Yesterday Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America.
Obama is known to be a lover of technology, and has already made some changes to the official Whitehouse website, www.whitehouse.gov.
One of the changes is the publishing of the Obama-Biden administration's Agenda (I think it may have previously been available through the change.gov site).
I've been reading through it, and feel very optimistic about it - even if they can't achieve all that they hope to achieve, the Agenda contains a lot of good ideas and good principles, and a indicates a sensible, open approach to the business of government which I applaud.
Some of my favourite bits include:
"Extend Paid Sick Days to All Workers: Half of all private sector workers have no paid sick days and the problem is worse for employees in low-paying jobs, where less than a quarter receive any paid sick days. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require that employers provide seven paid sick days per year. "
The lack of paid sick days to the lowest paid workers (who need it most) was a profound injustice. Companies and corporations should be making society a better place for people, and should have a duty to look after their own people. Sickness is something that happens to us all from time to time.
"Reverse Tax Cuts for the Wealthy: Obama and Biden will protect tax cuts for poor and middle class families, but they will reverse most of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers"
There's nothing wrong with wealth, but a making the rich richer while the poor get poorer isn't fair. There are people working just as hard for $25,000 a year as some do for $1,000,000.
"Senator Obama also laid down principles for how to discuss faith in a pluralistic society, including the need for religious people to translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values during public debate" - America contains people of many faiths and people of no faifth. This proposal seems like it has potential to bring people together, to celebrate their shared humanity rather than focus on their religious differences.
"Restore Scientific Integrity to the White House: Restore the basic principle that government decisions should be based on the best-available, scientifically-valid evidence and not on ideological predispositions. " - Together with a planned doubling of research funding over 10 years, the Obama-Biden administration seems very pro-science, and I think that could benefit the people of America, and of the world, greatly over the years to come, through medical and technological advancements to improve the lives of millions, or billions!
Overall, it all sounds very positive, but of course it is still just words at the moment.
It would be naive to expect the Obama-Biden administration to right all wrongs and cure all problems, but they have laid down sound ideas that, at least in principle, have the potential to make things better for everyone. Lets hope they can realise at least some of their grand ambitions and give America, and the world, some of that change we so desperately need.
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