What are your views on some important issues?
Free trade
Gay marriage
Abortion
Iraq war
Vouchers
Free Trade: I'm torn about this. I realize that free trade produces overall economic growth, but I'm concerned about how that growth is distributed. As of now, our society have very limited mechanisms to make sure that people who are harmed by free trade are also able to benefit from it.
Free trade helps: (a) people who are vested in large corporations and (b) marginally, consumers, who benefit from lower prices. Free trade hurts working class people who lose their jobs. I don't think people have the right to these specific jobs, but I think everyone should have the right to a job.
So I would support free trade if it were accompanied by a much greater array of government programs designed to help the unemployed and underemployed. These would include: greater unemployment benefits; governement funded job training and college tuition; universal, single-payer health care; and employment through a public works program.
Also, free trade tends to divide our society even more into primary and secondary labor markets, with more and more people being forced to take low-paying service jobs. So I would also support raising the minimum wage to $10-$12/hour over the course of 3-5 years, and more closely regulating work hours and conditions in these sectors. Certain specific industries may be exempt from this wage if they only employ teenagers or others who are not self-dependent.
Vouchers: Absolutely not. I would like the public education system to be the best in every corner of the nation. We should not encourage the wealthiest and most active parents to take their children out of the public schools. Instead, we should use these funds (and more) to improve the schools. We should hold teachers more accountable, but pay them much more, and make sure that all children recieve an equal quality education whether they come from a rich area or a poor one.
Ideally, all children should spend at least some time in public schools. I spend my childhood in an excellent public school system, where, through busing and magnet programs, I was exposed to diverse ideas I would never otherwise experience. I would like all children to have the chance at the same sort of education I had. Vouchers drain the public schools, and only give that chance to a privileged few.
I also worry that certain private school may not expose children to all the ideas about religion, politics, and science that the world has to offer. Obviously, many public schools don't either, but this is something we should be trying to improve rather than giving up on.
Vouchers do not give the chance only to a prvlegied few. Anyone can use them. The whole point is to make it possible for kids from poor families to attend high status schools.
I haven't attended a public school since I was 9 and I don't think it did me any harm. On the contrary, it means more diversity and more choice.
A system in which you attend schools close to where you live would definitely make things hard on those from poorer families.
