Tuesday, July 28, 2020

System Change - A Guide

System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy
Alternatives to capitalism are gaining adherents. Here we look at different systems or models of socialism, capitalism, and solidarity economy.

Monday, July 27, 2020

The $5.3 Trillion Question Behind America’s COVID-19 Failure

The $5.3 Trillion Question Behind America’s COVID-19 Failure: That’s the amount of buybacks U.S. corporations funneled to shareholders during the past decade—rather than invest in technologies for the common good.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

California Budget -Inequality


The 2020-21 budget is signed, but state leaders' work to ensure the health and economic well-being of Californians is far from over. As COVID-19 continues to sicken people — young and old — and so many Californians are still out of work, one thing is clear: policymakers must do more to rebuild a California where everyone can be healthy, safe, and care for their families. 

How can policymakers create a more equitable California?

California is home to alarming inequality — and that’s a result of choices policymakers have made and ways they've avoided opportunities over the years.

Black, Latinx, and undocumented Californians are suffering the highest rates of infection and death, and significant job losses. These health and economic disparities are not new or accidental.

Meanwhile, corporations continue to pay far less of their California income in state taxes than a generation ago and, despite seeing large gains in their income and wealth, very wealthy Californians are paying approximately the same share of their income in taxes as low- and-middle income Californians due to tax breaks and loopholes. This, along with recent federal tax cuts and a decade of disproportionate economic growth, means that corporations and the very wealthy entered this recession in far better shape than California’s workers.

In the coming weeks, state policymakers can make a choice: benefits for corporations and the very wealthy or supporting the vast majority of Californians.

There's still time to act. Policymakers have the opportunity to fix inequitable policies and secure the revenue needed to invest in the health and economic well-being of Californians who carry our communities forward, today and beyond COVID-19. 

Sincerely,

Chris Hoene, Executive Director 

Your support makes our work possible to advance public policies that help improve the economic and social well-being of Californians with low and middle incomes. Thank you.

Monday, July 13, 2020

World Poverty is not getting better. That is a scam.

When Steven Pinker insists that the world is getting better and better, much of his case is based on claims about declining global poverty. But a new report from the UN’s top poverty expert dismantles that argument, showing that global poverty has gone nearly unchanged over the last forty years.

And, the global pandemic will make it all worse.