Monday, February 4, 2013

US economic, peace breakthroughs technically easy, AND require public demand

I teach high school government and economics; I promise ordinary people understand available breakthroughs because they are simple:
PROBLEM: Wars.
EASY BREAKTHROUGH: War is illegal. Treaties after two world wars make armed attack illegal unless in self-defense from armed attack by a nation’s government. Since there are no lawful orders in unlawful war, US military can exercise their Oath of Enlistment and training to refuse unlawful orders, and officers arrest those who issue unlawful orders. That said, this breakthrough can only happen with enough demand from within US military and the US public, or these unlawful wars led by “emperor has no clothes” War Criminals will continue at the cost of millions of lives and trillions of dollars.
PROBLEM: Increasing national and total US debt.
EASY BREAKTHROUGH: Pay the national debt with debt-free money as we eliminate private banks’ ability to create debt (credit or so-called “loans”). Use debt-free money for infrastructure investment: this can provide full-employment, the best infrastructure we can imagine, and falling overall prices because infrastructure returns more to the economy that its cost (full explanation, documentation). Replace private banks with public banks as a tool to manage overall money supply (imagine 2% mortgages and credit cards from a state bank that covers your total state tax bill). That said, Americans have to demand an end our rigged-casino economy of the present that transfers trillions of the public’s wealth to an oligarchy protected by government.
PROBLEM: Expanding technology and automation leads to an economy whereby not everyone will need to work for a living.
EASY BREAKTHROUGH: Resource-based economics can provide case studies to experiment with new models that optimize public benefits of technology that free time while optimizing resources.
Importantly: My teenage students are quick to recover from their shattered trust of US economic and political leadership. They generally respond something like: “WTF?” (“What the finance?”), then quickly to something like, “These ‘leaders’ are asset holes, and with corporate media are nothing more than lying sacks of spin!”
When a critical mass of the US adults recognize what my students recognize, We the People will have our breakthroughs in an “emperor has no clothes” transformation.

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