Mike thank you for challenging me with this question.
Here are some examples of how we can level the playing field.
Equal justice also demands that everybody – no matter how wealthy or well-connected – is held accountable when they break the law. That means new laws and a new commitment to prosecuting giant corporations – and their leaders – when they cheat their customers, stomp out their competitors, or rob their workers. It means judicial nominees that follow the rule of law
It’s not equal justice when a kid with an ounce of pot can get thrown in jail while a bank executive who launders money for a drug cartel can get a bonus. It’s not equal justice when, for the exact same crimes, African Americans are more likely than whites to be arrested, more likely to be charged, more likely to be convicted, and more likely to be sentenced. instead of catering to the wealthy and the well-connected.
(A little more Justice within the criminal justice system might be a step in the right direction regarding leveling the playing field)
Washington works great for the wealthy and the well-connected, but it isn’t working for anyone else. Companies and wealthy individuals spend billions every year to influence Congress and federal agencies to put their interests ahead of the public interest. This is deliberate, and we need to call this what it is—corruption, plain and simple. That’s why my candidate, Elizabeth Warren, has proposed the most ambitious set of anti-corruption reforms since Watergate to fundamentally change the way Washington does business.
(You and I agreed about the corrupting influences in Washington, do we just talk about it or put someone in charge that will act?
We will start by ending lobbying as we know it by closing loopholes so everyone who lobbies must register, shining sunlight on their activities, banning foreign governments from hiring Washington lobbyists, and shutting down the ability of lobbyists to move freely in and out of government jobs.
( A nice place to start to rein in the unearned advantage of the corporate class in using their influence and naturally corrupt and selfish tendencies to buy off our elective representatives.)
Another way to level the playing field?
We will also shut the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington and permanently ban Senators and Congressmen from trading stocks in office and from becoming lobbyists when they retire – not for one year or two years, but for life. We will make the justices of the Supreme Court follow a code of ethics and strengthen the code of conduct for all judges to make sure everyone gets a fair shake in our courts. And we will force every candidate for federal office to put their tax returns online.
Together, these sweeping, structural changes will end the dominance of money in Washington, taking power away from the rich and powerful and putting it back where it belongs – with the American people themselves.
(Yet, another example of leveling the playing field)
The huge student loan debt burden is crushing millions of families and acting as an anchor on our economy. It’s reducing home ownership rates. It’s leading fewer people to start businesses. It’s forcing students to drop out of school before getting a degree. It’s a problem for all of us.
Once we’ve cleared out the debt that’s holding down an entire generation of Americans, we must ensure that we never have another student debt crisis again. We can do that by recognizing that a public college education is like a public K-12 education — a basic public good that should be available to everyone with free tuition and zero debt at graduation. My plan for universal free college will:
Give every American the opportunity to attend a two-year or four-year public college without paying a dime in tuition or fees.
Make free college truly universal — not just in theory, but in practice — by making higher education of all kinds more inclusive and available to every single American, especially lower-income, Black, and Latinx students, without the need to take on debt to cover costs.
So, I figure that if I have enough money to bail out banks to the tune of billions of dollars, or can afford to lace the globe with redundant (800-900)military Installations when our real challenge for world leadership has nothing to do with who has the biggest battleship, maybe we can afford to invest in our workforce with low cost public college education or trade schools. That rubs most conservatives the wrong way, but again that is the difference between the priority of progressives verses that of conservatives. Why should little Dodsworth have the advantage of higher education solely because his daddy has all of the money? We need to get real and provide opportunity for all to tap talent that we are going to need to compete and that has to go beyond who has gobs of money to start, because we all know that the system is rigged to give to some and deny others, we are not children. You can bet that China and its command economy is not wasting time in preparing its people to take the reins for the future.
As far as I am concerned Capitalism as practiced in this culture needs a make over of the sort my candidate is talking about. Instead of this top down, trickle down, tinkle down approach, maybe we need to build a strong middle class from the middle out. That, instead of waiting for Thurston Howell to see fit to shower us with his charity and job creation in exchange for being released from his tax burden.
Making the adjustment in the system to make the corporate class more accountable, controlling their unwarranted influence in Washington, along with giving workers a fighting chance, will not turn America into Venezuela.
You are right, there will always be poor and rich. I would like to see less of that based on structural disadvantage instead of the distinction made by people simply choosing not to participate after given ample opportunity. Then their poverty is of their own making.
As far as I am concerned the capitalist class will desert the American worker anyway, because the lure of cheap foreign labor and automation
in a Capitalistic system will not allow for an alternative course of action. So, why not save your breath, they will always whine about oppressive taxation, ad Nausea.
I don't claim to have all the answers either, Mike. I do believe that the status quo as it currently exist will prove unproductive in the long term.
I may have problems with extent of Warren's proposed reforms as to whether they are palatable, politically. But I will chance the direction provided by her or Bernie Sanders over the centrist Democrats and definitely, any Republican.
So, why I may not attain to everything that I would like to see, someone recognizes my concerns and that, in its very admission, is a leveling of the playing field.
If you have time, I offer another interesting article to make my point.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr … admissions
