kind of staff. I suspect work hours may drop without a loss of productivity.
There are myriad ways we could improve. And long term, we can think even bigger. Should we have long-form presidential debates; sit-down conversations on a broad topic, potentially including top advisors? Should the Justice Department be in the Judiciary branch with an elected head as a check on police departments and the justice system as a whole? Does a federal Congress making federal laws still need equal representation from states? Can we just define States’ rights and elect 25 smart people with relevant skills every 2 years to write the bills and programs we want the most?
I probably lost a lot of people there, but the point is anything can happen. And hopefully that politics can be fun too. With a transparent government that’s willing to embrace public criticism and ideas, so much is possible. The media needs to help. There was a recent debate where Joe Biden committed to choosing a female VP and all the established media coverage focused on that over evaluating more important and relevant commitments and ideas and educating the public on these other stances. That’s a failure. There are myriad ways we should improve, but it doesn’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to take long.
