IV. ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

No economic system is sustainable unless it accommodates the ecosystems on which it depends. Our current system—based on the notion of perpetual economic expansion on a finite planet—is seriously flawed. We urgently need to apply human ingenuity to the goal of using far less from nature to meet our needs, which is a different goal from exploiting nature and Third World people so that we can meet the invented and implanted false “needs” that advertisers continually push at us in a grow-or-die type of economy. We need to acquire the ability to distinguish between need and greed, in spite of what the media assure us we “need.” We also need to restore a progressive tax structure, rather than continuing to move money toward the top echelons of society while squeezing everyone else. Such a restoration, plus the end to the bankrupting military adventurism and imperial designs, would significantly reduce the huge federal deficit that has been imposed on the American people since 2000.

Foremost, the Green Party stands for community-based economics and regional trade. We believe that the only model of true economic security is for a community and area to be largely (not entirely) self-sufficient in the production of its necessities. Through foreign trade, they can then export that which is extra, and that which they could afford to lose should environmental disasters, social unrest in their trading partners’ countries, or other disruptions disturb the flow of their trade.

We support not the corporate dominance of “free trade”—which, through the machinations of the World Trade Organization places the desires of transnational corporations above the level of national laws—but true “fair trade,” which protects communities, labor, and the environment. Communitybased economics and regional trade keep money circulating largely in the community and the region, rather than going to distant corporate headquarters as soon as a purchase is made. This is the most rational model for economic security. It includes family farms and community-supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, credit unions, nonprofit community-development corporations, incubator programs to aid start-up small businesses, apprenticeship programs in local businesses, local currency, community-focused banks, and trade with adjacent regions. Consumers in this type of market economy prefer to patronize locally owned businesses because each purchase has a positive rippling effect in the community. Unlike other political parties in the modern era, the Green Party views (even community-based) economics not as an end in itself but as a service to community development through the building and strengthening of community bonds that constitute the social fabric.

We can learn from indigenous people who believe that the Earth and its natural systems are to be respected and cared for in accordance with ecological principles. Concepts of ownership should be employed in the context of stewardship, and social and ecological responsibility. We support environmental and social responsibility in all businesses, whether privately or publicly owned.

1. Ecological Economics

   To create an enduring society we must devise a system of production and commerce where every act is sustainable and restoraable. We believe that all business has a social contract with society and the environment—in effect a fiduciary responsibility—and that the concepts of socially responsible business and shareholder democracy can be models for prospering, successful business.

   1. We call for an economic system that is based on a combination of private businesses, decentralized democratic cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises, and alternative economic structures. Collectively, this system puts human and ecological needs alongside profits to measure success, and maintains accountability to communities.

   2. Community-based economics constitutes an alternative to both corporate capitalism and state socialism. It values diversity and decentralization.

      Recognition of limits is central to this system. The drive to accumulate power and wealth is a pernicious characteristic of a civilization headed in a pathological direction. Greens advocate that economic relations become more direct, more cooperative, and more egalitarian.

      Humanizing economic relations is just one aspect of our broader objective: to shift toward a different way of life characterized by sustainability, regionalization, more harmonious balance between the natural ecosphere and the human-made technosphere, and revival of community life. Our perspective is antithetical to both Big Business and Big Government.

   3. Greens support a major redesign of commerce. We endorse true-cost pricing. [See section E.1.True Cost Pricing on page 62 in this chapter] We support production methods that eliminates waste. In natural systems, everything is a meal for something else. Everything recycles, there is no waste. We need to mimic natural systems in the way we manufacture and produce things. Consumables need to be designed to be thrown into a compost heap and/or eaten. Durable goods would be designed in closed-loop systems, ultimately to be disassembled and reassembled. Toxics would be safeguarded, minimally produced, secured, and would ideally have markers identifying them in perpetuity with their makers.

   4. Sustaining our quality of life, economic prosperity, environmental health, and long-term survival demands that we adopt new ways of doing business. We need to remake commerce to encourage diversity and variety, responding to the enormous complexity of global and local conditions. Big business is not about appropriateness and adaptability, but about power and market control. Greens support small business, responsible stakeholder capitalism, and broad and diverse forms of economic cooperation. We argue that economic diversity is more responsive than big business to the needs of diverse human populations.

   5. Greens view the economy as a part of the ecosystem, not as an isolated subset in which nothing but resources come in and products and waste go out. There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. There is an absolute limit to economic growth based on laws of thermodynamics and principles of ecology. Long before that limit is reached, an optimum size of the economy is reached which maximizes human welfare in an holistic sense.

   6. We support a Superfund for Workers program as envisioned by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in 1991. Such a program would guarantee full income and benefits for all workers displaced by ecological conversion until they find new jobs with comparable income and benefits.

   7. The Green Party supports methods, such as the Index of Social Health Indicators, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, and the Genuine Progress Indicator, that take into account statistics on housing, income, and nutrition.

2. Measuring Economic Progress – Economic Growth and the Steady-State Economy

   Economic growth has been a primary goal of American policy. Corporations, politicians beholden to corporations, and economists funded by corporations advocate a theory of unlimited economic growth stemming from technological progress. Based upon established principles of the physical and biological sciences, however, there is a limit to economic growth.

   American economic growth is having negative effects on the long-term ecological and economic welfare of the United States and the world. There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and ecological health (for example, biodiversity conservation, clean air and water, atmospheric stability).

   We cannot rely on technological progress to solve ecological and long-term economic problems. Rather, we should endeavor to make lifestyle choices that reinforce a general equilibrium of humans with nature. This requires consciously choosing to foster environmentally sound technologies, whether they are newer or older technologies, rather than technologies conducive to conspicuous consumption and waste.

   1. Economic growth, as gauged by increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is a dangerous and anachronistic American goal. The most viable and sustainable alternative is a steady-state economy. A steady-state economy has a stable or mildly fluctuating product of population and per capita consumption, and is generally indicated by stable or mildly fluctuating GDP. The steady-state economy has become a more appropriate goal than economic growth in the United States and other large, wealthy economies. A steady-state economy precludes ever-expanding production and consumption of goods and services. However, a steady-state economy does not preclude economic development—a qualitative process not gauged by GDP growth and other measures that overlook ecological effects.

   2. One way to measure the economy is to assess the value of non-monetary goods and services and measure the rate of infant mortality, life expectancy of people, educational opportunities offered by the state, family stability, environmental data, and health care for all people. Another measure is to quantify human benefit (in terms of education, health care, elder care, etc.) provided by each unit of output. Measuring the gap between the most fortunate and the least fortunate in our society, for example, tells us how well or poorly we are doing in creating an economy that does not benefit some at the expense of others.

   3. For many nations with widespread poverty, increasing per capita consumption (through economic growth or through more equitable distributions of wealth) remains an appropriate goal. Ultimately, however, the global ecosystem will not be able to support further economic growth. Therefore, an equitable distribution of wealth among nations is required to maintain a global steady-state economy. A global economy with inequitable wealth distribution will be subject to continual international strife and conflict. Such strife and conflict, in turn, ensures the economic unsustainability of some nations and threatens the economic sustainability of all.

3. Citizen Control Over Corporations

   We must end corporate welfare. Currently, corporations possess more rights and freedoms than natural human persons. Through a series of judicial rulings, and by virtue of their ability to control governments and economies through concentration of wealth, corporations have rewritten our Constitution and have emerged as unaccountable, unelected governments. The Green Party supports all reforms that seek governmental regulation of corporations. In the interim, we support measures that hold executives and officers of corporations directly liable for harm that results from their decisions.

   The U.S. intentionally defines corporations through charters or certificates of incorporation. In exchange for the charter, a corporation was obligated to obey all laws, to serve the common good, and to cause no harm. Early state legislators wrote charter laws to limit corporate authority and ensure that when a corporation caused harm, they could revoke its charter.

   In the late 19th century, however, corporations claimed special protections under the Constitution. They insisted that once formed, corporations might operate forever with the privilege of limited liability and freedom from community or worker interference in business judgments.

   One point remains unequivocal: Because corporations have become the dominant economic institution of the planet, they must address and squarely face the social and environmental problems that afflict humankind.

   1. The federal government doles out billions in subsidies and tax breaks to corporate special interests. The current level of influence now being exerted by corporate interests over the public interest is unacceptable. We challenge the propriety and equity of corporate welfare that comes in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, payments, grants, bailouts, giveaways, unenforced laws and regulations; and in historic, continuing access to our vast public resources, including the airwaves, millions of acres of land, forests, mineral resources, intellectual property rights, and government-created research.

   2. We support strong national standards for labor rights and the environment so that corporations can no longer force states and cities into a brutal competition for jobs at any cost. Legal doctrines must be continually revised in recognition of the changing needs of an active, democratic citizenry. Huge multinational corporations are artificial creations, not natural persons uniquely sheltered under constitutional protections. We support local and state government attempts to define corporations and to prevent them from exercising democratic rights that are uniquely possessed by the citizens of the United States.

4. Livable Income

   We affirm the importance of access to a livable income.

   1. We call for a universal basic income (sometimes called a guaranteed income, negative income tax, citizen’s income, or citizen dividend). This would go to every adult regardless of health, employment, or marital status, in order to minimize government bureaucracy and intrusiveness into people's lives. The amount should be sufficient so that anyone who is unemployed can afford basic food and shelter. State or local governments should supplement that amount from local revenues where the cost of living is high.

   2. Job banks and other innovative training and employment programs which bring together the private and public sectors must become federal, state and local priorities. People who are unable to find decent work in the private sector should have options through publicly funded opportunities. Workforce development programs must aim at moving people out of poverty.

   3. The growing inequities in income and wealth between rich and poor; unprecedented discrepancies in salary and benefits between corporate top executives and line workers; loss of the “American dream” by the young and middleclass —each is a symptom of decisions made by policy-makers far removed from the concerns of ordinary workers trying to keep up.

   4. A clear living wage standard should serve as a foundation for trade between nations, and a “floor” of guaranteed wage protections and workers’ rights should be negotiated in future trade agreements. The United States should take the lead on this front – and not allow destructive, predatory corporate practices under the guise of “free” international trade.

5. True Cost Pricing and Tax Fairness

   Middle-class and poor people are paying an ever greater proportion of federal taxes, and too often local and state taxes are unfair and regressive. The tax code is a labyrinth of deductions, loopholes, exemptions and write-offs, the result of insider- and industry-lobbying that has damaged our economy as it has served the interests of big business, financial institutions and the rich.

   The high price of corporate welfare corrupts the political process by encouraging the exchange of political favors for campaign donations. Corporate tax breaks are ultimately paid for by higher taxes on the middle class. Tax breaks distort the rules of the marketplace and seldom serve a larger public purpose.

   We call for a tax policy that moves to eliminate loopholes and other exemptions that favor powerful interests. Small business and the self-employed, in particular, should not be penalized by a tax system that benefits those who can influence the legislative tax committees for breaks and subsidies.

   A central goal of tax policy should be transparency—a system that is simple, understandable, and resistant to the schemes of special interests.

   When taxes are levied against labor, using labor in production becomes more expensive and is therefore a disincentive for employment. This also diminishes the economic value of labor by decreasing the worker's purchasing power thus discouraging work.

   Corporations focus on revenue growth at the expense of nearly everything else. Even breaking the law can be justified when the fine for being caught is less than the profit to be made. We must motivate the business community to act responsibly towards the people and the Earth. One way is true cost pricing and the other way is fair taxation.

   1. True Cost Pricing

      True Cost Pricing (TCP) is an accounting and pricing system that includes all costs into the price of a product. This would make ecologically-sound products cheaper to the consumer in terms of market price and the demand for these products would increase. Also, various cultural/traditional industries that have been marginalized by unrestrained technology could flourish.

      Under our current system, many products carry hidden environmental and social costs such as air and water pollution, deforestation, and toxic waste. These costs are created during the production, use, or disposal of the products. While the producer internalizes revenue and profits from these products, the costs are externalized to society and the natural environment. In addition, many of the laws that exist to prevent environmental and social damage are not adequately enforced. Examples include smog checking of vehicles, and tobacco taxes and court settlements, which are not being used as intended. In this way, externalized costs equate to a subsidy.

      TCP would account for these costs. To implement TCP, we call for:

      1. Environmental taxes such as the Carbon Tax. [See carbon tax in the next section]
      2. TCP to be a basis for decisions on government projects and in Environmental Impact Statements.
      3. Integrate TCP into domestic industrial policies and regulations, and likewise promote it in international trade agreements.
      4. Implement product labeling to inform consumers of the total cost of the product's ingredients and manufacturing process.
      5. Enforce laws that exist to prevent environmental and social damage.
      6. Establish an information clearinghouse, consultant's network, and other communication channels for the exchange of information about ecologically benign techniques.
      7. Recognize that TCP may have short term impact on people of lesser financial means and implement measures to mitigate these effects.

   2. Fair Taxation

      Taxes pay for important public services. Tax policies should foster a more equitable progressive tax structure, as opposed to the present regressive nature of taxation that levies the heaviest burdens on those least able to pay.

      Corporations currently receive tax breaks that promote growth and the consumption of resources. Tax breaks should promote sustainability and social responsibility.

      Any shift in tax policy must be done gradually, so that people and government can adjust to the changes. Also, changes should move toward appropriate scale of collection and use of taxes

      We propose:

      1. More progressive taxation. Sales, corporate and income taxes should be adjusted to relieve the burden on those less able to pay and increase the burden on large and multinational corporations and the super wealthy, who do not pay their fair share. Raise the state income tax for higher income people. Also, reduce income taxes for lowwage workers to encourage people to seek employment rather than relying on public assistance.
      2. Raising corporate taxes. The corporate share of taxes has fallen from 33% in the 1940s to 7% today, while the individual share has risen from 44% to 85%.
      3. Implementing tax policies that promote sustainability and social responsibility. Subsidies, export incentives, tax loopholes and tax shelters that benefit large corporations now amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year. These promote growth and the consumption of resources.
      4. Shifting investments away from such things as automating the production of disposable products, which reduces the number of jobs. Also, discourage leveraged buyouts and mergers, which extract working capital. Instead, we must promote community development and job creation.
      5. Imposing Carbon taxes on all fossil fuels, because of detrimental effects of carbon emissions on the environment. Those with the highest carbon content would be taxed the most, ranging from coal (highest) to oil to natural gas. Revenues would go into a fund initially earmarked for carbon-reducing activities. [See section E.Clean Air / Greenhouse Effect / Ozone Depletion on page 47 in chapter III]
      6. Offsetting Regressive Taxes. The carbon tax would favor those of lower income by being directed to fund public transportation improvement and subsidies, weatherization and other efficiency measures, and passive solar installations. As revenues increase, the funds would be used to provide relief to low income people in such programs as housing and education and could eventually replace regressive taxes such as sales taxes.
      7. Encouraging the enactment of the Tobin tax on financial transactions across borders.
      8. Decreasing taxes on labor.
      9. Decreasing the cap on the mortgage tax deduction for both federal and state income taxes.
      10. Re-establishment of the inheritance tax. Inheritance tax revenues should be dedicated to health and welfare benefits for the poor and to enlisted soldiers salaries.
      11. Aiming for revenue neutrality in the tax changes. We are not proposing a bigger overall role for government. However, there are some situations where certain priority activities are under-funded.
      12. Shifting tax policy gradually so that people and government can adjust to the changes. Also, changes should move toward appropriate scale of collection and use of taxes.

6. Community Economic Involvement

   Reforms that allow communities to have influence in their economic future should be implemented. Such reforms include the following:

   1. Locally owned small businesses, which are more accessible to community concerns.
   2. Local production and consumption where possible.
   3. Incentives for cooperative enterprises, such as consumer co-ops, credit unions, incubators, micro-loan funds, local currencies, and other institutions that help communities develop economic projects.
   4. Allowing municipalities to approve or disapprove large economic projects case-by-case based on environmental impacts, local ownership, community reinvestment, wage levels, and working conditions.
   5. Allowing communities to set environmental, human rights, health and safety standards higher than federal or state minimums.
   6. A national program to
      • invest in the commons;
      • to rebuild the infrastructure of communities;
      • repair and improve transportation lines between cities, and;
      • protect and restore the environment.
      A federal capital budget should be put in place and applied in a process that assesses federal spending as capital investment.
   7. Applying direct democracy through town meetings, which express a community’s economic wishes directly to local institutions and organizations.

7. Small Business and the Self-Employed

   Greens support a program that counteracts concentration and abuse of economic power. We support many different initiatives for forming successful, small enterprises that together can become an engine of (and sustainable model for) job creation, prosperity and progress. Small business is where the jobs are being created. Over the past decade and a half, all new net job growth has come from the small business sector.

   The Green economic model is about true prosperity—Green means prosperity. Our goal is to go beyond the dedicated good work being done by many companies (referred to as “socially responsible business”) and to present new ways of seeing how business can help create a sustainable world, while surviving in a competitive business climate.

   We believe that conservation should be profitable, and employment should be creative, meaningful and fairly compensated.

   Access to capital is often an essential need in growing a business. [See section I.Banking and Insurance Reform on page 66 in this chapter]

   The present tax system acts to discourage small business as it encourages waste, discourages conservation, and rewards consumption. Big business has used insider access to dominate the federal tax code. The tax system needs a major overhaul to favor the legitimate and critical needs of the small business community. Retention of capital through retained earnings, efficiencies, and savings is central to small business competitiveness. Current tax policies often act to unfairly penalize small business.

   1. Government should reduce unnecessary restrictions, fees, and bureaucracy. In particular, the Paper Simplification Act should be seen as a way to benefit small business, and it should be improved in response to the needs of small businesses and the self-employed.
   2. Health insurance premiums paid by the selfemployed should be fully deductible.
   3. State and local government should encourage businesses that benefit the community especially. Economic development initiatives should include citizen and community input. The type and size of businesses that are given incentives (tax, loans, bonds, etc.) should be the result of local community participation.
   4. Pension funds (the result of workers’ investments) should be examined as additional sources of capital for small business. [See section J.Pension Reform on page 67 in this chapter]
   5. Insurance costs should be brought down by means of active engagement with the insurance industry. Insurance pools need to be expanded.
   6. One-stop offices should be established by government to assist individuals who want to change careers or go into business for the first time.
   7. Home-based and neighborhood-based businesses should be assisted by forward-looking planning, not hurt by out-of-date zoning ordinances. Telecommuting and home offices should be aided, not hindered, by government.

8. Work and Job Creation

   There is plenty of work to do that does not jeopardize our future, does not widen the gap between the richest and the poorest in our society, and that can enrich our communities. We must encourage the creation of these opportunities. People whose livelihoods depend on supporting remote, multi-national corporations cannot be expected to support changing the system.

   The Green Party proposes a third alternative to a job or no job dichotomy: that is to provide everyone a sustainable livelihood. The need of our times is for security, not necessarily jobs. We need security in the knowledge that, while markets may fluctuate and jobs may come and go, we are still able to lead a life rooted in dignity and well-being.

   The concept of a “job” is only a few hundred years old; and the artificial dichotomy between “employment” and “unemployment” has become a tool of social leverage for corporate exploiters. This produces a dysfunctional society in various ways: (1) It is used to justify bringing harmful industries to rural communities, such as extensive prison construction and clear cutting of pristine forests. (2) It has been used to pit workers (people needing jobs) against the interests of their own communities. (3) It has created a selfesteem crisis in a large segment of the adult population who have been forced into doing work that is irrelevant, socially harmful, or environmentally unsound.

   We will also promote policies that have job-increasing effects. Many people will still need jobs for their security. We need to counterbalance the decline in jobs caused either by new technology, corporate flight to cheaper labor markets outside our borders, or the disappearance of socially wasteful jobs that will inevitably occur as more and more people embrace a green culture.

   To begin a transition to a system providing sustainable livelihood, we support:

   1. creating alternative, low-consumption communities and living arrangements, including a reinvigorated sustainable homesteading movement in rural areas and voluntary shared housing in urban areas.
   2. Universal health care requiring coverage for all. [See section F.Health Care on page 30 in chapter II]
   3. The creating and spreading local currencies and barter systems.
   4. Subsidizing technological development of consumer items that would contribute toward economic autonomy, such as renewable energy devices.
   5. Establishing local non-profit development corporations.
   6. Providing people with information about alternatives to jobs.

      Creating Jobs

      For creating jobs we propose:

   7. Reducing taxes on labor. This will make labor more competitive with energy and capital investment. (See Taxation above.)
   8. Solidarity with unions and workers fighting the practice of contracting out tasks to part-time workers in order to avoid paying benefits and to break up unions.
   9. Adopting a reduced-hour (30-35 hours) work week as a standard. This could translate into as many as 26 million new jobs.
   10. Subsidizing renewable energy sources, which directly employ 2 to 5 times as many people for every unit of electricity generated as fossil or nuclear sources yet are cost competitive. Also, retrofit existing buildings for energy conservation and build non-polluting, low impact transportation systems.
   11. Supporting small business by reducing tax, fee and bureaucratic burdens. The majority of new jobs today are created by small businesses. This would cut their failure rate and help them create more jobs.
   12. Opposing the trend toward “bundling” of contracts that minimizes opportunity for small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses.
   13. Reducing consumption to minimize outsourcing—the exportation of jobs to other countries—thus reducing the relative price of using U.S. workers.

[Chapter IV, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H Amended by John Ely and J. Ellingston. We each amended sections, then reviewed and re-wrote each others sections and then merged those parts that repeated each other. Finally we sent this to Jane Zara for further review. (Please note that, in the amending process, the letter “I” is added and the titles of paragraphs changed somewhat.)]

Chapter IV. SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

Introduction - The Steady State Economy

The Green Party seeks to replace the prevailing conviction that economic survival depends on permanent growth with the countervailing principle that a steady state economy can prosper and thrive and fit within the reality of the finite planet we live on. Our habit of consumption and disposal of "waste" must be reoriented toward the formula of: Re-duce, re-use, re-cycle, repair. Our predilection for quantitative measurement over qualitative well-being pushes us toward the market value of consumer items rather than the human value of education, health, art and all civic contribution to our culture.

We affirm our role as stewards of the Earth and we understand that harmonious interaction with Nature includes recognizing that Nature is our life-support system. Our continuous technological advances are an avenue to the expansion of our economy and upgrading of the quality of our lives. However, protection and restoration of nature’s resources along with human well-being must be the principle that controls this expansion. One purpose cannot defeat another.

1. Economic Democracy:

   Parallel and equally imperative to the above principle, we must constantly align our economic system with democratic principles. When the harmony and balance between these two is lost, we fall victim to a lopsided financial system that undermines democracy. In effect, equal opportunity for all citizens; equal leverage in the market place; equal access to the public goods and services that our government provides; and equal access to legal protection or restitution when citizens are harmed by corporate advantage or exploitation, are necessary to establish economic democracy.

   Thus it is the function and obligation of a democratic government to protect these rights by legislation and regulation of the rules of the game, informed by the public will.

2. Taxation

   Within the framework of economic democracy, the first obligation of government is to design a progressive tax structure that allows wealth to accrue but does not exempt the wealthy from paying into the public coffer its proportionate share of the wealth accrued. Legal regulation must be a countervailing force to prevent the constant drift of wealth and advantage to the few while reducing the rest of society to dependence on the will of those few.

3. Decentralization

   Our Green principle of Decentralization calls for community-based economics that aim toward self-sufficiency first, with regional trade and foreign trade coming next. The physical reality of community-based economics is small business, local banks that invest in the community, credit unions, cooperatives and family farms. In effect, economies of scale in which the wealth generated in a community flows back into that community.

4. Corporate Control

   The present international corporate control of our economy and the free market in which it operates defies democracy and exempts corporations from any obligation to social or environmental responsibility. The “free market” is not free to labor, to labor unions or to minorities. On the contrary, it is the formula by which corporations exploit labor and degrade the environment through their extractive industries and investment practices; Corporations pursue profit under the legal protection of GATT, NAFTA, WTO, IMF and World Bank. All of these treaties protect the capital investment of corporations while they claim their mission global mission (globalization) is the productivity and income of the poor or underdeveloped countries to trade equally on a level playing field. We support the re-writing or dismantling of these treaties and replacing “Free Trade” with fair trade.

5. Displacement of workers

   We support the Superfund for Workers program designed by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in 1991. Extended to all workers displaced by ecological conversion and other forms of displacement, it would guarantee full income and benefits to all workers.

6. Access to a Livable Income

   Greens call for a universal basic income (also called a guaranteed income, negative income tax, citizen's income, or citizen dividend) for every high school graduate, regardless of health, employment, or marital status. The amount should be enough to cover food and shelter for any unemployed person. State or local governments would supplement the federally mandated amount in locations where cost of living is above the norm.

   1. Job banks, employment programs and job training designed and funded by a public/private partnership and administered by open contract must become federal, state and local priorities. Publicly funded work that serves public needs must be created to employ people who cannot find work in the private sector.

   2. The gap between rich and poor widens every year, and the salary-plus-benefits for corporate upper echelons are100x multiples of the entry level income. This inequity in income matches the wealth gap of the late 19th Century. In effect, the land of opportunity is transformed to feudal capitalism and the social contract, the erstwhile underpinning of our American system is gone.

   3. On the international level, “free” trade must be transformed into fair trade. The rights of labor rather than the exploitation of labor and the protection of the environment rather than its destitution for private profit must become the guiding principle of the international economy.

7. Restructured Taxes

   In keeping with the Green principle of economic democracy, the first obligation of government is to design a tax system that is progressive not regressive; that allows wealth to accrue but does not exempt the wealthy from paying a proportionate share of the wealth accrued; that closes all loop holes and escape clauses for the very rich and corporations; that taxes incomes from their sources, not just salaries. Government regulation is the countervailing instrument that forestalls the constant drift of wealth and advantage to the few and prevents the rest of society from sliding into dependence on the financial advantage of those few.

   1. State income taxes should follow the formula of progressive federal taxes. The income level at which taxing begins need to be higher than presently exists for local and federal taxes.
   2. Corporate share of taxes has fallen from 33% in the 1940s to 7% today, while the individual citizen’s share has risen from 44% to 85%.
   3. Shift investments away from such things as automating the production of disposable products, which reduces the number of jobs. Also, discourage leveraged buyouts and mergers, which extract working capital. Instead, we must promote community development and job creation.
   4. Impose Carbon taxes on all fossil fuels. Those with the highest carbon content would be taxed the most, ranging from coal (highest) to oil to natural gas. Revenues would go into a fund initially earmarked for development of alternative energy. [See section E. Clean Air / Greenhouse Effect / Ozone Depletion on page 47 in chapter III]
   5. Allocate tax funds from carbon tax to expand public transportation, insulation of buildings and the greening of new buildings.
   6. Limit sales taxes to items that are not second-hand and are not classed as necessities.
   7. Prohibit attaching fees to public goods and services that are funded by public taxes; such as the use of public parks, public beaches and museums. Replace fees with donations.
   8. Enact the Tobin tax on financial transactions across borders.
   9. Decrease taxes on labor.
   10. Decrease the cap on the mortgage tax deduction for both federal and state income taxes.
   11. Restore the inheritance tax.

8. Tax Fairness and the Election process
   1. Our political system has lost its democratic balance and candidates for office are beholden to their corporate paymasters rather than their constituents. Once elected, these candidates are still influence by their corporate sponsors and the tax code is written to continue giving advantage to corporations.
   2. Greens call for a tax policy that eliminates loopholes, tax rebates and other subsidies; and that prohibits corporations from chartering offshore to avoid paying taxes. Small business, the self-employed and the working class pay taxes while corporations engage in financial transactions for free. To restore fairness, corporate money must be utterly removed from the election process and from the corporate lobbying that shapes legislation after election.
   3. In effect, political democracy without economic democracy is an empty promise. There must be a level playing field for all parties - labor, small business, the general public, business and finance, all must have the same access and leverage to influence legislative outcomes.

9. True Cost Pricing

   True Cost Pricing (TCP) is an accounting and pricing system that includes all costs in the price of a product. TCP charges extractive and productive industries for the immediate or prolonged damage (pollution of air and water) diminishment of natural resources caused by their acts. Thus it directs production toward less expensive and environmentally sound products. Consequently, consumers choose such products for their lower price and their safety for society.

   1. In addition, true cost pricing will draw back into the market various cultural/traditional industries that use natural materials and are environmentally safe.
   2. Implementing TCP:
      1. Create environmental taxes such as the Carbon Tax. [See carbon tax in the next section]
      2. All business, public or private, must satisfy the same regulations and perform an Environmental Impact Study before starting work..
      3. TCP domestic industrial policies and regulations shall be integrated with and mandated for all international trade agreements.
      4. Product labeling shall inform consumers of the total cost of the product's ingredients and manufacturing process.
      5. Establish an information clearinghouse, consultant's network, and other communication channels for the exchange of information about ecologically benign techniques.
      6. When TCP of necessary consumer products causes high prices for low income people, the balance must be filled with food stamps and equivalent government subsidies.

10. The Green Principle of De-Centralization and Local Self-Government

    The homogenization and globalization of our economy is more detrimental than beneficial to the principle of de-centralization. The principle of de-centralization calls for community-based economics that aim toward self-sufficiency first, with regional and foreign trade coming next. The backbone of community based economics is small business, local banks that invest in local commerce, credit unions, cooperatives and family farms. In effect, economies of scale in which the wealth generated in a community feeds back to community prosperity and enrichment.

    1. We support local production and local distribution wherever feasible. Government investment and tax relief should be available to help local business get started and become self-sustaining.
    2. Local business must be protected from predatory pricing and undercutting by chain stores.
    3. Financial incentives should assist cooperative enterprises - such as consumer co-ops, credit unions, incubators, micro-loan funds, local currencies, and other institutions that help communities develop economic projects.
    4. Local governments need investigative and legal authority to compel businesses that wish to operate within their jurisdiction to abide by local laws.
    5. Local governments need authority to approve or disapprove large economic projects case-by-case based on environmental impacts, local ownership, community reinvestment, wage levels, and working conditions.
    6. Public land and buildings are public property that should be available for public purposes and should only be leased to private interests when the public declares the property has no public use.
    7. Municipal and county governments should have the authority to set standards of human rights, health and safety and environmental protection that are higher then federal or state minimums.
    8. The US is a federal system of government in which too much authority has gravitated toward the center. De-centralization depends on frequent re-affirmation to restore political and economic authority on the local level. To this end, the federal government must treat as capital investment:
       1. investment in the commons;
       2. reconstruction of the infrastructure of communities;
       3. repair and expansion of transportation lines, especially rail lines between cities;

11. Corporate Control

    The corporate control of our economy by international and national corporations and the free market in which they operate, defies democracy and while relieving them of any obligation to social and environmental responsibility. The “free market” is not free to labor, to labor unions or to minorities. On the contrary, it is the formula by which corporations exploit labor and degrade the environment through their extractive industries and investment practices. Corporations pursue profit under the legal protection of GATT, NAFTA, WTO, IMF and World Bank. All of these treaties protect the capital investment of corporations but impoverish labor, pollute the environment, drain resources and invest their profit somewhere else. This is called “globalization”. The corporate investors claim that their mission is to raise the incomes of the poor and raise their standard of living through economic development. The Green party supports the dismantling or re-writing of these treaties and the replacement of “free” trade with fair trade.

    1. Worker Displacement The major damaging side effect of globalization is the displacement of workers as corporate industries move around the world, looking for higher profits. We support the “Superfund For Workers” program designed by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in 1991. Extended to all workers displaced by ecological conversion and other forms of displacement, this program would guarantee full income and benefits to all workers when their livelihoods are disrupted by corporate mobility.

    [Draft for 2008 Platform, Chapter IV Sustainable Economy G, H, I, J, K amended by John Ely and reviewed by JE Nov. 2007]

12. Small Business and the Self-Employed
    1. Government should reduce unnecessary restrictions, fees, and layered bureaucracy. The Paper Simplification Act will achieve these reforms by removing bureaucratic blocks to doing business.
    2. Health insurance premiums paid by the self-employed should be fully deductible.
    3. Pension funds (the result of workers' investments) can serve as additional sources of small business capital. [See section J. Pension Reform on page 67 in this chapter]
    4. Insurance costs should be reduced by active negotiation with the insurance industry and expansion of number of insurance pools which workers may invest in.
    5. One-stop public offices are essential for individuals to use for career counseling, business start ups and to guide them through the maze of public services. The modern economy requires constant retraining and redesigning of the work force to keep up with economic and environmental innovations. The federal government and private business must offer apprenticeships and retraining, as an element of industrial and educational policy.
    6. Home-based and neighborhood-based businesses must enjoy the same government planning and assistance to fit within zoning ordinances and city plans that large business enjoy. Telecommuting and home offices should be aided, not hindered, by government.

13. Work and Job Creation

    There is plenty of work to do that does not jeopardize our future, does not widen the gap between rich and poor, and enriches our communities. All citizens should be assured that there is useful and productive work available for them to do. Sustaining our workforce is an essential element in the building a steady state sustainable economy.

    1. A Green industrial policy must be compatible with environmental protection; and similar to the 'eco-Keynsian' motor of economic well-being which includes self-management, renewable energy, and substantive international cooperation in fair trade.
    2. We call for local alternative economy supported by local non-profit development corporations.
    3. Small business is the engine that drives the economy and provides the majority of new jobs. Helping small business with planning and investment would cut their failure rate and help them create more jobs
    4. Reducing taxes on labor will make labor more competitive with energy and capital investment. (See Taxation above.) See G. Labor, under Chapt.II Social justice.

14. Ecological Tax Policy
    1. A principle of Green fiscal and economic policy is an environmentally designed tax code that conforms to thermodynamic principles and is designed to prevent outsourcing and externalizating of social and environmental costs. Renewable energy may directly employ 2 to 5 times as many people as fossil or nuclear energy employs, for every unit of electricity generated, is still cost competitive because it does not drain or harm the environment, and it should be subsidized .
    2. When feasible, retrofit existing buildings for energy conservation and begin the replacement of our transportation system with non-polluting, low impact systems.
    3. Green economics is based on support of self-managed, environmentally sustainable local businesses 3. We oppose the trend toward "bundling" of contracts that minimizes opportunity for small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses.

15. Banking and Insurance Reform

    The Green Party supports banking reform and savings and loan institutions. Lending institutions are chartered by the state to serve the best interest of communities and these charters carry with them both power and responsibility

    1. The government should ensure that low- and moderate-income persons and small businesses, have access to banking services, affordable loans and capital. Loans should be made available to small business at rates competitive to those offered larger business. Greens support disclosure laws, anti-redlining laws, and publicly available criteria for making loans. Greens oppose predatory lending and arbitrary or discriminatory practices that deny credit to small business.
    2. Greens oppose disinvestment practices, in which lending and financial institutions remove money, at will, from local communities where they first invested it. Such disinvestment damages or destroys the community that depended on it.
    3. Greens support the extension of the Community Reinvestment Act and its key performance data provisions that give timely information to the public, on the extent of housing loans, small business loans to minority-owned enterprises, investments in community development projects, and affordable housing.
    4. Congress should charter community development banks, capitalized with public funds, to meet the credit needs of local communities.
    5. Insurance industry regulation is essential to reduce costs by denying special interest protections, collusion and over-pricing and industry-wide practices that often injure the most vulnerable.
    6. Greens support strengthening and enforcement of laws protecting against bad-faith insurance practices, such as avoidance of obligations and price fixing.
    7. Federal laws must make policies transportable from job to job and prevent rejection of applicants by insurance companies because of prior conditions.
    8. We support initiatives in secondary insurance markets that expand: credit for inner city economic development; affordable housing and low-income home ownership; transitional farming to sustainable agriculture; and support for family farms.
    9. Make the practice of a company owning the insurance on its own employees, illegal.

16. Pension Reform

    Working people - who collectively own over $3 trillion in pension monies (in effect deferred wages) - should control how and where their funds are invested. Pension funds are gigantic capital pools that should, with government support, be used to meet community needs and directly benefit workers and their families.

    1. Corporate-sponsored pension funds (the biggest category of funds) should be jointly controlled by management and workers, and draw a rate of return that justifies the investment.
    2. We call for a secondary pension market that insures pension investments are made in socially beneficial programs; and that create new jobs through cooperative models of public-private partnerships.