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“Abundance” Without Sacrificing Values: Community-Benefit Agreements and Streamlined Development
We do need more abundant housing, public transportation, and energy infrastructure, but forfeiting labor, environmental, and democratic values to get there can’t be the answer. How do we reconcile both goals?
Protect Rural Community Hospitals from Private Corporate Consolidation While Still Achieving Benefits of Scale
Consolidating into concentrated systems, with the benefit of scale and private resources, is an obvious solution for community hospitals struggling to stay afloat. There’s just one problem: After consolidation, the quality of patient care, and access to services, nearly always goes down — often dramatically and quickly.
Decrease Likelihood of Food Deserts by Banning Restrictive Covenants on Grocery Store and Pharmacy Store Properties
Nearly 20 million people in the United States — 6% of the population — lack access to a grocery store. Areas without grocery stores exist in dense urban centers, small towns, and rural communities, and the general consensus among those who study this “phenomena” is that these areas simply cannot support a grocery store.
Corporate Ownership: Create a Right of First Refusal for Workers
Wealth, of the kind the shareholder class holds, is built by leveraging existing assets to generate more wealth. A wage cannot do this. Only ownership — only power over capital — can. Workers must share in the wealth their labor creates. The most direct route to achieving this is for workers to partially or fully own the firms where they work.
A New Kind of Corporate Ownership Model to Correct Shareholder Primacy Limitations and Build Worker Wealth
Employees must share in the wealth their labor creates, but models designed to achieve this fall short — largely because they try to sidestep becoming prey to the exact monopolistic market forces that produce wealth inequality in the first place, and in so doing, also sidestep any real opportunity to build worker wealth.
Amend “Right to Farm” Laws to Protect Community and Local Power
U.S. agriculture is dominated by industrial “factory farms,” also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or “integrators.” RTF laws, once functioning as protection for local and legacy farmers, now primarily protect large-scale corporate operations.
Restrict Lobbying and Political Activity by State-Regulated Utility Companies
Private companies providing public services — and granted monopoly franchises in exchange for doing so — have captured the regulatory and legislative processes intended to keep their interests aligned with those of the public. The result is growing energy poverty, continued climate abuse and misinformation, and widespread voter disenfranchisement.
Pre-Tax, Employer-Supported, Universal Dependent Care for Employees and Gig Workers
Care is a public good, with deeply private impact — on families and businesses alike. The solution to the care crisis should likewise be one with both public and private dimensions. No one is unaffected, so no one should be unaccountable.
Power of the Purse: Protect Data Privacy, Limit AI Uses, and Decrease Corporate Influence Over Public Education
School boards’ power to purchase and contract is also the power to shape a new, more considered approach to AI safety, data collection, and other surveillance monitoring technology.
Prohibit Investor-Owned Utilities from Passing Lobbying Costs on to Consumers
Utilities spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year lobbying federal and state lawmakers, agencies, and regulators. This investment influences the pace and progress of climate legislation, cements existing utilities’ market dominance, and of course, ensures ongoing high rates of return for IOUs.
Expand the “Just and Reasonable” Standard to Explicitly Center Ratepayers by Tracking Performance and Affordability
The “just and reasonable” standard, as practiced, can no longer be said to effectively balance public and corporate interests — a balance which is the entire point of the regulated utilities market.
Protect Consumers from Funding Anti-Climate Lobbying and Political Activity by Utility Companies
Utilities spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year lobbying federal and state lawmakers, agencies, and regulators. This investment influences the pace and progress of climate legislation, cements existing utilities’ market dominance, and of course, ensures ongoing high rates of return for IOUs.
Prohibit Investor-Owned Utilities from Profiting from Pollution Clean-Up
Utilities save cost by polluting and then cash in on the clean-up. Consumers are left dealing with the health consequences… and with higher utility bills.
Establish Dedicated Wage Theft Units Within District Attorney Offices
Investigating wage theft requires knowledge of criminal, labor, employment, and immigration law — and likely needs the participation of labor and advocacy groups with deep presence in the most affected communities.
Power of the Purse: Combat Wage Theft, Impose Living Wage Standards, and Encourage Local Preference Through Procurement
The municipal power to purchase and contract is also the power to shift market incentives toward the interests of local residents and businesses. It’s an enormously useful tool, and city representatives should leverage it far more than they typically do.
No More Funding of Public Programs Through Utility Bills
Rather than push for increased scrutiny of surcharges by utility commissions, some state legislators have exploited the surcharge mechanism to fund public policy programs — loading costs onto utility bills to bypass the appropriations process and avoid public accountability for spending decisions.
Increased Oversight/Elimination of Utility Bill Surcharges
Energy bills have become everything bagels… just not the good kind. Delivered to your mailbox every month, topped with loads of items you’ve never heard of, didn’t opt into, and can’t opt out of. These toppings, which tend to fall disproportionately on low-income households, are more than just annoying and expensive — they’re rate hikes without rate hike approval.
Make Rate of Return = Cost of Capital for Utility Monopolies
Regardless of an IOU’s actual return on equity in any given year, which is impacted by the timing of actual capital costs, consumers pay a premium based on the authorized ROE. Private companies providing public services — and granted monopoly franchises in exchange for doing so — are charging U.S. customers excessive rates for energy.