written 15 December, 2024
published 22 December, 2024
This article is being published the day after the winter solstice, the beginning of the return of light in the northern hemisphere. Christmas will follow in a few days, another time of rebirth and hope. Trump will take office in a month, promising to "drain the swamp" and remake our country, much to his supporter's delight.
Beyond the political catch phrase, what could a remade America actually look like?
Envision affordable health care for everyone. Let's make health care a public service, not a corporate cash cow. Wouldn't you want a sick family member to get healthy and all the rest of your family avoid suffering as well? Wouldn't you feel better knowing everyone in your community is healthy, and not putting your health at risk? Imagine everyone you encounter, tourists, even undocumented workers doing jobs you don't want, being kept healthy for the benefit of the entire society?
What if the men of our society matured to the point of honoring women? Do strong women necessarily mean weak men? Is there more to masculinity than just dominance? Imagine if all people were free to express the full range of feelings and talents.
Consider an education system that encouraged every person to learn to the level of their greatest ability without cost to the student. Include more than just academic learning and address art and craft skills, like electrical, plumbing, carpentry, health care, and transportation maintenance. An educated population creates a stronger society and economy and life time learning stimulates the mind. The return on education investment is much greater than the initial cost.
What if we remade America so everyone received a living wage no matter what they did? The capitalist model devalues many essential jobs while disproportionally rewarding others. If everyone was a shareholder in the nation, bringing each a reliable income, consider how the economy would change. Perhaps we need a maximum income limit as well as a minimum wage. Should some have more than they know what to do with while others are impoverished for life? Is this moral? Is this Christian?
Perhaps a remade society would make access to nutritious food a civil right. When people are hungry, they can't focus on school or work and society suffers. Let's make food production focus on quality, rather than shelf life, or brand share on the supermarket shelf. Monopoly corporate food production maximizes shareholder return at the expense of quality and availability. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations degrades the quality of life for the animals and the quality of the food itself, and requires massive antibiotic usage, breeding "bad bugs", accelerating the spread of increasingly lethal diseases into the society.
Increasing food quality would require addressing how much sugar we eat, for example, which drives obesity and diabetes, increasing health costs. Chemicals added to food cause diseases. Focusing on local food production and local family farmers would support the local economy. Developing local food processing facilities, such as commercial kitchens, driers, canneries, and freeze lockers would strengthen the local food economy.
If we shifted away from maximizing next quarter's fiscal profit to establishing systems sustainable for seven generations, we would help assure a viable society for our descendants. This means re-examining how we use our essential energy resources. Should we waste energy just because we have some right now? How long will we pretend the climate impact is "mild and manageable", just to boost fossil fuel corporate profits? Can we make durable products, rather than repeatedly selling the same thing because the last one broke immediately? Imagine making a light bulb that lasted for a century, using less energy than ones we have today? If a company could do that, would they?
What if money was regarded as a means, not a goal? What if a home was a civil right and not a corporate "investment"? What if peace of mind and satisfaction was the goal of life, rather than having more "things" that the neighbors? What if having a strong community was the point?
Remaking American is a good idea, but the devil is in the details. Prioritizing the welfare of everyone would be beneficial. Letting corporations operate without limitation helps only a few. Our society has become a government of the money, by the money, for the money. Wouldn't it be wonderful is we were a society of the people, by the people, for the people? Imagine that!
