Everyone gets an American Union Job
Unconditional basic income can end poverty
The Trump–Biden Peace Plan is the legislative demands for the American Union of swing voters in the 2024 election, and has three main planks:
End poverty
End mass incarceration
End the endless wars
At the heart of the package is the American Union Jobs Program. Its primary purpose is to deliver unconditional basic income (UBI) to 300 million American citizens, but there are many aspects. In Looking Backward from the Tricentennial, the sci-fi novel showing how the American Union model of collaborative democracy works in the year 2076, many characters suggest the “real purpose” for the American Union Jobs Program to Julian West. This post will cover 10 of them, and the flyer below offers a one-page summary.
(Read more about the 2024 strategy presented as fiction: The revolution will be novelized)
(A summary of the 101 policies in the Trump–Biden Peace Plan can be read here, or the text of the legislation can be viewed here. Relevant sections noted in parentheses when applicable.)
1) The American Union Jobs Program represents a citizen’s share of ownership in the United States and serves as the umbrella for benefits.
Stockholders in a corporation—the people who invest in a venture—receive dividends. The United States is formed by we the people; accordingly, the dividends of the national economy should be dispersed among its citizens. American Union Jobs are unconditional; adults receive $16,800 annually, and children $5,600, enough to start every American family above the poverty line. (Section 442)
2) The American Union Jobs Program values all work.
All employment is work; not all work is employment. Raising children, caretaking work, volunteer work: Americans perform all sorts of valuable work each day without payment. Unconditional basic income recognizes that and empowers, for example, parents to spend with their families instead paying for childcare in order to seek employment for income.
3) The American Union Jobs Program strengthens families.
With 1 in 3 children living in or near poverty in the United States, children will reap the greatest benefits from UBI. Their health, education, and future earnings will increase and costs for health, child protection, and criminal justice will decrease. It is estimated that each dollar invested in eliminating childhood poverty will produce a tenfold return for society.
4) The American Union Jobs Program moves us away from debt-based money and onto a path for paying off the national debt.
American Union Jobs are paid with Treasury Dollar Bills, a digital legal tender issued by the US Treasury and pegged to the value of a Federal Reserve Note. These Treasury Bills will make it unnecessary to continue to borrow trillions of dollars, and gradually pay off the national debt, saving us more than one trillion dollars in annual interest. (Section 434)
(Read more: A trillion dollar bill)
5) The American Union Jobs Program creates a public payment infrastructure.
The US Treasury would be required to set up a free bank accounts for every US citizen and make UBI payments into them. (If you like your bank, you can keep it: pass-through accounts would pull your UBI in as direct deposit.) Transfers between accounts would be free (like Indian citizens do billions of times a month) and create a public option for banking. Currently, bank fees stifle innovation and add about 2% to the cost of all goods and services sold in the United States. (Sections 433, 437–438)
6) Your American Union Job offers health insurance.
The American Union Jobs Program includes a public option for health insurance, based on Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign promise. This takes the burden of providing health insurance off of business owners and gives employees the freedom to change jobs without losing access to healthcare, a problem that currently traps 1 in 6 employees in jobs they’d like to leave. (Section 411)
7) The American Union Jobs Program minimizes economic coercion.
For the 130 million Americans living in or near poverty, their financial constraints leave them especially vulnerable to economic coercion: the use of money or financial power to control or manipulate someone. With unconditional basic income, citizens have more options and can no longer be threatened with complete destitution, creating what Karl Widerquist calls “the power to say no.”
8) The American Union Jobs Program includes 18 weeks of paid family leave.
Economic pressure drives a quarter of new mothers back to work within two weeks because the US is the only industrialized country that doesn’t require they have paid time off. This policy drives up the infant mortality rate, causing thousands of preventable newborn deaths annually. For those who have employment, 18 weeks of paid family leave would be available. (Sections 421–427)
9) The American Union Jobs Program unites instead of dividing.
Most anti-poverty programs are targeted; some people get benefits and others don’t. Besides the bureaucracy this requires, political opportunists sometimes play on this division, suggesting that if the groups were partitioned differently, their constituency would be better off. The American Union Jobs Program is universal and unconditional; instead of drawing lines to separate people, it draws a circle that includes everyone.
10) The American Union Jobs Program reminds us of our duties as citizens.
The Preamble lays out five duties for the people of the United States; these are the duties for an American Union Job. There are no reporting requirements (UBI is unconditional), just regular reminders that we the people are charged with forming a more perfect union. Your UBI of $1,400 a month is to be a better citizen, however you see fit. (Section 442)
(I know I said there would be 10 points, but let me squeeze in one more.)
11) The American Union Jobs Program includes universal suffrage.
One citizen. One vote. End of story. (Sections 501-503)
Conclusion
The United States is at a time of cyclical change. The Phoenix Cycle dictates we are on the cusp of transforming the way our government works and who it serves. There is no guarantee that it will be a positive change, but the American Union offers a new model for collaborative democracy.
(Read more: America 4.0 is coming)
A national union of swing voters, using the principles of nonviolence and game theory, can change the way politics works in the United States. First, by focusing on writing good policy (which Congress is failing to do), legislation by the people, for the people, is developed. In 2024, that’s the Trump–Biden Peace Plan. Second, the bloc of votes forms a creative tension in Washington. Given the choice between the carrot of reelection and the stick of electoral defeat, Congress is highly incentivized to act before the election.
(Read more: The October 15 general strike is a hartal)
Since the American Union concerns itself with WHAT policies are advanced instead of WHO is in office, it offers a nonpartisan framework for political action. All people and parties willing to end poverty, end mass incarceration, and end the endless wars are welcome in this new coalition. Although no one will like everything in the Trump–Biden Peace Plan, we can move America forward by working together.
(Read more: Vote with radical love in 2024)
Ready to make the United States a functional democracy again? Join the American Union by donating 25¢ a day and making a good-faith pledge to vote together on November 5. When 3.5% of voters unionize, we’ll have the leverage to collectively bargain for a better social contract.
Learn more at AnAmericanUnion.com
A living wage...