Looking Ahead in 2021
I can’t say I’m a big fan of personal New Year’s resolutions.
If I promise to cut out caffeine and then end up at Dunkin’ on January 3rd I don’t want to feel guilty about it. If I tell myself to eat healthier but then Burritos Las Palma debuts a new deshebrada, I can’t say no.
But at the beginning of each new year I do try to take stock of the big picture: how many people are working more than 40 hours a week and living in poverty? How many people are sleeping on the streets? How many American citizens are being disenfranchised and ignored in the political process? How many big banks are still investing in fossil fuels?
And then I figure out how I’m going to help make things better.
I do this every year. Last year, I promised myself that I would get CalEITC expanded to include undocumented Californians. We did that. I told myself I would help some true progressives win big races— cut to L.A.’s new District Attorney George Gascón, Councilmember Nithya Raman, and Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell. I also set a goal of dramatically expanding the customer base at Aspiration. As of this year, we’re at over 2.5 million customers. That’s 2.5 million fewer people allowing big banks to invest their money in the fossil fuel industry and the prison industrial complex.
But I usually keep my resolutions to myself.
This year, I thought I’d share them with you all.
This past tax season, the combined Federal and California Earned Income Tax Credit returned over $3 billion to more than 6.2 million earners. In 2021, I hope to multiply that number — because hardworking families deserve every penny of the tax refund they earned.
But an expanded tax credit program isn’t going to end poverty on its own. After all, the biggest reason so many people are struggling is because the companies they work for haven’t been paying them what they deserve.
In 2021, I hope to work with the incoming Biden administration on the essential issue of raising the federal minimum wage. I had the pleasure of presenting to members of the transition team who will be working on labor issues, and was able to make one point abundantly clear: no one who has a job in America should be living in poverty.
Over the past 40 years, the cost of living has increased significantly while workers’ wages have stayed relatively flat, despite increased productivity. Meanwhile, the pay of CEOs is up nearly 1,000 percent since 1978 — a figure that is double the stock market growth over the same period. In other words, almost all of the new wealth created in the last 25 years or so has gone straight to the top one percent, leaving most workers behind.
I will continue advocating for a livable minimum wage until we get it done — $15.00 an hour and beyond.
Of course, raising the minimum wage is just the beginning. I’m hoping that the Biden administration will move the needle further in the direction of public benefits for working people.
After all: working people’s money would go a whole lot further if they weren’t saddled with outrageous medical and student debt.
And as an entrepreneur and investor myself — I can guarantee that American businesses will hire more and compete better under a Medicare for All health-care system. Not to mention that every worker would have more financial security when their employment isn’t literally a matter of life or death. I will continue to make that case to the new residents of the White House.
But I also want to turn my attention closer to home in 2021.
As we approach the end of the first year living with the coronavirus pandemic, it has become clearer than ever before that the private sector must step up to fill gaps that government can’t — or won’t.
For me, that means expanding the work of the Aspiration Foundation.
Our charter requires Aspiration to give away 10% of our annual profits — we work regularly with organizations like Color of Change and Accion to effectively respond to injustice and strengthen the political voices of communities that have long been overlooked in our democracy.
We’ll continue supporting that essential work, but this year, I want to add another, more local, area of focus to our giving.
The sadness and fear wrought by 2020 was joined by compassion, care, and partnership — most notably in the form of extraordinary mutual aid programming created in a moment of severe crisis by inspired Angelenos.
With our state’s eviction moratorium about to expire, one in nine Angelenos living with food insecurity, and homelessness expected to skyrocket, it is imperative that we supply a lifeline to people in need.
I’m talking about supporting the small operations that don’t often get noticed in corporate giving circles — the people engaging in direct service with their community by delivering hygiene supplies to their homeless neighbors from the backs of their cars, crowdsourcing funding for mobile shower units, or spending hours calling local restaurants and grocers to purchase discounted foods for struggling families.
More on this to come.
I look forward to updating you on our progress as I work toward my 2021 goals — and feel free to drop me a line if you think I’m slacking!