To Truly Address Inequality, Build a People-Centered Economy - a podcast by Laura Flanders

Hi I’m Laura Flanders of GRITtv.

President Obama got one thing right in his State of the Union address. "It is [we] the citizens who make the state of our union strong."

Just look at his speech. After years of saying the word poverty less than any president in memory (and talking about the middle class more), here was Obama talking about low wage-stifled workers, and inequality. That’s thanks to public activism.

"Inequality has deepened"; "No one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty". The president’s best applause lines came from protest signs. Now “citizens” (and would-be citizens) will have to come up with solutions too, because his won’t take us very far.

Take that minimum wage hike for federal workers. Ten dollars and ten cents an hour is nice, but $20,000 a year is hardly a ticket out of poverty, even if you can find a full time job in the public sector.

Yes! Magazine held a live Twitter-fest during the President’s speech. Lots of people wrote in, with solid suggestions for how to make much bigger changes.
To stop the shrinking of the public sector for example, union members said bring jobs back home. The feds reportedly spend $1.5 billion a year buying clothes overseas.

Instead of subcontracting to sweatshops why not buy American?
The President talked about stimulating manufacturing by attracting businesses to high-tech ”hubs”. But if government's going to give tax breaks and cash to private firms why not demand an ownership share for the taxpayers? If the public’s going to carry the risk, we should also see the profit.

President Obama’s support for natural gas came in for criticism. Gas isn’t "a bridge fuel" they said, or if it is it’s another bridge to nowhere. We’d be far better off investing now in wind and solar which will pay off handsomely. And create green energy companies that are owned by the public and dilute the power of the enormous oil and gas corporations.

The Tweet that sticks with me most came from George Goehl at National People’s Action. He wrote: "There are three paths we can take 1) Fight to preserve the little we have left 2) Work to revive the old economy or 3) Reimagine what's possible."

As President Obama said “We all owe it to the American people to say what we’re for, not just what we’re against.” There’s also a responsibility to listen. Many Americans are saying loudly what they’re for. And they’re making it happen.

At GRITtv and Yes Magazine, we’re calling it #Commonomics, and I’m reporting on a slew of efforts to build people centered economies, that serves people and the planet. As George says, it is possible to make a more fair world out of our old broken economy, but not if we only tinker. And not if we wait for the President. As Obama said, the union’s strength lies in its people.

You can find my coverage of #Commonomics on www.GRITtv.org or in the pages of Yes Magazine.

Further episodes of The F Word with Laura Flanders

Further podcasts by Laura Flanders

Website of Laura Flanders