David Korten: How to Liberate America

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



How to Liberate America
How is it that our nation is awash in money, but too broke to provide jobs and services? David Korten introduces a landmark new report, "How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule."

by David Korten
posted Jul 18, 2011


The dominant story of the current political debate is that the government is broke. We can’t afford to pay for public services, put people to work, or service the public debt. Yet as a nation, we are awash in money. A defective system of money, banking, and finance just puts it in the wrong places.

Raising taxes on the rich and implementing financial reforms are essential elements of the solution to our seemingly intractable fiscal and economic crisis. Yet proposals currently on the table fall far short of the need.

A newly released report of the New Economy Working Group, coordinated by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, goes beyond the current debate to call for a deep restructuring of the institutions to which we as a society give the power to create and allocate money. How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule spells out the steps required to rebuild a system of community-based and accountable institutions devoted to financing productive activities that create good jobs for Americans and generate real community wealth.

Over the past 30 years, virtually all the benefit of U.S. economic growth has gone to the richest 1 percent of Americans. Effective tax rates for the very rich are at historic lows and many of the most profitable corporations pay no taxes at all. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/liberate-america

[Gabi Hayes]

1. great thread! we need somebody like this today:

[villager]

3. Love the Fred Harris button! That was back when the Democratic party had... Democrats!

Of course, he wasn't allowed to come too close to the Oval Office, either...

[OneGrassRoot]

2. k&r :) n/t