Five-point plan for progressives (to address the collapse

[coalition_unwilling]

of modern state capitalism):

1) Immediate expropriation of all assets in publicly-held companies, beginning with

A) Energy industry
B) Defense industry
C) Financial services industry
D) Healthcare industry
E) Other industries to be specified

2) Immediate implementation of national single-payer healthcare for all citizens and permanent residents

A) All current healthcare workers to become employees of the government
B) All for-profit healthcare enterprises to be nationalized (see 1-D above)

3) Immediate implementation of national negative income tax

A) Any citizen or permanent resident earning under the national median income for their family status to receive a check
for the difference
B) Federal tax bracket immediately raised to 90% for all income above $500,000\year
C) Federal tax bracket immediately raised to 70% for all income above $250,000\year

4) Immediate reduction in U.S. defense budget by 50-70%

A) Immediate withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, Korean peninsula, Europe and other foreign bases.

1) Immediate closure of US facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with reversion to Cuban control
2) War crimes prosecutions immediately initiated against the Bush cabal
3) Reparations paid to people of Afghanistan, Iraq, et. al., to be administered by the UN
4) Unilateral reductions by US in its nuclear stockpiles to begin immediately

5) Immediate implementation of government-run childcare for 6 months post-natal through kindergarten

A) Government to pay 100% of salaries to all parents who stay at home from birth through 6 months
B) Government to guarantee right to return to work for any parent after 6 months of at home care.


If the U.S. robber barons want to retain any meaningful vestige of private enterprise, they must agree to the five points above.

Discuss amongst yourselves!

[begin_within]

1. And that's just for starters.

[Union Thug]

2. Now you're speaking my language.

I cannot add to this except to say that I approve of this message.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. Only gross economic illiteracy can explain why the American

people are not already engaged in a democratic socialist revolution.

[BraneMatter]

11. yup...

pitchforks and strong ropes are definitely in order!!!

[BraneMatter]

10. After my own heart...

Ditto!

Just remember, a revolution is not a dinner party, and they will not go quietly into the night...

[coalition_unwilling]

13. You needed to be on Wilshire Blvd. on May 1, 2005

when 500,000 Latinos marched for immigrant rights to get a sense of what a proletariat looks like. It was truly an awe-inspiring vista and made me believe a proletarian revolution might occur in my lifetime.

"They" (the robber barons and parasites) can go fuck themselves.

[The Stranger]

3. I could support Nos. 2, 4 and 5.

Nos. 1 and 3 would have to be re-worked, if for nothing else the resistance you would have.

No. 4 may actually make some of them readily feasible, given the extraordinary amount of money spent developing killing machines.

Also, I wouldn't introduce them in that order.

[coalition_unwilling]

14. What order would you introduce them in? We

may need a new strong dose of Keynesian stimulus to re-set the economy, but our neo-Keynesianism needs to be directed towards civil infrastructure and away from war toys, hence the anti-imperial\anti-militarist tenor of my remarks.

[jwirr]

4. I cannot see this happening any time soon. Further I see this scaring

a hell of a lot of people who own small businesses right out of our party if we were to propose this action now. Some of what you propose is interesting but much of it will not be seen as needed unless we are actually back to Great Depression bread lines and tent cities on a very large scale. As long as most of the people of the USA are still eating, under a roof and treading water they will not see the need to move this far from the norm.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. The CDO market is worth an estimated

$62 trillion. No one is talking about nationalizing small businesses--let's stipulate aminimum market cap of $100 million . . . and only in industries where there should be no profit motive allowed for the commonweal.

If that scares people and they're not scared by a $62 TRILLION CDO market backed by worthless assets . . .

[jwirr]

9. That is more like it. That protects the little guy and assures the basics

of life for all. I would gladly go for that.

[dkofos]

5. I say reduce defense budget to MAX of 100 billion

[An Intellectual]

6. I'm all for #3 as long as we do it RIGHT this time. Last time the top bracket was at 90%...

... there were so many loopholes in the law that practically no one ended up paying anything close to the full 90%.

To be honest, I'm more of a maximum-wage person myself, but 90% is a good start.

[cliffordu]

12. I'm there.