Besides increasing economic fairness, an American national community characterized by full employment, decent wages, and economic opportunity for all would also provide the basis for greater racial and ethnic harmony, reduced police/community friction, and the elevation of social justice from an abstract ideal to a routine code of conduct. Ultimately, too, involvement in a conscious effort to build a caring American community could well have international implications. By generating a more compassionate mindset toward "the other," it could help obliterate the barriers between nations that throughout history have been the product of short-sighted self-interest and an attitude of "us against them." In the end, the political ideal to which all progressives seem to aspire is first a society, and then a world, in which the quality of each individual's life is measured in significant part by the quality of life of all his neighbors.
That's also, I believe, the supreme value of Bernie Sanders's program to redress America's income inequality.
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