A Peace Agenda

We cannot kill our way to peace, unless by peace we mean the silence of a cemetery. So long as we prepare for war, we shall have war. Instead of slipping into the policy of war that he inherited, I wish President Barack Obama had repudiated war and declared that his policy would be that of a good doctor, Do No Harm.

To have peace, we must prepare for peace. For that purpose, I would like us all to pursue a peace agenda of four policies.

1. Tools, not weapons.

Weapons always waste. They waste if they are used. They waste if they are not used. Each year the world spends more than a trillion dollars, $1,000,000,000,000, on weapons, which can only kill men, women, and children and destroy property. Meanwhile, every day 40,000 children die for lack of pennies worth of clean water and beans. The United States spends the most, a third of the world weapons total.

Action: Stop making weapons. Make tools instead - "From swords to plowshares." The longer we wait, the poorer we are and the more we have to fear.

 

2. Cooperation, not conflict.

Cooperation produces wealth; conflict reduces it. Cooperation makes everything easier; conflict makes everything more difficult. Imagine how much richer the world would be, if the 20th Century had been a Century of Cooperation instead of a Century of War.

Action: Always and everywhere offer help, never harm. Resolve conflicts to mutual benefit. Imagine how much better off everyone would be if helping others to mutual benefit had been the U.S. policy instead of bombing Afghanistan and Iraq. The necessary skills are clearly presented in Roger Fisher and William Ury's book, Getting to YES. We can make the 21st Century the Century of Cooperation.

 

3. Equality, not inequality.

Equality increases wealth. Equal employment improves everyone's skills and, therefore, product quality. Equal pay increases effective communal purchasing power. Many unemployed people produce nothing and have no purchasing power.

Action: Achieve full employment by reducing the work week by the rate of unemployment. Set the national wage standard at the median wage,  For the United States in 2012, that would be $25 an hour. In true free and fair market fashion, let the people directly involved decide reasonable deviations from that standard.

 

4. Economy, not waste.

The word “economy” derives from the Greek oikos, meaning household, and nomos, meaning management. Good economics is good household management. Today we have terrible household management. We waste enormous amounts of material, effort, and people in under-education, un-employment, and over-consumption.

Action: Pay people to educate themselves to the limit of their ability to do jobs that produce the most real wealth: food, clothing, shelter, and good health, with the least work.

 

The goal: a healthy global household.

The goal of this peace agenda is to promote a healthy global household, people living well and wisely. It boils down to helping each other in a spirit of mutual respect and equality so we prosper together.

Bob Blain