My Philadelphia Adventure

[Editorial Note: The following consists of Facebook updates that I made from my phone while attending the Continental Congress 2.0 event in Philadelphia, PA July 1 - 4, 2012]

Sunday, July 1, 2012:

12:35PM: Ah, the drama of the American highway on a holiday weekend. Angry parents, exhausted, whiny children, and the only smile worn is on my face.

6:03PM Settled in at the hotel, and getting ready to have a meeting of the minds over dinner.

Monday, July 2, 2012:

6:38AM: What an ungodly hour to be awake. At least there's coffee.


9:34AM: Finally registered and checked in. Sitting in the hall; very nice facility, but light turn-out so far.


11:22AM: A late start is better than no start. We've begun.


11:45AM: Beginning voting. When I vote "yes", it means that I think the topic should be in the final document; "no" means, not necessarily that I disagree with the sentiment, but that it should not be in the document at this time.


End to corporate personhood: I vote "no".
Money is property, not speech: I vote "yes".
Campaign finance reform: I vote "yes".
Health care: I vote "no".
Employment: I vote "no".
Protection of the environment: I vote "no".
Tax reform: I vote "no".
Criminal justice reform: I vote "no".
Election reform & ending voter disenfranchisement: I vote "yes".
Fiscal responsibility: I vote "no".
Government ethics reform & closing the "revolving door": I vote "yes".
Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia statehood: I vote "no".
Veterens benefits: I vote "no".
Protecting consumers from predatory practices...: I vote "no".
Student loan debt relief & grants: I vote "no".
Ending the communications monopolies: I vote "yes".
Immigration reform: I vote "no".
Protection of civil and human rights: I vote "no".
Ending perpetual war for profit: I vote "no".
Term limits: I vote "no".


12:13PM: Initial voting is complete. Committees will form next to work on categories that received at least 50% of the vote.


2:28PM: Forming committees in possibly the most confusing way possible. I've chosen Campaign Finance Reform, though I might eavesdrop on some others.


5:59PM: Done for the day. Now for food and beer.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012:


8:07AM: Awake, showered, and dressed. We don't meet until 9:30, so time to chill with Matt Forbes and whomever else happens to be around. Let's see where today takes us.


10:24AM: Hearing mini-speeches about the relationship between "99D" and Occupy.


11:05AM: Back in committee. Campaign finance reform once more.


1:20PM: About to hear a speech from David Cobb of Move to Amend. Should be interesting, at least.


1:54PM: David Cobb was certainly impassioned. I'm not sure that I agree with everything he said. I'll have to read his website later.


2:00PM(ish): The body voted to endorse Move to Amend. I abstained. I don't know enough about their organization, and I think that the issues are more nuanced than they appear to want to make them.


3:00PM: Committee work is completed, and the document is being pasted together in a kind of rough draft. There will be voting around 3:30. 


[Editorial Note: I was emailed the final working document, with pass/fail notes, proposed amendments, etc., after all of the voting was done. That can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/?7507h092lw3756b. It's probably helpful to look at that in order to follow along.]


Speaking of voting, here are the results from yesterday (sorry they're late, I suck at this live reporting thing):

96 Campaign Finance Reform 
90 Election Reform

85 Corporations Are Not People 
85 Money is Property Not Speech 
82 Government Ethics Reform 
80 Tax Reform

76 Protecting Consumers
75 Protecting the Environment
73 Ending Perpetual War for Profit
71 Protection of Civil and Human Rights

65 Employment
64 Ending the Communication Monopolies
63 Healthcare
60 Student Loan Debt

58 Criminal Justice
53 Immigration Reform
53 Veterans Benefits
52 Fiscal Responsibility
50 Puerto Rico and DC

43 Term Limits

*All numbers are percent "yes" votes.


4:00PM: Beginning deliberations for voting.


4:14PM: Starting with Healthcare. I'm on my phone, so I can't post everything that's laid out for deliberation. I'll just report how I vote on things, and I'll try to get specific texts up at some point, if I have them. 


[Editorial Note: See previous link.]


4:43PM: Voting on healthcare: I vote "no".  Healthcare passes with 72.4%


4:52PM: Discussing "Corporations are not people".
...and a vote. I vote "no".
 Passes with 98.6%


4:54PM: "Money is property, not speech."
The discussions begin...


5:16PM: Voting on "Money is property, not speech".
I vote "no".
Passes with 76.9% of the vote.


5:18PM: Discussions begin on "Campaign finance and electoral reform".


5:30PM: Breaking for dinner. I'm going to try to upload the text of the campaign finance reform. It's long, and to me, it's THE document.
I'm probably voting "yes" on this and "no" on everything else.


7:00PM: Back to discussion. There are several proposed amendments to be discussed. We're going to be here all night.
I have the text of this item on my phone, in doc format. It won't let me select all so that I can copy and paste. I'm still working on that. I do NOT have the amendments.


8:11PM: I'm this close to moving to declare the whole thing a shambles.
We just spent at least 45 minutes debating the wording of a *suggested*, *possible* solution. A fact that I finally needed to get up and point out to everyone.


9:00PM: We have officially voted on all matters related to election/campaign finance reform, and succeeded in butchering the whole thing. I have no clue where we've ended up with it. I apologize for not having the full information, I will get it when I can.


9:05PM: Debating criminal justice issues. Talking about legalizing drugs. Mein gott.


9:29PM: Criminal justice issues: I vote "no".
Passes with 86.9% of the vote.


9:30PM: Debating employment issues.


9:34PM: Employment issues: I vote "no".
Measure fails.


9:44PM: Vote on civil rights issues. I vote "no".
Measure passed (missed the %).


9:45PM: Discussion on environmental issues.


9:49PM: Vote on environmental issues. I vote "no".
Measure passes.


9:50PM: Discussion on economic issues.


10:01PM: Adjourned until 8AM.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012:

8:35AM: Running late once more. We'll see how today goes.

9:36AM: Pushing votes through. Economic issues I vote "no". It passed. Ending communications monopolies I vote "no". It passed.
Next up: government ethics reform...

9:44AM: Apparently ethics reform means creating a fourth branch of government and banning lobbying. No mention of the fact that we are lobbying right now.

10:05AM: Ethics reform (minus the fourth branch part) vote. I vote "no". Measure passed.

10:06AM: Discussing veteren's benefits.

10:11AM: Veterans' benefits voted. I voted "no". It passes.

10:12AM: Discussing ending war for profit, which apparently has something to do with 9/11.
Christ.

10:48AM: Ending war for profit voted. I vote "no". Measure passes.

10:50AM: Discussing immigration reform.

11:00AM: Voting on immigration reform. I vote "no". Measure passes.

11:02AM: Discussion of consumer protection.

(sometime in the past 10 minutes): Voting on consumer protection. I was out of the room, so did not vote. The measure passed.

11:19AM: Discussing parade plans for this afternoon.

11:43AM: Voting on various amendments to already established points (God knows why). I'll save you some time: I vote "no".

12:17PM: Discussing education reform.

12:37PM: Vote on education reform. I vote "no". Measure passes.

12:50PM: Voting on the entire document. I vote "no". Passes with 92.2% of the vote.

1:54PM: I'm done. Skipping the march/rally and headed home to my wife. Physically and emotionally drained.

[Editorial Note: Evidently the document read at Independence Hall was just the grievances, and omitted the solutions. This document can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/?wqdvd1vmtcm5f2n]

7:46PM: My Philadelphia adventure is over, with a new one bound to begin. I made it home safe and sound, thanks to a couple of liters of water and a cup of grapes from a thruway rest stop.
I think it might be bedtime.

Letter to Local News Stations

Sir:

As the Republican Presidential primary wraps up and we begin to enter the general election season once again, we are bound to see an influx of political advertising -- both national and local -- on your station and in other forms of media. Some of this advertising will come from the campaigns themselves, but we will likely see a drastic increase in external advertisements coming from Political Action Committees and their big brothers, the so-called SuperPACs.

The public is about to be bombarded with conflicting information as candidates and their supporters try to rally people to their side.
It would be a tremendous public service for someone to objectively assess this information. I would like to propose something that, as far as I am aware, has never been done before in any kind of consistent manner.

I propose that your station dedicates some time on the local news to these advertisements. For every advertisement that is submitted to your station, do an analysis and report on it.

Uncover who is behind each advertisement. For instance, if a spot is run by "Citizens for the Color Blue," report that the major players in that particular SuperPAC -- indeed, the ones who are speaking through the advertisement -- are Crayola, the Union of Blueberry Growers, and Cookie Monster.

Research the content of the advertisement. Tell the public if the views expressed are factually correct, out-of-context, misleading, or even blatant lies. If there are opinions expressed instead of facts, identify them and tell the public whether they are consistent with opinions expressed by that candidate or group in the past. If not, discover why.

Adding this segment to your broadcasts would be a great boon to the democratic process, and help to create a more informed electorate.

Thank you for your time,

A Proposal for a Working Document

I've been working on what I think should be the working document for The 99% Declaration. It weeds out a lot of what I see as being adjunct issues that can be fixed later. I think that it really cuts to the heart of the issue, and if taken seriously could be a very simple reform.

WHEREAS the pursuit of national service through elected office is ever more prohibitive to the average citizen;
and WHEREAS the presence of money in politics causes undue influence -- real or imagined -- over those elected to represent and serve the people;
and WHEREAS every citizen has a right to free political speech, and the ability of the wealthy to dominate the national conversation through unlimited expenditures infringes on the right of ordinary Americans to make their voices heard, and indeed can alter the speech of the citizenry through the propagation of misinformation;
and WHEREAS corporations as legal entities do enjoy certain rights, those rights are separate from the people who comprise the corporation, and do not include free political speech;
and WHEREAS Congress has become dysfunctional through polarization, lack of civil discourse, and representation of moneyed special interests, thereby neglecting its duty to represent the American people;
and WHEREAS America no longer has a clear direction or goal, resulting in an insular society where the rich seek to get richer and the poor struggle to survive;
This delegation of citizens, formed from the communities of these United States and its territories, convened as their fore-fathers did before, in this city of Philadelphia, do hereby declare:
PROPOSED 1. That the ability of a citizen to seek national office must not be prohibited by the size of his coffers;
PROPOSED 2. That elections must not be bought and sold by the highest bidder;
PROPOSED 3. That those elected must be kept in office due solely to their merit to the people -- not due to the deep pockets of their few supporters;
PROPOSED 4. That all citizens must be able to exercise their right to free political speech without fear of being drowned out by the loudest voices;
PROPOSED 5. That the right to free political speech belongs solely to the people, and not to any other entities;
PROPOSED 6. That corporations must not be allowed to exercise a right that they inherently do not possess;
PROPOSED 7. That there must be a return to civility in our national discourse;
PROPOSED 8. That a clear goal for our country must be developed;
PROPOSED 9. That Congress be bound to furthering our progress toward that goal.
We, the undersigned, on this, the fourth day of July, two thousand and twelve, do hereby petition the three branches of the government of the United States of America to address the grievances above.

Each of the numbered points labelled PROPOSED would be up for discussion by the delegates, and if they were voted to stay, they would change to RESOLVED. I have modeled this loosely on the document created by the First Continental Congress in 1774, the full text of which is here:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Declaration_and_Resolves_of_the_First_Continental_Congress

I welcome suggestions on further points to add, either in the top section or the bottom. I think that by looking at this thing as a full document, and leaving off all of these arguments about the specifics of changing these things (which we shouldn't be dealing with), we will get a better idea of what we are all working toward.

Wrapping My Head Around a Tree

There a discussion going at http://www.the99declaration.org/debt_reduction regarding Modern Monetary Theory and Monetary Sovereignty, which are closely related economic theories. A user going by the name of Rodger Malcolm Mitchell, who presumably is the same person described here, has been pushing the idea that, essentially, we could pay all of our debts any time we want just by crediting bank accounts. Initially, I conceded that while true, that would result in a loss of confidence at the world level, which would cause inflation (since our money is based on nothing more than confidence in America).
Recently, a friend of mine and I got into a discussion about the national debt. He was looking at the statistics displayed on http://www.usdebtclock.org/, particularly debt owed per citizen. During the course of our conversation, I gained a clearer picture of the concept of Monetary Sovereignty, and would like to walk myself through how our debt works.

The first thing to realize is that the term "debt" is misleading. When you or I think of debt, we think of having a monthly bill to pay. Someone has fronted us money, and we make incremental payments -- usually with interest -- to square it up. At the national level, this is completely wrong. We only make payments when someone comes to collect. But what are they collecting on?
As I covered in my post, "8. Debt Reduction," all "debt" is in the form of treasuries. There are four types of treasuries: Treasury bills, Treasury notes, Treasury bonds, and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities. Federal Reserve Notes (ie: dollar bills), are backed by treasuries, so they could also be considered a form of debt. Debt held by the public stimulates the economy, while debt held by foreign investors *could* harm the economy.

We always hear that China holds the majority of our foreign debt. This is true. China has purchased more treasuries than any other foreign nation. What does that mean?
The nearest that I can tell, treasuries must be purchased using dollars. If not, it doesn't seem like it should be a difficult process to turn yuan into dollars. So the process seems to be:

1. American businesses and consumers send dollars to China.
2. China buys treasuries using its dollars.

Of course, since most of this is electronic now, it's a simple matter of converting my dollars into a Chinese company's yuan inside a banker's computer. Regardless, now China holds treasuries, which are worth more than they were purchased for. But what are they worth? If China were to come collect on all of those treasuries (assuming that they had all matured), what do we give them?

Dollars, of course.

So they currently hold a piece of paper that represents a debt. Then they turn that paper in for more paper, which also represents a debt (and is, in fact, backed by the same paper that China originally held).

Now, the obvious question is: What if we don't have enough dollars on hand to give to China for the debt that we owe them? Well, first off, like I said above, it's mostly electronic, so we can just credit their accounts. If they want paper, we can print them paper.

But won't this cause inflation? It might. If every country that held treasuries cashed them in, and the world was flooded with dollars, they would be very easy to obtain, so the demand for them may go down. If that's the case, however, why would any country ever cash in its treasuries? If worse came to worst, and they were forced to cash them to fix some kind of economic collapse, they risk devaluing the very thing that they need. Instead, why not just trade what they already have (ie: the treasuries themselves)?

Now, I'm not suggesting that we force foreign countries to cash in their treasuries. I'm also not suggesting that we continually run a deficit (which, incidentally, has little-to-nothing to do with the national debt). 

What I am suggesting is that national debt means very, very little when it's all based on a lot of nothing.

Rodger?

Pulling off on the Shoulder

I'm going to make a slight detour from writing about each point on the list. The more I go through them, the more I think that the list is way outside of its own scope. There are lots of nice things on there, like protecting our habitat, making sure that people can make a living, helping to ease the burden of debt on the lower class, and so on. The thing is, those are all symptoms of the real problems. The way I see it, the real problems are as follows:

1. The presence of money in politics causes undue influence -- real or imagined -- over those elected to represent and serve the people.
2. Every citizen has a right to free political speech, and the ability of the wealthy to dominate the national conversation through unlimited expenditures infringes on the right of ordinary Americans to make their voices heard, and indeed can alter the speech of the citizenry through the propagation of misinformation.
3. While corporations as legal entities do enjoy certain rights, those rights are separate from the people who comprise the corporation, and do not include free political speech.
4. Congress has become dysfunctional through polarization, lack of civil discourse, and representation of moneyed special interests, thereby neglecting its duty to represent the American people.
5. America no longer has a clear direction or goal, resulting in an insular society where the rich seek to get richer and the poor struggle to survive.

I think that this is where we need to start. Cut to the core of the problem, fix that, and work on the symptoms later. Otherwise, we're just taking aspirin for a brain tumor.

10. Student Loan Debt Refinancing

From http://www.the99declaration.org/student_loan_debt_refinancing

"Our students and former students are more than $1 trillion in debt from education loans. These young people have far fewer employment prospects due to the financial collapse directly caused by the unbridled and unregulated greed of Wall Street.

Ensuring a higher education, particularly in the fields of science, engineering, technology, green energy and mathematics, is no longer a luxury for the few and must now be viewed as a national security issue.

Banks receive virtually interest free loans from the Federal Reserve Bank and then charge upwards of 6% interest to our students for profit. Because education is the only way to secure our future success as a nation, interest on student debts must be immediately reduced to 2% or less and repayments deferred for periods of unemployment. Subject to the provisions of grievance five, the tax code will be amended so that employers will receive a student loan repayment tax deduction for paying off the loans of their employees.

Outright federal grants should be provided to those students who pursue and obtain degrees in the sciences, green energy, sustainability, mathematics, technology and engineering.  Moreover, to reduce the principal on all outstanding student loans, a financial transaction surcharge, similar to those fees charged by banks on consumers, will be introduced to banks and securities firms.

The current economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, resulted in the $1.5 trillion dollar bail out of Wall Street, secret Federal Reserve loans, and unknown losses of trillions of dollars to the economy. Work study programs should be expanded to increase access to higher education; universities and colleges that do not reduce tuition to affordable levels shall lose federal funding; and non-citizens who obtain their education in the United States should be provided an accelerated path to citizenship so the investments made in these students remain in the United States."

I'm torn on this issue. On the one hand, I'm struggling to pay off student loans on a degree that I will most likely never use, due to inability to find a job in the field, loss of interest, and aging of the degree itself. On the other hand, I'm the one that made the commitment and took the risk, so now I'm the one dealing with the repercussions.

I believe that education is important. It doesn't matter what field you are in, an excellent grasp of the English language, at least some foreign language experience, a good understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts (including how our own bodies work), an appreciation for the arts (including philosophy), and a strong understanding of history are all useful and help make a well-rounded person.
I think that we really need to strengthen primary education. Extend the school year. Extend the number of years in public school. Teach children how to learn.
Everyone learns in a different way. If you can help children identify how they learn, you can engage them in learning from the start. The more you engage them, the more excited they will be about learning, and will be more successful at it.

I'd propose splitting education into two parts: primary and secondary. Primary education would encompass K-12 (or whatever ending point becomes necessary). Secondary school would be like college now, except that most of your prerequisite courses would already be covered. Think post-associate degree.

So, I'd strengthen primary education (K-12). Maybe you let students begin to drift off into degree paths after elementary school. Still provide a round education, but slowly incorporate more and more specialized learning. Let kids follow their interests.
But most of all, get them interested.

Make secondary school just that: secondary. If I followed a degree path during primary school that ends up preparing me for a career in medicine, for instance, maybe I could be a nurse right out of primary school. If I want to be a surgeon, a psychiatrist, an obstetrician, then I'd go on to secondary school, which I would pay for. Meanwhile, I could be starting my career with the knowledge that I already have.

It's unfortunate that a lot of us are saddled with student loan debt for degrees that we aren't using. I could maybe -- maybe -- see an amnesty for government loans. The rest, however, are our burden.

9. Jobs for All Americans

From http://www.the99declaration.org/jobs_for_all_americans

"Passage of a comprehensive jobs and job-training act like the American Jobs Act to employ our citizens in jobs that are available with specialized re-training through partnerships between companies seeking employees and community colleges and other educational institutions.

The American People must be put to work now by repairing America’s crumbling infrastructure and building other needed public works projects. These jobs should not be outsourced with cheap foreign labor or using foreign building materials. In conjunction with a new jobs act, re-institution of the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and similar emergency governmental agencies tasked with creating new projects to provide jobs for the families of the 151 million People living in poverty and low income homes.

Astonishingly, one in four children are living in poverty in the United States while 8.3% of American adults are unemployed and 16% are underemployed. Many others have simply given up looking for work. Special tax incentives should be granted to companies who partner with educational institutions to re-train workers to work in green energy and new sources of American manufacturing to reduce reliance on imported goods and services. A democracy simply cannot survive with more than half of its population struggling to acquire basic needs such as food, shelter, education and health care, a shrinking middle class and a tiny fraction of the population controlling the media and the political process.  This is a dangerous convergence of circumstances."

First off, we will never have "jobs for all Americans." There will always be people who choose not to work or who are unable to work. Because of prejudices, it's incredibly difficult to take someone from the street and put them to work -- they don't look right, there are large gaps in their work history (if they have one), they may not even have the proper documentation (most jobs require a social security card at the bare minimum). So this isn't as simple as "just train people to work."
So, this really should say "significantly reduce actual unemployment numbers." That's fine. We can work with that.

I would agree that training programs can be a part of the plan, but I disagree with specifying what that training should be in. Green energy is nice, American manufacturing is nice, infrastructure repair is nice, but there are plenty of other things that people could -- and should -- be doing. Helping people train for any career is a good thing.

Giving companies incentives to hire could work, but how? If you hand them some cash and say "go hire some folks," there's no guarantee that they will use that money for hiring. They could, on paper, use that money to cover their HR budget, use the money saved there on whatever else they feel like, and say "well, we had to pay HR to find candidates," and technically they used the money for hiring.
We could hand companies cash for every new hire, but that could easily open the door for a revolving pool of do-nothing jobs. Hire ten people, sit them in a room for a week staring at each other, collect a thousand bucks per person, pay them 300, and send them on their way. Repeat forever.
The biggest tool in the government's arsenal here is taxation. Corporations love tax breaks. So we could hike their taxes, but give them tax breaks for new hires. Again, that could cause that revolving pool, so maybe we do tax breaks per employee instead. But then the bigger the corporation is, the less it pays in taxes. So now we've just killed small businesses.

I'm not sure that we really can cause job growth through a government mandate. It's a nice idea, but I'm not seeing anything that's actually going to work, other than direct employment. That's fine, but it means even more government expenditures. I don't see that being a very viable option at the moment.

I would say that we help people get training for their next career, but focus mainly on fixing the economy as a whole. A lot of the other points on the list will help with that. So, let's get the economy back on track, and the jobs will follow.