Paradigm Shift

Without getting into the politics and personalities involved on the national stage, I think America is entering into a new phase of the Social Contract.  For the last nearly 30 years we have been satisfied with the notions of unfettered private ambition and limited government regulation.  Recent events are foring us as a society and as a nation to reconsider the social fabric and the fundamental responsibilities of citizens and institutions.

My great hope is that in the years ahead we will see:

- a return to fiscal sanity, achieved through corporate pay caps and regulation.

- a return to safe banking, wherein risky ventures are detached from institutional saving and lending.

- a true universal health care system for all Americans, in which we recognize that the ongoing health of the citizenry is at least as vital as the health of roads and other infrastructure.

- the de-politicizing of the Washington bureaucracy so that government can spend more time solving and debating problems and LESS time trying simply to win the next election cycle.

- a re-working of the electoral college and primary systems.

- a huge shift in favor or renewable energy and green technology.

- a full and fair accounting of torture, domestic wire tapping, and enemy detention - in such a manner that the guilty are prosecuted and these crimes are not repeated in a succeeding generation or administration.

- a vigorous effort to increase the quality and availability of broadband internet access.

- high speed rail and other 21st Century technologies to improve transit and trade.