How the Blueprint for a Better America Resolves Systemic Injustice

Phoenix Congress
4 min readJan 3, 2021
Photo by Jack Skinner on Unsplash

We hear a lot of talk in the news about systemic problems in America. What does that mean?

It means we have faced the same problems in this country for generations. But instead of solving problems at their root, our politicians simply put a band-aid on them to make them go away for a while.

Over the years, these unresolved issues reach deeper into our institutions and become harder to fix.

Some of the gravest systemic issues we face in America include:

  • Poverty: Despite being the wealthiest nation on Earth, America has always had a large impoverished class of people, including millions of children who suffer from hunger.
  • Mass incarceration: America’s prison population has been growing exponentially for over 50 years. Now, 1 out of every 100 US adults is incarcerated.
  • Endless war: Ever since the Vietnam War, America’s economy has relied on perpetual warfare that drains our taxes and costs the lives of thousands of Americans and millions of innocent civilians.

These systemic issues are so deeply ingrained in the American economy and political machine that they are almost impossible to root out.

But there is a way to eliminate them.

The Blueprint for a Better America is a ready-to-pass legislation package supported by The American Union, a block of non-partisan voters.

The synergistic legislation within was written to end poverty, mass incarceration, and endless war. These three pillars contain policies that intertwine to root out systemic injustice and transform the American political landscape to one that focuses on American citizens and the Constitution.

The Blueprint’s Intertwining Pillars

The three pillars of The Blueprint for a Better America are:

  • Ending poverty
  • Ending mass incarceration
  • Ending the endless wars

These three pillars affect one another, intertwining to attack systemic problems from multiple angles. Here’s how.

Ending Poverty

The Blueprint for a Better America would pay every American an unconditional income just for being American. An American Union job pays $300 a week to every adult citizen and an additional $100 a week for every child dependent, recognizing the value each of us adds to America.

This policy would lift over 40 million Americans living at or under the poverty line out of desperation and give them the resources needed to provide for their families.

This would have a major and immediate impact on crime rates, helping to reduce incarceration. Poverty has been found to have a clear correlation with non-violent property crime. Desperation increases crime rates.

Ending poverty would also allow parents to spend more time with children, decreasing the chance of drug use, mental illness, and incarceration.

Finally, reducing poverty would reduce military enrollment, giving American youth more freedom to choose their paths in life. More than half of military recruits come from lower-middle-class and poor areas. Many of these kids don’t want to join the military, but they have no other choice.

Our military would be better off with recruits who are passionate about their jobs. And our children would be better off learning that they really can follow their dreams in America, the land of opportunity.

Ending Mass Incarceration

The Blueprint would end mass incarceration by ending the war on drugs, implementing sentence reviews, repealing mandatory minimum laws, and assisting communities struggling with poverty and drug abuse.

Economic instability is a major factor in recidivism; each of the men and women who are released would have an American Union job waiting for them on the outside. That basic financial security would make them an asset to their families and communities.

When we end mass incarceration, we will reunite families and increase the incomes of households. Children who grow up with their parents and are more likely to do well in school and less likely to commit crime and do drugs.

Ending the Endless Wars

America spends more money on defense than the next 10 richest countries combined. And we wonder why other countries can afford things like free education and healthcare for their citizens?

The Blueprint would reduce military spending to 2004 levels, freeing up over 220 billion dollars to spend on the needs of Americans.

Don’t worry about our defenses. In 2004, America was in the middle of a massive invasion of Iraq. A 2004 budget is plenty of money for a nation NOT currently engaged in an invasion with 150,000 boots on the ground.

Those currently employed by the military-industrial complex would have their American Union jobs to fall back on if needed.

Combining Solutions To Make Real Change

Ending the systemic problems in America takes more than small steps. It takes the type of transformational change laid out in the Blueprint for a Better America.

By creating policy pillars that intertwine for a synergistic effect, the Blueprint attacks systemic injustice from multiple angles, uprooting the causes of poverty, racism, and crime in America.

It’s time to tell our politicians to stop putting band-aids on our problems and start tackling the issues that Americans care about.

But to get the Blueprint on the President’s desk, we need your help.

Learn more about the Blueprint and tell your family and friends about the American Union. The American Union is a union of swing voters, willing to elect or reelect both Republicans and Democrats who enact this legislative package. By leveraging our votes, we can address these systemic problems.

Sign up for the American Union newsletter to stay informed.

Together, we can end systemic injustice in America.

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Phoenix Congress

Challenging the duopoly with crowdsourced legislative solutions since 2019.