Slicing Your Bread ?

“Sliced Bread” is a wonderful example of how we can begin building a vision for a new America based on non-partisan politics. If you don’t know about this site, here is an introduction: See http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/about/overview

Since Sliced Bread is a national call for fresh, common sense ideas - a call for ideas that will strengthen our economy and improve the day-to-day lives of working men and women and their families. It’s also a place where ordinary Americans and experts alike can discuss the important economic issues of our times.

Our goal: An America where the American Dream is alive and well in the new global economy of the 21st Century. Global competition and the fast-changing world of work create opportunities and challenges that require bold thinking from political leaders. Not only is Washington not delivering, but policies are made without talking to ordinary Americans — yet who is better equipped to offer common sense ideas?

Since Sliced Bread seeks ideas that are original and creative, have the best chance of practical success and would most effectively:. . . .

Between October 5 and December 5, 2005, ordinary Americans submitted more than 22,000 ideas to SinceSlicedBread.com—and launched an unprecedented national conversation about how to strengthen the economy and improve life for working men and women and their families.

Here (http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/finalists) are the 21 finalists that the judges announced at the beginning of the first round of voting, on January 9, 2006.

++++++++

On Easter Sunday, 2006, Robyn Blumner, columnist for the Saint Petersburg Times, offered her own list of four key issues: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/16/Columns/Some_simple_ways_to_b.shtml

- Education: I don't understand why the richest country in the world isn't producing the best-educated citizenry. By skimping on education, we are handicapping the future for our workers and nation.

There is no real trick to raising student achievement. It takes excellent teachers, a small student-teacher ratio, a vibrant and challenging curriculum and a lengthening of the school day and calendar. (How many of us still need the summers off to help bring in the crop?) Vocational education for those not college-bound should be universal.

We should substantially increase teacher pay while raising teacher qualifications. You want to teach physics in high school? Then you should hold at least a masters degree in the subject. But then your pay should be commensurate with engineers'.

Schools should provide a place where children could be engaged all day long, from say 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with either academic or athletic pursuits. Then working parents wouldn't have to struggle to find after-school care. I'm not suggesting that the formal school day be that long, just that schools offer constructive supervision before and after class, giving working parents a valuable benefit and keeping kids engaged in broadening activities.

- Transportation: Our nation's fixation with the car has taken us all for a ride. We are dependent on unfriendly and undemocratic nations for our energy supply, we pollute the environment and warm the planet, we have paved over America's fruited plains and we waste our lives stuck in traffic.

Since a new rail system isn't practical, a better idea for today's reality is Rapid Bus Transit. Riding the bus can be made desirable by making it convenient, quick and comfortable. There should be a dedicated bus lane on all major roads. A new innovation gives bus drivers the ability to electronically hold green lights, allowing for an even smoother ride in congested cities and an express ride in from the suburbs. Beyond the energy and pollution savings, consider the thousands of dollars every year that a family could defray in insurance, gas, maintenance, parking and car payments by getting rid of one car. For more information go to www.gobrt.org.)

- Health care: Two words: single payer. The national health insurance programs in Canada, Japan and Britain might not be perfect models, but our system is irretrievably broken. Employer-based health insurance is failing. It is hurting the viability of the private sector, particularly what's left of our industrial base, and holding workers in jobs that no longer challenge them. Imagine the employment mobility and entrepreneurialism that would be unleashed if workers could leave their jobs without losing medical coverage. If much of the rest of the developed world can do it, why can't we?

- Retirement: Social Security's solvency can buy itself another 37 years, to the year 2079, by simply removing the wage cap. In 2006, Social Security taxes will be paid on wages up to $94,200. Eliminate the ceiling and the system's prospects become much brighter.

++++++++

Please share what is on your list!

Merle