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POVERTY IS THE
UNDERLYING ILLNESS
OF HUMAN SOCIETY
I've always known humans will
never solve the problems in our society until we eliminate poverty all over the world.
Since
2004, I've
written a series of essays explaining my creative win-win-win
ideas on how that can be done, first for my column in
the Arizona City Independent Edition. Finally, I
organized 47 of these essays into a book, recently
published by Outskirts Press of Parker, CO. To read
an excerpt from the book, and for online ordering information, go to:
www.outskirtspress.com/theworldiimagine
Also available on
Amazon's Kindle Reader
The World I Imagine:
A creative manual for
ending poverty and
building peace
was published by Outskirts Press in 2008.
As the title indicates, I discuss innovative
win-win-win ideas for ending poverty around
the world, in the
fervent hope that humans
might one day build a peaceful society,
for the first time in history.
ISBN-10: 1432718614
ISBN-13: 978-1432718619
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DEBBIE'S
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ABOUT DEBBIE JORDAN'S BOOKS
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go to the Articles and Reviews page at:
The basic premise of the ideas addressed in
The World I Imagine
are
founded upon the following
simple (but very complex) truth:
THE
ONLY WAY TO
ELIMINATE POVERTY
IS TO ESTABLISH
A SYSTEM IN WHICH
EACH PERSON RECEIVES ALL
BASIC GOODS AND SERVICES
NECESSARY FOR
A
DIGNIFIED
EXISTENCE
AT A COST OF NO
MORE THAN
HALF THE
AMOUNT EARNED
BY THE LOWEST-PAID
FULL-TIME
WORKER ON
THE PLANET
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Following is a complete list of
essays in the book:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Building Peace without Poverty
The World I Imagine
Needs versus Wants
Chapter 2: Meeting Human Needs
Delivering Services
Delivering Goods
Chapter 3: Paying for Human Needs
Basic Tax Payments
General Tax Payments
Chapter 4: Universal Employment
Jobs, Wages, and Benefits
The Feudalism of Labor
Unemployment
Age and Disability
Chapter 5: Administering a Peaceful Planet
Community Service
Administrating Upward
Committee Support
Chapter 6: Political Campaigns and Elections
Democratic Elections
“Paying” Politics
A Clean Campaign
Making Votes Count
Universal Suffrage
Chapter 7: Establishing True Democracy
Practicing Democracy
Rights and Responsibilities
Chapter 8: Universal Education
Learning Problems
Individual Learning
Useful Learning
Learning to Work
Learning for Life
Chapter 9: Universal Health Care
Healthy Living
The Business of Health
Healthy Medicine
Give Me a Break!
Chapter 10: True Justice
The Price of Justice
Justice and Responsibility
Feeling Secure
Ultimate Crimes
Making Just Laws
Chapter 11: Respecting Civil Rights
A Question of Values
Civil Rights for All
Civil Rights and Labor
Conflicting Civil Rights
Civil Rights and Religion
Discrimination versus Culture
Immigration and More
Remember the Children
Chapter 12: Poverty and Politics
The Trouble with Poverty
The Price of Poverty
Colonialism and Poverty
Power, Politics, and Poverty
Institutions versus Individuals
Here's
an excerpt from
The World I Imagine:
A creative manual for
ending poverty and building peace
THE FEUDALISM OF LABOR
The Golden Rule of Business, according to a
gruesome pun, is that those who have the gold make the rules.
The irony of this old joke is that despite centuries of human
development, this sad truth continues to apply in politics,
business, and even religion. For instance, no matter how hard
people try to improve relations between labor and management,
business continues to function according to a model that was the
rule during the Middle Ages.
In the feudal model of medieval times,
virtually all power over the lives of the working class rested
in the hands of the aristocracy. The lord owned all land in the
vicinity of the manor house, while serfs lived in humble
dwellings on the estate and spent their entire lives toiling for
the benefit of the landlord. Everything they needed to support
their meager existence was granted to the working poor only at
the behest of the nobleman. Any benefit they received was
derived from the capricious whims of the lord and master.
Those serfs who made the mistake of
displeasing the master were promptly dismissed, not only from
their jobs but from the estate itself. They and their families
were forced out of their homes, often the only homes they’d ever
known, and thrown off the estate. They could no longer receive
any of the benefits they’d enjoyed when they were in the good
graces of the boss, the landlord.
If all this sounds familiar, then you
understand that no matter how many centuries have elapsed,
business has not yet evolved beyond this archaic feudal model.
In the modern world, not only do bosses hold the power to hire
and fire people, but in the United States, they even control the
amount and quality of medical services that employees receive
and how much it will cost--if they’re even allowed to receive
those services at all.
And just as it was in the Middle Ages, those
who occupy the highest positions of corporate power control
their own salaries and benefits, and they hold the power to
limit the amount of money and benefits their underlings receive.
In fact, the easiest way for corporate executives to increase
their own income is to limit the amount of money that other
people receive. Worse, executives who lay off thousands of
workers usually receive bonuses in the millions of dollars as a
reward for performing that odious task.
In the current system, this practice is touted
as sound business economics, but it’s a disaster for the overall
national and world economy and a terrible sociological model as
well. The real cost of unemployment is both personal--loss of
income, limited or no access to health care, depleted savings,
increased debt, foreclosure, bankruptcy--and universal--wasted
labor resources and an unproductive drain on the public coffers.
One change from the days when landlords threw
vassals off their estates is that companies now give severance
pay to some people, which means shelling out money for no work,
and states provide a small unemployment stipend, again for no
labor in return. The trouble is, unemployment benefits don’t
cover the cost of food and shelter for the average family, not
to mention the other costs of maintaining a decent lifestyle.
And many U.S. companies add insult to injury with a cruel joke
called COBRA, the post-employment health-insurance plan that
costs almost as much as unemployment benefits and doesn’t even
pay for most real medical expenses.
Just like the harsh landlord-serf relations in
feudal times, the modern pattern of employment and unemployment
makes no sense. It’s time for a big change in the way people are
hired and fired and how they are managed as labor resources when
they find themselves between permanent private-sector positions.
In the following section on unemployment, I
detail a plan that would allow people who are discharged from
private-sector jobs to work in their local communities for
similar rates of pay until they find new positions with private
employers. This would eliminate the negative impact of
unemployment on individuals and communities and provide a fluid
labor pool for community projects that now go undone.
And replacing employer-provided medical
insurance that ends when an employee is terminated with
universal single-payer health services would mean not only that
everyone would receive medical care when they need it, but the
cost of that care would be lower than it is under the current
for-profit system.
Obviously, my plan would eliminate the costly
financial burden that unemployment puts on workers in the middle
and lower classes. What’s more, in the world I imagine, people
at the top of the corporate ladder would no longer be able to
profit by wreaking havoc on the lives of people in the lower
ranks. On the contrary, as I explained in the earlier section on
jobs, wages, and benefits, the amount of all executive income
and benefits would be tied directly to corporate
performance--actual sales and delivery of services--as well as
the level of income and benefits granted to all the other people
who work for the company. So the more effectively workers are
able to perform on the job, the more both they and their bosses
would benefit, and vice-versa. There should be no other economic
model in place.
Perpetuating a negative employment model
simply because that’s the way it’s always been done is just one
example of why we need to formulate a completely new approach to
all the problems of society. And we must make sure none of the
so-called solutions that are tried end up causing problems for
anyone, as so many of them do now.
The most important thing we must do is
establish a society in which each person is able to purchase all
the basic goods and services necessary for a dignified existence
at a cost of no more than half the amount earned by the
lowest-paid full-time worker on the planet. Only then will we be
able to end poverty everywhere.
Only then will humans be able to build a truly
peaceful society all around the world.
DEBBIE'S
My work is dedicated to the goal of ending poverty
all over the planet so that one day people will be inspired to work
together to build a truly democratic and peaceful society
throughout the world!
This concept sounds, at once, simple and impossible. But just think:
What if everyone in the world were truly
able to purchase all the
basic goods and services they need to enjoy a dignified existence?
Would people stop waging war then?
Would there be no more
crime?
Obviously the answers are complex! Ending poverty isn't
merely an economic issue, nor is it simply political or
judicial. In fact, it is all three, and much, much more!
Solutions must be approached and applied in a holistic fashion!
This book is only the beginning of my work in this area, so
check back often and I'll let you know what's going on.
And if you have some positive
ideas for ending poverty and building peace, I'd love to hear
about them. I'll post the best ideas on my blog page, so let me hear from you!
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Love and peace to all,
Debbie Jordan
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