Adopted by the Board of Directors
August 2020 | Teleconference
Resolution 2020-003
Humanists have the responsibility to work in support of economic policies that live up to the American ideal of equitable treatment for all. In response to the growing economic inequality and specifically income and wealth inequality in the United States, the American Humanist Association makes the following affirmative resolution:
WHEREAS the wealth gap between upper-income and lower- and middle-income households has widened, and
WHEREAS in recent history the highest-earning twenty percent of U.S. households have steadily brought in a larger share of the nation’s total income than the bottom eighty percent combined, and
WHEREAS Black, Indigenous, and Latinx households have median incomes that are significantly less than that of White households, and
WHEREAS deeply-rooted structural and institutional inequities contribute to the growing disparities in wealth accumulations along racial, gender, and ethnic lines, and the Black-income and generational wealth gap has persisted over time, and
WHEREAS Women of color are more likely to bear the double burden of childcare/caregiving and wage work, while being concentrated in some of the lowest paid service sector jobs, and
WHEREAS LGBTQIA+ people of color have higher poverty rates than their same-race cisgender counterparts and experience widespread discrimination in the workplace, and
WHEREAS Disabled individuals have disproportionately high poverty and unemployment rates relative to non-disabled individuals, and
WHEREAS Seniors who are economically insecure struggle with rising housing and health care bills, inadequate nutrition, lack of access to transportation, diminished savings, and job loss, and
WHEREAS privatized healthcare often disadvantages impoverished citizens such that the primary cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is an illness to oneself or one’s family member.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION, in the pursuit of reducing the wealth and income inequality gap,
AFFIRMS its support of a tax structure that reduces the tax burden for low-income earners and one that equitably taxes corporations and the wealthiest citizens, and
AFFIRMS its opposition to predatory subprime lending practices, and
AFFIRMS its support of an increase of the federal minimum wage to a livable wage, and
AFFIRMS its support of policies aimed at expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and
AFFIRMS its support for policies aimed at eliminating residential segregation, and
AFFIRMS its support for policies aimed at the reduction in income disparities through wealth-building programs for low-income and working-class people, particularly people of color, and
AFFIRMS its support for policies aimed at investing in and desegregating education, and
AFFIRMS its support for policies aimed at decriminalizing poverty including eliminating legal and justice system related policies, practices, and procedures that unfairly perpetuate or worsen the harmful effects of poverty, particularly those that entrap the poor in the criminal justice system, and
AFFIRMS its support for high-quality healthcare, paid sick-leave and universal childcare as human rights and not privileges, and
AFFIRMS its support for policies that give workers the right to negotiate over wages and benefits and those that improve wages, including increasing the minimum wage to a livable wage, and calls on employers to halt their attacks on workers’ rights to engage in such negotiations, and
AFFIRMS its support for targeting and eliminating the root causes of economic inequality including structural underpinnings holding the racial and gender wealth gap in place, and
AFFIRMS its support for Social Security benefits that help to reduce the levels of poverty among American Seniors and especially important for women and people of color, and
AFFIRMS its support for financial compensation to those who have suffered years of income inequality such as government programs that subsidize home mortgages and tuition.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION, calls upon all who are able and should be concerned about a more equitable society to do your part to make this world a better world for us all now and in the future. Support with your voice, vote, time, energy, resources, and participation—legislation, campaigns, projects, and other efforts that widely, persistently and significantly reduce economic inequality and to support the national and grassroots organizations that are working to bring this about.