The following is an excerpt from the WSDC 2022 Platform, approved June 25, 2022:

The pandemic has thrown a harsh light on the failures of our current economic policies. 

In the USA, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, no child should go to sleep hungry; no family should have to choose between housing and health care; no worker should have to fear for their health when going to work. 

We the people have the right to government that works for all of us, over the long term, as opposed to government ruled by greed for short-term profit at the expense of our health, our security, and our very lives. The historical exploitation of all working people by the wealthy has gone unchecked by our government for too long; this has harmed underrepresented, misrepresented, and disadvantaged people the most. Income inequality is worse than ever before, with many corporate executives making 5 more than 600 times the pay of their lowest-paid employees. Wealth inequality is similarly extreme, with the top 10% of families holding nearly 80% of America’s wealth and the bottom half only 1%. We recognize just as President Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized nearly 90 years ago, that the natural tendency of economic capital is to concentrate into fewer and fewer hands, to the point where the very structure of society will collapse. It is therefore necessary to have in place governmental policies that will counter this tendency towards collapse by ensuring that all people have the opportunity to share in our nation’s abundance. 

Many laws designed to correct these injustices already exist, but a sorry majority have become toothless laws, laws that lack oversight or enforcement, or both. Every law, every contract, every trade deal — in short, every agreement — must contain funding and mechanisms to ensure justice; to make these words on paper a living reality. We believe comprehensive tax reform is required to fix Washington state’s regressive tax codes. Sufficient taxation is required for a functioning government that provides necessary infrastructure and services. Taxation also has a role in driving and realizing societal goals. Complexity in our current tax code creates opportunities for the wealthy and powerful to exploit loopholes to their advantage.

To recover from the economic crisis created by the coronavirus  pandemic, we support embracing the Just Transition from an extractive economy based on a worldview of consumerism and colonialism, an economic and political model of perpetual growth of economic and political power to the few based on resource extraction and worker exploitation, and a military model of world domination; to a regenerative economy based on a worldview of sustainability and sacredness of all life and cultures, a local-centric economic model of resource regeneration, a democratic political model of social justice, cooperation and wellbeing. 

Finally, public investment should have goals beyond GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth, we should ensure that equal access to basic human necessities such as housing, health care, and healthy food is prioritized over simple economic growth We are the music we make, the songs we sing, the stories we tell. We are the ideas we study and share, the bridges and communities we build, in uniquely human ways. 

You can find resolutions passed by the WSDCC related to this section of the platform below: