Tag Archives: buffett

Financing AWSC, Uncategorized

Buffett Request

People’s Lobby Inc. (501c4)

People’s Lobby Education Foundation (501c3)

www.PeoplesLobby.us

5/11/2018

Mr. Warren Buffett:

Because of my service as a Peace Corps Urban Community Development volunteer  in Mumbai, India from 1966-1968, I write hoping you will pen some supportive words for People’s Lobby’s   nontraditional funding mechanism (NTFM).  The NTFM will fund fielding 21,000,000 Americans into peaceful, healthy national service over the ensuing 27 years via enacting its American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposal.

Peace Corps service exposed me to the engrained disparities of life and provided the “why” that has me pushing People’s Lobby’s   American World Service Corps Congressional Proposal for over 10 years.  The AWSC is a simple, effective means to involve the super-rich in funding millions of Americans to reduce ugly disparities.  Those engrained disparities remain with me, like…  Giving the few rupees I had to men scavenging through an  8’ mound of garbage piled in Bombay’s streets at midnight, watching a woman dying on the  curbside of a well-traveled bridge with only a rag covering some of her breast and a white textured substance covering her pelvic area, staring at a child a few feet away from me while lying on my backpack at the train station as the child scooped and licked its own diarrhea…

I served in an era where working as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) garnered one extra respect among a growing number of world citizens and humbled us PCVs via the enlightenment such service bestowed.  It was an era when Americans could safely roam just about anywhere.  It made me understand why John Kennedy wanted the Peace Corps to grow rapidly and robustly.

President Kennedy often expressed his visionary desire that “I would rather send the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps.”  Today’s Peace Corps, at about 7000, is less than half the size it was when it reached its peak of about 15,000 from 1966-68.

Today the world Increasingly sees the United States as the world’s preeminent War Corps.  Kennedy envisioned creating the world’s preeminent Peace Corps, inspiring other nations to build similar Service Corps.  Dealey Plaza bled out that vision of Camelot.

During the Vietnam War era, 9+ million served on active duty in the military.  Imagine how different the world would be if 9+ million Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV) had done active duty, rather than today’s meager 225,000 RPCVs sense its 1961 inception.

With climate weirding, violence, disasters, inequities, hatreds, etc., growing, isn’t it time that an Army of Gun-free Americans:

  • implemented the vision JFK had for the Peace Corps (and later VISTA, AmeriCorps, etc.)?
  • helped those who have little to live more securely?
  • Initiated a healthy competition among fellow Americans and the rest of the world that emanated from the good their peaceful National Service programs produced?
  • got to know fellow Americans and other nations citizens better via joint Peace Corps programs, such as Congresswoman Boxer’s HR 1807 of 1989, the US-Russian Peace Corps, which People’s Lobby inspired?
  • walked the talk about “greatness” that we so often bestow on ourselves?

I write with the hope that you may lend your stature to the envisioned nontraditional funding mechanism (NTFM) as a visionary, worthy, and doable mechanism that could provide billions of donated dollars from billionaires and celebrities; which would field millions of Americans doing good at home and abroad.

If enacted as written, annually for the first seven-year ramp-up, approximately 140,000 additional Americans would voluntarily choose to serve full time for a year or two for modest pay in their choice of:

Listed below are some of the peace building platoons of AWSC that would be dramatically enlarged and invigorated by fielding a million volunteers a year to their worthwhile efforts, after the initial seven-year ramp-up of the AWSC to a million.

Peace Corps AmeriCorps Habitat
Doctors Without Borders Head Start Mercy Corps
Oxfam Americans Friends Service Committee TechnoServe
Heifer Red Cross International Rescue Committee
Mercy Ships UN Volunteer Center Fuller Center for Housing
Boys & Girls Clubs State Conservation Corps In-need Schools
Hospitals Therapy Wards Homes for the Elderly Local Do-good Non-profits
Under-staffed needs Community Health Clinics Carter Center… Etc.

By the seventh year, one million American World Service Corps volunteers of all ages, or less than four-tenths of 1% of those aged 18-70+, would annually serve for a year or two at home or abroad in existing governmental and non-governmental organizations.  Only after 20 years could Congress consider sun-setting the AWSC legislation.  Therefore, over 27 years about 21 million Americans would have peacefully served producing good and goodwill at home and abroad organizations such as those above.

Written in a mix of legalese and laymanese, the American World Service Corps National Service (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal  is at http://peopleslobby.us/awsc-congressional-proposal

To regain, retain, and rebuild our nation’s strength and stature, we need a robust AWSC to augment our proud military early in the 21st century.  The AWSCNS will:

  • Help keep us out of future trillion-dollar wars.
  • Make service less dangerous for our military.
  • Cost only a fraction of what the Iraq War has cost us.
  • Recycle most of its investment into the American economy by rewarding volunteers with their choice of four years of college tuition or equivalent investment in IRA and Medical Savings Accounts, home down payments, or tax credits.
  • Begin rebuilding our character, world image, and public policy IQ.
  • Respond more quickly and competently to climate weirding and natural disasters with an AWSC that can more quickly help rebuild after disasters.
  • Re-knit America’ s fraying unity by having Americans from different parts of the country address problems throughout the country and world. Serving together addressing needs provides a true picture of the world that peacefully educates and binds us together, making us saner and healthier.

Nontraditional funding mechanisms

The proposed legislation has traditional and non-traditional funding mechanisms.  If visionary leadership pushed and educated the nation on our nontraditional revenue streams, they could potentially eliminate any reliance on traditional tax revenue funding.

Funding raised by the non-traditional and voluntary funding streams would go directly into an escrow account dedicated to funding the AWSC, as outlined here http://peopleslobby.us/awsc/financing-awsc and depicted via power point here http://peopleslobby.us/coverage/powerpoints/forbes006funds.

With individuals like yourself, Gates, Turner, Nader, et al., calling on billionaires to give more, now is the time to offer the AWSCNS as a perfect place to invest their money in a safer, more prosperous future. If just the Forbes 400 annually donated between 1– 2.5% of their wealth to an escrowed account to fund the AWSCNS, no taxpayer dollars would be needed to fund 21 million serving at home and abroad over 27 years.

Including AWSCNS public spreadsheets for the Forbes Top Jocks, Top Celebs, Top CEOs, non-tax paying corporations, etc. in this voluntary donated funding mechanism, further reduces this (1-2.5%) minuscule voluntary donation percentage from American billionaires, whose number is now around 600.

Escrowed donations would be tracked via a publicly-viewable spread sheet, which may inspire billionaires to donate and common citizens to notate who donates.

Many of us see this as just a small step that supports your Giving Pledge.  It would be a wonderful way for the super-rich to provide a healthier and safer tomorrow by donating a minuscule portion of their wealth to a fund that involves millions of peaceful Americans in building a better today.  Such wise but minimal investment today would be good for healthy business tomorrow.

Joint Peace Corps

Included in the AWSCNS Congressional Proposal are calls for other nations to emulate our AWSC National Service program, as well as to form joint Peace Corps programs with other nations, such as the legislation People’s Lobby influenced Congresswoman Boxer ( http://peopleslobby.us/awsc/aspc/ ) to introduce as House Resolution 1807 of 1989.   (http://peopleslobby.us/hr-1807/ )

People’s Lobby would like to see the Joint US-USSR (Russia) Peace Corps pushed via the AWSCNS Congressional Proposal, and/or introduced as separate legislation. [An op-ed view here: (https://www.opednews.com/articles/Trump–Putin-buiild-army-by-Dwayne-Hunn-American-World-Service-Corps_American-World-Service-Corps-Congressional-Proposa_Americorps_Congress-170123-576.html&series=679 ).

The world could benefit greatly if U.S. and Russian relationships grew from a few astronauts working together in space to tens of thousands of Russian and American Peace Corps volunteers peacefully living, working, and serving together on earth.

Imagine what today’s world be like if 40,000 Russians and Americans had served together over the decades since HR1807 of 1989.

Info links

The top-row and drop-down links at the http://peopleslobby.us/ web site provide substantial information.  Videos, power points, and audios are included in the drop-downs.

Video feeds are available at http://peopleslobby.us/coverage/video

Some YouTubes are at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRbaWfRantA

Some audio at http://peopleslobby.us/coverage/audio/

About 80+ related op-eds appear at http://www.opednews.com/author/author6270.html.

Joint U.S.-Russian Peace Corps links at http://peopleslobby.us/hr-1807/                                      http://peopleslobby.us/awsc/aspc/

Supportive words from a man as respected as you could help our efforts with either/or/and the AWSCNS proposal and Joint Country Peace Corps Proposals.

In summary, we hope you will provide supportive words for:

  • Our nontraditional funding mechanisms that will encourage tentative congresspersons to think outside the funding box during this age of growing wealth inequities.
  • The AWSC proposal itself.
  • The reintroduction of HR 1807, the joint U.S.-Russian Peace Corps.

Thanks for considering.

Please contact me at any time for additional information, Dwayne Hunn, 415-383-7880, dh@peopleslobby.us, Facebook (Dwayne Hunn, People’s Lobby, and American World Service Corps Pages).

Sincerely,

Dwayne Hunn Ph.D. Executive Director, People’s Lobby

415-383-7880

Financing AWSC

Gates Buffett

 

To Bill Gates & Warren Buffett:

Re: Seeking support statement for implementing an adjunct to Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge Philosophy.

It is People’s Lobby’s hope that your staff, you, and Mr. Buffett will decide to print (or video, publicize, etc.) something positive about why the world needs our:

1)  American World Service Corps National Service (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal and it’s

2)  Nontraditional funding mechanism (NTFM) components that uses mega wealth donations to dramatically improve real world health.

With a miniscule staff, it is difficult to convert the overwhelming support we receive in presentations and from about 50 congressional staff visits into introducing and implementing the robust AWSCNS Proposal.  Less robust proposals have been introduced, like the Serve America Act of 2009 in honor of Ted Kennedy, whose goals were never met; and the Inspire Act of 2017 by my Congressman Jared Huffman.

Supportive words about the AWSCNS would bolster all three national service proposals.

For over 10 years, People’s Lobby has been pushing to introduce and implement the American World Service Corps National Service (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal, which would involve 21,000,000 Americans in full-time, voluntary national service at home and abroad for the ensuing 27 years through such organizations as:

Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Doctors Without Borders, Head Start, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Americans Friends Service Committee, TechnoServe, Heifer, Red Cross, Save The Children, Mercy Ships, International Rescue Committee, State Conservation Corps, In-Need Schools, Hospitals Therapy Wards, Homes for The Elderly, Homeless Centers, Prison Education Programs, Medical Clinics, Drug Rehab Centers, etc.

To fund this magnificent force for peace, People’s Lobby’s nontraditional funding components indirectly connects with and increases the growth of the Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge Philosophy.

A 1-2% annual voluntary wealth donation, escrowed to an AWSC National Service Investment Account, from just the Forbes 400 would totally underwrite the AWSCNS investment in more rapidly involving millions in spreading health, welfare, sustainability, and understanding worldwide. The successful implementation of a robust AWSCNS might inspire other nations to do similar robust national service corps and, hopefully, shift our over-reliance on militaristic forces to peace building national service corps.

Some op-eds that detail various reasons why we should do this at http://www.opednews.com/author/author6270.html.

A power point on how the nontraditional Forbes 400 funding component would work at http://peopleslobby.us/coverage/powerpoints/Forbes006Funds.  Click the “Forbes006Funds” and view the power-point at the site.

More power points at http://peopleslobby.us/coverage/powerpoints/ .

Some experiences from my service as an Urban Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Mumbai, India that motivates me and supporters to do this at http://peopleslobby.us/coverage/opeds/peace-corps/.

Thanks for considering.

 

Dwayne Hunn, PhD.

People’s Lobby, Executive Director

359 Jean St., Mill Valley, California 94941

415-383-7880 dh@peopleslobby.us

 

AWSC, AWSC Proposal

AWSC summary

“This country runs on laws.  If you want to change the country, write its laws.”

Ed & Joyce Koupal, founders of People’s Lobby

(Draft page… rebuilding site.)

Early in 2005 People’s Lobby (PLI )initiated the American World Service Corps National Service Congressional Proposal (AWSCNS) .  It is neither a direct nor indirect initiative with which People’s Lobby has had past successes.

It is a congressional proposal that benefits America and the world and raises the public policy IQ for both and requires introduction through visionary legislators.  Enacting the AWSC Congressional Proposals would:

  • Remind citizens that they are the ultimate source of laws;
  •  Involve citizens in healthy civic affairs;
  • Strengthen the thinning character and patriotic fabric of the nation;
  • Address the root causes of terror, refugee  tragedies, climate devastation, etc.;
  • Press red and blue-staters, red-necks and blue-noses and humans of all pigments into working on and learning from pressing domestic and international problems;  
  • Build a one million strong all volunteer peaceful national service corps by inspiring  more to serve in already existing do-good organizations such as Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat, Doctors Without Borders, Head Start, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, State Conservation Corps, FINCA, TechnoServe, Fuller Center for Housing, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, U.N. Refugee Agency, American Friends Service Committee,  as well as in local non-profits, schools, homes for aged, physical therapy wards, penal institutions, etc.
  • Involve rich and poor, young and old , red necks and blue noses in service to the nation and world that will dramatically raise national and international civic actions and IQs.   

***

The American World Service Corps Congressional Proposal neither establishes a big new bureaucracy nor is expensive.

It is not merely shorthand for a bigger Peace Corps, although it will make the Peace Corp much bigger than it has ever been.

It is envisioned as a small administrative office that does some marketing, disseminates paychecks to its full time volunteers, and takes care of their tuition and other post service grants and gratuities. It is a moniker, a name tag that allows us to model what should be the new 21st century army that  we and other nations should be sending out into the world. If one makes such service meaningful, it  can be as or more valuable than most college educations.

Its primary raison d’etre is to send many more volunteers to rub shoulders and do good through the already existing and effective do-good organizations such as  those mentioned above.

These organizations know what to do with additional full time human resources.

This AWSC Umbrella heightens the effectiveness of these groups by enlarging them at a time when complexities and needs are growing.  As the Greatest Generation passes, we need to involve the push-button, play-game generation as well as the more mature in active service, which builds the nation’s character and prepares us to better handle the real world.

 Summary

The American World Service Corps National Service  (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal would field a robust, peaceful, productive, paid volunteer army of American do-gooders who would choose to serve at home or abroad.  It would reduce conflicts, address needs, and make life easier for our military and healthier for our citizens.  It is NOT another program or large bureaucracy.  It is merely an umbrella, a moniker that feeds more volunteers into proven existing do-good organizations and non-profits.

How Fund?

In addition to the traditional revenue streams listed in the AWSCNS proposal that would fund this investment in our people and world, we have added nontraditional, voluntary, revenue streams that could fund this entire generation-long National Service Program without taxing Americans.

The Gates & Buffett Giving Pledge has helped PLI’s long effort to establish a  publically displayed Socially Conscious Giving Spreadsheet whose fund are escrowed to only be spent on AWSC volunteers who serve.  Click though to view the Forbes .0006% Powerpoint.

Undersized yesterday –>today’s growing problems

John Kennedy told former Senator Harris Wofford that he wanted the Peace Corps to reach 100,000 a year because, “It would then be considered serious.  In one decade, it would reach 1 million volunteers.”  In the last 54+ years, only about 220,000 PCVs have trained and served, meaning perhaps 180,000+ have completed service.  For more than a generation, we have failed to come close to implementing a vision that would cost effectively and dramatically reduce poverty, ignorance, hatred, and terrorist recruitment.  We missed the opportunity to dramatically increase our public policy IQ, understand the dynamics of the Global Village and its economies, and reduce the hatred fired at our troops, and care for and understand environmental needs.

We are leaving big problems to the next generation.  We owe them a big, but cost effective, AWSCNS solution.

Think of your favorite local non-profits. Could they accomplish more good if they had one or a few full time volunteers aged from a fresh 18 to an experienced 70+?  Could they enrich your community and raise its public policy IQ?

Joint Peace Corps

PLI’s AWSCNS Proposal urges that other nations emulate similar national service programs.  Imagine what could happen if the nations of the world built robust national service programs that rivaled the size of it militaries.

Imagine if People’s Lobby’s successful efforts in 1989 to have Congresswoman Boxer introduce HR1807, the US-Soviet Peace Corps, had grown over the years.  Imagine how much safer and saner today’s world would be.

In July of 2016,  PLI discussed with Senator Boxer’s staff  the possibility of reintroducing an updated HR 1807 .  Give her a call and express your support before she leaves office .

If you would like to read 60+OpEds detailing benefits of an AWSC, click OEN OpEds.  For some videos, click videos.  For one of several 30 minute overviews at the videos link, try this Mel Presents.

If able and willing, press your candidates or respected celebrities to help move this AWSC solution.  Thanks.

  Power Point  Summary

Today we have tooo many who pontificate about what should be done to address foreign and domestic needs who have little or no grassroots experience with those problems.  A robust AWSC National Service program smartens our and other nations in how to more cost effectively and peacefully address domestic and world problems.

Click  Why Need AWSC Umbrella

to view Power Point overview of why AWSC National Service umbrella is needed, including reference to non-traditional funding mechanisms that piggy-back on the Gates Buffet Giving Pledge –>

Uber-rich <2% solution for world peace  Will super-rich step up?

Embeded chart reflecting how the Forbes 400 alone, using one of the AWSC Congressional Proposal’s non-traditional funding mechanisms could easily fund this wise AWSCNS investment.

How to fund without taxing:

forbes006funds