"Berning" Gently

A friend and I attended a Bernie Sanders town hall meeting at the local middle school gymnasium last night. My own politics have always been populist, carrying a mix of liberal and conservative strands, informed by deep spiritual values. So I wasn't surprised that I found resonance in a lot but not all that Bernie had to say.

I am deeply concerned about social justice and fundamental human rights, which include healthcare, education, a living wage from any one 8 hour job, equal pay for women, and a stable place to live. Being afraid all the time is no way for a human being to live, regardless of their situation. We should all be provided the opportunity and encouragement to try things until something works. The worst part of poverty is its pervasive sense of precariousness, the feeling that trying only leads to deeper disappointment. If you want to end the drug crisis and make suicide no longer the second greatest killer of young people, #MakeLifeSuckLess.

I firmly believe the future of America's success is surer when we include and welcome people rather than when we exclude and marginalize people. I would like to see us absorb as many Syrian refugees as possible because I firmly believe such a welcome would provide a fresh generation of passionately loyal and energetic Americans. It is working with refugees that shook me out of my own apathy into a deep appreciation of the American dream by watching it happen.  There's room here.

I support expecting more of the rich and of corporations in a society where the distribution of wealth is so deeply skewed. I respect what Bernie has seen on the committees he has been a part of. I have no great love of Goldman-Sachs or Morgan-Chase. I do have a deep appreciation of American manufacturing, especially small, local manufacturing. The making of tangible goods has a stabilizing effect on an economy that is absent in the creation of intangible goods like software or financial products.

So I find a lot of resonance in what Bernie says. I will support him in the primary and, provided he wins the primaries, in the general election. However, I do differ from Bernie in several areas.

Abortion -

I'm not sure at what point a collection of cells in a woman's body becomes a viable human being. We shouldn't legislate away a reasonable right to support some abstract doctrine. I'll lose no sleep over a "morning after" pill. However, I find the evidence compelling that there is "somebody home" by the end of the first trimester and I believe that individual should be afforded some rights as well, even if those rights include a temporary claim to occupy the body of another person to ensure his or her own survival.  I also believe that the edge cases - like rape or excruciating birth defects - can't have satisfying statutory solutions. Roe v Wade overreaches but right to life doctrine overreaches, too. 

So Bernie and I must disagree on this. We do agree that the arrival of a new soul places an obligation, not just on a mother, but on the whole society, to provide for that soul with compassion and generosity. We belong to each other.  #MakeLifeSuckLess

 Economy -

I agree with Bernie that there are bad players, suffused with greed, who must be forced to participate in society rather than merely exploit it, that hourly workers need a living wage with full benefits, that office workers need an 8 hour day, not a 10 hour day, that when a company is doing well, it should be reflected in wages.

However, I see another profound historical force at play, one that none of the candidates are talking about. We have reached a level of efficiency where only 80% of the available workforce are needed to provide 100% of the needs of society. With tech innovations in AI, this percentage will drop to perhaps 60% over the next decade, even if we eliminate the 20-40% overwork imposed on many of those who do have jobs and pay people enough that they're able to buy what they need, driving up demand. 

When only somewhat over half the population will have the opportunity to work at any given time, the work ethic that has informed our thinking for 400 years and fuels the producer-consumer economy becomes capricious and cruel, declaring people worthless and punishing them for circumstances they can do nothing about. We need to start espousing a new set of values now and building them into the social fabric, so that we are ready to leave behind the producer-consumer value system that asks "What good are you? Show me what you delivered this quarter. Show me what you will deliver next quarter" and embrace universal human value. #MakeLifeSuckLess

Trade -

The Trans-Pacific Agreement (TPA), although it has a few very good clauses, seems to do harm to most of the parties affected, leaving tremendous power in the hands of American business to overrule the laws of many countries. With Bernie, I oppose it.

On the other hand, I'm not convinced that all open trade borders are a bad thing. There is no such thing as a national economy, only a shared global economy. Trade barriers, which always end up being reciprocal, will just prevent anybody but the rich from buying anything from anywhere else or anybody but the rich elsewhere from buying our stuff. I don't see how anybody wins.

I am happy that Mexican businesses are doing better than they have been in the past. It is likely to produce a more prosperous Mexico, and in a more prosperous Mexico, there will be enough money for the people to be able to raise issues of distribution in their own political process, questions that are pointless if the country lacks anything to distribute. The very issues we are raising in this election are worthy of discussion precisely because American business is doing so very well and the people aren't.  #MakeLifeSuckLess

Mobility of Wealth - 

Some of what Bernie says seems to me to be deeply naive. It is expensive to relocate wealth built on manufacturing, with its mountain of capital equipment, one reason I welcome a greater mix of manufacturing in the economy. However, the great fortunes today are built on international finance and the Internet, which are location neutral.

Closing tax loopholes and reducing corporate influence on Congress, as Bernie recommends and I support, produces a climate that is less favorable to business. This can be bypassed by moving headquarters to a country with a more favorable climate. If you aren't heavily invested in capital equipment, and the incentive is strong enough, this isn't prohibitive to do. I am reasonably convinced that American companies, steeped in Reaganesque laissez faire values, will go wherever advantage leads them. No one government can do anything to prevent this mobility. Multinational corporations are functionally supra-national and ungovernable at anything less than a global level.

Just because things are beyond legislative control doesn't mean they are beyond hope. The deep mystery in all of this is that companies, even international corporations, are run, not by doctrines, but by men and women. We need to encourage them to leave behind the pure-market values of the Reagan era that have produced the current crisis, and to embrace the notion that we belong to one another. We need them to reflect this in the way they invest and what they expect from the companies in which they invest. Even bankers are human. Money doesn't change that. They need to get to know the rest of us and connect that to their work. Then there is profound reason to hope. #MakeLifeSuckLess

Summary

So I will vote for Bernie, even if I have doubts in some areas. There is no other candidate that doesn't wholeheartedly embrace the dry well of trickle-down economics of the corporate right. Even Hilary assumes a structure where corporations are firmly in charge. Only Bernie is likely to attempt to do anything to overhaul our economics and, critically, to change the foundation of policy discussion to one that puts the human condition at the center of priorities.