Yesterday, I introduced my new American Dream. A dream of a society where people have time for one another in abundance and just enough money and material possessions for a basic comfortable lifestyle without excess. I was waiting at a red light yesterday afternoon and saw a bumper sticker on the car in front of me that read, "Live simply so that others can simply live". It stated so eloquently what I believe is at the core of my "American Dream". Part of us accepting a new more basic lifestyle, is allowing that this has to happen so that others can see an improvement in their lifestyle. This means that others around the world might have enough to eat, or basic medical care, or even an education. We've had so much while many of our global neighbors have had so little.
Back to the intention of this post. I wanted to talk a bit about how we can have this New American Dream. I said yesterday that this cannot happen without government intervention. There are some basic tenants of this new dream that require the government's assistance:
- Everyone needs a living wage and no more regardless of the type of work that person performs.
- We need to determine what core industries we need to retain in this country to provide for a self-sufficient future and then develop strategies to maintain them here. This may mean engaging in protectionism of our key industries.
- Interest income whether personal or corporate needs to be heavily taxed instead of income from wage earners.
It would be a radical departure from our current course. One that I can't help but hope that we have the courage to undertake before we've let globalization ravage us.
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