What’s your plot to save the US economy right now?
The question
Here’s my plot:
1. No more free bailout money for anyone. Instead, US government gives banks vouchers to loan money to private businesses. The banks must loan the taxpayers’ money within 120 days to a credit worthy (self-determining rating) business or they lose the voucher. The bank must have a stake in the creditworthiness and debt repayment of the commercial borrower (perhaps by preservation percentage of earned commission over time). Essentially, the banks become accountable, commission-based middlemen for government loans.
2. Government demolishes vacant homes in ‘designated’ housing crisis cities such as Stockton, Tampa, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. The HUD secretary should convene a meeting of city mayors to come up with a plot to condemn vacant homes and blighted properties, and to ratchet up building code enforcement to remove questionable vacant homes from the market.
3. Cut capital gains tax to zero until December 31, 2010. That’s right. No one pays one cent of capital gains tax on any capital gains earned from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010. But, small swing transactions still pay ordinary income tax rate to discourage small selling and speculation. Thereafter, phase back tax increases until they return to current capital gains tax rate of fifteen percent.
In addition, after 2010, no capital gains tax break for foreign companies and foreign entities. If you want to gamble in the U.S stock market, you have to pay the vig to Uncle Sam starting in 2011.
4. Extend unemployment insurance benefits for six months.
5. Methodical and rational troop draw down in Iraq to save US taxpayers up to $ 10 billion dollars per month. Apply some of the saved money towards giant infrastructure and public works programs here in U.S.
6. Repeal the Bankruptcy Reform Act’s means test provisions. Allow Chapter 7 petitioners to discharge all debts owed to creditors, and not be forced into Chapter 13 sort-out plans.
7. Prohibit all foreign companies from bidding on government contracts until 2012.
Best answers:
My Rule of Thumb Always Know Exactly What Your Credit Report Contains. I guarantee that with “Credit Secrets Revealed” you’ll really know the inner workings of our credit system and be able to immediately use your newfound knowledge to your advantage. Heck, even most millionaires…
I’m not a huge fan of five or six but the rest doesn’t look too terrible..
Just one:
An amendment to the Constitution of the United States
“Congress shall make no law abridging nor respecting the establishment of commerce and trade”
There should be a wall of separation between Business and State, for the exact same reasons that we have a wall of separation between Church and State.
1) Place more money into schools. Schools loosing funding is a huge issue, especially in urban communities. If schools don’t have the proper funding they can’t teach properly, and students won’t learn, they won’t relate to what’s start taught, and won’t see much importance in school. Next, colleges are constantly raising tuition because they’re losing funding. If tuition costs go up, that means that students will have less money to spend on books, housing, and other expenses. Common sense says that if students are failing in school, that there is something the school is lacking that keeps it from being able to teach effectively. That should be the school you place money into… not the school that already has everything it needs to properly educate its students. Want to fix the drop out rate? Invest more money into schools.
2) Universal Health Care. Everyone needs and has a right as a human being to health care. I should not have to choose between helping my doctor buy a new car and saving my life or a loved one’s life. Pharmaceutical companies today are concerned more with finding temporary remedies to illnesses than finding actual cures today. Instead of making it a goal to keep people healthy, they depend on the sick for them to make a profit. That’s why even though drugs like marijuana, which DOES have medicinal value, stay illegal – they are actual solutions to problems. Fixing a problem = loosing a market and potential customers. This would also save money for the average person because they don’t have much expense to pay. That is money they could place towards other things like school, food, bills, etc. In reality, health comes before money.
3) Graduated income tax. The rich are rich because they make a profit off of the work done by the middle and lower classes. Since taking the money away from the rich directly is unauthorized, giving back to those who place in the most work (the middle and lower classes) should be done through taxes and social services.
4) Focus drug policies on upper level suppliers instead of harassing low level dealers/Stop CIA and other federal agencies from playing their hand in the drug trade. The lower level dealers only exist because the drugs come from somewhere… if you want to get drugs off the streets, you don’t crate environmental cycles (like broken homes and other environments that come from a population with high incarceration rates) by only attacking the AFFECT of a cause. Deal with the cause – government corruption and upper level suppliers.
This is just the start, but those would be huge steps forward.
Also… one thing to note is that all of the 4 topics I addressed are all related. By investing more in the lower and middle classes, you can reduce crime and increase the number of people contributing to the economy in constructive ways.
Peace
I don’t have plans since no one has questioned me for them. Gov’t people I mean. But your plans are not new. Most of them are Obama’s. And he is seeing they won’t work so he’s revising them.
On number 5 for instance, what is methodical and rational troop draw down? That is pretty vague. We must not let Iraq and Iran to call our bluff on this. This is what they’re waiting for. We must give them a deadline and stick to it.
So I can’t go in to each and every one of these plans because they’re so flawed and it would take a major economics course to clarify why.
Same as always, get government out of the way of productive people. No bailouts, fewer set of laws, lower taxes. Works every time. Problem for most is that it involves business cycles, which I guess people have been conditioned to believe can be smoothed away by terrible government policy.
1. Start an aggressive program of deporting the apx 20 million illegals in this country. If we have to do it one bus load at a time, then so be it. Kids born here to the parents of illegals get shipped back with them. They will be able to apply for a permanent visa when they turn 18.
2. Adopt the Honest Tax plot and get rid of about 95% of the IRS.
Your #5 thought will cost us much more if you do that. It’s the ancient “pay me now or pay me later”. The war is nothing more than a sideshow to this whole mess.
A rapid turn around in the U.S. economy depends on finding a substitution for the internal combustion engine.
This would shake all of the well heeled oil wealth out of the trees and reallocate the wealth of the nation through new capitalist ventures, make new jobs and lower the cost of transportation for individuals and products going to market.
Its a no-brainer.
Require every bail out dollar to the lending institutions ( creditors, banks, etc. ) be required to lend to consumers and businesses under normal qualifying parameters. and nolonger will be used to buy other bank’s debts. — which is what they’re doing with the bail out money they’ve already received.
Federally impose fines on any creditor raising interest rates or lowering open to buy limits to any consumer who has not defaulted on any payments.
Do not bail out any further industries. If they fail…….they fail. LET ONLY The strong, the honest and the business smart survive. All others – bye-bye.
IMMIDEATELY RE-NOGOTIATE TRADE AGREEMENTS. CURRENTLY A $ 10 TO 1 DEFICIT SHOULD BE FLUSHED. EQUAL TRADE OR SEE YOU!!!! U.S. JOBS WOULD SKY ROCKET BY U.S. COMPANIES MAKING U.S. PRODUCTS PAYING DECENT BUT NOT CRIMINALLY INSANE WAGES. THIS KEEPS THE COST TO MANUFACTURER DOWN, RETAILS COSTS WITHIN REASON, GOOD WAGES PAID, FEDERAL TAX REVENUE GOES THROUGHT THE ROOF and people are pleased again.
Except the bone idle who will still hold out a hand for a free perk. To those people……A one way trip to a 3rd world country for a 5 year example of what life is really like when you have real problems. Cheaper burden by far to the people , less drain on the economy and we really get rid from a 0 tolerence of society – the bone idle amoung us. They’ll return after 5 years either dead from being bone idle over there….or full of p!ss and vinager with some damn ambition.
This alone will immediately turn the economy.
I’m sure you are well aware by now that Congress does not care what we reckon about anything.
I don’t have a plot to save the US economy, and I’m not hanging on any hope that the government will.