Revolution

by Shawn Davis

  Which is not to say she doesn’t have her good qualities. The history of the rebellion published in 2064 outlines both the positive and negative qualities of the famous rebel leader. Campion never did anything halfway. It was all or nothing.

  Apparently, that was what the country needed to start on a new track: a person of extremes. Well, they got it. Jane took it all the way, and we, her supporters, backed her.

  I don’t want to make it seem as if she was a tyrant; she wasn’t. Campion had a number of democratic-minded intellectuals advising her in the transitional government. Most of the time she took their advice. Sometimes, she didn’t. When it came to military matters, Campion acted quickly and decisively.

  General Brennon was her second-in-command. She made a reputation for herself as being more ruthless than Campion. When the rogue businessman, Michael Irons, gathered an army of mercenaries in the Midwest, Campion launched an all-out attack on his headquarters. General Brennon led it.

  Most of Campion’s advisors wanted her to approach the situation diplomatically. She didn’t. She sent in a strike force larger than the one we used to take the capitol city. General Brennon took very few prisoners.

  When the rogue general, Patrick Burnside, took over a secure army bunker and threatened to use nuclear weapons, Campion acted decisively. It turned out the supposedly-impregnable bunker wasn’t impregnable. Campion got a man on the inside, or more accurately, a woman, to sabotage the general’s defenses, allowing Campion’s troops to launch a covert attack. These events are described in greater detail in Campion’s memoirs: The Second American Revolution.

  Campion’s Chief Advisor, Michael Rosen, also wrote a famous book. In 2061, he published the revolutionary Twenty-first Century Economic Reforms. His book also made all the best-seller lists, but, of course, it still didn’t sell like Campion’s.

  Campion’s books were bought by the masses, while Rosen’s books were popular with intellectuals. Campion’s books were packed with action and suspense, while Rosen’s book was packed with advanced socioeconomic theory.

  Rosen’s book was the logical progression from Adam Smith’s book, The Wealth of Nations, John Maynard Keynes’s theories, and Austrian Economic Theory. The book detailed all the economic and political reforms that would be needed to get the U.S. economy back on track.

  President Prince inherited an unemployment rate of 20% from Frump’s government. During the eighteen months of Campion’s dictatorship, unemployment rose another 2%. It was no easy challenge to lower the rate and improve the economy.

  After being voted into office, President Prince created and implemented a number of revolutionary economic reforms. She used Rosen’s book as a guide for making new fiscal policies. Rosen’s book was extremely complex and many of the mathematical formulas only made sense to intellectuals. However, there were practical sections that everyone could understand.

  Rosen’s theories went back to the most basic economic principle; Supply and Demand. His assertion was that the depression was caused by a reduction in nationwide demand for products. The reduction in demand was caused by concentrating most of the nation’s wealth in the possession of the richest 10% of the U.S. population – with an extreme concentration in the top 1%.

  Rosen explained that during the twenty-first century, the share of the nation’s wealth held by the top 10% of the population went from 45%, in 2018, to 60%, in 2058. The share of wealth concentrated in the hands of the richest 1% of the population went from 35% in 2018 to 50% in 2058.

  The only positive aspect of this phenomenon was that the upper class had plenty of surplus money to invest in new capital equipment and machinery. The problem with this phenomenon was posed by Rosen in the form of a question: What good was investing in more capital equipment and machinery when there was a steadily decreasing demand for the products being manufactured?

  Rosen argued that most of the demand for products in a macro-economy came from the lower 90% of the population. He said the lower 90% of the population was concerned with purchasing all the basic necessities for their families; food, clothing, shelter, medical-care, and transportation. This meant they were concerned with buying groceries, clothes, homes, cars, furniture, durable household-products, and basic technological products like pocket computers.

  Rosen argued that the richest 10% of the population already owned most of the basic necessities and durable goods products, which translated to low demand. However, demand by the top 10% was essential because due to a skewed fiscal policy, only the richest 10% of people in the population were increasing their share of the wealth in the twenty-first century. The standard of living was falling for all other classes of people.

  Rosen said that wealthier members of the population were more interested in obtaining additional property, vacation homes, services, and investment returns. This could only take nationwide U.S. demand so far. Demand for durable products from the lower 90% of the population was also needed for a healthy economy.

  Rosen theorized that the high unemployment rate and decreased nationwide productivity was caused by the steadily declining purchasing power of the lower 90% of the population throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. By the mid-twenty-first century, the purchasing power of the lower and middle classes had reached new lows, while the purchasing power of the upper class, or richest 10% of the population, had increased dramatically.

  Basically, the steady transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the upper class created less nationwide demand for durable products. If there was less demand, there was less production. Less production meant less investment, which meant lower productivity and higher unemployment.

  As the purchasing power of the lower and middle classes steadily declined, the unemployment rate increased as total productivity declined. The richest members of the population hunkered down by holding onto their property and homes, continuing to purchase numerous services, significantly increasing their savings, and reducing their investments in capital as demand for products continued to drop.

  Rosen explained that the economists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century rationalized that a decrease in the durable products industries and a corresponding increase in the service industries was not bad for the economy. They said it was just a matter of more jobs in the service industries replacing old jobs in the production industries.

  Rosen exposed the basic flaw of their argument. The service industries paid their workers far less than the production industries. This meant that as the production industries declined and the service industries increased, purchasing power for workers in the lower and middle classes decreased. Again, this meant less demand for products and higher unemployment.

  So what was the remedy for the nation’s economic problems? Rosen’s many complex mathematical formulas and graphs backed up a very simple idea. By increasing the purchasing power of the lower 90% of the population, the nation increased overall demand for products in the country, leading to an increase in the high-paying durable products industries and a decrease in the lower-paying service industries. This meant more nationwide production and lower unemployment.

  So how did Rosen suggest we increase the purchasing power for the lowest 90% of the population? He used mathematical formulas and graphs to endorse a very basic fiscal policy; lower the taxes for the bottom 90% of the population, while modestly increasing the taxes for the top 10% and 1%. He said this was the most efficient way to give more purchasing power to the working and middle classes and increase the demand for durable products. The idea was very basic and easy to implement. At its core, it meant significantly lower taxes for people earning from $1000 a year to $200,000 a year.

  Under the old progressive-regressive tax structure everyone paid higher taxes, including the wealthy, but the lower and middle classes were hit especially hard.

  Under the new tax system, the first $50,000 in individual earnings was tax exempt. This meant no one – including the rich – paid taxes on the
first $50,000 earned, so those people earning less than $50,000 paid no taxes, while those earning more than $50,000 paid significantly lower taxes – including the wealthiest members of society.

  The tax rate for those earning from $50,000 - $200,000 was set at an unprecedentedly low rate of 10%. The tax rate for those earning more than $200,000 (the top 10% of the population) was set at a still low, but progressive rate of 20%. Those earning over $500,000 (the top 1%) were taxed progressively at a reasonable 30% rate. Those lucky individuals earning a million dollars or more per year were taxed at 40%.

  Another important component of the twenty-first century economic reforms was the reform of the old, failing Federal Reserve System. It turns out that by creating inflation, the old Federal Reserve System contributed to the decline in purchasing power for the lower 90% of the population more than any other factor.

  Since inflation was a major cause of the reduction in purchasing power for the lower 90% of the nation’s population, dismantling the private Federal Reserve Bank increased nationwide demand for products and reduced the unemployment rate by eliminating inflation. Previously, the former private Federal Reserve Bank printed money at will and “leant” billions of dollars to wealthy private banks within the exclusive system at astoundingly low interest rates, which increased the purchasing power of the wealthiest 10% by dramatically increasing their money supply. Rosen argued that lending money to wealthy bankers at less than 1% interest rates was essentially giving them free money and creating a money supply monopoly controlled by the rich.

  The massive increase in the money supply of wealthy bankers created inflation, which consequently decreased the purchasing power for the rest of the population. The Federal Reserve System became an endless cycle, which increasingly concentrated wealth in the possession of the richest bankers and businessmen, while reducing purchasing power and wealth for everyone else.

  The former private Federal Reserve System created inflation by setting interest rates at astoundingly low levels for wealthy banks within the system. By eliminating the Federal Reserve Bank’s control of interest rates, interest rates were consequently set by free market forces, which limited the money supply and thus limited inflation.

  The public Treasury Department was given the responsibility for printing debt-free money during times of recession. Instead of lending money to wealthy banks at shockingly low interest rates like the private Federal Reserve did (concentrating the money supply in the hands of the richest citizens), the public Treasury Department increased the money supply during times of recession by sending a check starting at $500 to every citizen of the country.

  The $500 check sent to every citizen in the country enabled all citizens to purchase more products – not just the wealthy bankers. The Treasury Department could adjust the check amount depending on the severity of the recession up to a maximum of $1,000 per U.S. citizen per year. With the new debt-free money system in place, recessions became a destructive phenomenon of the past.

  A Balanced Budget Amendment was passed that forced the Congress to only spend as much money as was taken in by taxes. The days of massive deficit spending were over. This meant the Congress had to cut their spending to match the existing tax rate and not vice-versa!

  With lower taxes, the Congress was forced to prioritize, slash the federal budget, and dramatically reduce the size of government. Thousands of useless government agencies, which did not deal directly with national defense, public safety, or workplace and product safety, were eliminated.

  As the icing on the economic cake, private sector bailouts were made illegal. The corresponding increase in consumer spending created by tax cuts boosted businesses nationwide and the pool of taxpayers increased as employment increased.

  The new tax structure was put into effect immediately in August, 2058 during the first four months of Campion’s eighteen-month dictatorship. Rosen had been her Chief Advisor, so it made sense that she would adopt his tax policy.

  President Prince continued Rosen’s tax policy when she took office in November, 2059. The immediate effect of the new tax policy in 2058 was slightly negative. Unemployment rose from 20% to 22% percent. Rosen believed the short-term rise in unemployment was a result of the country adapting to a new system and the resulting unstable stock market created by uncertainty about the new government.

  When President Prince took office in November, 2059, she faced an unemployment rate of 22%. She continued to implement Rosen’s progressive tax policies in addition to abolishing the private Federal Reserve Bank and implementing the public Debt-free Money System. As the Treasury Department sent out $500 checks to every citizen (reimbursing banks cashing the checks with newly printed money), demand started to pick up. By November, 2060, the unemployment rate had dropped to 16%.

  In January of 2061 President Prince introduced the Corporate Reform Act. Congress voted it into law in February. Under the new reform, major American corporations became democratic. However, the new reform only applied to companies with more than two hundred employees.

  Instead of being run by an un-elected Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, large American companies were required to be 50% owned by the company’s workers and 50% owned by the company’s stockholders. The workers and stockholders voted for the people they wanted as their company leaders in the Board of Directors. They also voted for the company’s Chief Executive Officer. The elected CEO and Board of Directors could then choose the people they wanted to appoint as managers and executives.

  Every four years, the workers and the stockholders of companies voted for new leaders. This brought accountability into the new corporate structure. If leaders did a poor job, they were voted out. If they did an effective job, they stayed in office. The days of tyrannical CEO’s giving themselves multi-million dollar pay raises, even when their companies performed poorly, were over. Elected CEOs were now accountable to the workers and stockholders of companies.

  By November, 2061, the unemployment rate had fallen to 12%. By November, 2062, it was 8%. And by November, 2063, the unemployment figures for the U.S. dropped to a record low of 1%. The unemployment rate stayed at 1-2% during the five-year economic boom from 2063 to the present day, May 7th, 2068. Production in the U.S. has broken all past records. Not surprisingly, President Prince was re-elected in 2063.

  The economic system wasn’t the only system reformed under the new government. The Justice System was also overhauled. It wasn’t difficult to do after news of the former government’s Body Bank project hit all the major news stations, newspapers, and Internet news sites in August, 2058.

  Campion took Rosen’s advice to make everything the old government did public. In August, 2058, the new government allowed reporters from all the major television stations, newspapers, and Internet news sites in the country direct access to the Underworld; the reporters were able to explore and document the many excesses of the former Frump government.

  The Body Bank was the worst of the excesses. The media and the public were outraged. The discovery of the Body Bank united the public and bolstered support for the new government. The country and the international community began to see the Second American Revolution as a positive step toward major governmental reforms.

  The Justice Reforms established by the newly elected Congress in 2059 broke up the monolithic Federal Police Force, dividing them into smaller units of state and local law enforcement. Campion’s soldiers temporarily took command of all the state law enforcement agencies and oversaw a power transfer from federal to state and local law enforcement.

  Many of the former Shock Troopers were extensively re-trained for public service and community policing. Former troopers who couldn’t be re-trained were let go. Ironically, many of the former troopers, who were found to be un-trainable, often turned to crime, ending up in the newly reformed prison system. Apparently, the free reign to commit violence they had as Shock Troopers had corrupted them.

  Many new police officers were hired directly from
high school. The former police academies were reformed and lengthened from four weeks to four months. The pay for new police officers was kept high and the national crime rate dropped steadily in the subsequent years.

  The Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment was re-instated. The court and prison systems were extensively reformed, so the justice system’s primary purpose was to subdue and punish violent criminals rather than incarcerating millions for drug possession.

  Nationwide organized crime was dealt an immediate death-blow when the Congress passed the Drug Reform Act of 2062, which legalized all former illegal drugs. The Drug Reform Act also helped the economy immeasurably by granting private companies the right to manufacture and distribute (with restrictions) formerly illegal drugs. Not to mention all the increased tax revenue for the government by taxing these new products!

  Billions of dollars that formerly went into the bank accounts of drug lords and violent criminals was now re-directed to private industry, which employed millions of workers in the production and distribution processes. Today, American companies compete against each other to develop the safest and cheapest formerly illegal drugs.

  Unsafe or dangerous drugs are controlled and eliminated by market forces. If a drug is discovered to have a negative effect or effects, consumers stop purchasing it and are allowed to sue companies that produce the drugs in court. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration (one of the few agencies to survive the purge) has been given authority to inspect all formerly illegal drugs that are produced so unsafe drugs can be modified or taken off the market.

  In the Drug Reform Act of 2062, restrictions – similar to those placed on alcohol –were placed on drug production and distribution. Medical marijuana became legal for use by persons of any age with a doctor’s prescription, but in order to purchase recreational marijuana, an individual must be twenty-one years of age. The same holds true for all other drugs of every class.