Chili
Rookie
Posts: 22
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« on: July 10, 2010, 10:12:35 AM » |
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General Philosophy: Communitarian
Taxes: Ought to be low on individuals and high on their employers. This notion that low taxes attracts industry is self-evidently false, or else the Western states would be bastions of business.
Employers and Employees: The right to unionize is inherent in the right to peaceable assembly and as such is guaranteed to us in our Constitution. Now, there are times when unions can be harmful to the public good, as was the case during the 1970s and 1980s, and their excess and corruption need to be systematically stemmed. But when they work, unions are the greatest guarantors of economic equality conceivable, and we need more of them, not less.
Free trade: I am a fair-trader. It is hypocritical for the Western world to rely upon Third World goods for raw material without first paying them enough to purchase the goods then produced.
Social Security: There needs to be an income cap on eligibility - those who made, say, over two hundred thousand dollars a year while employed ought to be prohibited from being fully eligible for social security.
Space Program: I oppose it. Too often the space program serves as little more than government pork.
Welfare: Has been decimated by three decades of neo-liberalism. When the social safety net is re-established in this nation, however, its benefits ought to go to rural and urban citizen alike.
Healthcare: Is an issue I'm not familiar enough with to comment on. My 'gut instinct', however, is for greater Federal involvement.
Education: Is too often neglectful of local desires. I fully support Federal funding of education, but at the same time would like to see a greater emphasis on those values that all Americans share be made part of the curriculum.
Minimum Wage: Needs to be much higher than at present. How do companies expect their goods to be sold if there's nobody around to purchase them?
Regulation: I reject entirely the perversion of the free-market ideal offered by modern conservatives. In its place I prefer to see an economy centered around human need, rather than individual want. Where corporations have destroyed local thrift, it ought to be made to pay for it. Where it destroys God's Earth, it ought to feel its pain.
Infrastructure: Has been entirely destroyed by previous Administrations, and while I'm supportive of Obama's efforts to repair our highways, it will only contribute to our dependency on oil in the long term. What we need now is a massive public project to not only restore but to revolutionize our current mode of transport.
Energy Policy: Nuclear, geo-thermal, solar -- I favor all of it, dependent upon local conditions.
Environment: God created the world and takes pleasure in it (Psalm 104). He has left it up to humanity to rule over it and take care of all creation (Gen. 1:28). The Psalms tell us that creation is not only given for our use, but that all creation--animals, plants, hills and sky--is intended to praise and glorify the Lord (Psalm 148). When humanity, through greed and short-sightedness, weakens and damages the earth, we are guilty of wasting not only a precious resource, but of defacing a beautiful work that God has made. These "Christians" - and let me assure you that they are not - who scoff at environmentalism scoff at God Himself, and will be punished accordingly for it.
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