8 Sustainable Development Goals to Apply Right Here in the US

Originally published on www.inc.com on September 24, 2015.

This is a momentous week, with President Obama, President Xi Jiping, and the Pope addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Pope Francis makes his address on the same day the UN is slated to approve the next round of 15-year Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

I read through the goals, which replace the UN's Millennium Development Goals passed in 2000, and was struck by their broad applicability. I had thought of these as the way the developed world intends to bring developing nations out of poverty and address such international challenges as food security and conflict resolution. Imagine my surprise when I looked in detail at the goals and targets and saw how much they appear just the thing for the United States of America. Here are 8 SDGs that seem like valid goals to adopt right here in the US:

1. The first Sustainable Development Goal is to "end poverty in all its forms everywhere," and Target 1.3 is to "implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all." With 46.7 million Americans in poverty, or 14.8 per cent of the population, this seems like something useful to aspire to.
2. Under Goal no. 3, which is about global health, I note a need to "achieve universal health coverage," as well as to "ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services." These seem like laudable targets for the United States.
3. Here's another one: "by 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university." We think of education as a human right, but we don’t make it affordable the way Europeans do.
4. Goal no. 8, on decent work and economic growth, calls for an endeavor "to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation," and includes "equal pay for equal work."
5. Goal no. 10, on reducing inequality, is especially urgent here in the United States, where the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has become dramatic. The Gini index, the most common measure of household income inequality used by economists, has increased 5.9 per cent since 1993. The targets within Goal 10 include "inclusion of all" irrespective of race, and to "progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average" by 2030.
6. Goal no. 11, on safe and sustainable cities, calls for "access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing," attention to air quality, and policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. This might be useful with respect to rising sea levels in Florida, or drought in California.
7. Included in Goal no. 12 on "responsible consumption and production" is a call to "halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels." Let's work on eating everything on our plate (and on not piling it so high in the first place).
8. Lastly, Goal no. 16 on peace and justice urges us to "significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere." Gun violence, for example.
If all this sounds like socialism, it really isn’t. As Capital Institute founder John Fullerton points out, it is very much the capitalism Adam Smith envisioned when he wrote about the invisible hand, the profit motive and self-correcting free markets. That’s because empathy was a given for Adam Smith, an unquestioned part of human nature. It is also a part of our history. We take care of our weak, and our inclusiveness has always made us strong.
The Sustainable Development Goals are the result of long consultations among nations, with global acceptance of the idea that reducing poverty and inequality is the correct path forward for a secure and prosperous planet. Let's agree that we could also benefit from a secure and prosperous America.