For a left-liberal and visionary Pirate Party economic program.

“But the markets”
“But the competitiveness”
“But the jobs”
“But there is no alternative”

These are not arguments, but only a sign of subjugation of democracy and humans under the power of large economic units or under the power of a neo-liberal belief system.
They also reflect a hopelessness.
Instead we want to develop and implement positive visions for society and for the world.

Thesis: We Pirates want a visionary economic program that is both left and liberal – both terms defined in a Pirate Party way.

Summary: Freedom, Guaranteed Participation, Democracy.

See also my proposition for the basic program of the Pirate Party: PA304: “Economic policies of the Pirate Party: Freedom, Guaranteed Participation, Democracy”, which is based upon this blog posting and split into freely combinable modules.

1 Pirate-liberal:

Negative freedom: human rights: the dignity, human rights, civil liberties, privacy of every human must be protected against interference from economic units, corporations, markets, state, majorities, humans.
Positive Freedom: participation, BIG: The right to secure existence and social participation is unconditional and individually guaranteed to every human. So this is also a human right. Of course, having to work is not a condition for it. Among others, from this follows an unconditional basic income guarantee (BIG).
Self-determination: Every human chooses how and if he wants to spend his time and space to do something economic, creative, innovative, family, social, volunteer, political, for free development, for the pursuit of happiness, for nothing of the above.

2 Pirate-left:

Solidarity and tax liability: Every human and every economic entity has the duty to pay taxes for all economic profits and transactions. The taxes are levied by the democracy — based on the principles of equality, simplicity of the rules, transparency and justice — and used by the democracy for the objectives and institutions specified here.
Primacy of democracy: No submission to the financial sector / economy: Democracy must not be subordinated by financial dependence on credit obtaining from the financial sector or the economy. Nor should the economic system be designed so that business entities can gain a power position of systemic importance (“too big to fail”), so that their losses and their externalities must be taken over by the state.
Primacy of democracy: No privatization, no lobbyism: Democracy means: one human, one vote. Every human being is equal in rights. In contrast, in the economy, the size of the assets/income and the number of shares is the deciding factor. Therefore, democratic institutions must not be privatized. Lobbyism corresponds to a soft partial privatization: a part of the democratic decision process is outsourced to the economy, and thereby, not votes or voices decide there, but finances.
Poverty: Poverty must be prevented; not prosperity.
Emancipation from domination: power accumulations of any kind in monopolies, oligopolies, cartels, elitist structures and groups must be stopped. Therefore laws, regulations and interventions are necessary.
Emancipation from work/labor: abolishment of: work as dependent employment (“precarity”), creating jobs as a state goal, full employment as a state goal, work as an end in itself, work as a dangerous occupation for humans.
Transparency: reduction of knowledge gap: More transparency not only in democratic institutions, elected mandate and official positions, but also in powerful economic units. More data protection for all humans, especially those outside of positions of power.
Democracy and participation: more real and more direct democracy not only at all levels and in all decisions of states and associations of states, but also in powerful economic units.
No dismantling of the state: All democratic institutions, including healthcare, education, social services, infrastructure, institutions of the separation of powers are achievements that must never be abolished, but must be further improved.
Equal and free access: democracy: The use of all democratic institutions including healthcare, education, social services, infrastructure, infrastructure, institutions of the separation of powers is available to all people freely without cost and restrictions. To enable enlightenment and educated, critical citizens, the access, use, re-use, dissemination of all knowledge that democratic institutions have produced including educational institutions, and the use of all communication media that are necessary for participation (eg Internet) is available to all people freely without cost and restrictions.
Equal and free access: economy: All the laws and regulations of the economic system (and all laws in general) as well as the tax system must be simple and easy to understand and designed for maximum transparency. All markets and commercial transactions with a significant impact on business and society must be accessible and — to ensure a general check — be transparent. This also applies to derivatives trading and over-the-counter trading.
International: Intensive international peaceful cooperation without borders to implement all aims herein. In foreign policy and international economic policy only the human rights are the supreme and deciding factor.