GET IN MUGWUMPS, WE'RE GOING TO REVOLT. 2028 STARTS HERE FOR US. ENDS HERE FOR THE EPSTEIN CLASS.

Economic Justice

Join Us, Mugwump!

WHO SHOULD RUN?

Explore Mugwump Factions

JUSTICE · FIVE PILLARS

Published by | Langhorne P. Breedlove

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2026 · 11:21 PM ET

Tags: Economic Justice · Wages · Taxation · Employment · Banking · Corporate Power

THE RIGHT TO LIVE IS NOT A LUXURY

In 1944, while the United States was fighting a world war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Congress that political liberties meant little without economic security. His proposed Second Bill of Rights included a decent job, a home, medical care and protection against unfair monopoly power. It was a proposal, not a constitutional amendment enacted into law. (Source 01)

Eighty-two years later, the federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt workers is still $7.25 an hour, the rate that took effect on July 24, 2009. (Source 02) There is something spectacularly American about expecting a person to finance twenty-first-century life with a wage floor from the Obama administration's first summer. The arithmetic has not gotten the memo.

The Congressional Budget Office reports that from 1979 to 2023, average income grew in every fifth of the household income distribution, but it grew fastest among the highest-income fifth; the share of pre-tax-and-transfer income received by the top one percent increased from 9% to 16%. Those figures do not prove every proposed reform will work. They establish why the distribution of economic opportunity deserves serious scrutiny. (Source 03)

THE FLOOR IS NOT THE CEILING

American Proletariat proposes an economy in which a job can support a decent life, starting a small business need not mean surrendering everything to taxes and fees, and an ordinary household has leverage against institutions that can afford to wait out its desperation. We are not abolishing ambition, success, luxury or enterprise. We are challenging the peculiar conviction that security must be scarce for opportunity to be valuable.

Our agenda includes a $28 federal minimum wage, a 30-hour full-time standard, qualifying $80,000 annual Switchboard placements funded by employer pay plus a public supplement, and a 0% federal individual income-tax band on the first $80,000 of taxable income. These are AP proposals, not enacted federal law, and their interaction requires careful design.

We also propose much higher marginal taxation of extraordinary incomes, more accessible public banking, protections for small businesses and stronger restraints on concentrated corporate power. The goal is not to write an angry number on a napkin and call it an economic plan. The goal is to write the law, explain the tradeoffs, publish ten-year figures and then let the public judge the results.

NINETEEN POLICIES. ONE CONNECTED AGENDA.

These nineteen policies form Economic Justice's working directory. Each has one canonical home under this pillar, with connections to Social, Racial, Political and Environmental Justice wherever the consequences cross boundaries.

WORK, PAY & OPPORTUNITY

The 30-Hour Full-Time Workweek

Make a shorter full-time standard possible without turning full-time living into part-time survival. Establish overtime rules, phased transitions and protections for workers whose schedules cannot simply be compressed.

→ Explore The 30-Hour Full-Time Workweek

The $28 Federal Minimum Wage

Raise the federal wage floor to $28 an hour, with transparent analysis of prices, regional conditions, small businesses and employment effects.

→ Explore The $28 Federal Minimum Wage

The $80,000 Switchboard Employment Guarantee

Begin with qualifying full-time Switchboard placements that combine employer wages and a public supplement to reach $80,000 annually. Scale only against a published fiscal and operational plan.

→ Explore The $80,000 Switchboard Employment Guarantee

Switchboards Nationwide

Create walk-in centers connecting people to jobs, training, apprenticeships, licensing and public-service placements, without requiring personal connections or enrollment fees.

→ Explore Switchboards Nationwide

Government-Paid Apprenticeships & Credentials

Make serious training affordable through publicly financed apprenticeships and portable qualifications while protecting trainees from exploitation.

→ Explore Government-Paid Apprenticeships & Credentials

Modern Worker Voice & Bargaining

Give working people enforceable bargaining rights, worker representation and ways to shape the institutions that depend on their labor.

→ Explore Modern Worker Voice & Bargaining

TAXES, CREDIT & FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

No Federal Income Tax on the First $80,000

Propose a zero-percent federal individual income-tax band on the first $80,000 of taxable income. Specify thresholds, filing rules and revenue consequences before enactment.

→ Explore No Federal Income Tax on the First $80,000

92% Tax on $5M+ Income

Study a 92% top marginal rate on taxable individual income above $5 million—not a 92% tax on everyone's entire income. Model avoidance, revenue and economic consequences.

→ Explore 92% Tax on $5M+ Income

0% Business Income Tax Under $1M

Explore a federal business-income-tax exemption for qualifying firms below $1 million in annual gross receipts, with safeguards against artificial fragmentation.

→ Explore 0% Business Income Tax Under $1M

Graduated Corporate Taxation

Design corporate profit taxation that differentiates smaller businesses from exceptionally large firms and closes avoidance routes without confusing revenue with taxable profit.

→ Explore Graduated Corporate Taxation

Public Banking & Postal Financial Services

Make basic banking and payments accessible through accountable public and postal options that coexist with credit unions and responsible private institutions.

→ Explore Public Banking & Postal Financial Services

The Biblical Jubilee

Examine lawful relief for medical and public-education debt while accounting for borrowers, creditors, program design and the risk of future debt accumulation.

→ Explore The Biblical Jubilee

Audit & Modernize Credit Scores

Scrutinize credit reporting and underwriting practices; protect access to legitimate credit while challenging opaque or unfair barriers.

→ Explore Audit & Modernize Credit Scores

CORPORATE POWER & PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY

Break Up Concentrated Corporate Power

Confront monopolization and harmful acquisition strategies through enforceable antitrust rules, competition remedies and oversight of private-equity rollups.

→ Explore Break Up Concentrated Corporate Power

Reform Corporate Charters & Interstate Operations

Reconsider the privileges and obligations of operating across state lines, testing proposed limits against constitutional constraints and practical alternatives.

→ Explore Reform Corporate Charters & Interstate Operations

Ten-Year Fiscal Accountability

Require transparent ten-year spending, revenue, transition and economic-effect estimates before claiming a proposal pays for itself.

→ Explore Ten-Year Fiscal Accountability

Redesign the Faces of American Currency

Use a transparent, legally workable public process to reconsider whom the nation's money celebrates.

→ Explore Redesign the Faces of American Currency

PRODUCTION, TRADE & THE MATERIAL ECONOMY

Responsible Trade, Debt & Development Finance

Evaluate trade and development finance through labor standards, sovereign debt sustainability, domestic resilience and international obligations.

→ Explore Responsible Trade, Debt & Development Finance

Industrial Hemp & Sustainable Materials

Remove unjustified barriers to industrial hemp where evidence supports it, while testing environmental, commercial and agricultural outcomes rather than promising miracles.

→ Explore Industrial Hemp & Sustainable Materials

THE TEST IS DELIVERY

A shorter workweek requires enforcement and practical scheduling. Higher wages demand analysis of employment, regional prices and employer capacity. A public income guarantee must define eligibility, prevent fraud and avoid double counting subsidies. Tax laws must distinguish marginal rates from average burdens; corporate rules must survive judicial review. That is not an argument for doing nothing. It is the minimum standard for doing something that lasts.

Every major mandate must identify the agency or legislature that can enact it, the people affected, its first-year cost, ten-year net fiscal position, plausible implementation phases and measurable outcomes. Where the evidence does not yet permit a credible estimate, we will say so plainly. A revolution can afford a spreadsheet. A government cannot afford to pretend it has one.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

01 · Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum — 1944 State of the Union Address, January 11, 1944. https://www.fdrlibrary.org/address-text

02 · U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — Questions and Answers About the Minimum Wage; federal rate effective July 24, 2009. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/faq

03 · Congressional Budget Office — The Distribution of Household Income, 2023, September 24, 2026. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62792

Report abuse