Donald and Corona — Let’s Make Them Work for Us
It’s an exciting time — no really! Donald is challenging the Hindenburg to a more spectacular finale and Corona is flying high and unconcerned. Awful you say, but not necessarily so — the balls are all in the air and the opportunities abound. The bits of floating debris can be grabbed and shaped into new forms to better serve us all. The calamities of Donald and Corona allow us to see clearly what is broken and what needs either fixing or trashing. Spotty healthcare and education, racism, poverty, and disparity of income have become stark realities in our faces and an attempt to return to “as before” maybe impossible or a poor choice. We now have a chance at becoming happier and more productive. The unhappy duo of Donald and disease can be used to kick-off a new time — a different arrangement for us all.
Pleasure seeking can make us more productive. This is Martha Stewart fare as she is a master at transforming chore — to task — to pleasure. But the means have to be there to get this ball rolling.
First things first. We have to agree on what’s broken beyond the frame of Donald. After all, he is an easy fix — trash him come November. Poor Donald is really not the problem — he just occupies it. The problem is us — which is a blessing because by owning it we are more likely to fix it — the blame game stops. We have a common starting block with the agreement on the failures exposed by Donald and Corona. Healthcare inadequacies, racism, elitism and left-behind-ism are entrenched feelings that divide us and generally make our lives full of angst and misery. But, disparity of income is the big bogey of them all — the one that really grates with most people. It spawns jealousy, hatred and rage which are not always the ingredients of happiness and harmony. If this one big lopsidedness can be corrected, then many related ills can ease or even disappear.
Can we have our cake and eat it too? — absolutely we can!
Who is going to benefit from this? Well, everyone. We can be both prosperous and happy — neither of which is in abundance these days. Ask Marianne Williamson, happy people don’t beat their spouses, make prison a destination or sabotage other’s sail boats. They tend not to just sit on their chuffs either, but happy people do things to help themselves, their families, their communities. They make safer playgrounds and successful countries. Happiness needs cake — the cake is an economic platform for every American to play — to play a part and to become more valuable. Andrew Yang called it a UBI in his campaign and was very successful in communicating and selling the idea. Needs to be bigger though, and would cost an absolute shuddering fortune. But if this can be organized, the immediate beneficiaries would include a broad swath of everyday people from many political spectrums. People that can be connected into a harmony of well being. The fruits and flowers of the long term investment would be beautiful.
The poor black lady sweeping a Mississippi dirt floor must be included — she too gets her economic platform to do whatever she wants. Maybe sign-up for school? go into business? establish an art co-op? maybe, but her son or granddaughter certainly could do these things and enjoy at last an equal opportunity to achieve great things and contribute to all of our lives.
Native Americans, African Americans, struggling farmers, workers in diminishing manufacturing and retailing, actors and sculptors can all be released from poverty into positions of hope, ambition and achievement not realized or even imagined before. With a base economic platform people across the US would no longer be stuck by their existing conditions of race, illness, poverty, education, location, current skills and occupation. With a base economic platform people can become healthy to return to school themselves or have good educations available for their children. They may move into jobs that they like and not grudge. They can become more productive and employ others in work. A pool of talent previously unrealized may be unleashed to make their own decisions to better their lives as well as others. This can only happen with cake.
And, how do we pay for all this cake?
The brilliant and talented may be set free to do their thing — to be inventive, creative, engaging, employing and money-making *. All the stops need pulling from this grand prosperity machine to have the air it needs. I am talking about an unimpeded flow of money, goods and services and people — where the United States becomes an enormous Hong Kong where trade is paramount but is in partnership with it’s population by paying a base economic platform for all. One side does not survive without the other. The purely capitalist world became demonized because it left too many behind and the socialist world didn’t have the money to pay for it all. The two can become opposite partners in a dance that can cross the floor in style.
The partnership is the unleashed making of money with the distribution of it to everyone. Making money by education, invention, investment, productivity not restricted to an elite but by all who may participate and contribute. The distribution is not a cushion but a platform from which to achieve — go to school, begin a business or paint pictures. Think what the marriage of this odd couple would achieve. For starters there would be fewer Donald’s, Bernie’s and look-a-likes — as the wind would collapse from their sails. Also, a list of other ugly aspects of US life would move dramatically for the better. The incarcerated could diminish by a third, good schools and universities may become common place for all and we would all be healthier. The black and latino population would especially experience a welcome lift in well being driving racism to history.
There are beautiful paths to better all our lives. We just have to see them and seize them. Donald and Corona have made all this possible.
*The only proviso is that individuals, businesses and industries must not occupy monopolies or the like.