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Green New Deal
- Thread starter mspohr
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MXLRplus
Active Member
China makes >6x more GWh's of Li batteries than the US as of Dec 2019. We are a bit player now. We made that choice a decade ago.
Progressive advocates propose $2T 'green stimulus' plan
Progressive activists are proposing a "green stimulus" plan that would aim to boost the economy through the implementation of environmental reforms in various sectors.
The advocates and academics behind the plan outlined their at least $2 trillion proposal that aims to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and create "green jobs" in an open letter to Congress posted Sunday.
Progressive activists are proposing a "green stimulus" plan that would aim to boost the economy through the implementation of environmental reforms in various sectors.
The advocates and academics behind the plan outlined their at least $2 trillion proposal that aims to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and create "green jobs" in an open letter to Congress posted Sunday.
The Ecological Crisis is a Political Crisis - Resilience
Each of the horsemen presents a significant threat to civilization’s viability. However, oligarchy is particularly important as it deals with a society’s decision-making systems. In his 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or to Succeed, geographer Jared Diamond argued that many past civilizations have collapsed due to their inability to make correct decisions in the face of existential threats.10
Today, oligarchic control over decision-making, and its catastrophic ecological effects, have never been clearer. In the U.S., Donald Trump and his billionaire-dominated cabinet are seeking to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency13, to question climate science14, and to pursue a policy of “American energy dominance” that will dramatically expand production of fossil fuels.15
Radically transforming industrial, capitalist civilization won’t be easy. It will require movements for environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic fairness to come together, and to realize their common interest in dismantling the system of oligarchy and building a democratic, eco-socialist society.24 This “movement of movements” must put aside sectarian squabbles, and finally realize that the goals of economic justice, human rights, and ecological sustainability are all intrinsically linked.
Each of the horsemen presents a significant threat to civilization’s viability. However, oligarchy is particularly important as it deals with a society’s decision-making systems. In his 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or to Succeed, geographer Jared Diamond argued that many past civilizations have collapsed due to their inability to make correct decisions in the face of existential threats.10
Today, oligarchic control over decision-making, and its catastrophic ecological effects, have never been clearer. In the U.S., Donald Trump and his billionaire-dominated cabinet are seeking to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency13, to question climate science14, and to pursue a policy of “American energy dominance” that will dramatically expand production of fossil fuels.15
Radically transforming industrial, capitalist civilization won’t be easy. It will require movements for environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic fairness to come together, and to realize their common interest in dismantling the system of oligarchy and building a democratic, eco-socialist society.24 This “movement of movements” must put aside sectarian squabbles, and finally realize that the goals of economic justice, human rights, and ecological sustainability are all intrinsically linked.
The US just passed the most radical left agenda and a large part of the Green New Deal with full Republican support.
- Universal Basic Income
- Medicare for all
- Government funding and control of industry (Socialism!)
- Modern Monetary Theory (don't worry about how to pay for it)
Granted this is a temporary emergency measure but it does establish much of the GND in practice.
The camel's nose is in the tent. When the Republicans wake up and realize what they have done, there will be great angst but it will be difficult to backtrack.
Interesting article from another planet... The National Review predicts that people won't stand for all these new government benefits.
Coronavirus: Emergency Sacrifices Prove Impossibility of Green New Deal | National Review
Laughable
- Universal Basic Income
- Medicare for all
- Government funding and control of industry (Socialism!)
- Modern Monetary Theory (don't worry about how to pay for it)
Granted this is a temporary emergency measure but it does establish much of the GND in practice.
The camel's nose is in the tent. When the Republicans wake up and realize what they have done, there will be great angst but it will be difficult to backtrack.
Interesting article from another planet... The National Review predicts that people won't stand for all these new government benefits.
Coronavirus: Emergency Sacrifices Prove Impossibility of Green New Deal | National Review
Laughable
Trump is fully on board with MMT
“The beautiful thing about our country is $6.2 trillion—because it is 2.2 plus four [combining the Fed’s action and the cross-party rescue bill]—it’s $6.2 trillion, and we can handle that easily because of who we are, what we are,” Trump said, speaking after the bill’s historic White House signing ceremony, and boasting the package was “twice as large” as any prior relief bill.
Donald Trump And The Fed Are Destroying The U.S. Dollar
“The beautiful thing about our country is $6.2 trillion—because it is 2.2 plus four [combining the Fed’s action and the cross-party rescue bill]—it’s $6.2 trillion, and we can handle that easily because of who we are, what we are,” Trump said, speaking after the bill’s historic White House signing ceremony, and boasting the package was “twice as large” as any prior relief bill.
Donald Trump And The Fed Are Destroying The U.S. Dollar
Commoning as a Pandemic Survival Strategy - Resilience
The pandemic has been horrific, but let’s be candid: It has been one of the most effective political agents to disrupt politics-as-usual and validate new, imaginative possibilities.
Many things are now less contestable: Of course our drug-development system should be revamped so that parasitic corporate monopolies cannot prey upon us with high prices, marketable drugs rather than innovation, and disdain for public health needs. Of course our healthcare system should be accessible to everyone because, as the pandemic is showing, individual well-being is deeply entwined with collective health. Of course we must limit our destruction of ecosystems lest we unleash even greater planetary destabilization through viruses, biodiversity loss, ecosystem decline, and more.
At this juncture, many massive, pivotal choices await us. We must decide to rebuild our provisioning systems on green, eco-resilient terms, not on neoliberal fantasies of unlimited growth and tightly integrated global markets. New/old types of place-based agriculture, commerce, and community must be developed.
The pandemic has been horrific, but let’s be candid: It has been one of the most effective political agents to disrupt politics-as-usual and validate new, imaginative possibilities.
Many things are now less contestable: Of course our drug-development system should be revamped so that parasitic corporate monopolies cannot prey upon us with high prices, marketable drugs rather than innovation, and disdain for public health needs. Of course our healthcare system should be accessible to everyone because, as the pandemic is showing, individual well-being is deeply entwined with collective health. Of course we must limit our destruction of ecosystems lest we unleash even greater planetary destabilization through viruses, biodiversity loss, ecosystem decline, and more.
At this juncture, many massive, pivotal choices await us. We must decide to rebuild our provisioning systems on green, eco-resilient terms, not on neoliberal fantasies of unlimited growth and tightly integrated global markets. New/old types of place-based agriculture, commerce, and community must be developed.
Will sky-high unemployment lead to authoritarianism or progress?
Will sky-high unemployment lead to authoritarianism or progress? | Barry Eichengreen
In the extreme, one can imagine the crisis pounding the last nails into the coffin of the Thatcher-Reagan revolution. The idea that government should divest itself of its equity stake in essential infrastructure has already been abandoned, in Britain in the case of the railways and in the US, prospectively, the airlines. Old shibboleths about the need for budget balance and austerity have gone by the board. We are experiencing the most vivid possible reminder that the private sector, charitable bodies and local government alone can’t be relied for essential services. They can’t even be relied on for an adequate supply of testing swabs, the Trump White House, no less, having organized a military airlift of these last week.
These are the same realizations, it can be argued, that gave rise to the New Deal in the 1930s and the Beverage Report in 1944, which created a very different social, economic and political order than existed before.
Will sky-high unemployment lead to authoritarianism or progress? | Barry Eichengreen
In the extreme, one can imagine the crisis pounding the last nails into the coffin of the Thatcher-Reagan revolution. The idea that government should divest itself of its equity stake in essential infrastructure has already been abandoned, in Britain in the case of the railways and in the US, prospectively, the airlines. Old shibboleths about the need for budget balance and austerity have gone by the board. We are experiencing the most vivid possible reminder that the private sector, charitable bodies and local government alone can’t be relied for essential services. They can’t even be relied on for an adequate supply of testing swabs, the Trump White House, no less, having organized a military airlift of these last week.
These are the same realizations, it can be argued, that gave rise to the New Deal in the 1930s and the Beverage Report in 1944, which created a very different social, economic and political order than existed before.
Jobs Aren’t Being Destroyed This Fast Elsewhere. Why Is That? Opinion | Jobs Aren’t Being Destroyed This Fast Elsewhere. Why Is That?
This dramatic spike in jobless claims is an American peculiarity. In almost no other country are jobs being destroyed so fast. Why? Because throughout the world, governments are protecting employment. Workers keep their jobs, even in industries that are shut down. The government covers most of their wage through direct payments to employers. Wages are, in effect, socialized for the duration of the crisis.
This situation for laid-off workers would be bad enough if it were not aggravated by a second American peculiarity. As they are losing their jobs, many workers are also losing their employer-provided health insurance — and now find themselves faced with the Kafkaesque task of obtaining coverage on their own.
The bill passed last week does nothing to reduce co-pays, deductibles or premiums on the insurance exchanges; nor does it reduce the price of COBRA. The next bill should introduce a Covidcare for All program. This federal program would guarantee access to Covid-19 care at no cost to all U.S. residents — no matter their employment status, age or immigration status. Fighting the pandemic starts with eradicating the spread of the virus, which means that everybody must be covered.
Covidcare for All would also cover the cost of Covid-19 treatments for people who are insured. Insurance companies would be barred in return from hiking premiums, which might otherwise spike as much as 40 percent next year.
This dramatic spike in jobless claims is an American peculiarity. In almost no other country are jobs being destroyed so fast. Why? Because throughout the world, governments are protecting employment. Workers keep their jobs, even in industries that are shut down. The government covers most of their wage through direct payments to employers. Wages are, in effect, socialized for the duration of the crisis.
This situation for laid-off workers would be bad enough if it were not aggravated by a second American peculiarity. As they are losing their jobs, many workers are also losing their employer-provided health insurance — and now find themselves faced with the Kafkaesque task of obtaining coverage on their own.
The bill passed last week does nothing to reduce co-pays, deductibles or premiums on the insurance exchanges; nor does it reduce the price of COBRA. The next bill should introduce a Covidcare for All program. This federal program would guarantee access to Covid-19 care at no cost to all U.S. residents — no matter their employment status, age or immigration status. Fighting the pandemic starts with eradicating the spread of the virus, which means that everybody must be covered.
Covidcare for All would also cover the cost of Covid-19 treatments for people who are insured. Insurance companies would be barred in return from hiking premiums, which might otherwise spike as much as 40 percent next year.
Agreed, but to be fair, we need to exclude groups that Darwin though would be around for the long term:
- Spring break kids who said "If I get corona, I get corona".
- Church goers who were told to not gather in groups and defied it... they can get better via prayer so there would be no medical cost to cover there...
- Mardi Graw attendees... weren't they told not to get into groups?!?
TheTalkingMule
Distributed Energy Enthusiast
I left my corporate job 6 months back and checked in with a few people last week. A bunch of furloughs and a company-wide 25% salary trim......for US employees. Obviously that's illegal in nearly all other first world countries we operate in. What a joke.
This is completely logical and politically impossible in the United States. We'll likely have some kind of cost reimbursement for hospitals that treat the uninsured.
Based on the speed at which we're testing people, that legislation will come some time around September.
Sad that the US is the only developed country without universal health care.
Huh? I picked the UK at random:
(hint: the US is 5-6x larger than the UK.)
Surge in UK Unemployment Underway as DWP Reports 950K New Benefit Claimants in Just Two Weeks
Well 66 millions vs 330 million makes it an easy 5X.
And 950k is pretty close to 1 million.
So "5 million" "new welfare" in 2 weeks vs 10 million new unemployment clams over 2 weeks in the US. Different metric for sure but not different world numbers really.
I believe in England, they are paying 80% of salary which sounds a lot like the US unemployment insurance.
I have a strong suspicion that there are way more cracks in the US with less people qualifying for unemployment than in the UK.
Job destruction is happening elsewhere but probably not to the same extent as the US. Now in other countries, they might call it something different but either way, people are out of work and government is trying to pick up the slack.
And 950k is pretty close to 1 million.
So "5 million" "new welfare" in 2 weeks vs 10 million new unemployment clams over 2 weeks in the US. Different metric for sure but not different world numbers really.
I believe in England, they are paying 80% of salary which sounds a lot like the US unemployment insurance.
I have a strong suspicion that there are way more cracks in the US with less people qualifying for unemployment than in the UK.
Job destruction is happening elsewhere but probably not to the same extent as the US. Now in other countries, they might call it something different but either way, people are out of work and government is trying to pick up the slack.
Looks like GND ideas are alive in the UK
John McDonnell calls for wealth tax to pay for coronavirus measures
John McDonnell calls for wealth tax to pay for coronavirus measures
John McDonnell has called for a wealth tax on the richest in society and a windfall levy on the banking industry to fund the government’s emergency response to the coronavirus crisis, as the social and economic costs of the outbreak rapidly mount.
In his final act as shadow chancellor before Labour elects a new leader on Saturday, the shadow chancellor said the rebuilding job for Britain after Covid-19 should prioritise fully funded, publicly owned and democratically controlled public services.
John McDonnell calls for wealth tax to pay for coronavirus measures
John McDonnell calls for wealth tax to pay for coronavirus measures
John McDonnell has called for a wealth tax on the richest in society and a windfall levy on the banking industry to fund the government’s emergency response to the coronavirus crisis, as the social and economic costs of the outbreak rapidly mount.
In his final act as shadow chancellor before Labour elects a new leader on Saturday, the shadow chancellor said the rebuilding job for Britain after Covid-19 should prioritise fully funded, publicly owned and democratically controlled public services.
Out of the coronavirus crisis, a new kind of Britain must be born
Out of the coronavirus crisis, a new kind of Britain must be born | John McDonnell
Even the most diehard Tory neoliberal free marketeer would acknowledge that if the crisis has taught us anything, it is that anything is possible. There is no dogma that cannot be thrown overboard. The crisis has taught us what values we cherish the most, and which we would want to build society upon after the crisis.
If we are to build the resilience to cope with any further waves of this virus, or other future unknown threats, our new society needs to be built on fully funded, publicly owned and democratically controlled public services.
What this crisis has also exposed is that so many of our fellow citizens and their families do not have the financial resilience to deal with an unexpected hardship imposed upon them. Our new society must eradicate the individual economic insecurity that comes from low pay, precarious work and the employment status, for many, of being little more than a chattel, capable of being discarded with no say and no control.
Plus we have the greatest crisis of all facing us: the existential threat to human existence from the climate crisis. That’s why we need to rebuild our society post-Covid-19 not with another decade of austerity, but with a decade-long programme of intensive investment in our social and physical infrastructure to end our dependency on fossil fuels once and for all, and construct a green economy, sharing the wealth and quality of life that it engenders.
Out of the coronavirus crisis, a new kind of Britain must be born | John McDonnell
Even the most diehard Tory neoliberal free marketeer would acknowledge that if the crisis has taught us anything, it is that anything is possible. There is no dogma that cannot be thrown overboard. The crisis has taught us what values we cherish the most, and which we would want to build society upon after the crisis.
If we are to build the resilience to cope with any further waves of this virus, or other future unknown threats, our new society needs to be built on fully funded, publicly owned and democratically controlled public services.
What this crisis has also exposed is that so many of our fellow citizens and their families do not have the financial resilience to deal with an unexpected hardship imposed upon them. Our new society must eradicate the individual economic insecurity that comes from low pay, precarious work and the employment status, for many, of being little more than a chattel, capable of being discarded with no say and no control.
Plus we have the greatest crisis of all facing us: the existential threat to human existence from the climate crisis. That’s why we need to rebuild our society post-Covid-19 not with another decade of austerity, but with a decade-long programme of intensive investment in our social and physical infrastructure to end our dependency on fossil fuels once and for all, and construct a green economy, sharing the wealth and quality of life that it engenders.
‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?
‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?
For years, in mainstream politics the conventional line – on everything from healthcare to basic living expenses such as housing – has been that even if the world has its problems, expansive government intervention is not a feasible solution. Instead, we have been told that what works best are “marketplace” solutions, which give large roles to corporations motivated not by outdated notions like “the public good” but by a desire to make a profit. But then the virus started spreading, governments spent trillions in days – even going so far as to write cheques directly to citizens – and suddenly the question of what was feasible felt different.
From this perspective, the task today is not to fight the virus in order to return to business as usual, because business as usual was already a disaster. The goal, instead, is to fight the virus – and in doing so transform business as usual into something more humane and secure.
In her 2009 book, A Paradise Built in Hell, Solnit used case studies of disasters – including the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the 2001 terror attacks and Hurricane Katrina – to argue that emergencies aren’t just moments when bad things get worse, or when people inevitably become more scared, suspicious and self-centred. Instead she foregrounded the ways in which disasters opened up human reserves of improvisation, solidarity and resolve, pockets of purpose and joy, even in the midst of loss and pain. The book was not a call to celebrate disaster – but to pay attention to the possibilities it might contain, and how it might shake us loose from old ways. In Solnit’s telling, “official” disaster responses had a tendency to muck things up by treating people as part of the problem to be managed, not an invaluable part of the solution.
In this, the optimists believe, there is hope that we might begin to see the world differently. Maybe we can view our problems as shared, and society as more than just a mass of individuals competing against each other for wealth and standing. Maybe, in short, we can understand that the logic of the market should not dominate as many spheres of human existence as we currently allow it to.
‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?
For years, in mainstream politics the conventional line – on everything from healthcare to basic living expenses such as housing – has been that even if the world has its problems, expansive government intervention is not a feasible solution. Instead, we have been told that what works best are “marketplace” solutions, which give large roles to corporations motivated not by outdated notions like “the public good” but by a desire to make a profit. But then the virus started spreading, governments spent trillions in days – even going so far as to write cheques directly to citizens – and suddenly the question of what was feasible felt different.
From this perspective, the task today is not to fight the virus in order to return to business as usual, because business as usual was already a disaster. The goal, instead, is to fight the virus – and in doing so transform business as usual into something more humane and secure.
In her 2009 book, A Paradise Built in Hell, Solnit used case studies of disasters – including the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the 2001 terror attacks and Hurricane Katrina – to argue that emergencies aren’t just moments when bad things get worse, or when people inevitably become more scared, suspicious and self-centred. Instead she foregrounded the ways in which disasters opened up human reserves of improvisation, solidarity and resolve, pockets of purpose and joy, even in the midst of loss and pain. The book was not a call to celebrate disaster – but to pay attention to the possibilities it might contain, and how it might shake us loose from old ways. In Solnit’s telling, “official” disaster responses had a tendency to muck things up by treating people as part of the problem to be managed, not an invaluable part of the solution.
In this, the optimists believe, there is hope that we might begin to see the world differently. Maybe we can view our problems as shared, and society as more than just a mass of individuals competing against each other for wealth and standing. Maybe, in short, we can understand that the logic of the market should not dominate as many spheres of human existence as we currently allow it to.
Coronavirus Spells the End of the Neoliberal Era. What’s Next? - Resilience
If Covid-19 were spreading across a stable and resilient world, its impact could be abrupt but contained. Leaders would consult together; economies disrupted temporarily; people would make do for a while with changed circumstances—and then, after the shock, look forward to getting back to normal. That’s not, however, the world in which we live. Instead, this coronavirus is revealing the structural faults of a system that have been papered over for decades as they’ve been steadily worsening. Gaping economic inequalities, rampant ecological destruction, and pervasive political corruption are all results of unbalanced systems relying on each other to remain precariously poised. Now, as one system destabilizes, expect others to tumble down in tandem in a cascade known by researchers as “synchronous failure.”
During normal times, out of all the possible ways to organize society, there is only a limited range of ideas considered acceptable for mainstream political discussion—known as the Overton window. Covid-19 has blown the Overton window wide open. In just a few weeks, we’ve seen political and economic ideas seriously discussed that had previously been dismissed as fanciful or utterly unacceptable: universal basic income, government intervention to house the homeless, and state surveillance on individual activity, to name just a few.
The value system of neoliberalism, which has since become entrenched in global mainstream discourse, holds that humans are individualistic, selfish, calculating materialists, and because of this, unrestrained free-market capitalism provides the best framework for every kind of human endeavor. Through their control of government, finance, business, and media, neoliberal adherents have succeeded in transforming the world into a globalized market-based system, loosening regulatory controls, weakening social safety nets, reducing taxes, and virtually demolishing the power of organized labor.
If we are truly to “shift course away from our failing trajectory,” the new era must be defined, at its deepest level, not merely by the political or economic choices being made, but by a revolution in values. It must be an era where the core human values of fairness, mutual aid, and compassion are paramount—extending beyond the local neighborhood to state and national government, to the global community of humans, and ultimately to the community of all life. If we can change the basis of our global civilization from one that is wealth-affirming to one that is life-affirming, then we have a chance to create a flourishing future for humanity and the living Earth.
If Covid-19 were spreading across a stable and resilient world, its impact could be abrupt but contained. Leaders would consult together; economies disrupted temporarily; people would make do for a while with changed circumstances—and then, after the shock, look forward to getting back to normal. That’s not, however, the world in which we live. Instead, this coronavirus is revealing the structural faults of a system that have been papered over for decades as they’ve been steadily worsening. Gaping economic inequalities, rampant ecological destruction, and pervasive political corruption are all results of unbalanced systems relying on each other to remain precariously poised. Now, as one system destabilizes, expect others to tumble down in tandem in a cascade known by researchers as “synchronous failure.”
During normal times, out of all the possible ways to organize society, there is only a limited range of ideas considered acceptable for mainstream political discussion—known as the Overton window. Covid-19 has blown the Overton window wide open. In just a few weeks, we’ve seen political and economic ideas seriously discussed that had previously been dismissed as fanciful or utterly unacceptable: universal basic income, government intervention to house the homeless, and state surveillance on individual activity, to name just a few.
The value system of neoliberalism, which has since become entrenched in global mainstream discourse, holds that humans are individualistic, selfish, calculating materialists, and because of this, unrestrained free-market capitalism provides the best framework for every kind of human endeavor. Through their control of government, finance, business, and media, neoliberal adherents have succeeded in transforming the world into a globalized market-based system, loosening regulatory controls, weakening social safety nets, reducing taxes, and virtually demolishing the power of organized labor.
If we are truly to “shift course away from our failing trajectory,” the new era must be defined, at its deepest level, not merely by the political or economic choices being made, but by a revolution in values. It must be an era where the core human values of fairness, mutual aid, and compassion are paramount—extending beyond the local neighborhood to state and national government, to the global community of humans, and ultimately to the community of all life. If we can change the basis of our global civilization from one that is wealth-affirming to one that is life-affirming, then we have a chance to create a flourishing future for humanity and the living Earth.
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