This is a useful list of upper class fantasies. And perfectly-timed, a week after you lost the election big-time, when the conventional wisdom is that you guys live in your own mythology.
Network Marketing. It's the cheapest way for each and every american to start their own business. An additional $500 a month for a lot of Americans would do wonders, for them and the country as a whole. [video=youtube;57WNZVWpwqg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57WNZVWpwqg[/video]
IMO, the three biggest issues facing our economy are: 1) Mental / attitude / entitlement / etc The mentality in this country has become one of assuming somebody else should or will take care of us, and there is no shame in not taking care of ourselves. We can not have an environment where somebody would actually choose to take what the government is handing out instead of taking a job they feel is "beneath" them. Safety nets are fine, but there has to be strong incentives to get away from taking and depending on government hand-holding. There needs to be a drastic shift in the mentality of the people in this country or else no other tax breaks or government spending will help. Related to that, the entitlements in the education sector are out of control. It has gotten to the point where we can't improve our education in this country because the majority of increased funding will go to pensions and waste. We need to fix this so that we can get our non-university education system back to the best in the world. Pensions need to be tied to the markets, just like everybody else. There is no way pension values should be guaranteed value while the private sector is laying off millions. 2) Medical costs There is a near-inelastic demand function for healthcare. This has lead to skyrocketing costs in the sector. We really need to figure out a way to get the accelerating costs under control while keeping the system in the private sector. These costs are really hurting small and medium sized businesses. I would propose a couple ideas: - Make basic, fundamental, catastrophic health insurance available for anybody that truly needs it (making less than $x / year). This can be done for ~$1000/year/person instead of Obamacare's $6000/person/year. - Tort reform - Better understand where every dollar of a health / doctor bill is going. We need to understand WHY a night in a hospital costs $15,000. At this point, those of us that have insurance have no incentive to try to get lower prices for healthcare. So we don't care that a doctor charges $400 for a 10 minute visit, or a night in the hospital costs $15,000. - We should incentivize individuals to negotiate for better prices. Perhaps we can provide a stronger tax break for paying for healthcare costs out of pocket instead of with insurance. I guarantee if people have a reason to shop around, they could see a doctor for less than $400 for a 10 minute visit. 3) EVERYBODY needs to pay state and federal income tax. Every single person needs to have some skin in the game, even if it is a little amount. We've reached the tipping point where the majority can vote to take what they want from the people that have more then they do. If the public wants a service, EVERYBODY needs to feel some consequence of that spending. If we don't implement this, voting for more spending will never stop and the percentage of those voting for services paid by the minority will continue to grow which is unsustainable.
Agreed. We need to promote a new form a business, one that each and every American can partake in ie: Network Marketing. It has the ability to take the power away from the Corporations and into the hands of the people.
Cut unemployment benefits to 26 weeks. People are able to work, just not willing to work for 25% more income. I have great faith in people, and when faced with being cut off from the govt. teat, they'll find work. If they want higher wages, they'll find a way to earn those, too. This is not a knock on anyone - it's human nature. Some may not make it, and that's what welfare is for. I like the skin in the game suggestion. I also think they should raise or lower everyone's taxes so we all feel the pain or benefit. Obama is too hostile to business. The pipeline is a perfect example. Jobs killed. We are no less dependent on A-rab oil. It would be good for business. Just a visible example... His cronies at EPA and every other regulatory body "legislate" against business constantly. Shrink the debt to what we owe for money spent to build roads, bridges, or other infrastructure. Only borrow for these things.
Here are a few radical ideas Eliminate the penny. While it is still cheaper to make 5 pennies instead of 1 nickel, pennies do cost more to manufacture than they are worth. The US made approximately 5 billion pennies last year, so eliminating that would save the country a little more than that each year. Staying with my penny theme, businesses would be required to raise prices to accommodate sales tax so pennies were not needed. The bump in price would be used for hiring workers, with a tax break for doing so Legalize marijuana and tax the shit out of it. Apply the same tax to tobacco and alcohol. Also set a minimum health label on foods, with companies forced to pay tax on anything that comes in above that Only borrow money for infrastructure Make social security a private business. Eliminate the social security admin and save billions (not sure how to transition that one) Place all convicted rapists, murders and other lifers on an island and let the people of the US pay per view to watch real "survivor"
I never really understood this argument; pennies are used more than once, so their cost being more than their value is kind of a moot point, right? Not a huge fan of sales taxes as they seem to target people whose savings rates are the lowest (not intentionally, but rich people aren't rich because they spend all their money, yeah?). But really a sales tax would only change the world in Oregon, so I guess we could just get with the times... I can dig this idea. Even if MJ was taxed as much as cigarettes are, it'd still be way cheaper than the standard "hookup" price from a dealer. As long as defense spending doesn't get bucketed in as infrastructure through loopholes. The welfare of mankind is not in private business's wheelhouse. Inclusion is not their strength; exclusion is. I'm not sure I want to rely on a business that sees me as a cost center for my safety net. Part of me wants to be more savage: maximum sentences of 10 years for non-violent crime. Any violent crime with a conviction and two lost appeals (trying to avoid frying the West Memphis 3) would result in capital punishment. Part of me wants to be less savage: maximum sentences of 10 years for non-violent crime, 20 years for violent crime. A lot of good money goes after bad housing criminals for so long. At the same time, those are private sector jobs in a "Big Prison" market with a huge lobby. Where are all those not-good-enough-to-be-a-cop folks going to get their jobs after half the prisons close? Those folks are on the cusp, with low education levels and no other marketable skills. There are a lot of private industries that are being paid for by the government, lots of fools gold employment out there if government were to shrink to the point of being unable to pay them. No matter who started that expansion, we're living with the effects now.
Given the role of government for which we have voted, we require a 25% VAT, a $3.00/gallon gas tax, elimination of all loopholes, an increase in the capital gains tax and increased income tax rates across the board, not just for the highest income. Anything else will simply blow a hole in the budget. As for economic growth? It doesn't matter. We're all slaves to the government now.
AUDIT THE FED, end QE cut the pentagon budget bring the troops home from iraq and afghanistan, and close/skeleton crew a a bunch bases around the world, they can keep a few...for now eliminate the department of education eliminate the irs nationwide sales tax to make the crack dealers pay tax on their playstation 3s make it worthwhile to build things in america, and make it cost prohibitive to import cheap chinese garbage. do this by filling factories full of people collecting welfare. let them work 20 hours a week for their free everything, and do the latter by taxing imports, especially bulk. end most farm subsidies, we dont need to pay people not to grow things legalize and tax most drugs, save billions on incarceration/legal fees, make billions on taxation/ possible state control i like the catastrophic insurance idea for adults (most poor children are fully covered by state run medicare), but raise the benefit cutoff to help middle class families who are in between afford insurance for their children. ideally let states do it themselves with grants from the gov. medicare is a mess, no idea, let old people die? holly 13, it is time to enter the carousel tax online gambling unions are tough, they were promised certain things...not sure what to do there, fire all the teachers/policemen/firemen? seems like a bad idea, but im open to suggestions and last but not least kill all the white people, then we'll be free
