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With the COVID-19
virus on a rampage and with no end in sight and the
population either in shut down mode or trying to transition
out of a lock down, society has come to see, even against
their collective will, that things must not remain the same
when the all-clear signal is eventually given.
Think about it. The
virus has blatantly exposed the unequal shortcomings of our
medical system, its iffy supply chain and the vulnerability
of our food supply.
It has wreaked havoc
with our politics and especially so when we have a person in
the White House who is clueless about being a leader and
whose first impulse is, “What about me and mine?”
As you have
witnessed, many governors know that substantial financial
help from the White House to bail them out of their
virus-induced monetary woes is not a done deal; and the
feckless leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is as craven
a politico as is Herr Trump.
If the Democrats
sweep the Senate and the White House, what has transpired in
the past months will dictate consideration for some of the
following changes to shore up our economy and to fill in the
political and social gaps that this virus has laid bare.
ONE: The nation’s
stockpile of various medical and food staples and sundry
goods must be replenished and expanded so that when the next
national emergency arrives, the storehouses will have been
amply re-filled.
TWO: The Electoral
College must be eliminated and we must go to a, “one person,
one vote” system to elect national leaders. The current
political voting system is not up to warp speed; and the
prior law of allocating votes between big states and small
states is no longer applicable. Voting by mail should be the
order of the day and, if so, there should be a federal
holiday for voting in order to maximize turnout.
THREE: Debilitating
poverty can lead to undue density as to housing sites and
there is no financial incentive for builders or developers
to build in “inner cities” and thus services like bus
service, light rail, equally funded school districts and
easy access to medical care will not materialize until we
have a real War On Poverty.
FOUR: Healthcare for
all should be the norm and one’s inability to get top health
care should not depend on the size of his paycheck or the
zip code in which he lives. To have a fee-based system of
health care is nuts and it makes the divide between the
haves and the have nots, glaringly stupid.
FIVE: The one percent
who control 90 percent of the nation’s wealth need to be
taxed on their wealth, both real and intangible. Class
warfare starts when people see others living high on the hog
due to their wealth and their protective army of CPA’s,
lobbyists and lawyers who cushion and isolate them versus
Mary and John Doe who nervously live paycheck to paycheck.
SIX: Take back
production facilities from China! Imagine a country having
that much control over your necessities that you must play
“nice” to them or they can turn off the spigot of needed
manufactured and medical supplies.
SEVEN: Raise taxes only
enough to retire the national debt in increments and to buy
back the hundreds of billions of dollars that China holds in
both US Bonds and US Treasury notes.
America is a debtor nation
to China. Not good…not good at all.
EIGHT: Infrastructure –
infrastructure and more infrastructure. America is
floundering under a weight of antiquated rail lines, lack of
great airports, the failing electric grid, waterways,
bridges, lack of clean air and water, unequally funded
school systems, lack of central city bus systems that go to
jobs in suburban America; and an obsolete jail/prison system
that incarcerates too many people for non-violent offenses.
NINE: Change the
antiquated tax code so that the rich pay their fair share
and corporate loopholes are eliminated and tax credits are
given to innovators and those who build wealth and rewards
those engaged in manufacturing and developing new
industries.
A lot needs to be done
to revamp America and this deadly virus attack has laid bare
the inadequacies of our present system of delivering goods
and services and our need to readjust our focus on what is
right and fair for everyone.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
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