Green Party Platform:
Creating Jobs
California and the nation frequently endure economic recessions. However, during these periods the stock market continues to expand, dividends still increase and upper managements' salaries still rise.
Profits from large national and multinationals corporations go to owners and investors who mostly live far from the communities where the goods and services are produced. Too often communities are treated as mere sources of labor and materials, and as dumping grounds for toxic waste. We also question the wisdom of overly centralized production systems and the accompanying distribution systems. Much that is made with low-level and medium-level technologies can be produced in small local factories.
Today, the majority of new jobs are created by small business, but the failure rate of small businesses is very high. They are stifled by overly complex and costly regulations, and they receive only very limited government assistance. In contrast, states and municipalities do all they can to attract large businesses through tax breaks, compromised land use regulations and a weak enforcement of environmental codes.
The Green Party wants communities to work for the vitality and ecological sustainability of their local economies:
- Revamp the tax, fee and regulatory burdens on small business. We advocate fiscal policies that encourage the development of smaller scale, appropriate-level technology and the establishment of locally-owned businesses that are ecologically sound. We should also reduce the costs a business incurs from hiring people.
- Set up local non-profit development corporations. Large businesses whose ownership is outside the community, or whose profits are transferred outside the community, should be required to invest in these local corporations.
- Establish "enterprise zones" to create jobs in poor neighborhoods. These should, at a minimum, be developed through profit-sharing arrangements or, ideally, as employee-owned businesses.
- Establish local Economic Conversion Commissions in areas where the decline of the defense industry has caused unemployment. [see the Economic Conversion plank]
- Change our foreign trade policies to discourage the exportation of jobs to countries that have weak labor and environmental laws--all of which results in workers and resources being easily exploited. [see the Global Fair Trade plank]
- The Federal Government should reduce military spending by 75%. A portion of these funds should be distributed to state and local governments to pay for infrastructure and public works projects. [see the Peace Dividend plank]