Sixteen for '16

"Yet another progressive agenda, you might well say. But this one is different. It is so sensible and straightforward that it actually dispels the cloudy and complicated debates that confuse us about our policy options." Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York and former president of the American Sociological Association

"A roster of priorities that will, quite simply, make the world a better place, not just for us, but for the generations that follow" Truthout.

"For a country regularly generating deadly crises for itself and the globe, savvy sociologist Salvatore Babones demonstrates the urgent necessity of sixteen progressive social reforms. Arguing from scientific evidence, he proffers an essential list of restructuring issues for this failed democracy." Joe Feagin, Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University; former president, American Sociological Association, and author of Liberation Sociology

"Reminds us of those times when Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, Green Party activists and Independents could all be proud of America and proposes how we can relaunch a common vision for the future" Judith Blau, Professor Emerita, University of North Carolina

"Babones powerfully illustrates how quality data fuels a progressive political agenda; an agenda insistently democratic and sociological in nature. Any of these sixteen initiatives would help the U.S. fulfill the dream of equality for all, by creating policies that maximize the best of collective human agency. "Government is not the problem, Babones observes. "We are the problem. Government is the solution." Direct. Insightful. Energizing." Bruce K. Friesen, President, Sociologists Without Borders - U.S.

"Babones has distilled the ocean of progressive policy ideas into specific proposals for a progressive policy agenda in the 2016 elections and beyond." Library Journal

"Distills policy ideas into proposals for a progressive agenda in the 2016 elections and beyond....highlights areas in which current policies are not working then lays out a common-sense solution that has proven popular support...uplifting" Library Journal

"Salvatore Babones' new book provides useful insights on many of the most important issues facing the country. The political picture will be far brighter if his list of priorities were at the top of the national agenda." Dean Baker, Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

“This book brilliantly critiques and offers concrete practices and policy suggestions about how to move from calls for empty reform to real change. A must read.” Professor Henry A Giroux, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest

"If you can't bear the thought of still another Presidential election campaign that offers no real answers to the problems we face, read this book--and share it with your friends--and with your favorite Presidential candidate." Steve Cobble, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington

Salvatore Babones teaches sociology and social policy at the University of Sydney. He has published widely on globalization, inequality, and quantitative methodology.

Create Jobs;

Build America's Human Infrastructure;

Support Public Education;

Extend Medicare to Everyone;

Raise Taxes on Top Incomes;

Refinance Social Security;

Make the Bankers Pay;

Make It Easy to Join a Union;

Set a Living Minimum Wage;

Upgrade to 10-10-10;

Put an End to the Prison State;

Pass a National Abortion Law;

Let People Vote;

Stop Torturing, Stop Assassinating, and Close Down the NSA;

Suffer the Refugee Children;

Save the Earth.