Creating an Economic and Political Taskforce
A useful project for AmeriCorps citizens to work on together (I wholeheartedly support the call for meaningful work projects, not just offering stories and sharing views) is creating an economic and political transition taskforce.
Mission of the Transition Taskforce:
#1 Close Failed Banks and Investment Firms
The mission of the transition taskforce will first be to oversee closure of the major banks and Wall Street investment firms that have failed (if they got a government bailout, they failed), and to prosecute the executives who have criminal liability for mismanaging funds.
#2 Investigate and Prosecute Corrupt Government Officials
Then the Transition Taskforce will be authorized to investigate corruption in elected government officials at all levels, to pursue criminal prosecution where appropriate, and to oversee elections to replace these officials. These elections are to be transparent and fair to ensure that every vote is counted fairly. International monitors should be welcomed at these elections to ensure that they are carried out democratically, freely and fairly.
#3 Create a Harmonious International Monetary System: End the Hegemony of the U.S. Dollar
While the housecleaning is being carried out, the transition team could initiate a number of projects to be worked on in a collaborative manner (with people participating from countries all over the world), to create an international monetary system that addresses the issues facing everyone, of living in harmony with our environment and each other. In the pursuit of fairness, an equitable forgiveness of debts and trade agreements could be negotiated using currency swaps instead of continuing the use of the U.S. dollar as the world's foreign currency reserve.
Using Technology to Involve Everyone in the Discussion
This could easily be done in a number of ways, stimulating discussion by people all over the world to come up with a better system for everyone. (The United States cannot make policy today as though it were in geographical isolation. We are one planet, and the U.S. needs to get it together with other people.) Many platforms and media could be used to carry on these discussions and facilitate decision-making, not only the Internet and face to face on Skype or other such programs, but also through podcasts and videos. There could be even be transitional television and radio programs with people coming in live to put in their two cents worth.
Transition Team Guides Global Brainstorming Session
This process has to be open discourse, with everyone jumping in and having their say. Every idea should be considered. This brainstorming session needs to go on for a good while, several months at least, before the taskforce moves to the next transitional phase of consensus building.
Identify People Who Excel at Consensus Building
Consensus building must have great people involved who are really skilled at getting people on the same page with very different ideas and approaches to problems. Are there any people capable of doing this in the entire planet? Perhaps there could be a contest, a highly publicized one, in which trial balloons are floated and people are given a chance to see what they can do. The winners of the contest would be given paid positions to carry out the consensus building phase of creating new systems. This would necessarily involve people from many different countries.
We cannot look to any one leader or even political party or even one country alone to address the problems that we face today. This is an effort that must involve anyone who is willing to apply themselves to the work ahead of us, to steward our planet and have a good world of sufficient supplies, in order for everyone in the world and for all of our children to enjoy a good life.
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