Ideas For Democracy:  Goal #3

Discuss, define and protect the economic rights of American citizens.  Develop programs that enable full employment of all able to work and identify candidates for civil service and military service appointments.

 

Citizens who want real democracy will actively support this policy and vote for trustworthy candidates who actively support this policy.

 

Why do we need a system that includes all citizens in the economy?  Why do we have a society that struggles with the problem of "unemployment?"  The answer may appear to be complex and explained by arcane economic science, but the truth is much simpler.  There is no such thing as "unemployment" in a natural or tribal or agrarian economic system.  In a natural economy everyone's labor is needed every day.  There is work to do every day and everyone's contribution of labor is needed.  No one is told that they can just relax because there is nothing that needs to be done.  The simple reason that we have "unemployment" is that we have developed an industrial economy that is often dominated by private enterprise, and private enterprise does not demand labor on a permanent basis.  The scientific and economic phenomenon that we have called the "industrial revolution" has succeeded.  The original promise of modern science was that scientific knowledge and technology would reduce the need for harsh physical labor, and the populace would be relieved of many natural burdens, the harsh labor, the uncertainty of climate and losses caused by injuries and illness.  What started as a revolution in mechanical design developed into an electrical and then chemical and electronic revolutions, and then a cybernetic or computer revolution.  This rise of technology had the impact, all long its developmental history, of reducing and eliminating the need for human labor.  Today, at the second decade of the 21st century, it is clear that private industrial enterprise can now reduce the need for human labor almost completely by the use of self-regulating machines and robotic operations.  An industrial plant can actually be designed to simply accept fuel or power as needed and monitor and maintain itself. 

 

We have been subjected to the most irrational and subversive and destructive propaganda that private enterprise "creates jobs."  This concept is totally ridiculous and a false doctrine so insidious it should be against the law for anyone to make this claim.  The drive of private enterprise over the past three-hundred years has been to use new technology to eliminate human labor.  Private corporations have continuously used their influence to fight against the cost of human labor and the need for human labor.  They have succeeded, but now the private corporations and all of society has to face the reality that what commerce requires is customers with money to spend.  All along, jobs have been created or sustained by public demand.  A business can succeed only if it provides something -- a good or service -- that people want and have money to pay for.  Factories and warehouses and offices can be built, and a fleet of vehicles purchased, but all of this becomes a comical and tragic loss if there are no customers.  Private enterprise should never be misled by the false perception that business creates jobs.  All private enterprise is useful to society not as an activity that creates jobs but rather as an economic activity that creates customers.  No customers, no commerce, no economy, no nothing.  The people pay for everything.  The individual pocket book and wallet is the source of all money in the world.  If people did not have demands and drives to meet their needs and their desires, willingness to spend their money, there would be no successful business, no private capital, no public capital.  Never forget that in a free-market economy the consumer is sovereign.  The consumer makes the decisions and only those who respond to the demands of the consumers are really  "in business."

 

IFD - policy:  All U.S. citizens have a right to participate in the people's economy.  To be excluded from the economy is to be excluded from society, excluded from the work of the community household and the wealth of the community.  To be included in the economy means to participate in the work of the community and to share to an appropriate extent in the wealth of the community.  The minimal share in the wealth of the community would be to meet one's basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and transportation.  The minimal share in the work of the community would be to show up willing to do whatever work one is able.  AND THE COMMUNITY CANNOT SAY "NO, WE DON'T NEED YOUR LABOR."  Whatever work the citizen is able to do, any labor activity that contributes to the good of the community, is acceptable.  In some cases, where the labor of the individual citizen is not needed by private enterprise, the economic role of that citizen should be, at least temporarily, to have sufficient spendable income to function as a consumer, and should be enrolled as a member of the national, state and local or county Reserve Labor Force.

 

No one should be designated as "unemployed," because to be unemployed is to be on vacation and disinterested or excluded from the economy.  Only the most severely disabled should be invited to abstain from contributing labor to the nation and community, because persons with disabilities can still perform useful labor, and they should not be refused participation if they are willing and able to provide useful labor in spite of their disabilities. 

 

Persons in the Reserve Labor Force can participate in many useful measurements of the national and local economies.  They can choose to treat their separation from private enterprise as an individual condition or join with others to form teams who engage in group development and examine economic problems as a group.  They should be free to join physical fitness groups or health groups and athletic teams.  They should be encouraged to develop business proposals and self-employment projects.  They should be encouraged to participate in assessments as to whether they are desirable for membership in the armed forces, law enforcement, or civil service.

 

Placing citizens who are willing and able to work in the National Reserve Labor Force, and providing them with limited spendable income would serve to maintain the economy and the morale of those who are separated from the private enterprise economy.  This practice would also reduce the level of participation in alcohol or drug use, and in the various illegal economies that are destructive of the social and economic life of the community and nation.  Maintenance of a National Reserve Labor Force would reduce crime, depression, alienation and addiction.  The incomes of persons in the National Reserve Labor Force would be spent promptly on basic needs such as food, rent, utilities, clothing and transportation, and this maintenance of basic commerce would minimize the disruption of social and economic health that is usually the result of a high rate of separation from the private enterprise economy.  Persons in the National Reserve Labor Force could also contribute to investment in the public capital, such as parks, indoor and outdoor meeting places, roads, trails and bike paths, public lighting and patrols for public safety, maintenance and cleaning of public capital property.  There is always room for improvement in the public capital, and no one should be treated as though their willingness and ability to work is superfluous.  Society's response to any citizen who seeks work in the marketplace should always be "Let's find something for you to do, and while we make an economic plan for you, let's be sure you continue to be an active  participant in the economy."  We should avoid giving a citizen money for remaining separated from the private enterprise economy and from useful labor.  We should provide money to the individual as protection of the public interest, for inclusion of the individual in the economy as a consumer and as support for the ongoing national commerce, but only so long as the individual member of the National Reserve Labor Force is addressing a plan for constructive labor in the private or public sector.