Motion to Amend

Implement Employment as a Fundamental Right

 

Whereas corporations are not persons but are, instead, artificial entities chartered by government to serve the public interest, and

Whereas the public has a fundamental interest in enabling each person to participate in social production, and

Whereas even those who may not presently be capable of participating in production can benefit from observing production so as more easily to develop the understanding necessary to participate, and

Whereas those engaged in production have the most direct knowledge of the requirements it entails, and

Whereas each person has equal inherent value, and therefore their time has equal inherent value, and

Whereas all wealth either comes from nature and therefore was created by no one, or else was created by human labor, and

Whereas all material wealth claimed as private property therefore derives from natural resources “borrowed” from the community, and

Whereas, in the words of Thomas Paine, “there is no form of tyranny more outrageous than an attempt to rule from beyond the grave,” and

Whereas the present generation was not party to any assignments of natural resources to private owners that may have occurred in earlier generations, even insofar as these were consensual (and they often were not),

Therefore be it resolved that this body proposes an amendment to the US Constitution to the following effect:

 

1. That all corporations chartered in the United States, whether by the federal or a state government, shall hire any adult person who wishes to become part of their organization;
2. That every person they employ shall receive a living wage whose minimum value shall be set by Congress at no less than fifteen dollars per hour;
3. That the board of every US-chartered corporation shall henceforth be elected by those it employs full-time or more than half-time, on the basis of one-person-one-vote;
4. That the US employees of any non-US-based corporation shall henceforth elect a proportion of members to its board corresponding to the proportion of its total personnel that they represent;
5. That corporations’ right to do business in the United States, and to maintain their charters if based in the US, shall be conditional on their adhering to all of the above; and
6. That Congress shall have power to enforce the above by all necessary legislation.

 

 

A rationale for this proposal, “Making the Right to a Job More Than a Slogan” may be read at http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2007/05/making-right-to-job-more-than-slogan.html or at http://individualistsocialism.blogspot.com/2010/10/foundations-of-individualist-socialism.html