PROJECT 2029 BLUEPRINT

PROJECT 2029: A Blueprint for Democratic Renewal

1. Strengthening Worker Cooperatives

We propose a federal policy initiative that supports the formation and growth of worker-owned cooperatives, businesses where employees are both workers and owners. This includes:

• Offering start-up grants and zero-interest loans to worker co-ops.
• Providing legal assistance and training for cooperative governance and financial literacy.
• Amending tax codes to incentivize employee buyouts of existing private firms, especially when founders retire.
• Creating a National Cooperative Bank to provide capital and infrastructure support for scaling.

This fosters economic democracy by aligning profits with labor rather than capital and reducing wealth concentration.

2. Expanding Public Ownership

We advocate the democratic public ownership of essential services, healthcare, energy, transportation, and broadband. Our public systems should operate not for profit but for need. This means:

• Universal public healthcare akin to Medicare for All, ending the privatized insurance middleman racket.
• Transitioning the fossil fuel economy to a publicly managed green energy grid.
• Reinstating and expanding Amtrak and public transit, especially in underserved rural and inner-city communities.
• Establishing municipal broadband networks to end the digital divide.

Wherever profit motives threaten access to life-sustaining services, public ownership provides a moral and practical alternative.

3. Democratizing the Workplace

True democracy must exist where people spend most of their adult lives—at work. We propose:

• Mandating worker representation on corporate boards (a policy already proven successful in parts of Europe).
• Expanding labor union protections and reversing anti-union laws like “right-to-work.”
• Requiring profit-sharing for employees in corporations above a certain size.
• Supporting sectoral bargaining to raise labor standards industry-wide.

A democratic economy requires shared decision-making power, not authoritarian corporate governance.

4. Reclaiming the Commons

The commons, public lands, water, airwaves, and the internet belong to all Americans. Project 2029 calls for:

• Public trusts for managing national parks, wilderness areas, and water resources to prevent private exploitation.
• Free access to open-source digital tools, AI technologies, and educational content developed with public funds.
• Taxing commercial use of the commons (like spectrum rights and federal lands) and redistributing revenues to public goods.

This is about ensuring intergenerational justice and sustainability.

5. Rewriting the Social Contract

The American social contract has been shredded by deregulation, privatization, and tax cuts for the wealthy. We propose:

• A universal basic income pilot to ensure a dignified standard of living regardless of employment status.
• Guaranteed paid family leave, child care, elder care, and retirement dignity.
• Tuition-free higher education and vocational training.
• A living wage minimum tied to inflation and productivity growth.

This is not a handout but a restoration of the promise that if you contribute to society, you won’t be left behind.

6. Democratic Constitutional Reform

To protect the republic, we must modernize and democratize our political system. That includes:

• Abolishing the Electoral College and replacing it with direct popular vote.
• Ending gerrymandering through independent redistricting commissions.
• Reforming or expanding the Supreme Court to dilute its current anti-democratic bias.
• Enacting term limits and age caps for federal judges and members of Congress.
• Overturning Citizens United and publicly funding elections.

These changes ensure majority rule, minority rights, and political accountability.

A Word on Democratic Ideals

Democracy is not just voting every four years. It also involves equality in the workplace, fairness in opportunity, shared decision-making, and collective responsibility. As Bernie Sanders and others have said, “Democracy means more than a ballot box; it means economic, racial, and environmental justice.”

Project 2029 seeks to build that democracy, not to defend the crumbled structure of the past but to rebuild it anew, inclusive, fair, and strong enough to resist the next autocratic wave.

William James Spriggs