I'm thinking about Charlie Wilson's War. For most of the movie Congressman Wilson creates a tidal wave of excited support for covertly training & arming various Afghan forces until they successfully drive out the Soviets. But in the movie's final scenes he couldn't interest his colleagues in the follow-up -- rebuilding schools, roads & bridges, and helping with all the vital, but bland, infrastructure necessary to rebuild after war.
I'm worried I'll do the same this post-election, that I'll return to complacency now that my anxiety of the last 8 (or maybe 28) years subsides. That I'll get disinterested or confused or too overwhelmed by the complexities our own re-building requires and retreat.
So as one way to fight the urge, I'm forcing myself to think about the G20 that's been meeting this week, ostensibly to reshape the global financial markets, hinting at improving the global economic system. I'm not an economist or an expert in any related field. But I'm putting my vision out there, as naive & uninformed & potentially silly as it might be.
Here's what I think should be included in a new global economy:
- No one on this planet should ever have trouble finding enough healthy food & water.
- Everyone should have a comfortable place to live.
- Everyone should have access to a good education.
- Health should be a priority and option available to everyone, utilizing what every culture -- old & new -- has learned about finding & maintaining it.
- Countries should be allowed to participate freely in a global system of trade & commerce only if they abide by certain conditions: (a) their business laws demand protection of human & animal rights, environmental sustainability, as well as profitability; (b) their citizens are guaranteed free healthcare (physical & mental), education, and basic protections from poverty, homelessness, and social isolation; (c) they adopt a holistic way of measuring "progress" that expands from our narrow Gross National/Domestic Product (emphasizing consumption, mass production & markets, and money) to a broader array of indicators, like well-being, happiness, health, vitality, community building, sustainability, as well as security, comfort, and abundance; (d) a mandated 20/25-hour work week, minimum 5-weeks paid vacation, lengthy paid family leave; (e) domestic fiscal policies that encourage full-employment. Countries that don't abide simply can't play.
- Our financial systems should be fully transparent, violators sanctioned quickly, and the rest of us encouraged & rewarded for doing good work, preferably work we enjoy & that others find valuable.
There you go.
