Our Passageway To Real Socio-Economic Change Requires A Better Framing.
Transcending “Better” Capitalism; More Succinct than “Utopian” Socialism.
Each American as a different view of what capitalism and socialism mean, or what they expect from these two theories of economics, and their political underpinnings. Some portion of Americans dislike both, but most have stronger negative or positive feelings about one or the other. “Better” capitalism, for many Americans, may just mean more socialism plugged into capitalism, or those focused on socialism as the path forward may dislike my use of the term utopia. Yet that is a big problem with both capitalism and socialism; Americans are all over the map on how they perceive each theory because our understanding of both is varied, and is anchored at several levels. Plus each can be multilayered with myth, and misinformation, encouraged or directed by friend and foe.
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However, I am not here to defend either, or do a dissertation on why one is better than the other. Rather, my focus will be to offer a better way that is devoid of their theoretical inconsistencies and explanatory complications. Capitalism is dominant in America for many reasons that have almost nothing to do with its actual value to our democracy and American workers. Making socialism the dominant economic structure is fraught with many political and ideological hurdles.
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Domination is not the only signifier of success, and often not a good one. Like White Europeans were not the dominate “race” because they were the best people to dominate everyone else, their dominance was due to their fiercer firepower, and disease spreading prowess. Neither were American Indians a lesser people because they did not cross the Atlantic ocean to genocide nearly every White European. We got to where we are today because all the people in question did what they did, when they could do it. While that statement is not much more than a general truism, which lacks pertinent nuance, the reality in it is significant enough to proceed with, as a basic theory to support the progress I am recommending. We cannot accomplish what we do not do.
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Dominant Versus Best.
Some of the first human communities on this planet were very egalitarian. So did the arrival of the lone (male) chieftain, as the leader of a community, equal an improvement, or a tyrant tangent? Does the ascension of an inconsistent benevolent dictator make up for the one out of five, or five out of one to follow? Should 0.002419%* of Americans continue deciding the future of 99.997581% of us? (*7,969 legislators, governors, congresspersons, and a president divided by 330 million Americans). Should 330 million Americans have less political power than the five, or six thousand Americans who have at least 100 million dollars in wealth? Do the 0.1% wealthiest know more about running this country than a random 1% below the top? Wealth or political dominance does not produce infallibility, guarantee even semi-consistent accuracy, or the pertinent knowledge or expertise for any given moment. Dominance has always been overrated, and overreaching.
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Capitalism gained its dominance from the superior position its luckiest, top gainers have controlled. While even the largest companies rise and fall, and the top billionaires will not stay the same forever, together they dominate in a constant transfer of power to another and another ever entangling formation.
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Or think of capitalism as a tree in a forest that is continually adding branches, leaves, and overall size (ever expanding economic aggression). Finally, the tree becomes so massive that most every green thing below it of any size or strength dies (buying competitors, monopolies). Realize that its huge aging branches will occasionally fall, becoming increasingly worrisome (automation, long term joblessness). At some point the entire tree will fall (market crashes), but because it sucked the life out of all flora underneath its massive canopy except moss (fragile mom and pop shops, fringe-lings, yet unnoticed-soon to be gobbled up startups…), its own seedlings will be given the first chance to take over for it (by politician supplicants, bought regulators). Additionally, the massive tree smothers any potential growth when it collapses, so the tree is nearly guaranteed to rise back up to dominate again (too big to fail banks, etc.).
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Capitalism wants it all, and the fewer who have it all, is capitalism at its dominant best, or worst, depending on whether you are in the green tree, or not. Getting a proper foothold for the common good in the green economy is very difficult when just a few have greeded-up most of the green zone.
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Those who are ardent capitalists, or their cheerleaders, feel threatened or are angered when the wealthy are called lucky. As if that term is exclusively meant for those who won the lottery, or at the very least inherited their wealth, about 40% of the 1% received an inheritance. Since some 60% supposedly accumulated their own wealth, they tell us we must not use the term lucky so flagrantly. Yet lucky is not so limited to the self-made fortune, which has a terminology issue all its own. Socialism generally recognizes the obvious evidentiary problem in saying a person merely worked hard, and did not need any help from the government to succeed. Self-made is an exaggerated concept. And everyone who has ever been successful has benefited from luck.
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The government is involved and helping out in ways few people keep full track of, from the mortgage-interest deductionto free public education, public roads, Social Security, FDA, Medicare, and other agencies. Now capitalists may not like any of these services, but it is hard to be self made when there are so many people and structures out there who have helped in the capitalist’s success endeavor, and everyone else who may work for the capitalist. Luck often flows from those structures as well. Those who are born male, and into White families are more likely to be in a better position to take advantage of any situation, social interaction, or government benefit deployments, or have the connections to find success others do not have.
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Merely walking in Door “A” versus Door “B” is another way luck plays out. And once someone attains the top position somewhere, it is unlikely for that top position to open up but for a few more top persons over one lifetime. However, this logjam at the top by no means makes their rule exclusively preeminent in that field during their reign. Many, many others could have had the same success simply if they walked in Door “A” instead of “B”, had this upbringing versus that, encountered this problem and not that one, etc.
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Scarcity in (economic) rulers: There were to be only so many Roman Emperors, not because others during that time could not have done a better job, but due to there being only one Roman Empire at a time. Capitalist monopoly power creates a vacuum for the remainder of us to get sucked into, and spit out of.
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Utopianism Versus Reality.
Socialism is as good as it is practiced. Compared to capitalism it has an inherent and much greater focus on the common good. That said, socialism will never be a utopia because like capitalism, humans are involved; and more complicating, Americans are involved. In contrast to my capitalist Door “A” instead of Door “B” example of chance-decisions-that-precipitate-success, socialism has its own from Point “A” to Point “B” problem.
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Bringing socialism to America will be as difficult as bringing democracy to Iraq, except we would have a bit morestability from the outset. More specifically, good, wholesome ideas do not happen merely because they are good, wholesome ideas. There may be more Americans interested today in various aspects of the socialist message and program, but the disagreeing factions are very agitated, and much deeper set than the socialist segment.
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In addition, our two-party political system is too polarized and hobbled to make decent progress on a socialist plan any more expansive than one new social program every 9 to 13 years. There are a very small number of successful cooperative or democratically run businesses in the United States, and changing to that model beyond a small percent without a specific and progressively aggressive plan is unlikely to take hold. Think about how a constitutional conventionwould play out. That is likely how a transition to socialism of any noticeable scale would transpire, like putting Humpty Dumpty back together. To get around the catch-22, the incentives must outweigh the pushback. Americans must gravitate to the concept without being told it is better, and will not gravitate if moving to something new requires a huge amount of ideological transformation.
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Achieving a transition to another system of thinking is much more difficult than transitioning to a new system. Why would Americans gravitate to socialism in any large enough number to succeed in a constitutional convention type atmosphere, and struggle, if we have not in the 100 plus years since socialism was originally transcendent in the United States? The restructuring required to implement socialism is prohibitively extensive, especially when you take into account the various regions, industries, and governments, in our expansive, diverse, and politically dysfunctional nation. Such a changeover is unlikely even if 100 plus years of fear mongering were absent from our American psyche. A psyche that requires a massive calamity before we substantially change anything.
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I never have had the worries about socialism a large percent of Americans have because I understand that a number of nations employ it successfully, or at least to a much greater extent than we do without the scary scenarios mongered by conservatives; for example, Sweden in the social services area, and Germany in the worker portion. Point “A” of socialism sounds very good, but moving to Point “B” is a contentious and nebulous route. While I have another more succinct plan for reviving and revising our economy and political structure, pushing for more of a common good focus should continue no matter what economic theory is employed in the future.
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The Incentives Must Outweigh The Pushback.
There are two ways you can look at the system I am proposing. (1) A flawed compromise somewhere closer to socialism, but still a lot of capitalism. (2) The only way to convince Americans to make such lofty and extensive changes that will significantly improve their economic future, and turn the political environment in favor of workers and citizens of the 99%. My goal here is to put the latter projection into the positive box. After that I provide two specific examples of the system’s services that showcase and prove out this section.
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Insurmountable problems must be made surmountable, and intractable problems must become tractable. Otherwise, we are mostly left with what we have. Moving your feet faster up a steep hill of sand barely improves your running time, although you sweat considerably more. Therefore, the first hurdle we must reduce significantly or remove to achieve a social and economic changeover is to reduce or avoid the extra energy requirements, and the increased sweat factor. That means the ideological incline and education distance must go unnoticed, or seem, or be effortless to accept and proceed with.
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Since capitalist and socialist diehards (maybe 5% of the population on each side) will both have more reservations about a new system than the great bulk of the population in the middle, the great bulk must be the focus of the new system. However, Americans very adjacent to capitalist diehards, some 20% of the population, are going to be more difficult to transition than the 20% adjacent to diehard socialists. Socialism is always more acceptable in difficult times. In contrast, 20% are going to reluctantly go along to get along with capitalism during good times. The generalized percentage works out to about 70% of Americans having a decent to excellent acceptance rate for an alternative system (25% capitalist adjacent, 45% socialist adjacent). That being said, I see 60% of eligible voters required at minimum to forge a successful transition.
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The percentages above: I am working from my own, guess-ducated and guesstimated projection, using a breakdown that assumes half of Americans are from each camp. Most likely a higher percentage of eligible voters are closer to the socialist camp (e.g. 60–40, or better), but in order to not immediately overpromise, it makes sense to increase the difficulty of garnering enough acceptance for a national transition.
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Almost 40% of eligible voters do not vote on a regular basis. About 15% of eligible voters, nonvoters, likely lean towards the capitalist camp. That leaves about 25% of adult Americans, who do not vote, leaning socialist. About 28% of Americans that do vote lean socialist. That adds up to 53% of adult Americans. Subtracting the 5% diehards, we are down to 48%, requiring us to attract about 12% from the weakest side of the capitalist-leaning group. Of course, the diehard socialist group (5%) may move over sooner than capitalist leaners. What all this means is that by building a new system that mimics, or co-opts capitalism in strategic ways may be all that is required to enhance our economy by leaps and bounds into a bastion for the common good.
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The major problem with socialism is we have only middling support for the concept overall. In that case, we would need to have a generally accepted format to promote; then get at least a third of Americans on-board to make an effective socialist movement viable enough, long term. While I have not done exhaustive research on a socialist plan, I have read about general, nebulous ideas, and no, this is the only way to go socialism format. There are many ways we could pursue a socialist economy, a full blown version, whatever that is, or some form another nation has developed. Again, this would be starting at the constitutional convention–Humpty Dumpty level of education, and consensus building. It would be better if the entire system was finalized in a timely manner, and ready before the majority of Americans were ready, similar to how our framers created the U.S. Constitution, except in an open format rather than a generally secret one.
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To develop such a plan that a core 5% now agree on, and is presentable to an unfamiliar public, that gives socialism a much greater role in society, and the economy, would require decades, especially considering the resulting negative political activities, and fear-mongering onslaught that would ensue from conservatives. That does not include the time to promote and educate millions on the value of a specific socialist plan. The time required to develop any large consensus socialist plan, and the political environment make a renewed, and doable effort an unlikely occurrence.
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The components of a doable effort are the following. Complexity must be reduced considerably. Familiarity and comfortability is crucial. Real change is also helpful in many aspects, but significant disruption must also be avoided. My concern about a socialism change — that improves the American experience — would require something best explained by this audiophile metaphor: a vinyl record, 8-Track tape, cassette tape, compact disc, and finally digital music transition process. The first, and most difficult and fractious transition will be to 8-Track socialism — those problems occur because opinionated Americans will be involved — and may cause a complete failure, and severe buyer’s remorse. The other transitions would go better, and things would improve as each was instituted, but all the variations would take longer to absorb, and providing an opening for fractious reverberations. Of course, the 5% retro-vinyl lovers (laissez faire capitalists) would constantly remind us of the fake good-old-days, and hiccups during each transition would build their movement and power.
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The difficulty we have in overcoming our default back to capitalism is connected to the required ideological leap socialism requires for a large percentage of Americans who have a, too often unfounded and irrationally ginned up, visceral hate for it. The new system overcomes all the issues surrounding socialism, and our misconceptions and apprehensions about it generally. Rather than watering down the power of the individual or the collective, or the citizen and worker, to make it acceptable enough to capitalists, what I am proposing transfers more power faster, and more cleanly to the 99%. Every transition can be executed smoothly and without a long term public education process.
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Important Facets of the New System.
- Begins as a movement by a core development group.
- Works to become a public — government partnership.
- Controlled, managed, and directed by workers and citizens.
- Unaffiliated with, and never tethered to, any political party.
- A comprehensive countervailing power constantly confronting and effectively taming the corporate and billionaire-influenced political powers-that-be.
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Example One, Jobs Development Platform:
We all have some vague memory of a recent government jobs program being mentioned by the media, a legislator, governor, congressperson, or president. Do you know anything of depth about a jobs program you have not participated in, except maybe the 1930s’ WPA from history class? What are the top three from the last few decades? Do any cover your situation, or if you lost your job today? What would you do if you did lose your job today? You may have gotten unemployment insurance, or know something about it, but does it guarantee you will find a job in a week, a year, ever? Do you recognize the 21st century in your answers? Experiencing a vibrant society into the future, with a population over 330 million that continues to grow, requires a better system for securing a decent job. The Jobs Development Platform is that system.
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Neither capitalism or socialism could guarantee you get a job in any systematic way. Both provide a nebulous program. Socialism is based in current governmental or labor union strategies, except for their more elaborate co-ops and democratic workplaces that require many structural and political changes. Capitalism has the hopeful and non-specific invisible hand job system, which innuendos for itself. Labor unions had their decades in the sun, losing out not for their own mistakes even though much could have been done better, but due mostly to economic pressures caused by the ups and downs of capitalism itself. On the other hand, unions do require constant organizing and reenergizing to keep relevant. Unfortunately, our politicized Supreme Court has been Reaganized, deciding big money matters more than big labor. The JDP ends the dominance of big money, as well as the bought courts, and purchased politicians.
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Like the dominance of corporations, the JDP never needs reenergizing, or organizing, it is a constant, ever evolving presence in the market and government sphere. The intertwining of the individual spirit, and the power of the collective make its perpetual motion possible. Right now every organization and individual worker must vie for fewer and fewer ladders of improvement. Some ladders end without warning at a height that offers no further advancement (racism, sexism, ableism,…); rungs are also rotting, causing negative outcomes (illness, bankruptcy, foreclosure, addiction,…); and ladders are collapsing just after the next level is reached, and no other ladders are constructed (ageism, automation, new tech,…). The JDP raises the individual and collective ability to a much greater height to take on the powers-that-be. Everyone begins at that new height. No one is left behind thereafter. Nobody needs to access the services, or join up, instead every worker and citizen automatically becomes a client, and a member.
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The specific process by which the JDP is activated happens via one action. Changing in a significant way the beginning of the employee and employer relationship. This one change will be how workers get more power in an instant than any labor union could ever provide. The power flipping is made possible by a more comprehensive nationwide system of which the JDP is one part; I call it the We The People System. Labor unions cannot attain such power because of their organizing and other legal limitations. With this type of nationwide power base, the JDP gives job applicants the ability to choose their job, rather than the employer choosing the employee. How is this radical change accomplished; why would employers allow this?
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When I first began working on the Jobs Development Platform idea, which actually came before the umbrella We The People System, I was focused on narrower fixes, like a better government jobs program. As read more and more about two-party politics, social issues, economic ideas, and general history, I saw how every decade a slightly different version of the same thing was proposed. These programs were either underfunded, never critically reassessed and updated, never got out of committee, or failed outright. Some of these were good programs but never had the consistent political power to perpetuate. Our current political system does not allow for success. Its takeover by the small government ideology means that no social program can succeed. Improving one social program meant that government could likely do even more, which was a nonstarter for conservatives. I was able to break through this paradoxical barrier one night when I was playing solitaire.
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Playing solitaire distracted my mind from my current, problem-to-solve obsession, and helped me think around it. If you have played solitaire with real cards, many times, over a few years, you probably have gotten frustrated about losing a game, while simultaneously seeing the winning card under the last two you held, or in other “I was so close to winning”scenarios. I tried to figure out how to win these “I nearly did win” games, or why I could not win them. This was shortly after Michael Brown’s murder. I also thought there must be some way to solve our supposedly intractable, or insurmountable racist problems? Then I realized if I reversed the rules for winning at that point, I could win many more of these games. My wife called this cheating. For solitaire it would be cheating, but if we could win for Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland,…#MeToo victims… George Floyd, Daunte Wright…. and in other areas of society, reversing the rules would be morally required, if it worked. And anyway, who made the rules many people are oppressed by? It was, and still is, for the most part, White, wealthy, male, straight, and supposed christians.
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Reversing the rules, in this way gives every job applicant, with the same skills and aptitude, the same ability to get a job, excel, and attain their goals. Like choosing the best violin player by only knowing how well they perform, not by what they look like, their skin color, what their zip code is, or what their gender, or background is. Therefore, ending discrimination in hiring!
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Businesses would benefit because they would get higher value employees more consistently. Adding employees would happen much faster. Since every job applicant would be verified as competent to do the job, and ready for employment, as well as guaranteed by the JDP, businesses would have workers who performed better for more years than any previous performance-average recorded by the business. The most crucial and enlightening part of the value these employees would bring, due to the JDP structure, is that they chose to work for your business. Immediate loyalty and great promise is intrinsic in the employment process, i.e. the chooser function.
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Other advancements include instant job placement, or guided into pre-placement education or training tracks. Once the WTP/JDP mega-database has the applicants job skills, and education information, desired industry, and relocation parameters, if required due to limited availability, and other pertinent data, the JDP provides the top five selections that fit best, and maybe three other categories of a top five that offer another perspective by lowering some values selected, and raising others. Once a selection is made, the new employee has the allotted timeline to arrive at their new job, determined by the employer and agreed to by the applicant in the signed contract. The applicant can also purchase a house in any neighborhood via the system using their new job wages as a credit approval source, and other collateral as well as downpayment monies or previous home equity, without fear of discrimination in housing.
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Realize that this powerful change in the employee-employer dynamic makes possible many tangential advantages as well. For example, remove the word jobs from the Jobs Development Platform. Replace it with volunteer, new business venture, or post-job work or vocation. Not everyone will always have the opportunity to be an employee of a traditionalbusiness in the future, not due to discrimination of any kind, but because of technological changes, mismatches in location and relocation choices, and so on. Part-time employment at multiple businesses can be developed with a combined paycheck facilitated by the JDP. Applicants choose the number of hours they wish to work, lowest acceptable wage, various potential businesses, or individuals as employers, and the JDP maps out a schedule that most closely aligns with those choices. The applicant can continue entering different parameters to limit or widen their availability with their verified skills playing the appropriate qualifying role in every choice.
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Going along, “as is”, leaves us in an increasingly dangerous position. Large corporations will become more and more powerful as workers become less and less relevant in many more business decisions. The simplest way to consider our situation is in reference to the technology that major corporations produce, and we love. Why are workers falling behind in this same high-tech environment? The method for attaining a new job has barely changed in one hundred years. Glorified classified ads have gone online, but job seekers and workers are not any better off than before in a strategic sense. We are losing out to automation in many cases because our employment concerns are not powered up in the same manner as corporations like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. Yes, other companies make money off our job search, LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster, but our route to economic success is still constructed on an early 20th century roadway. The Jobs Development Platform can automate us into our next job.
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Example Two, Perpetual Citizen and Civic Participation Platform:
Americans are not required to be involved in their communities, vote, or do much of anything else. There are many reasons for this civic apathy and lethargy, which includes infrequent or lackadaisical support of our liberty and freedom ideals. That being said, the more we sit, drink sugary or malt beverages, eat pizza or chips, and watch Netflix or scroll our Facebook account, the more our muscles and brains atrophy. While just over 66% of us voted for president in 2020, it was the highest point in over 100 years. Having the country we want, requires a lot more work by more of us. Yet, shaming and blaming current nonparticipants will backfire a lot more often than not. Therefore it makes sense to understand why we are here, and what actually will get us up and moving to improve things. That is what the PC&CPP is about.
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Our nation began with most every voter showing up at a meeting house to make decisions about their communities. This was especially true before we became a nation, and our only outlet for direct civic participation was a local one, when the faraway British Parliament was making most every decision. Regrettably civics was only the purview of wealthy White men at first. It took another sixty years after our founding before every White man got the right to vote; additional delays were put on white women to wrest suffrage from White male supremacy, and even worse trials, tribulations, and delays were exacted from people of color so they could execute their right to vote, especially in the Jim Crow south. These two centuries of obstructive actions and constructions fouled up our system, irreparably, because the current system does not allow for a full removal of the built up scar tissue, often caused by further scarring by the constant reanimation of White male supremacy. Consider the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 by John Roberts and his Supreme Court.
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A classist disdain for the masses, and racist actions by the state have undermined our ability to increase civic and citizen involvement. Educational disparities in primary and secondary schools also have diminished full participation. Polarizing politics, reinvigorated nativism, and roiling racism, have reduced civic and citizen participation another level, or more. In addition, our ideals are misaligned in various asymmetric ways. Do we really care about the poor, working class, hungry, sick, addicted, and homeless; is there such a thing as systemic racism; does immigration make us a better nation; and should everyone have the opportunity to get the best education possible? When our ideals clash so much that ever deepening anger and resentment are produced, civic and citizen action is attenuated. Even with our generally stable numbers of civic participants in elections, the entry level responsibility of citizens, 60% vote, give or take a few percent, much is overlooked, and left undone.
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We must increase our level of participation beyond voting. Ratchet up our general civic participation almost always over 95%. Actively voting in local, state, and federal elections should be the minimum level of civic participation. That means there would be many other responsibilities for all citizens, with an expectation of participation over 85% by adults that can be augmented by the youngest in the population, able and willing to contribute. Beginning at the earliest age better prepares the next generation of general to high level participants. These additional duties would not necessarily be in the current formal participation structure. Much will be done within the WTP System.
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Remember that the We The People System is not connected to any political party. Think of it is as a democracy shield, Lions Club, Facebook community, 501(c)(3) organization, LinkedIn site, Public Citizen government watchdog, climate justice and implementation battalion, crimes against humanity preventer, civil rights monitor and pro-action committee, housing, education, healthcare, and immigration reformer, economic democracy protector and perfecter, and etc. all wrapped up into one behemoth. These additional modules are part of the expansive structure required to protect We The People from the-powers-that-be.
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See the Perpetual Citizen and Civic Participation Platform as an all encompassing base of operations for improving the value of our input and reach from a township, city, and state to the nation, and world level. The power of a massively advanced communication and action firehose available for everything the individual and collective does that is covered and allowed by our ideals algorithm. A coordinating, countervailing force that effectively competes with the powers-that-be, in the realm of politics and economics.
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CONCLUSION.
The We The People System does much more, including offering a greater purpose in life to more Americans. I came up with this wider solution when thinking about how I could implement the Jobs Development Platform. Like many kinds of technology, the basic structure can be replicated into other niches, or industries. The other side of the spectrum was unless the technology did not initially encompass everything, we will sacrifice other important iterations for a long time, if not forever. Positively, once we make such an all encompassing step, considerably more was possible. The only way to make it all happen is to form a separate entity from current normal political and governmental structures, as we combine all the power of every citizen, non-profit group, citizen and worker wanting to actually accomplish something better.
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The remainder of our society should not be penalized for the massively disproportional luckiness of the 1%, and especially the 0.1%.
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The JDP and PC&CPP could be done separately from the comprehensive WTP System concept. However, the ability of those system elements to survive would be greatly lessened by political gridlock, and societal turmoil. Laying all the pertinent cards on the table initially, means the way forward is fraught with fewer internal dissenters having feelings of betrayal, and less outrage by external opposition. Also the more valuable services we are able to offer initially, the more likely we can garner greater support. While lasting success requires an all or nothing decision, the WTP System is a scalable project. Once implemented, it is fully operational to add every successive module. The only additional element required is more and more participation by workers and citizens.s
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We can no longer plod along behind the corporate behemoths, and hope one day they will legitimately listen and respond to our laments. Taking on these powerful entities from a perch equal to, or higher than their own is our only long term, and consistently valid option. Our We The People System is the launching pad that will put us in a geosynchronous orbit with our future.
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