Statement on Jobs and the Economy
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Jobs in any area is directly linked to many factors 2 of which are
a highly skilled workforce and cheap labor. I don’t think it would
be ethical or desirable for Vermont to build it’s economy and jobs
by exploiting cheap labor.
Vermont should build a highly skilled workforce by promoting free
education from childhood to death for any and all who wish to learn.
This can be funded by stopping wasteful and unethical spending on
the millitary and on imprisoning non-violent offenders most of whom
are in jail for drug offenses.
Industries that consider closing plants in Vermont to move their
operations to places that have cheaper labor should be taken by
eminent domain and converted to worker owned and operated collectives.
Vermont still has some industry. The state should do it’s best to
keep these concerns up and running.
Raising the minimum wage to at least $15/hr if not $21/hr which is
the equivalent wage paid in 1974 adjusted for inflation would also
help draw a skilled workforce. Places that have raised the minimum
wage have found that the economy flourishes counter to the dire warnings
of free market advocates.
Statement on Healthcare
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Healthcare in Vermont, particularly in the more rural areas like the
Northeast Kingdom is in crisis. There is a great scarcity of doctors
and waits can be long to get a doctor. Hospitals do not have the resources
to deal with mental health or complicated issues due to funding cuts
from the federal level.
What i propose is free, fully socialized medicine. How is this different
from the ‘single payer’ that is to be implemented in this state ? It’s
night and day. True fully socialized medicine does not depend upon
insurance exchanges to pay for medical care. It does not depend upon
for-profit nonprofits to deliver healthcare at an inflated cost. Despite
the fact that most hospitals have a non-profit status, they make great profits
that are paid to executives and various insurance concerns. Hospitals should
not have to worry about meeting a ‘bottom line’. Their sole concern should be
healthcare, not getting paid. All this would be dealt with in a fully socialized
system.
Doctors, Nurses and techs in all hospitals should have the option of joining a
medical corps that deals with everything from education to paying them a good
salary with proper holidays and a decent retirement after a lifetime of
service. This would relieve doctors of the horrific burden of paying off
medical school debts and would attract people who are more interested in truly
caring for people than getting a big paycheck.
How should this be paid for ? Redirect funding from wasteful and unethical
defense spending. Stop jailing people for non-violent drug offenses. Stop
spending great sums of money on weapons for police. As a state, Vermont has
little say in wasteful defense spending. It might be worth breaking away from
the US empire to get out from under that burden.
#1 Priority – Ending Oppression at home and abroad
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Vermont as part of the US empire participates in imperialist oppression of
people all around the world. The US has been murdering large number of innocent
people in Pakistan and Yemen in it’s short sighted ‘War on Terrorism’. The
US funds Israel which periodically slaughters large numbers of Palestinians.
US police often go to Israel to train with the IDF to learn how to oppress
people protesting for their rights. This is called “crowd control”. The fruits
of this illegitimage cooperation can be seen in Ferguson where Israeli trained
police are repressing black people protesting police murder and brutality.
The US or Vermont as a separate entity should withdraw troups from the rest of
the world and cease aggressions for any reason except strict self defense.
We do not see massive terrorist attacks on Switzerland or Iceland, both of which
maintain a fairly neutral status. If Vermont gets rid of the F-35’s in
Burlington and stops being part of the US imperialist project, no one would
want to attack Vermont.