How can we ensure that the COVID-19 economic rescue plan is both ecological and socially just? Here are six simple steps.
1. Start by taxing wealth (a common tool during war-time crises). And tax it to an extent sufficient to do the following:
1. Start by taxing wealth (a common tool during war-time crises). And tax it to an extent sufficient to do the following:
2. Pay not just wages but also debts and rents for small businesses and households that have lost their income. The wealth tax approach ensures that the burden falls on the rich, who are most able to bear it (vs borrowing, which would be used to justify austerity down the road).
3. As a condition for receiving this assistance, small businesses must produce clear plans for reaching zero emissions by 2030.
4. If any major firms must be bailed out, this should *not* be a giveaway. The money should be used to buy equity, while private creditors must be forced to take a haircut. The public share of equity should allow the govt to require the firm to decarbonize by 2030.
5. Any additional government stimulus and job plan should be channeled through a Green New Deal, such that it is invested in the rollout of renewable energy infrastructure, public transportation, home retrofitting, ecological restoration.
6. The government must cancel all debt payments scheduled by global South countries in order to enable them to spend instead on public healthcare and COVID-19 response.
