America Needs The People’s New Deal
The American Dream Has Become The American Nightmare. Decades of GOP Policies And Corporate Greed Have Devastated American Lives — We Need to Rebuild Infrastructure And The Social Safety Net
Back in 1933, in the wake of the most severe financial depression the U.S. had ever known, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt architected a set of major policy reforms meant to get struggling Americans back on track while investing heavily in infrastructure projects, regulatory oversight, business/farms, conservation and civil works, and the social safety net in the form of the Social Security Administration. The idea was to get Americans back to work, while simultaneously making large investments in efforts to rebuild America.
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1936. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery from the Great Depression. Major federal programs included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration(FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Wikipedia)
A New Deal is currently being proposed in the form of the ‘Green New Deal’, championed by freshman Congresswoman, Alexandria Otasio-Cortez. It’s a great effort to combat climate change, increase climate and environmental justice, and create new ‘green’ jobs, but it doesn’t go far enough. The social safety net is crumbling, many Americans struggle to get the medical care and disability insurance payments they deserve, and there is a widespread problem of only being able to make ends meet by working two or three jobs. In most places no one can rent a two-bedroom apartment (a necessity with children) on their own by working for minimum wage.
We’re confronted daily by horrible stories about hardworking Americans who can’t pay for life-saving medicine and medical treatment (and are drug out of wheelchairs and arrested when they protest), who can’t afford childcare, who invest in educational opportunities, stack up student debt in the trillions, and then can’t get a reasonably paying job after all of that. We hear about teachers sleeping in cars, highly educated academics turning to sex work, and all sorts of other heart-wrenching stories about valuable contributors being left to fend for themselves, no matter what the circumstances.
My sister-in-law couldn’t afford her $2500 monthly copay for her weekly infusions so she started rationing her meds. She had pulmonary infections for 8 weeks, broke out in sores all over her body and nearly died. (Twitter)
For older and disabled people, the problems are even worse. It’s what I call ‘Living In A Designed Dystopia’ and it’s a big part of the reason why I resist on a daily basis. For one thing we need to stop throwing away and marginalizing our talent and give people ways to contribute and benefit throughout their lives. I am personally in the midst of several battles for disability payments and accessing critical care I need to get back to work. The small amount of benefits I do receive will be cut if I don’t either get SSI/SSDI approved (they insist I can work) or if I don’t return to work, which is difficult as a mobility-challenged person with PTSD. I’m also in a years-long dispute with the VA about compensation for service-connected injuries. Deny and delay is now the policy and they will insist people work for even the most basic benefits.
I’m not alone in this regard as we waste mature, amazing talent and refuse to focus on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans, including Natives, migrants, and refugees/asylum seekers. We need to acknowledge that our fellow Americans are suffering and do what we can to ease the burdens for everyone. To do so creates a stronger and more prosperous America. How do we approach these problems?
I’d like to propose a grassroots effort called ‘The People’s New Deal’ and I am currently collecting data on what issues people feel are important and what could be done to have a tangible impact on their lives. We will share this data with this petition, reaching out to the Democratic National Committee, campaigns, and Congress.How will we pay for it? We have a financial model for that, involving a 1% tax on the 1%.
You can complete the short survey here:
Please complete the survey and share! The plan is to share this data with various Democratic campaigns in order to encourage them to enact this policy direction and reforms that are both fundamental human rights and what’s smart. You can sign and share the petition here:
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. We need to learn to love all of our fellow Americans, and that means understanding that love is about acknowledgement, solidarity, and action. Stay tuned!
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=5Zb_i2c2ZQQ
Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DXCBVJH
Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/democratic-national-committee-america-needs-the-people-s-new-deal
Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/lisaga/status/1127238738126360576
Thanks for your support!
About Me: I am an anthropologist, futurist, veteran, activist, Resistance leader, and Mom to a transgender teen. I am also disabled and now must rely on donations to fund my work. You can support me with a small donation via PayPal or you can donate on a monthly basis via Patreon. Thank you!
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