THE GRASSROOTS REVOLUTION: Act IV – An Economy of Justice

Our own human species has only survived

By helping each other to thrive.

We’ve needed each other to give birth to the new

And to keep one another alive.

It’s social agreement that makes our lives work -

The reason we have roads and clean waters.

The taxes we pay keep the fires held at bay -

And build schools for our sons and our daughters.

The construct of cities would be destined to fail

Without social contracts that bind.

The work of the many to uphold the scaffold,

The aim to leave no one behind.

Poverty’s the price for being born poor -

The rich often inherit the earth.

Exploiting the desperate workers who toil

And rarely increase their net worth.

Competition for land and resources

Has often led people to war.

This world of abundance is broken by hoarding -

As powerful men still take more.

Capitalism has proven a cancerous growth -

Voracious, consuming its host.

Avarice of the few, the debt of the commons,

A race to the bottom for most.

The bankers are bandits; the system is rigged

To make capital flow to the top.

Issuing debt from thin air is their stranglehold tool -

Locking in servitude that never stops.

Let’s protect the consumer with interest rate caps -

One digit the max it can go.

Government purchase of student loan debt -

With forgiveness or rates of zero.

Stock market games are the Devil’s playground -

Inflating to service the greed.

Responsibility lies above bottom lines -

It’s holistic accounting we need.

We require living wages; indexed to inflation.

We need measure beyond GDP.

Genuine Progress asks if life’s getting better,

And counts all the costs that aren’t free.

Corporations abroad must be bound, as at home,

To ensure that their actions are clean.

Profit motive be damned if damning the land

Leaves cleanup for futures unseen.

Capitalism unchecked has failed to protect

The people and planet from pillage.

The free market needs limits that are better designed

To ensure the fair rights of the village.

The great myth is illusion of infinite growth

In a closed-system planet with limits.

Resource extraction is killing our world

Endangering all who live in it.

The onus lies here with consumers,

To resist constant grasping for more.

Support the sustainable, local and lasting,

Make choices designed to endure.

We may not prevent the flight of our jobs -

A consequence of automation.

Guarantee basic income for citizens now

To shore up the strength of our nations.

We need a New Deal that fits with the times -

Greener and built with clear vision.

Invest in the future while creating the new

Build systems that make just transition.

Rethink how we care for essentials provision -

Don’t privatize things we all need.

Keep power and water and healthcare and housing

Free from the reaches of greed.

Cooperatives made to give back to the workers,

Local currencies recirculate.

It’s time that we all re-imagine our commerce -

Economics we can re-create.

To pay for what matters we must raise the taxes -

But not for the folk on the ground.

Let wealthy men pay their fair share to do business,

Close loopholes, turn havens around.

The Robin Hood principle needs a revival -

Rob the rich and give back to the poor.

Trickle-down’s an illusion that endangers survival -

Feed the roots for this tree to endure.

By Bridget Lacey