This is where the Rules Change Project comes in. It began in 2013, in Amherst, Mass., when a small group gathered to consider how to respond to the challenge of fixing the game in an increasingly unequal and undemocratic nation. They adopted a vision statement. The Rules Change Project spotlights, amplifies and broadens support for economic and corporate rules change efforts. It is an informal, non-partisan collaboration – of individuals and independent groups – fostering a national conversation to help America to follow its democratic ideals. It illuminates how average Americans are finding answers to the tough questions, in hopes of stimulating even more Americans to follow.
If you talk to the people in Washington, D.C., who are in a position to make or change policy, they’ll tell you don’t look to them for initiative. They’ll say create public pressure on an issue and make that pressure visible.
Rules are changed by individuals who come together and refuse to accept the norm. Rules are changed through grassroots movements that grow from the ground level upwards, gaining power and influence as more and more people feel compelled to pursue change. This has been seen from the very inception of America, from the colonies that united in Revolution, to the Civil Right’s movement, to women’s suffrage, to the environmental movement.
The rules Change Project seeks to make change in cities, town states and regions more visible to Washington. One way to do that is to find examples of people and institutions sticking their necks out, above the crowd, to create change in the way we regulate, manage, or do business with corporations. So we’re looking for giraffes. Have you seen any?
In that effort, we collaborate with and link to the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and documentarian Hedrick Smith, and his Reclaim The American Dream initiative.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Hedrick Smith’s long journalism career began covering civil rights in the American South, traversed to dissecting Kremlin policy in Moscow, to producing award-winning documentaries for the Public Broadcasting Service — along with multiple books along the way. Now the Pulitzer Prize-winning octogenerian is off to another frontier — a search for the people, ideas and institutions that might help “reclaim the American Dream.”
Smith talked about his new quest during a videoconference seminar March 3, 2015 with three Williams College seniors. They were emerging from their Winter Study research experience at a local initiative called the Rules Change Project. The effort was arranged through the campus Center for Learning in Action and Rules Change Project organizers are seeking to recruit student volunteers for additional research. Smith is author of the 2012 bestselling book, “Who Stole the American Dream.” The former Washington bureau chief for The New York Times continues to document America’s epidemic of economic inequality and consider how it might be cured.
“Rules Change and the American Dream: A Dialogue Across Generations,” brought together Smith with Williams seniors Mitch Prevot, Jack Atchue and Tom Cabarle. They gathered for a two-hour talk, discussion and town meeting-style dialogue with the audience. The whole event, featuring Smith “Skyping” from his Washington, D.C.-area home to a large screen in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall — was video recorded for public use on the web and via WilliNet, Williamstown’s public-access cable service.
From left, Prevot, Atchue and Cabarle
The Rules Change Project is at the intersection of journalism and public policy, according to longtime Williamstown resident and former jounalist and publisher Bill Densmore. “Our tag line is ‘solutions reporting about capitalism and the common good’,” says Densmore. “Our aim is to spotlight institutions and individuals who are helping to examine — and perhaps change — the relationship between corporations and government, and among corporations and key stakeholders besides stockholders — employees, customers, communities and the envirionment.”
Prevot, Atchue and Cabarle spent January reviewing hundreds of articles and resources collected by Densmore over two years and reflecting aspects of the Rules Change vision. Each then took on the task of preparing profiles of two people (a total of six among the three of them) they judged to be Rules Change “giraffes” — people and institutions sticking their necks above the crowd to foster analysis an action that will make our participatory democracy more just and open. In dialogue with Hedrick Smith, they’ll talk about their research, their designated “giraffes,” and how their January research may have affected their own thinking about reinventing the American Dream for the Millenial generation.
For two years since the publication of his book, “Who Stole the American Dream,” Smith has been crosscrossing America talking crowds large and small – in some prestigious locations – and he has gotten an earful of concern from those audiences. He’ll set the scene for the Rules Change challenge – telling us why the public feels powerless. He’ll lhave some suggestions for what to do about it, including 10 steps for reviving the American Dream. (Water Street Books will also have his book for autographed sale in the Brooks-Rogers lobby).
In his 1960s-era book, Capitalism and Freedom, and a now-famous 1970 New York Times Magazine essay, the free-market economist Milton Friedman wrote: “There is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud. Fifty years later, things have changed. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren often speaks about today’s economic “rules of the game” as being “rigged against the little guy.” Exactly which rules are rigged? And if so, what will it take to change them?
At the same time, legal scholars such as Lynn Stout are revisiting Friedman’s now-assumed dictum, launched by Friedman, that the only purpose of a corporation is the maximize profits. In fact, Stout writes in her book, “The Shareholder Value Myth,” there are equal values at stake – involving customers, employees, communities and the environment.
A chance to be heard – March 3
After Smith’s half-hour talk about what he’s learned from speech audiences, and the discussion with the three seniors, students and community members in the Brooks-Rogers audience will be asked to speak about their aspirations for the American Dream, about whether the “rules of the game” are rigged (for and by whom), and their ideas for involvement and change. What is the state of the American Dream? What does that mean to audience members? And how do we restore it, or reinvent it?
For more information about the evening, or about volunteering to do web-based research and writing for the Rules Change Project, email Bill Densmore at wpdensmore@gmail.com or call 617-448-6600.
When Hedrick Smith finished his draft of his best-selling book “Who Stole the American Dream,” he realized his reporter’s fact-based answer to the question his title posed left him with a deeper personal question: How could he end there, without suggesting solutions? For the twice-winner of the Pulitzer Prize for reporting, it was a sober moment. Could he as the journalist, step into the role of policy advocate? His says his wife, and his editor at Random House gave him the answer: “You must.”
Create five million jobs through a public-private partnership to modernize America’s outdated transportation networks, just as Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower did.
Start a major new national commitment to rebuild America’s capacity to out-invent and “out innovate” the world. Government funding for basic research has dropped to $1.4 billion 2006 from $9 billion in 1979 — figures adjusted for inflation.
Regenerate America’s industrial manufacturing base through federal loan guarantees to help finance new energy infrastructure projects, tax credits for clean-energy manufacturing, tax changes for up-front expensing on capital investment, plant and equipment. Also institute “Buy American” policies. in the decade from 2001 to 2011 U.S. manufacturing employment fell to 11.7 million people from 17.2 million people.
Make the U.S. tax code simpler and easier to enforce, increasing the capital-gains tax, and closing loopholes that favor the wealthy. The top 0.1 percent of all U.S. income earners receive almost half of all the capital gains in America so having a low capital gains tax disproportionately advantages them.
Fix the corporate tax code to promote job creation at home. At 35 percent, the rate is one of the highest in the world, but various exemptions allow most corporations to pay a fraction of that, especially on foreign profits kept overseas. General Electric, for example, made nearly $10.5 billion in profits from 2008 through 2010, and instead of paying taxes, got a federal tax rebate of $4.7 billion. Apple paid $3.3 billion in taxes in 2011 on $34.2 billion in profits.
Push China to float its currency live up to World Trade Organization rules on dumping, subsidies and land grants to generate four million jobs in the United States. The United States would gain 2.25 million jobs — lowering the unemployment rate by 1 percent — if China’s currency were floated and rose 25 percent against other currencies.
Cut spending on overseas conflicts and reduce the Pentagon budget by $1 trillion over the next decade to fund the domestic “Marshall Plan.” The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will ultimately cost $3.5 trillion. After the Korean War, Eisenhower reduced defense spending 27 percent. After the Vietnam War, Nixon reduced it by 29 percent.
Fix housing and protect the safety net. Refinance some of 22 million “under water” homes. Remove the $106,800 annual income cap on the payroll tax to better financial Social Security and Medicare.
Rebuild the political center by helping ordinary Americans to re-engage with the political system — possibly with third-party, independent movements. Two-thirds of Americans (including 55% of Republicans) now say there are “strong” conflicts between rich and poor — up roughly 20 percent from just two years ago. Key requirements: Online registration, non-partisan redistricting, and open or nonpartisan primaries.
Foster a rebirth of citizen involvement, activism and American idealism, by holding government accountable, and by sending a larger share of America’s national income to average Americans. Restore credibility by fairly handling housing, closing corporate tax loopholes, raising taxes on the rich, and imposing new fees on Wall Street’s stock transactions and executive stock options.
This is where the Rules Change Project comes in. It began in 2013, in Amherst, Mass., when a small group gathered to consider how to respond to the challenge of fixing the game in an increasingly unequal and undemocratic nation. They adopted a vision statement. The Rules Change Project spotlights, amplifies and broadens support for economic and corporate rules change efforts. It is an informal, non-partisan collaboration – of individuals and independent groups – fostering a national conversation to help America to follow its democratic ideals. It illuminates how average Americans are finding answers to the tough questions, in hopes of stimulating even more Americans to follow.
