The Problem with Democratic-Capitalism
by Dale Lee Harris
Copyright © 2012 by Dale Lee Harris

How many times have citizens of the United States of America heard the brainwashing phrase, we have the best system in the world? Saying something is true, does not make it true. Unfortunately, if you repeat a lie often enough, then many people will believe it. There is a psychology of wanting social acceptance and being willing to believe what ever the majority in society believes, in order to gain social acceptance. But, those who love the truth and have a scientific search for truth, will question social assumptions and look for evidence and proof in order to know the real truth.

America is viewed to have a system of Democratic-Capitalism. It has a Representative-Democracy political system and an economic systems that is mostly Capitalist, with a bit of added Socialism. Can that really be said to be best, when there is massive unemployment and poverty? We must not just compare our system with systems in the past and other systems that exist now, but also with other possible systems that have not yet been tried. We need to look at the merits of various ideas, and see if we can use scientific examination of the evidence to devise a system which best serves the needs of people and society. What really is best? We define best, as the system which does the most to promote the quality of life of its citizens, including enough wealth to have the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and health care, as well as the luxury of entertainment, the ability to enjoy work and enjoy life, and time for healthy personal relationships. That list is a good starting point, but of course can be further refined for a scientific analysis of how good each candidate system is.

But, let us begin with the Moral Justification for one system over the other. Should ownership be private or public? Some have argued for abolishing all private ownership and making everything public ownership. But they lied and rather created a system where a small group of people, the leaders of the Communist Party, became the private owners of everything. Others would be equally radical and propose ending all public ownership. I would argue that each person has a moral right to own his/her body and mind and the product of their labor. Similarly, the air we breath and the ground water we drink is something that we share in common and should be considered the common property of all members of society.

The unfortunate thing about Investor Ownership Capitalism, is that it makes the investor of money the sole owner of a business. If a worker invents a product, should the patent be owned by the capital investor alone, or should ownership and profit from it also be shared by the inventor? In fact, the invention of products is a key part of the economics of a business. Should not inventors, who create wealth by their inventions, be rewarded by society for their inventions? Similarly, every business draws economic value from the infrastructure built by society, therefore society contributes to the business, and certainly has a stake in the business. Businesses should not be solely owned by the investor of money, but also by the investors of ideas, labor, and the common property of society. Many argue for Micro Economic Democracy, where workers elect members to the Board of Directors and have a voice in the business. Similarly, government regulations protect consumers from theft of wealth by businesses and protect the right of the public to have clean air and clean water. Therefore, there is a strong moral argument for Economic Democracy, both on the micro (business) level and the macro (national) level.

One problem with inheritance of ownership, is that if large income from inheritance is not taxed far more than small income, then over time ownership of wealth falls into the hands of a much smaller percentage of the population. Society is best when people are rewarded for working and contributing to the wealth of society. That is the Capitalist principle of Incentive. Those who invent new products that give great wealth to society should be rewarded the most by society. But, when people are rewarded based on being born into the right family, rather than what they did to contribute to society, then a person who gives no wealth to society may have far more wealth than someone who invented something that added to the lives of millions of people. Inherited wealth gives them the power to make money on the work of others, and they may not do anything to personally add to society. A strong case could be made to eliminate inheritance of wealth. But, it should at least be highly taxed for huge sums of inheritance. Perhaps there should be no tax on inheritance below one million dollars in value, but there must be measures to prevent ownership of the wealth of society belonging to just a few families, who are economic Kings and Queens.

One problem with a system that has a democratic political system and an economic dictatorship of the powerful few, is that lack of democracy in the economic system tends to create lack of democracy in the political system. In order to protect democracy in the political system, one must establish democracy in the economic system as well. When politicians can be bribed to do what the Radical Super Rich want them to do, rather than what the people elected them to do, then we no longer have a real democracy. To have Political Democracy, we must have Economic Democracy. And to prevent Political Democracy from being eroded by money influence, we need measures of Direct Democracy so the people can step in when elected politicians no longer serve the people who elected them. These are the reasons for Recall Elections and limitations on donations to campaigns.

A very strong argument can be given that Economic Democracy is the best possible Economic System. When the economic decisions of a nation are made mostly by one percent of the population in the economic sector, and political servants of the one percent in the political sector, then those decisions will serve the one percent, rather than the nation. More money and power will be given to the one percent, at the cost of the well being of the vast majority of the citizens and the nation as a whole. But, when there is Economic Democracy, national economic decisions are made to best serve the well being of the nation. For example, the off shoring of five million factory jobs, which destroys another twenty million jobs, may give more prophets to the CEOs and the one percent, but it hurts most families in America and it hurts the economy of the nation. I favor Macro Economic Democracy, where a National Economic Board elected by the people, does economic planning at the macro (national) level in the same way a business does economic planning at the micro (business) level. And that planning is done to favor all segments of society, including business, labor, consumers, and resource suppliers. Under such a system the number one goal would be to maintain an unemployment rate of less than one percent. The near full employment rate of Macro Economic Democracy is far superior to Socialism at providing for people and far superior to Capitalism at maximizing Gross National Product. Thus, it is far superior to both Capitalism and Socialism at the very issues that each excels at. A strong moral argument can also be made for Micro Economic Democracy, where Corporate ownership is shared by capital investors and labor investors, and strong unions rights are protected for privately owned businesses.

I also argue for what I call a Pure Democracy political system. It would keep the advantage of Representative Democracy, since politicians have more time to consult with experts and study issues than the people would have under a Direct Democracy system. But, it does allow for a Direct Democracy override of decisions made by elected officials. Also, besides having more direct power over government the people also need the informational power of being taught by experts through public classes, so the people are better able to make the best decisions. In the conflict between majority rule and consensus rule, the real need is for everyone to understand the issues, interests, and arguments of all sides and reach an agreement that best serves everyone. Thus the sharing of diverse ideas is very important. Rather than a one person one vote system on all issues, people should rank the issues that matter to them and have a stronger vote on issues that they believe are critically important to them. We are shooting for moving from a compromise on issues, to rather a synthesis of ideas to form new ideas that contain the core truths of conflicting proposals. The Synthesis of ideas of Pure Democracy, which has elements of both Representative Democracy and Weighted Direct Democracy, I believe is moving toward a more Enlightened decision making process.

The point is, there are a lot of flaws in the current system, and a scientific evaluation of proposed new systems can move us to a better society for everyone.

Advice to President Obama and others
Serve The People and Give us our Jobs Back NOW
by Dale Lee Harris

It is not enough to elect politicians who seem to imply that they will do what you want, or even spell out and promise that they will do what you want. After the election, the people must remain politically active in a Progressive Organization to demand positive action and monitor the behavior of elected officials.

President Obama may want to compromise with Corporate Republican Puppets of the Radical Super Rich, but that would be a mistake. It is a virtue to reach a compromise between two reasonable sides, so that each side gets some gain. This is because each side has both virtue and vice in their positions, so a compromise will often use the better points of each side. But it is not good to compromise between Good and Evil. Good is a political-economic system of freedom, democracy, and equality. Evil is dictatorship, slavery, and oppression. The Radical Super Rich and the Anti Christ have the same goal, a Global Totalitarian Economic Dictatorship. One must not compromise with the Devil, Anti Christ, or the Radical Super Rich and their Political Puppets.

Government must serve the will of the people and the needs of the people. The people want higher taxes on the Super Rich, so that must happen, whether the Radical Super Rich like it or not. The people want social security, medicare, unemployment, and food stamps to be maintained or even improved, so that must happen, whether the Radical Super Rich like it or not.

President Obama, if you want a legacy as a Great President, then fight very hard to expand the level of freedom, democracy, and equality in the political-economic system of the United States of America. Be on the side of Good in history. Rather than politicians, bribed the there servants of the Radical Super Rich, working out a deal, let the people themselves make direct democracy decisions. Let the people vote on the economic decisions of unemployment, social security, medicare, food stamps, and taxes on the Super Rich. Rally the people to demand that politicians serve the people and do what they people demand that they do. Be on the side of Good and the people, and you will go down in history as a Great President.

The American people want their off shored factory jobs back. So, when evil corporate leaders off shore American factory jobs that pay 20 dollars an hour to Communist China for 25 cents an hour wages, there should be an import tax on those factory products to be 19 dollars and 75 cents for every hour that was worked to produce those factory products. American jobs are not the property of International Corporations. American jobs are the property and right of the American people. According to Thomas Jefferson, government derives its just power by the consent of the governed, ie the people. I believe that is true whether it is the political government or the economic government. Corporations have the right of ownership, only because the people grant them the right of ownership. The people of America have the ownership and right to American jobs. And when a Corporation becomes destruct to the ends of serving the people, then the people have the right to alter or abolish that corporation and give it to the people themselves to run. If that is the only way to get American factory jobs back, then maybe that is what the people must demand. But, maybe it would be enough to have a Nation Wide Boycott on all factory products made in China or any other nation where the wages for factory labor is less than 7 dollars an hour.

Show your patriotism and love for the United States of America. Boycott China for Christmas. Do Boycott Slave Wage Christmas shopping. Boycott Communist China and all factory products made by workers making less than the minimum wage in America. Also, demand that the United State ban, quota limit, and/or highly tax all low wage factory imports.

Toward a Better Society
Constitutional Amendments
by Dale Lee Harris

Clearly it is not enough to win the election, since an elected politician may be bribed to do what the Radical Super Rich want him to do, rather than what the people elected him to do. After the election, the people must stay active by contacting congress and signing petitions to pressure those in office to do what the people want. Progressive organizations also need to keep working to change the views of other voters and recruit other voters to join them, so they have a larger voting block.

An important thing that we can do is to increase the power of the people over the Political-Economic System with a Constitutional Amendment. Some ideas are presented here.

Amendment: Get rid of Gerrymandering. Idea: Require that Congressional Districts in each state must be drawn up by certain rules that would reduce the amount of Gerrymandering that can be done. For example, If any part of a County or City is placed in a Congressional District, then either the entire Country or City must be in the district, or the City or County must be subdivided into Congressional Districts so that all of those Congressional Districts must be contained entirely within the County or City.

Amendment: Give the people the direct democracy power to tax the super rich. Avoid the problem of Corporate Republicans standing in the way of the Will of the People, regarding raising taxes on the Super Rich. Add an Amendment that says, if 10 percent of Congress asks for a Direct Democracy popular decision on the Tax Rate for the Super Rich, who have over one million dollars a year in any income, then options will be presented to the America people on the Tax Rates. Taxes will be categorized into the following:

• Wage Income Tax, which includes wages, bonuses, and benefits.
• Inheritance Income Tax, which is money inherited.
• Capital Gains Income Tax, which is any income that is neither Wage Income nor Inheritance Income.
• Wealth Tax, which is a tax on all wealth owned, such as bank accounts, stocks, property, etc.

• the no tax level
• the moderate tax level
• and the maximum tax rate level

• The minimum rate to pay regardless of deductions
• and the normal tax rate.

For examples, voters may decide the following:

• Those with less than a net worth of one million dollars will pay no wealth tax, but those with a net worth of over one million dollars will pay a one percent tax on all wealth over one million dollars.
• Those with an inheritance of less than one million dollars will pay no inheritance tax, but all money over one million dollars in inheritance will be counted as wage income for the purpose of taxes.
• Capital gains will be counted as wage income for the purpose of taxes.
• Low Income Rate Those with wage income less than fifty thousand dollars a year will pay no income tax.
• Middle Income Rate Those with a wage income between fifty and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, will pay a tax rate of thirty percent on all income over fifty thousand dollars and no less than a rate of twenty five percent despite any deductions.
• High Income Rate Those with a wage income over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, will be taxed at the Middle Income Rate for the first two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For all income over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the normal rate will be fifty percent and the minimum rate to be paid regardless of deductions will be forty percent.

Note. This is just an example of what might be decided. We can debate what the fair rates should be. The important point is that the people themselves should have the power to set the tax rate for the Super Rich, so that bribed politicians can not give the Super Rich a break that the people do not want them to have. If the Super Rich know that the people can raise their taxes, perhaps they will be less inclined to off shore American jobs or do anything else that might upset the people.

Amendment: Give the people the direct democracy power to set an international minimum wage rate for banning low wage factory imports, limit product imports based on corresponding exports, and set tariff rates based on wage rates on imports. I would suggest that we not import any factory product from a nation unless: the factory workers in the nation make at least five dollars an hour, our factory imports from that nation is no more than ten percent higher than our exports to that nation, and at least fifty percent of the given factory product is made by USA workers in USA factories. I would suggest that the import of products made by factory workers making 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 dollars an hour be 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, and zero percent respectively.

The important thing is that the American people have the direct democracy power to use import quotas and import taxes to protect living wages in America.

These are just some ideas. The point is, if the Radical Super Rich are making economic decisions that hurt the American people, then the American people need to the power to protect their interests. It might be sufficient in some cases to have a National Economic Board, elected by the people, with the power to make national economic decisions. Or, perhaps we do in fact need a direct democracy ballot initiative to over ride decisions made by the government.