Term Paper on Savoy Help for Constitution
Savoy suggests adding the following provisions to the Constitution
– The right to a dignified quality of life, including clothing, housing, nutrition, public transportation, health care, and other basic social services.
– Special protection for families, including prenatal care, family leave for sickness or birth of a child, family planning aid, child care.
– The right to an education that will prepare citizens for a suitable occupation of their own choosing and allow them to take part in the cultural life of the community.
– The right to employment, guaranteeing jobs in the public sector to those who cannot find work in the private sector; fair wages and hours; equal pay for equal work.
– The right to economic and social security for future older Americans.
– The right to adequate economic benefits in case of unemployment, disability, illness or other situations beyond the citizen’s control.
– The right to clean air, water, and the right to renewable energy sources; also the right for citizens to represent the interests of the planet.
Savoy does not suggest this will be an easy task. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to adopting such a set of amendments will be the public’s perception that it is a means of “constitutionalizing” the welfare system. “To the extent people see it this way,” he admits, “it will receive a most negative and hostile reaction.” Perceptions, though, make all the difference. Savoy notes, for instance, the difference a point of view makes in how the public sees benefits mandated by legislation and benefits enshrined in the Constitution. A mother who receives Aid to Families with Dependent Children may be held in low esteem, while benefits granted through the First or Fourteenth amendments are viewed with dignity. As Savoy stated in his article in The Nation: “Why does a person have a constitutional right to free speech, or a right to a lawyer if charged with a crime, but no right to be fed if he or she is starving?”
Even within the welfare system, certain programs have public approval and others do not. The public may see welfare recipients as charity cases, but a program such as Social Security or unemployment compensation is viewed with reverence. “People regard Social Security as a dignified entitlement,” notes Savoy. “You just try to take Social Security away from the American people; then you’ll really see a second American revolution.” Packaging a new Bill of Rights may be the greatest challenge facing proponents of a constitutional change. Savoy believes there is only one possible way to make it palatable to the public, and that is to present these new economic rights as a social insurance plan, much like Social Security. “What makes the difference with something like Social Security, is that people feel they’ve paid into this — like an insurance plan. I pay my premiums and I’m getting back what I paid into the fund. It’s like a contractual right.”
Welfare, meanwhile, is seen as a situation in which working people pay to support non-working people. “It has a negative connotation,” notes Savoy. “And for that reason I believe we’ve come to the end of the welfare state in this country. We need new thinking on how to address the problems of the economically and socially disadvantaged.” He proposes supporting the new social insurance plan much as we do Social Security — with payroll deductions. “But not in the regressive way we do it now,” he cautions. “We should introduce a progressive payroll tax. People who earn smaller incomes should pay less, percentage-wise, than high-wage earners. And people earning $100,000 and $250,000 should be paying payroll taxes, too. There should not be a cap. “This can serve as a form of premium on a social insurance plan that would provide economic and social security to all Americans — not just poor people, not just mothers on welfare, not just…well…fill-in-the-blank.” There is the danger that the plan will be seen as anothr liberal tax-and-spend program, but Savoy counters saying he believes most people are not against taxation so long as it falls on the rich as well as the middle class. “The middle class and the working class are tired of carrying the major portion of the tax burden,” he says. “And people want to feel the tax dollars are going to benefit them personally. If money goes into education, they want to know their kids are going to get quality education in the public schools. If money goes into the creation of new jobs, they want to know they can share in those jobs and the training, and that it doesn’t just go to a small minority or a small group.”
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