Entrepreneurship Party
Starting Platform Positions Subject to Discussion Leading Up to National Convention
We hereby announce the scheduling of our first National Convention on August 28th, 2010 to take place in Santa Monica, California at a venue to be determined.
At this convention we will...
1. Finalize our party platform.
2. Endorse eDemocrats, eRepublicans, and eIndepedents that best support our Big 6 "Es" of Entrepreneurship, Exports, Education, Environment, Excellence in Government Services, and Excellence in Healthcare.
3. Elect our Party Chairman and Vice Chairman.
4. Examine whether we should run our own candidate for the Governorship of California or endorse one the existing candidates.
“The Men and Women that hold high places must be the first to start to mold a new reality closer to the heart.”
Entrepreneurship
“If we focus on helping people to live out their dreams and follow their passions in creating new businesses as entrepreneurs; we address, well, every other cause of concern. If entrepreneurs thrive, crime is reduced. There are more funds available for education, new roads and bridges, reducing traffic congestion, protecting our environment, investing in clean energy alternatives, health care innovations, and all other causes.”
o The California Stock Exchange will be formed providing easy and low cost access to capital for start up and small companies.
o State will provide matching funds, following smart private money, into strategic, job creating, growth companies.
o Regulations and obstacles inhibiting new job formation will be eliminated immediately.
o Tort reform will save small businesses from unnecessary, non-productive, legal and insurance expenses. Those freed up funds will be directed towards creating new jobs. If companies demonstrate that they took the same amount they paid in the previous year in legal and insurance expenses and directed it towards job creation, state insurance and legal fund will provide them pooled coverage. In effect, lawyers seeking to extract monies from small companies will now have to sue the state in order to obtain said monies. At last, the government working slowly and bureaucratically will be a good thing. The state will utilize private companies to administer the service with private industry risk versus reward formulas properly applied.
o The state will fully embrace microloans to finance start up businesses. Roughly 15 businesses of similar size in a locale will bind together into a loan-receiving unit. If one member defaults the other 14 must cover the default. The members will meet on a regular basis to support each other. This method has been used in developing countries with a better than 90% successful repayment rate in far riskier conditions.
o Outdated zoning regulations that made Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of Apple, and Bill Hewlit and Dave Packard, founders of HP, criminals for founding businesses in their garages will be changed. Basically, you can operate any business out of any home or garage as long as you do not bother your neighbors.
o Exclusive employment contracts will be banned in the state. It will be expected for everyone to declare on their main job and at least two entrepreneurial ventures with some sort of involvement. This is not your father's workplace anymore.
o We will be a state of independent contractors. Everyone is an entrepreneur. Employers are now customers for independent small businesses. Everyone is a small business operator!
o Capital gains taxes should be eliminated to encourage investment in job creating businesses.
o Income taxes federal recommendation equal a 15% flat tax for everyone. Export income taxes will be set at 7.5%. State income tax should be half the federal flat tax and should gradually be eliminated all together.
o All roads should be toll roads. You use them as individual travelers; you pay. Traffic congestion may be reduced. Buses and car-pool lanes do not pay tolls.
o California angel investors, that invest in state companies who are creating jobs, will receive a state guarantee of 20% of their investment. Any income derived from these investments by the angel investors will be tax-free. Any losses up to 80% will be tax deductible.
o State banks will receive numerous incentives to provide loans to small businesses within the state.
o Joint ventures between Californian companies and overseas firms will be encouraged in all forms. This has a lever-like effect on our competitiveness worldwide.
o Small businesses pay no more than $200 per employee for monthly health insurance.
o Social Entrepreneurship, Conscious Capitalism, will be promoted at all levels. Doing well by doing good will be cool.
o Consumers decide if companies succeed or fail. We will ensure consumers are informed on a businesses level, a social level , and a labor level. We will also ensure they are informed in a healthcare level, a management level, and a community citizenship level, as well as environmental practices, so they may make an informed decision on whom they wish to support. “Exports create jobs! If we focus on being competitive and succeeding in the export market, that make up over 97% of earth's population, we win.”
o Every law in the State will be aligned with the understanding that our opportunity to thrive is tied to our competitiveness in winning customers in the 97% of the world that lives outside of the USA. Exports create jobs!
o eBuyCalifornia.com and eCaliforniaStore.com web sites will make it easy for any buyer worldwide to acquire California products and services. Multiple export financing options will be provided on this site.
o The State of California will multiply 100X's the level of Federal Export-Import Bank Export Financing Loan Guarantees for California exporters. This program has a better than a 97% pay back success rate. Exports create jobs!
o Income on exports will be taxed at half the rate of regular income.
Education
“So much mind on the matter the spirit has been forgotten about. It is not about teaching to tests. It is about making learning a joy and unleashing passion in students. The number one enemy we are fighting in education is boredom.”
o Everyone is in college for life in the State of California.
o College credit may be received for learning anything, in any form, in any place, at any time. Computerized quizzes and simply summary entry pages will facilitate credits. Every person will have his or her own Education Facebook like web site page. Credits may deposited in ANY state school of choice. Universities or colleges receiving the most credits deposited will receive bonus state funding and will be the last to subject to budget cuts.
o The joy of learning will be promoted at all levels starting with young children.
o Entrepreneurship education will begin in kindergarten. Students in every grade will be asked to open a lemonade stand style businesses to learn entrepreneurship.
o Entrepreneurship classes focused on how to create jobs in our state will receive double college and high school credit hours in comparison to other classes.
o Every library will be an epicenter of local learning. Every library will have regular real world experience guest speakers. Attendees can gain college credit. Every library will serve as an economic development center, a small business incubator, and a job-training center.
o Every student will receive a business card with his or her chosen identity. Teachers will be challenged to design customized curricula to feed into a student's passion interest area.
o Two dollars per book with a successful passed quiz or written summary pay system will go into place grades 2 through 12. This incentive has been proven in studies to improve reading comprehension test scores by better than 30%. Reading is fundamental. Tax deductible private donations will substantially fund this reading program.
o Electronic media learning tools and independent study options will be expanded greatly. The education system will be modernized.
Environment
“It ought to be second nature to take care of the environment where we live”
o We will promote in a thousand creative ways the use of clean energy buses to reduce traffic congestion and pollution.
o We will encourage cities to convert to exchangeable electric cart transportation, which work like grocery carts in the grocery store. You check them out, you use them, and you return them to a collection area. You arrive to a city, you park your car on the outskirts, and you convert to electric carts to move around.
o All roads will be toll roads except car pool lanes, electric car, and bus lanes. This will raise money for traffic congestion, reducing plans and road repairs. It will also encourage environmentally friendly transportation choices.
Excellence in Government Services
o Best practices, from private industry, will be applied to all government departments.
o The cry from every government department office should be “Proof that it cannot be subcontracted to a more efficient private industry provider”.
o All social laws will be moved local to the city level. An elite small group in Sacramento cannot properly manage or make decisions for such a large state. Centralized planning and rule did not work in the Soviet Union; it does not work in California. Cities can choose their own path, and people can choose where they want to live. If one city wants: high local taxes, marijuana clinics, high level of mass transportations, high spending on schools, and roads and another wants: low taxes, low spending, and a more conservative social environment, each may choose their own. This is the way communities are developing anyhow; we may as well swim with the stream instead of against it. We live in cities not states. There is no way we can pass a statewide law in Sacramento and make most the people happy. If we make Berkeley and West Hollywood happy, in turn, we anger Newport Beach and Anaheim. Why fight it? Let each city choose their own path in their own time. Let people choose what they want for the community in which THEY live. This is what democracy was designed to provide in the first place. Cities are different than country areas. It makes no sense to impose one area's will on an others forcefully. Let each decide for themselves. This is a simple but revolutionary innovation which will finally end the situation we have now. At the moment, nearly 50% of people are angry with any decision made in Sacramento applied state wide.
Excellence in Healthcare
o Consumers price shop everything. This lowers costs and improves quality. Why not healthcare? Healthcare providers must publish electronically, for all citizens to access, a clear pricing for services. This enables price versus quality shopping by doctors and patients.
o Free market competition must be fostered in every area of healthcare.
o Current federal law allows that products developed in state can go to market without FDA approval in same state hospitals. California will stimulate, with multiple incentives, the development of healthcare innovations in the state.
o Doctors practicing in California will not be required to purchase medical malpractice insurance. However, they will be covered at the same level they last purchased by a state pool.
o Medical device innovation and biotech companies will not be required to purchase product liability, directors liability, or officers liability insurance. However, they will be covered at the same level they last purchased by a state pool.
o Shareholder lawsuits against medical companies will be limited to a$100,000 pay out. Companies will not be required to purchase insurance covering this risk. A state pool will cover them.
o The Kaiser Permanente system, that provide financial incentives doctors and patients who stay healthy and out of the hospital, will be encouraged and spread statewide to all healthcare delivery systems.
o Barefoot doctors, young people trained in basic health practices, will be dispersed in every community to go door to door to promote healthy living.
o Electronic record systems, that reduce unnecessary duplicative tests and speed up diagnosis and treatment, will be implemented statewide.
o At home monitoring of chronically ill patients will be utilized to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations. This will be mandatory for all heart failure patients, which is the leading cause of preventable hospitalizations in our state.
o Stem cell research funding will focus on clincial research of therapies most ready to be used in the near term.
A great leader unleashes and promotes the power of good in people.
• Abortion – Leave it to the women to decide. A male Senator or Judge is not likely to get pregnant himself. This issue should be decided by women.
We trust their judgment. If the majority of women in a city, county, or state vote to limit abortions to a certain number of hours or weeks following conception or any other conditions,we agree to back them. If permitted by law, we back their right to make this decision specific to their community. This issue is highly polarizing. In business, we would never consider choosing our Chief Executive based on his or her position on pro-life or pro-choice. It is irrelevant to his or her ability in leading our company. The same should be true for choosing the Chief Executive of a state or country, or in choosing Judges. Judges should be chosen based on how good of a judge they have been, not by their position on one polarizing issue. We do share compassion with those truly fighting to protect unborn children. We do agree that steps should be taken to limit the number of abortions. 3640 a day in the U.S. alone is too many! This is more than the number of people lost in 9/11 every day! Abortion in the United States. We also sympathize and have compassion for those who want to protect the safety and life course of pregnant women. This is especially important in dramatic cases of unwanted pregnancies such as rape or incest, and even, beyond that, to life choices. Studies demonstrate that making abortion illegal does not stop abortions, Global Illegal Abortion: Where There Is No "Roe": An Examination of the Impact of Illegal Abortion but it does create conditions which endanger women's lives. We need to work together in common ground to reduce abortions without making doctors and women criminals. The notion of jailing over 20 million living American women who have had abortions, or the more than one million doctors that have performed abortions is not acceptable under any circumstance. Many previous executive leaders have taken one position or another on this issue, often for political reasons. However, they have not done anything practical to reduce abortions. Talking big on this issue does nothing. We advocate the formation of a common ground task force that work on the practical implementation of real World ways of reducing abortions.
• Stem Cell Research – We believe stem cells represent a positive revolution in the treatment of many diseases based on the simple understanding that most of the body's organs, such as the heart, are made of cells and are likely best repaired with living cells. We believe natural living cell repair, especially utilizing cells from your own body, is far preferable to utilizing potentially toxic artificial chemicals, metals, plastics and fabrics to repair the body. We support providing a bulk equal or greater to 90% of currently targeted funds to Adult Stem Cell Research. Setting aside ethical issues, good science tells us that Adult Stem Cells are much more controllable and are safer than Embryonic Stem Cells. An example is stem cell research related to the heart. Adult Muscle Stem Cells derived from a patient's own thigh muscle to repair damaged heart tissue have been studied in over 2000 animal studies and 350 human patients. 83% of Adult Stem Cell treated patients have improved while only 17% have worsened. This compares favorably with other choices for these patients such as bi-ventricular pacemakers where only 56% of treated patients improved and 44% worsened. Adult Muscle Stem Cells have demonstrated an ability to safely form new contractile muscle within scar tissue in the heart. These cells fuse to form muscle when they become crowded and are naturally protected against over proliferation. Adult Muscle Stem Cells are now in Phase II/III clinical trials, after 8 years of previous clinical trials, and are nearly ready to be put into widespread clinical use. Embryonic Stem Cells, when injected into damaged heart tissue in animals, have shown a risk of proliferating out of control, like a run-away cancer. They have also demonstrated risk of turning into more scar tissue (fibroblasts) and even bone, cartilage, and fat in the heart. Embryonic Stem Cells have not yet entered human clinical trials for the heart because they have not been proven to be safe yet in animal studies. We believe that the unnecessary destruction of human embryos should be avoided when adult stem cells are easily available. We share the concern of many that embryonic stem cell research could lead to highly unethical practices in the future, such as the selling of human embryos, if not kept in check.
• Economic Growth – There is no higher priority than doing everything we can to promote entrepreneurship. 90% of all U.S. companies have less than 20 employees. 97% of all our job growth comes from these small companies. In order to have tax funds available to pay for everything we want in Social Services, we must promote the survival of small firms. These are the producers that pay for everything else! This means less taxes and less regulations. This means, strong incentives for stimulating investment in small companies, less law suits, strong assistance in pursuing exports, and joint ventures. Most of all these fledgling young and small firms need assistance in raising capital at lower costs and in reducing their burden in covering health insurance. Supporting exports is key to economic growth.
• Civil Rights – We strongly support the protection of civil rights for all citizens. Our founding fathers founded this country based on a strong commitment to civil rights. Civil rights are the protections and privileges of personal power given to all citizens by law. We believe that natural rights of life, liberty and property are civil rights and are protected by the sovereign state as an aspect of the social contract. We believe gays should be treated equal to all citizens. We believe Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and all minorities should be treated equal to all citizens. We believe women should be treated equal to all citizens. No exceptions – We are all created equal. We believe there is a great danger that Civil Rights can be reduced to dangerous levels in the name of State and National Security. We have to always consider, with great care, the long term ramifications of giving up of Civil Rights. We must foresee that sometime in the future we may have an un-ethical government that may use the lack of enforcement of Civil Rights to keep themselves in power. Chavez in Venezuela is a great modern day example. It may seem inconceivable for us to have a Chavez in the U.S.A. in the future, but we must always protect our civil liberties. We may have an over zealous government in the future that takes out paddy wagons in an attempt to lock up citizens for eating sugary foods or hamburgers . The opening for such actions would have begun years prior by slowly giving up natural rights and civil rights. We fully support the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• "The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either." - Benjamin Franklin
• Crime – The best way to fight crime is to fight unemployment and poverty. The best way to fight unemployment and poverty is by promoting small business entrepreneurship. We need to end the unfair link of money for expensive lawyers and jail time. We need to heal and nurture troubled people in addition to punishing them. We believe many young criminals would be better served being sentenced to Public Works, or Buddhist, Christian, or other Faith Monasteries, instead of being house in jail with hardened criminals. We believe we need to recruit young inner city youth, prone to trouble, into organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Youth Build. We need to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing laws. We need let judges and juries do their jobs as the constitution intended. Each case is different. We need to reduce expenditures on victimless crimes like gambling on football games. Instead, shift these resources to crime prevention, where there are victims.
• Drugs – We need to promote healthy drug free living as a choice. We need to promote alcohol moderation. Marijuana penalties should be reduced but not eliminated. Marijuana medical clinics should be allowed in all states and cities that want them, without Federal interference. Drugs have ruined many lives. Drugs do contribute to crime. We need to balance natural rights with practical application of laws to make society safer and more livable.
• Education – Empower teachers. Pay teachers more. Provide bonuses to teachers successful in inner cities and rural areas. Focus on motivating students with participation and engagement methods. We need to engage parents and local entrepreneurs to get involved in helping teachers. We need to allow students to learn from people with real World experience. Education for life for all. If you read a book or article, you write a summary and log that in your learning bank. You can deposit your learning bank credits at the University of your choice. You may be subject to audit to verify you indeed completed the work.
• Energy – We must provide incentives for consumers to choose alternative energy choices, and companies will come forward to meet the supply. We must invest in alternative energy technologies.
• Environment – In the future, there will a 50% reduction of CO2 emissions in 50 years. There will be a great increase in the use of solar, biofuels, geothermal exchange, ocean wave, hydrogen, and other forms of clean energy power. Implementation of the GO-POD electric car system, that combine benefits of independent travel like conventional cars with efficient train track systems, will be wonderful. These cars enter and exit electric train tracks at will.
• Right to Bear Arms - We support with strong conviction the right to bear arms. The right to protect your private property and your safety is a natural right of man. We believe in high crime areas, like New York city in the 1980's, it is permissible, with the majority vote of locals agreeing, to tighten up slightly the ease of access to guns in order to make it more difficult for criminals to obtain guns. We do believe criminals will find a way in the black market to obtain guns no matter what laws are in place. We do believe steps should be taken to reduce gun violence stopping short of interfering with the fundamental right to bear arms.
• Same Sex Marriages - We believe gay citizens deserve fully equal rights to all other citizens. We believe Civil Unions of gays deserve all the same tax, legal, and health insurance benefits of marriage. Gays should be protected against discrimination in all forms, including housing and employment, at an equal level to all other citizens. We believe the word "marriage" itself is reserved appropriately for the union of a man and woman.
• Separation of Church and State - Government and organized religion should remain separate.
• Freedom of Religion - We passionately believe people should be able to practice the religion of their choice without interference from the government or other citizens. Minority religions should not be made to feel that they are not part of America. We denounce those who view America as only being made up of Protestant Christians and members of the Jewish faith. We strongly denounce discrimination against people based on their religion in all forms.
• Socialism - We passionately oppose the far left position that seeks to nationalize industries, to control wages, to control prices and investments, and to attempt to manage the economy with an elite committee of central planners. Free enterprise and free markets provide a higher quality of life than socialism. West Germany outshined East Germany; South Korea outshines North Korea; the prosperity of the U.S.A. outshone the Soviet Union. Socialism was tried last century and was proven not to work. Socialism kills personal incentive, investment, and the innovation of engines of economic growth and prosperity.
• Sexual Education and Birth Control - We believe sexual education and easy access to birth control and day-after pills can be a practical real World tool to reduce abortions. It is thus a worthy pursuit.
• Prayer in School - Students should have special brief moments to pray or practice their religion beliefs, what-ever they may be, in practical moderation. Traditions such as The Pledge of Allegiance and traditional statements such as "In God We Trust" should be able to be practiced in moderation without interference from the Government or anyone. We believe these simple traditions can be practiced without offending those that may not believe in God.
• Women's Rights - We passionately believe women have equal rights to all citizens in all forms without question.
• Iraq War - We support Senator Joe Biden's and the Senate's approved plan to work with other Governments of the region. We support the United Nations idea to divide Iraq into three parts that equitably share oil revenues in order to quickly and methodically get our troops out with the exception of a small training force. We believe the economic and human cost burden of the furthering the Iraq war is not worth the potential rewards. We have great respect for all those that have served and believe they accomplished some very worthy goals. We are grateful for their service. Sadaam Hussein was a criminal tyrant and a mass murderer that was a danger to the entire World. It was a great accomplishment to bring him to justice.
• Protecting Manufacturing Jobs with Tariffs and Penalties - We strongly oppose isolationist measures including high tariffs on imported goods.
We need other countries to open up access to their markets and to our products. This would be inhibited greatly if we start trade wars by raising tariffs. We do, however, believe in enforcing fair trade practices. We believe we do need to put pressure on other countries to respect workers and human rights including living wages and safety standards as well as international environment protection standards. We believe American manufacturers have great opportunity in embracing the global marketplace. We are confident of the ability of Americans to compete in a winning business. We believe American companies that have access to off shore production of components and raw materials, can better compete in the World marketplace which creates more American jobs.
• “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do” - Benjamin Franklin
Immigration –
• The E Party supports the Comprehensive Immigration Bill that was passed by the Senate in 2006 as a good start.
E Party Endorses Senate passed Bi-Partisan immigration bill of May 25, 2006
• Tougher enforcement at border.
• Laser virtual fences and physical fences in combination. Increased border patrol.
• Guest worker program that reduces incentive for illegal crossings.
• Pathway to legal citizenship for select number of qualified immigrants.
• President's Bi-Partisan Task Force formed of labor, business, immigrants rights, security and police and ordinary citizens to study every angle to add to comprehensive immigration reform. Start with the Senate passed plan and build and improve from there.
• FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2006
500-Plus Economists Sign Open Letter Reminding President Bush of the Benefits of Immigration
Immigration: “The Greatest Anti-Poverty Program Ever Devised” “America is a generous and open country and these qualities make America a beacon to the World. We should not let exaggerated fears dim that beacon.”
—The 500 signers of the Independent Institute’s Open Letter on Immigration
Washington, D.C.—The Independent Institute has just released its Open Letter on Immigration to President Bush and Congress on the economics of immigration.
The list of more than 500 signatories includes 5 Nobel Laureates—Thomas C. Schelling (University of Maryland), Robert Lucas (University of Chicago), Daniel McFadden (University of California, Berkeley), Vernon Smith (George Mason University), and James Heckman (University of Chicago).
The Open Letter on Immigration reminds President Bush and all members of Congress of America’s history as an immigrant nation, the overall economic and social benefits of immigration, and the power of immigration to lift the poor out of poverty.
“Economists disagree about a lot of things but there is a consensus on many of the important issues surrounding immigration,” said Alexander Tabarrok, Research Director at the Independent Institute and the primary author of the letter. “The consensus is that most Americans benefit from immigration and that the negative effects on low-skilled workers are somewhere between an 8% wage reduction to no loss in wages at all.” Reflecting this consensus the signatories to the Open Letter include prominent economists involved in both Democratic and Republican administrations such as N. Gregory Mankiw (Harvard University), former Chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, and J. Bradford DeLong (University of California, Berkeley),Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, as well as Alfred Kahn (Cornell University), Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board under President Jimmy Carter, and Paul McCracken (University of Michigan), Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Richard Nixon.
The letter also points to many important effects of immigration that may not be widely appreciated: “Immigration is the greatest anti-poverty program ever conceived. Not just because the immigrants are much better off but also because they send billions of dollars of their own money back to their home countries—a form of truly effective foreign aid.”
As the House and Senate struggle toward compromise on an immigration bill, tensions and rhetoric are rising. The signers of the Open Letter on Immigration believe that this emotional debate taking place in Washington, D.C. and around the country could be elevated by a modest and non-partisan reminder of the value of immigration, and plea for a clear-eyed consideration of the principles at stake and the historic American goals that will be affected in any outcome.
To help create a fair sense of both sides of the argument, the Open Letter on Immigration notes the economic benefits of immigration, but puts them in context. For instance, “Overall, immigration has been a net gain for American citizens, though a modest one in proportion to the size of our 13 trillion-dollar economy.”
Similarly, the signers also acknowledge that “immigration of low-skilled workers may have lowered wages of domestic low-skilled workers,” but also note that the resulting wage reductions for high school dropouts is estimated to be from eight percent to as little as zero percent.
In addition, the Open Letter points up connections that sound immigration policy can make between the political values on both sides of the debate, balancing, for instance, compassion for those low-skilled workers seeking jobs with the power of freely competitive markets to create those jobs: “Immigrants do not take American jobs. The American economy can create as many jobs as there are workers willing to work so long as labor markets remain free, flexible and open to all workers on an equal basis.”
“Public fears of lost jobs are unfounded and most workers will not experience any negative impact on their wages. Congress would do well to recognize the benefits of immigration and pass a reform that allows greater numbers of legal workers into America,” said signer and Independent Institute Research Fellow Benjamin Powell, Director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation.
By presenting legitimate concerns over immigration in light of a realistic assessment of immigration’s economic benefits, the signers of the Independent Institute’s Open Letter on Immigration hope to promote more thoughtful debate on one of the most contentious issues of the day.
To read the Open Letter please go to:
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1727
• The New York Times - Cost of Illegal Immigration May Be Less Than Meets the Eye