The Devil's Bartender: Bullet Point Manifesto

I wrote this a couple of years ago so there may be flaws... (and so much for the 'Bullet Points'!)

Bullet Point Manifesto

Ø Local- Toronto
Ø National- Canada
Ø International

Local

Ø grey water on outside taps, incl. Fire hydrants, sprinklers, etc.

Ø subway line to Pearson International Airport, York University, and Square One in Mississauga.

Ø Link GO service with TTC, ie, much cheaper fixed rate for unified trips

Ø More windmills, less coal/oil

Ø Keep hydro, water, and garbage publically owned.

Ø More bike lanes. Reduce 4 lane roads to three or even two to accommodate this.

Ø Pedestrianize Kensington market. This leads to an increase in revenue for business’ and a more ‘people friendly’ city. (See Galway, Ireland for an example)

Ø Pedestrianize other areas of the city

Ø Reduce advertising starting with public spaces (ttc, garbage cans, etc) The city ends up with the same amount of money but costing the consumer/citizen more since revenue is collected indirectly through corporations.

Ø Give incentives (eg- tax breaks) to people who live close to their work.

Ø Make affordable housing available. Build it if necessary. Shelters are not a long term solution.

National

Ø 1000 people die every summer from sickness related to poor air quality. This, combined with the number of long term sick which are difficult to enumerate, cause a huge drain on Canada’s health care system. Clean air is needed, better transportation is a giant step towards this goal.

Ø Government vehicles that are energy conscious. One of Gore’s plans if elected was to make all government related vehicles in Washington solar powered. This would give the industry the boost necessary to go into mass production and reduce costs for the consumer.

Ø National gas tax increase. The private sector collects this on behalf of the state/citizens already so there would be no increase in administrative fees.

Ø Ban the private ownership of roads.

Ø Nationalize all oil reserves. This is too important of a commodity to be left in the hands of a few businessmen. It should belong to the people, to the state.

Ø Nationalize the airlines.

Ø Nationalize health care completely. Prescriptions included. Faze out corporate benefits. It leads to corruption and a two tier system.

Ø Make healthcare a part of school curriculum to minimize misuse of the system/ encourage people to take care of minor ailments themselves.

Ø Make Canada a republic, the governor general the new, elected, head of state.

Ø Create a state (CBC) newspaper.

Ø Like the church and the monarchy before, corporate interests need to be separated from the state. Business is just one of the many areas that comprise a society.

Ø Put a Garbage tax on goods and services sold. Germany has already done this with great success.

International

Ø Create a world currency

Ø Create a world credit union

Ø Make the United Nations (UN) an active democracy. Currently it debates and votes like a democracy but acts like a security council.

Ø Create an international minimum wage based on Purchasing Power Parity (ppp) (help build local economies, eliminate sweatshop/slave labour, reduce gap between 1st and 3rd world, etc)

Ø Collect an international tax from corporations that trade internationally to encourage local production/consumption. (I’ve since discovered that this is referred to as the Tobin Tax. Canada is one of the few countries that support this)

Ø Ban ETZ’s.

Ø Encourage unifications.

Ø Make international health care and education a right. (Lots of talk about this, not many results)

Ø Globalize oil fields/ production. Make it the UN’s jurisdiction.

Ø Look into doing the same for water- the contested resource of the future.

Ø Poll tax for the elites to the UN. If , for example, a billionaire were forced to pay a 99% poll tax on their net worth they would still have ten million dollars ($10,000,000) (Bare in mind that there is nothing special about these people. There are cab drivers in Toronto with PhD’s and 47% of toronto’s bread bank users have university degrees. There is no shortage of intelligent and talented people on this planet.)

Ø Money, resources, tools for production, etc, in the hands of a few is detrimental to every level of the economy. Redistrubution of the aforementioned is necessary for real progress and a real economy.