It’s
time to start thinking about the present and dealing with the shit.
How
we got here is not the priority, and it doesn’t matter what the founding
fathers believed or wanted. We are here,
now. The country is in extremely sad
shape, and it’s time we start cleaning up the mess. Our infantile empire is starting to show and
it’s already on life support. We need to
make some radical changes.
I’m
not fond of people who complain with no ideas, so here are some ideas….
We need an overhaul of the welfare system.
I
fully believe that we should provide for every citizen in this country. We have the capacity, and no one should be
homeless or hungry. However, there ain’t
no such thing as a free ride. If you
want to address all the complaints of free loading, you introduce a work
requirement and change how the support is delivered.
We
need to work toward a new program where every able bodied person contributes
something to the system for the aid.
Eventually I see this system becoming support mainly for young people
making the transition to independent living.
But I believe the ideas will work well for much of our present
population.
10
hours a week of some productive contribution will get you 3 hots and a
cot. We give this to the prison
population for nothing, so I think we can extend it further.
And
it’s literally just 3 hots and a cot. I
envision the cot being something like a coffin hotel; a foam floored space
that’s big enough to lay flat in and sit up straight. I’d design them with shelves and compartments
built into the wall and provide a networked computer. They’d be comfortable enough, but not too
comfortable.
These
would be housed in dorm style facilities.
The three hots would be severed in a cafeteria. All food severed would meet basic nutritional
requirements. (New guidelines would
stipulate that all material and supplies would be American made and obtained
locally as much as possible. Contracts
would favor smaller business.) Medical
care would be provided on site (By doctors and medical students working off their public service.) Child
care would be provided through the schools.
Much like dorms there would be facilities for printing and other
business services, and there would be an organized program of entertainment and
events. There would be public spaces
provided both in door and out door.
I
believe that such a facility would work equally well for students, people
struggling to get back on their feet, and the differently abled in our society.
15
hours of service will get you a 12x12 room with a private bathroom.
20
hours gets the 12x12 with one small bedroom.
These
would still be housed in dorm style complexes, and meals would still be in a
cafeteria. Accommodation in these
complexes would also be available on a for rent bases with reasonable rates.
The
people staying in these arrangements would be employed supporting the
complexes. Jobs would be assigned, with
an effort to place people in work they would enjoy. Somebody who hates kids wouldn’t be placed in
the daycare. As time goes on these complexes
would maintain gardens. People in this
system would also take up things like picking up trash on the streets and along
the highway. We could start containing
and recycling the trash that is blowing around our landscape. We could use these civilian cores as a means
to clean up and recover the inner cities.
Develop job training programs for construction and carpentry and
maintenance with an emphasis on developing a sustainable life style.
It’s
a way to clean up our streets, in more ways than one.
And
I hear many of you groaning about how to control all this…
For now I can see this being controlled by a board made up of residents, contributors, and officials. Surely some of the dorms that are already out there have regs that can be adapted. But I'd keep it minimal, and the room is a private space, no surveillance allowed. Everyone has a right to some privacy, weather we like it or not.
Cuz,
I for one, don’t care that there are some slackers that will work their ten
hours a week and then loaf the rest of the time. Personally, I don’t care if they work their
ten hours and spend the rest of their time zoned on their drug of choice. If that makes them happy, so be it. As long as they show up and do the work, they
get the three hots and a cot. Keeping
the required number of hours fairly low, gives those with the ambition to find
other employment, or pursue some other goal, the opportunity to do so. This would be a major aid to the artistic
community and also a pulse for scholarly pursuits.
Along
with this I’d make education and basic job training non-profit. Education through the doctorate level should
be free, with the requirement that the student perform public service in
exchange for the degree.
And
only those that make the grades advance to the next level. If you can’t maintain at least a C average,
you don’t get the education. Combine
this with job training programs and apprenticeships, acknowledge that all work
is respectable, regardless of what it is, and let people find the best place
for themselves.
I
have a very wise and intelligent friend that regrets the fact she choose
collage over beauty school. Maybe in a
better system she would have chosen differently.
I
think we need to scale some of modern life back, to build a network of smaller
communities, to simplify and live local.
I would love to be able to walk to the corner shops and buy what I need
for dinner tonight, fresh and cheap. I
think life would be better with a resurgence of main street, small farms, and
mom & pop stores.
But,
I think I’m done with thinking for now.
Cuz day light’s burning and there’s stuff I need to do…..
