New solutions needed amid vacuum of Dem, GOP leadership
Tino Rozzo
Socialist for Congress (NJ Second District)
Wednesday, 18 June 2008

I have been following the issues of poverty and business. I can't help but become angry at times. The solutions are there yet you will not hear much about them. Cumberland County has many problems, and they are mounting.

The Republicrats will not offer real solutions, but only further Band-Aids to the problems. Here are some solutions:

• The federal government must establish a system that provides a livable universal income.
• The departments for welfare and food assistance should become departments of public works.
• Rather than build new sports stadiums and convention centers, concentrate on providing affordable housing for all.
• Reduce the workweek to 32 hours and introduce a living wage.
• Nationalize the major corporations and institute share-the-wealth programs.

And there are many more initiatives not even discussed by the Democrats. As Norman Thomas once said, "They (Democrats) bring the programs out on a stretcher." Their social programs of the '60s and '70s didn't work, because they were about people management rather than freedom.

The Democrats lost their majority and credibility for the next 40 years. And we suffered because of it by allowing the Republicans to destroy us. The vision of Robert Kennedy went unfulfilled.

Now we have the business community complaining about affordable housing getting in the way of business. Mankind should be our business. The business community has had it too good for too long here in New Jersey. There has been reckless building, environmental damage and gentrification (displacing the poor for the rich). These policies have contributed to global warming, agitated the crime rate and destroyed the lives of innocent people -- those who make low incomes and live on public assistance and Social Security.

Cut business taxes? The rich already get too many tax breaks, and the rich have ruined the state. Because of it, the poor and hard-working people must pick up the tab and pay for their benefits and privileges. The rich are a drain on our tax dollars.

We the people need a tax break, and a break from all things capitalist.

Let's grow jobs. How about Vineland becoming a livable sustainable community with an ecological industrial park, complete with cottage industries, worker owned co-operatives and public works for infrastructure and ecology.

How about fewer strip malls, stadiums and convention centers and more job development? Some business people think they have a constitutional right to destroy our environment. New Jersey is a small state with way too many social problems to be ignored.

Democrats speak of voter rights. Those rights aren't extended beyond the Democratic Party. It is our responsibility to vote for the benefit of society. It is time for real change.

This article can be found online at www.thedailyjournal.com.