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A Plan to end War and Poverty

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13. The endowments of nonprofit organizations are abolished and the funds are transferred to the non-profit housing bank.

14. Housing prices are to be set by the town assessor and confirmed by a majority vote of the townspeople.  The price of any home is to be kept constant for a minimum period of fifteen years.  All homes vacated are sold to the town, and the town will resell the home to new owners.   Multi-family homes that are not owner-occupied will be sold to the town.  The town may rent housing at a uniform rate, subject to the same fifteen year adjustment period.  Private real estate brokering is abolished.

15. For profit hospitals are abolished and return to non-profit status.  No consideration is made for investors.

16. Public services will be provided on a quota basis.  Water, electricity, telephone, cable and internet are public utilities freely provided, like the roads, library and schools. These things should be maintained for the common good not for private profit.  Fees only apply to usage beyond the quota.

These companies shall be converted to non-profits, subject to universal wage standards, and no consideration will be made for investors.

17. All farm-land is to be preserved.  All mortgages on farmland, ranches or orchards that are involved in the commercial production of food are to be relieved of any mortgage and to remain forever free of a mortgage. 

Redirecting land for farmland use is to be encouraged by local authorities.

18. The expansion of cemeteries and memorials will cease.  No new land is to be allocated for use by the dead.  


Prologue:

It is to be observed that the laws of government fall into three categories; laws that control government, laws that control commerce, and laws that control people.  The former and the later are designed to control madness, for the violent individual and the violent government act similarly.  If there were no madness among men, then no laws would be necessary except the original commandments.  It is because men do not act with self-restraint that governments have been formed, but governments that fail to act with self-restraint are the greatest burden of humanity.  Fear breaks down all self-restraint, and drives all madness.  Fear has an evil twin known as Pride. Every government ever formed has an original story of Pride and a baseline of Fear where a new madness overcame the old madness.  This is the common tragedy of doing the right thing for the wrong reason or doing the wrong thing for the right reason.  Victory is not the same as progress. The slave rises against the slave-master and becomes him. The chains remain, only who is the stronger changes.

The new start on a new land that John Winthrop attempted failed for common reasons; the new nation was a child of the old world and the old ways.  The wise who acted with self-restraint were overwhelmed by the unwise who acted with none.  The choice before us is a common one.  Shall we pursue God’s wisdom through self-restraint or pursue madness through our lusts for money and power?  We cannot serve two masters, and in truth, we cannot serve the false master, either.

We are a fortunate generation, for we have the benefit of hindsight that no other generation has enjoyed.  We have the hands of millions, the minds of millions, and the skills of machines to contribute to our commonwealth.  We have knowledge and discovery and communication abilities that allow men to be a neighbor of one another though they be thousands of miles apart.  Nevertheless, truth thousands of years old remains the truth, and patterns of folly repeated after thousands of years remain folly.  If we do not cooperate, then we struggle. If we do not act wisely, then we act unwisely.  Ideas rule the world, not men.  Ideas guide the hand.  

Money is our invention.  Money requires the application of ‘value’ to things and time.  Inflation is a surge that lays waste to everything in its path.  Numbers are infinite, and in our battle with numbers we have only one advantage: to do the right things for the right reason. If we must use money, then we must use it wisely.

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