How Would You Fix the Economy?

[Micahn]

The Fix
There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg, Fl. Times.
The Business Section asked readers for ideas on:
"How Would You Fix the Economy?"
I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President,

    Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy.
    Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies
    that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned
    bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the
    "Patriotic Retirement Plan":


    There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work
    force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early
    retirement with the following stipulations:

    1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

    2) They MUST buy a  new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered –
    Auto Industry fixed.

    3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

    It can't get any easier than that!!


    P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes..

    Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare.

I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!




--
HAVE A NICE DAY.

[Oldshooter]

Just like cash for clunkers, I'm a day late and a dollar short. But I guess I could come outa retirement to take advantage of such a great opportunity!      

[garbhead]

Good plan except that 40 million x 1 million is 40 TRILLION dollars....I am over 50 and would be all for it

[blackpowderbill]

I say get the Gov't out of the economy. A free market will right itself. May not make everyone happy but it will be self sustaining.

[mechanic]

If we close DC for a couple years we can get close. 

[BBF]

Stop the press, no more spending of money you don't have. E-verify all that work and vote. Cut 80% of work Visas and start the friggin Drilling now. Bring the troops home,cut Foreign Aid.

[Dixie Dude]

Our government will be bankrupt at 20 trillion debt.  We are at 15 now.  My fix:

1) Energy - switch all government fleets to natural gas which is home produced.  Creates more natural gas jobs with the compressor stations and maintenance, and helps cut imported oil.  Half of our trade deficit is oil.  Switching fleets to natural gas will cut 40% of the imported oil. 

Next require so many cars a year switch to diesel.  You get 27 gallons of diesel out of a barrel of oil but only 20 gallons of gasoline.  So you cut imports by another third.  Germany did this and 85% of their cars run on diesel just to cut their imports.  Once cars are switched to diesel, then begin making hybrid diesels. 

Next speed up the process to get power companies to build more nuclear power plants.  Make them modular to cut costs and make parts interchangeable similar to the Navy nuclear ships.  This increases high paying jobs in power plants.

Next get with the coal companies (since we are going nuclear on power) to build coal gasification plants to manufacture synthetic gasoline and diesel.  Cuts imports and gets more jobs in these gasification plants. 

2) Crack down and send home all illegals, use national guard if necessary.  This will cut costs to government for the feebies they get.  It will also help the poor get jobs in gardening, yard work, cooks, housekeepers, etc. 

3) Stop government bailouts.  Let companies go out of business the old fashioned way.  Other companies will buy their assets and stay in business. 

4)  Review all free trade agreements, if the items are imported from companies that do not have health care, use child labor, have 40 hour workweek laws, and environmental laws that match ours, slap a tarriff of a value that would get the cost up to where it would be if it were made here.  I know we might have to pay more, but I would rather these countries have fair free trade.  Europe and Japan have laws similar to us so it wouldn't affect them as much, but China and some central and south American countries do not. 

5)  All military equipment MUST be made in the USA, from boots and uniforms to jets and aircraft carriers.  NO foreign made equipment period.  If we had a serious war, we need to make our stuff here. 

6)  Have a national sales tax to replace income tax. 

[Zulu]

Dixie Dude for President

[Oldshooter]

Dixie Dude for President

oHHHHHHHHH I WISH I WERE IN THE LAND OF DIXIE...........DUDE!

[mcwoodduck]

Fix the economy.
1) Cancel all taxes and instatute a 7% flat tax rate with the first 40,000 for single and 60,000 for married house holds tax free.
2) Set up a priority list for spending with Debit service as #1.
3) if more money is needed and we have to raise taxes.  Congress' budget is cut twice as much as the tax increase.
4) Social Security will be a safety net with a max tax of 5% for anyone entering the work force as of 2010 and 90% of the amount you put in will be yours the other 10% will be insurance against a disaster when you want to retire and the 90% can be passed on to heirs unlike the current system.  Depending on age you will be able to opt out or change your percentages.
This will free up Billions of $ to invest in the economy.
5) Make all dividends on US owned and opperated companies tax free.  the others count as income and if you make more than 40K / 60K total you will pay 7% on it.
6) Make a single standard for the EPA and AQMD.and limit requlation.
After all Legislation leads to Regulation and the morons that are hired to write regulation think they Have to write more to keep thier job.
7) Deport all illegal alliens to france, Afganistan, Cuba, or China.
rights and education are for Citizens and guests only.  If you are here illegally you are either going to be deported or sent to jail.
9) Start a guest worker program-  they pay a flat 10% tax and have to pay for each kid that is in school.
If they have a child here it is NOT a citizen.  If an illegal has a child here they have two options-  the kid is a citizen and it gets adopted out or can join them on the plane trip to Afganistan, Cuba, France, Venezula, or other.
10) any ellected official that looks at any socialist country and says we should do it that way.  Will be arrested, tried for treason for not up holding the constitition, and deported to that country with out a passport.  All property will be sold 90% will be taxed and the remainder will be sent on.
11) Parents will have to pay % of the cost of the school if the kids get failing grades. 
B's are even
A's get a $1,000 a year back from the school.
C's you pay $1,000 a year
D's You pay 2,000 a year
F's you pay $5,000 a year.
12) welfare is only allowed for 3 years. and you will report for duty every morning to do chores, go to school, and clean up parks, scoop poop, pick vegtables and fruit for the prison farms.  Divide up the projects and divide up the people.  All the A's go to school this month.
All the B's report for stoop and bend picking up trash, group C is doing child care for the other parents that are in groups A, B and D
D- reports to the prison farms to take care of the animals, grow food, and provide prisoners with food by cooking as well.
13) turn all prisons into three shifts.  If the Navy can hot bunk why not prisoners.  And make them work in shifts.  Sleep, work, and instruction.
For work they ride bikes that run generators to run the prison.  For down time they will take classes.

[jamesrus]

Stop the importation of foreign cars, and goods, make it here or dont have it.
Put sharpshooters on the boarders, one warning shot, then shoot to kill.
Use welfare system for what it was actually intended for, get all the freeloaders off it.
Do away with washigton, each state should have one representative with one vote to oversee the welfare of our country in the world scene.

Jamesrus

[ShadowMover]

I'm with jamesrus; we need to start making stuff here in this country. We should start with important things like cars, tooling, electronics, and the things that require skilled labor. We have to stop the ruinous open "free trade"  imports policy. We are exporting all our high skill jobs and getting 'service jobs' in return. The ONLY basis for a country's prosperity is to be able to make what it needs.  If we don't stop the multi-national companies from looting our jobs and selling us stuff we are like a man who spends his father's inheritance on fine living, and then at age 50 finds he is out of money, with no job, no skills, and no friends. We are that man. 

This country is run by foreign multi-national companies through the talking head politicians who, for the most part, are bought and paid for. We are almost in the position of a man who has sold his farm and now is hired by the absentee landlord to sharecrop it. Do you think the Chinese and Saudi investment companies care about maintaining a viable American middle class, or any of the things that set this country apart from the rest?

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." --Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119

[myronman3]

a one year tax holiday effective immediately.   not one dime taken from your paycheck.   no social security, no state tax, no federal tax.   imagine the effect. 

[ShadowMover]

a one year tax holiday effective immediately.   not one dime taken from your paycheck.   no social security, no state tax, no federal tax.   imagine the effect. 

The effect would be more inflation unless the Federal Government stops spending. Imagine you stopped working for a year and kept spending like you were on a vacation. What this country needs is to produce something by the workers here, that the rest of world will buy. If they won't buy it, then we should produce for ourselves. I agree the tax relief would help, but unless spending stops too, it will just hurt everyone. Taxes now don't cover expenses.

[mechanic]

I just read that it takes 41 cents of every tax dollar to cover the interest on the debt beginning next year.   Just the interest........if I heard correctly.  I guess we could fork it all over and pay this debt off in a couple hundred years....

[Dixie Dude]

High inflation will make that percentage go down.  Sooner or later its coming or extremely high taxes.

[ShadowMover]

High inflation will make that percentage go down.  Sooner or later its coming or extremely high taxes.

Yes high inflation will make the percentage numbers go down, but all your savings, pensions, social security, insurance pay-outs, and annuities will be worth less than they are now. Inflation is a tax on people who have put something aside and lived within their means. More bad news will follow, as the numbers on wages go up to keep pace with inflation, wages will be subjects to increasing tax rates that only millionaires would have paid in prior years. As the value of 'real' objects like houses, property and stocks go up, the insurance and taxes on them will rise accordingly. This will drive the pensioners out of their homes as their savings, pensions, and retirement plans pay off in todays numbers, while the world they live in will demand 10 times as much. The net result will be people kicked out of their homes in their 'Golden Years'.

Inflation is the cruelest tax.

Of course the wealthy will have their money tied up in stocks, gold, commodities, or whatever will shield them from the erosion of inflation.  I wish I knew what was going to be the 'safe' investment. Any suggestions, besides, guns and ammo?

[mechanic]

Food.

[ShadowMover]

Food.

Yes food too, or should I say, first. Food, water, fuel, guns, and ammo give you options. No argument.

But on a longer term, and assuming we don't have food shortage disruptions, where do you put your savings or money, if you have a few dollars to put away?  Obviously money in a bank account isn't going to grow at the ridiculous interest rates of less than inflation.