The Progressive Agenda

A New Order has rung in and like it or not we are now in an age with overt lying, misinformation, and gas lighting. The culprits are plentiful throughout our society that include government, business, and foreign affairs. This is not a clean cut partisan problem as it infiltrates all of government though not necessarily every individual in public service. This has polarized our society into 3 distinct segments: 1) those who manipulate circumstances to achieve a gain; 2) those who benefit from the manipulator’s actions; and 3) those who are harmed by the manipulator’s actions.

In the case of #1 and #2, there is no impetus of change of status quo, other than to push to remove restrictions (e.g., regulations, policy, and oversight) that slow the amass of additional benefits, which is at the exploitation of #3.

In the case of #3, there are two camps. The First Camp believes the manipulator is culpable and should be fought in order to achieve a just outcome. Whereas, The Second Camp, mistakenly believes the manipulator’s actions will benefit them. They have been duped by lies, misinformation, and gas lighting and agree to the false reality and promises the manipulator has made. This camp is a lost cause due to the fact they will never hold the manipulator accountable for any actions that distract from the achievement of the stated goal. This state is achieved because the manipulator will always find someone else to blame for not achieving the promises made. The only way this camp will change, is if they are personally exploited and tag the outcome to the manipulator. 

Therefore, the only segment that can marshal change is The First Camp. This is the Progressive segment; While this camp has existed previously, it has been loosely banded without a cohesive agenda. What follows is the blueprint for The Progressive Agenda.

Accountability is central to any form of a well-run business or government; this includes accountability for actions, words, and most importantly results. Until recently, the traditional metrics used to gauge the performance of the president and administration were mainly indicators of prevailing economic conditions and popularity. In the current environment, the press and various activist groups are struggling to hold this administration accountable in a consistent and productive manner. The noise around truth, diplomacy, and humanity has low resonation in the New Order and does not effectively create the platform for governance; rather it becomes an emotional and frustrated battle cry for change. Therefore, if Progressives are going to marshal sustainable change, then accountability must be rethought.

A Progressive understands that when individuals are not allowed to achieve their full potential, society suffers as a whole; in other words, humanity is the engine for innovation, economic value, and the foundation for sustainability. Diversity is a cornerstone of success and represents progress. Those who do not have a Progressive agenda will argue that moving toward a more diverse culture squeezes out other hard working Americans. This argument has been largely disproven. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/us/immigrants-arent-taking-americans-jobs-new-study-finds.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/02/10/business-gender-diversity-solved-more-women-means-more-profits/#7c422719170f

Protection of the Working Class

Consumer consumption in America is roughly 70% of GDP; This means the working class’ ability to strive and achieve the American dream is inextricably tied to sustainable growth. The ability to effectively measure how this is actually progressing can be gauged with certain metrics like unemployment rate, labor participation, inflation, and home ownership. But there is much more that needs to be done to understand how the working class is progressing, what challenges are inhibiting them from achievement, and how programs are or are not helping to remove obstacles. This last point is critical because it assumes that over time programs that were intended to have positive consequences could result in unintended negative consequences and could further institutionalize bad policy and behavior that exploits individuals rather than enables them to progress.

The intersection of Democracy and Capitalism has required government to intervene so that business does not create wealth at the exploitation of the working class and the environment. Throughout history this has been the case from slave trading and agriculture that relied on the exploitation of an entire race; and then again at the turn of the last century in the Industrial Revolution, where business men controlled capital and exploited the worker along with the environment. The Progressive agenda believes unbridled capitalism will ultimately destroy the engine of growth, consumers, because without protection, they are exploited to achieve the ends.   

Just to be clear on this point, profits do not necessarily equal sustained economic growth. We’ve seen that play out over the last decade as many companies redeployed capital including profits back into the pockets of shareholders through stock buy backs and dividends. This concentrated wealth in the hands of few, and did not translate to wage growth for many in society. Economic history has demonstrated that making rich people richer does not trickle wealth to the vast part of the working society. Sustainable economic growth comes from consumption, which is spend from government and consumers, and investment from business. 

It is long understood that what is measured is what is improved, simply because there is new focus on a problem. Therefore, selecting the right things to measure will determine where focus, innovation, investment go to solve society’s most critical problems.

The Progressive Agenda has the objective of having “just the right amount of government” to ensure that capitalism is not unbridled, does not exploit the worker or the consumer, and provides the path for every individual to reach their full potential. 

A New Approach to Measuring Success

At each stage of human lifecycle, there are critical factors that enable individuals to reach their full potential. Key measures should be developed around the lifecycle to understand how well critical success factors are working or not to the benefit of the individual. We live in a dynamic world so it’s essential that the measures are reviewed to understand if 1) progress is continuing; 2) the right things are being measured; 3) there is a role that government can play in removing obstacles to create a path for success. What follows is the start of a framework for redefining success and transparency along with platform priorities.

The first lifecycle is Children and the measurement of progress needs to encapsulate the basic achievements of this lifecycle. These elements must be sustained throughout all future lifecycles and form the base for a strong society. Physical Health should be measured and trended to demonstrate if our children are progressing positively. Stats that show a deterioration in children’s health need to identify and effectively address the root cause of the problems. Government must provide the scorecard and create transparency on its role in ensuring healthy programming that results in healthy children. Environment: The quality of the air, water, and environment in which we live is essential to healthy development. We can measure the effect of compromised environments on humans from the respiratory system to brain development. We can see the devastation of environments in countries where environment was not a priority for public health. Unbridled capitalism seeks to exploit every means to achieve its ultimate objective of profit. Therefore, the role of government must be to create the tension with oversight and policy that regulates business in a manner that is consistent with health priorities supported by science. Drugs both illicit and legal have always plagued societies. Governments must ensure aggressively capitalistic agendas do not put our children at risk. The facts should weigh in to designing effective programing that gets to the root of the problem and provides options to keep kids healthy and safe.   

Mental Health: there are more children being diagnosed today with cognitive functioning challenges than ever before. The good news is that they are being diagnosed. Once these children are diagnosed, then they can be tracked to get the help they need which can range from therapy, medication, and special education. The effectiveness of discovering the disorder and the ensuing plan can be measured to understand what is working and what could be better. For the children that go undiagnosed, the problem to them and society is costly and tragic. They are at risk of not achieving their full potential; in fact, they are at greatest risk in poor communities, of failing out of school, and becoming part of the supply chain that feeds the criminal system; it is estimated that between 20-45% of inmates have undiagnosed ADHD; https://add.org/undiagnosed-adult-adhd-a-high-cost-for-society/ The resulting tragedy of a ballooning two million incarcerated, represent a gross failure of society to provide early diagnosis and a path of success. Therefore, for society to be successful in the charter of enabling the individual to reach full potential, there must be an early focus in this lifecycle to ensure children are properly enabled. 

Safety programs that measure welfare of children especially in at risk communities are essential. The role of government in providing the protection for children at risk and families at risk, such as battered women.   

Academic Achievement standards should be used as a signal that more focus, attention, and innovation should be brought to those schools that are below average; while schools that are above average should be reviewed to understand the principles they are using to achieve results; On first blush, this could reveal that wealthier communities can fund their schools with additional programs, individualized attention, enrichment, smaller class sizes, etc. that lead to better performance; while schools in underperforming communities don’t have access to the same type of funding to provide the extra investment as seen in the wealthier districts. This disparity is incredibly important to recognize with quantifiable data in order to make the case for the “right” investment for the underperforming schools. The Progressive Agenda requires accountability for investment; therefore, the underperforming schools would have specific plans to execute associated with investment to increase academic performance and that progress would be measured routinely to ensure the right focus is creating the desired results. In addition, in order for such programs to continue to be supported by government and promoted by lawmakers, it would be essential to proactively communicate the positive or constructive results and next steps in the program. This mitigates reckless propaganda that government programs are wasteful and ineffective.

The second lifecycle phase is College and Trade Age Young Adults. An essential foundation for productivity is Skill Building; Assuming that young adults entering this stage have enjoyed the benefits of the Children lifecycle previously mentioned, and those elements are continued to be provided throughout this stage, then the focus of this stage is opportunity to build skills that will result in the ability to work and become a productive part of society; This means being an input to creation of economic value and sharing in the wealth through good wages and benefits that allow the pursuit of the American dream.   The government has to collaborate with business and education to understand how work will change and what that means for the workforce; Automation, robotics, AI, autonomous vehicles, will be the next Killer App, rendering an entire segment of manufacturing, labor, and service people unemployed; From service workers to truck drivers, the next five years will be highly disruptive and will require investment to transition the workforce. Traditional manufacturing jobs will go the way of automation with engineers performing QA and running the systems. 

Financial Means is the ability for individuals to invest in a formal education, which is critical to long term economic sustainability. Just measuring the student debt held by society is observing the problem, and not identifying where changes need to be made to progress. Free Education: Every major city should have a no cost option for degreed programs that include trades such as electrician, plumber, esthetician, etc; In addition, there should be at least one online program that is a no cost option funded in part by government; These no cost programs will never take the place of private and public schools because Americans love choice and many have the means to pay the premium. The measure of success of our society must be the number of people it is able to successfully educate since we believe that is the foundation to becoming a productive tax paying participant and consumer. There is a greater return on an individual who has education and opportunity to work and pay taxes, then an individual who is idle. Ability to Shed School Loans; our society allows business to declare bankruptcy, pay pennies on the dollar to creditors, and in some cases nothing at all. This option MUST be a right for individuals with school loans. Help to Find the Best Path; we live in a free country with the right to make our own decisions on what path is best; but there is tremendous complexity in understanding all the options, requirements, and help available. There should be funded help that provides guidance on options for individuals and families trying to match the right investment of time and money in education.

The third lifecycle is Adult; Assuming that the foundation has been established for Health, Safety, and Skills, the next phase is the ability to become a productive member of society while pursuing the American dream. Fair Labor Laws; history demonstrates that unbridled capitalism leads to exploitation of the worker. We have witnessed slow wage growth, minimum wage that has not kept up with the cost of living, and a material gap between CEO pay and the average employed worker. These metrics demonstrate the problem but don’t reveal where the root is and therefore, what can be done to fix the problem. In and of itself, the fact that more people make more money is not a burning issue. However, an entire segment of society is witnessing within generation the degradation of economic wealth, with a new generation on target for reduced economic achievement than its parent generation. This dynamic over time erodes consumption, stalls GDP growth, leads to civil unrest, and discontent with the status quo government. After all, it is the government that allows business to change the rules and enact laws that make it easier or harder to exploit the worker. Women’s Rights- equal pay for equal work should be the minimum expectation starting today. Companies should be required to report on this annually and explain what the plan is to close the gap; Progressive organizations today have proactively taken steps to self-audit and correct;   Access to Capital; capitalistic societies require capital to grow and expand; at the individual level, capital is required to fuel consumption, start new businesses, and develop new skills; Without regulation and oversight, business has demonstrated they will lean toward predatory practices that take advantage of individuals by over charging them for capital and/or denying capital.

The fourth lifecycle is Elderly. The aging segment of our society deserves protection to pursue a quality life. This requires safeguarding entitlements (e.g., Social Security, Medicare) and providing oversight where this segment is most vulnerable: financially and physically. Ensuring the physical well-being of every senior who is placed in long and short term care must be a priority. Transparency is essential to uncover weaknesses that exploit this vulnerable class.

Conclusion

We must be able to hold government accountable for enabling and protecting individuals, lest the vast majority will be exploited by the capitalistic magnates, as history has shown over again. We must not allow our government to become overrun with capitalistic magnates, because they will subvert our democracy, dismantle oversight and regulation, and enable the exploitation of individuals and capital at the ultimate demise of society. In the end, our success or failure as a society will not be measured by how many millionaires or billionaires we created. But rather by our ability to unlock the greatness in individuals and advance humanity.