Stronger together

SEIU, a union that organizes mostly service economy workers, does great work. They were among my favorite folks to work with in Santa Barbara - they seemed to attract very sharp and together organizers with a lot of heart. That attitude seems to be pervasive through their whole organization, and their latest web effort is no exception: check out SinceSlicedBread.com. It seemed like a little bit too cute of an idea at first, but the interaction design is really nice so it works better than I expected it might. And you can win huge piles of money!

I took the opportunity to post this summary of the high road...

For the past thirty years, conservatives have defined many Americans' understanding of practically everything about economics. We need a widely understood progressive and democratic alternative to failed right wing, supply-side economic schemes.

Here is one possibility.

Progressive, democratic economics is about expansion: expanding security, expanding opportunity, expanding possibilites, expanding justice and expanding hope. The core moral vision is that society should give everyone the opportunity to develop their own capabilities as fully as possible. The way to get there is to take the high road, which has these six parts:

secure basic freedoms - like housing and health care

invest in the future - schools, basic research and infrastructure

democratize wealth - via strong unions, wage laws and progressive taxes

build the green economy - starting with energy independence

housebreak capitalism - by getting corporate money out of politics

globalize this - provide real leadership and halt the race to the bottom

The high road is the path to an economy that works for everyone!

There are definitely a lot of righties on there, ranging from constructive to angry. Sometimes in the same post even, like the one on mine. After he was done telling me I was full of it, the rest of his critique (which carefully avoided questioning the moral vision) was well thought out and reasonable enough to respond to. Congrats to SEIU for putting together an environment where that sort of interaction happens.