time to save the American Government's finances.
I had intended to list the planks one by one, but first, it will make less sense, and seem less cohesively thought out, if I do it that way, so here are the main planks affecting Finance.
The US Government has really just a few very large ticket items on its yearly budget. Military, Social Security, Medicare and Interest on the National debt make up most of the yearly numbers. Lets handle 3 out of 4 now.
1) Social Security is the simplest, perhaps. Raise the age of SS eligibility to 80 years old.
When SS was first designed and the 65 year old age requirement was established, the average female Life expectancy (and they weren't even a big part of the work force yet) was barely 65. The average male life expectancy was just 62. So, the average American worker was not expected to survive long enough to reach social security eligibility. The program was a safety net, not a retirement plan. Lengthening life expectancies and increasing women in the work force over the last 75 years have changed Social Security too much. Raise the eligibility age back up to 80, then tie it to life expectancy, where it belongs. This will save Trillions of Dollars.
2) The debt is unsupportable. The only reason the US Bond market hasn't collapsed is because of the USD carry trade, and the Ponzi scheme the Fed has instituted to create more Debt and Dollars. To correct this, default is the inevitable conclusion (if we do nothing). So, let us "tranche" the bonds.
Go to all US debtholders. They have three choices. Keep their current paper, but that paper is becoming junior subordinated. Or they can trade their original bonds for new paper, 1000 of their bonds for 750 of the new junior bonds, same interest rate. These bonds will be senior to any paper not traded in. Or, as a third choice, they can trade their initial US Treasuries for new Senior paper, 1000 of their junior subordinated turns into 500 Senior debt, same interest rate. They have a short period to make this decision. After the fallout, there will be three tranches (levels) of US treasuries, Senior (which gets paid fully first), then Junior (which gets paid fully second), THEN the original paper, which only gets paid after the other higher tranches are paid. The bond market will hate this, but it will survive. The US will not suffer ALL of the crisis of default, but will lower their interest payments (possibly quite dramatically). And the US government will avoid the crisis of being caught in the biggest ponzi scheme ever.
This will save Trillions also.
3) Our military is too expansive. Pull out of everywhere that isn't considered vital to American interests. (As example, although Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. are important to US interests, they are NOT vital, except in the potential for usage of nukes. Islam is going to have a nexus in that area no matter what we do, let us stop creating bad will there. We MADE the Taliban, now we get to live with it. Neither is the middle East nearly as vital an interest anymore, OPEC does not have the power it once had. We will find oil elsewhere if they get tetchy. Those are just two examples.)
We are the only superpower left standing, but we act like milquetoast. Tell the world we will ACT decisively against any nuclear threat anywhere in the world, but other than that, with only a few exceptions, we are pulling out. Our military is to secure US, not some indirect potentials. This action probably won't cut the military budget much, but it will put US on a better footing all around, I think.
4) I am going to hold off on Medicare for now, cause that is probably going to be the foundation for the People's Party health care reform. But I have to bring up some other important changes first, so there is more understanding of how this all fits together.
5) Require National Service of two years from all US citizens, going forward. After the ending of a citizen's High School education (dropout or graduate), that citizen is required to sign up for two years of National Service. They can go in the Military, or one of a few institutions set up for this to do infrastructure work and repair, domestically and internationally, or they can work in a local hospital, or government building. The individual can opt out, but only with a payment directly to the US treasury of some largish number, perhaps 100K. Hospital workers will receive extra consideration, and will be allowed to complete further College/post grad, etc., as long as it is in the medical field. Doctors who perform their service AS DOCTORS will receive the most consideration (and will be a boon to the coming health care reform). This National labor will do a few things, it will provide indirect wealth to the US as a whole while also instituting more of an emotional etc. connection to our homeland.
6) Legalize (and tax heavily) all drugs. This will do almost no wrong. Pardon all of those currently incarcerated for (solely) drug offenses. That will relieve a huge burden on our prisons and police. Tax the drugs sold, just like cigarettes and liquor. (I have heard that JUST marihuana, if considered a legal crop, would be the number 3 agricultural good produced in the USA, if it could be listed as such). Drug taxes promise to be immense. As a related aside, this will also cut off much of the funding that terrorist organizations use to fund themselves. Finally, if European countries are any guide, doing this will not increase addiction, in fact, may lower it in a number of the drug groups. This change is a no-brainer.
7) Eliminate paper currency and replace it with computer entries and data cards. This trend is not going to stop, even if we TRY to keep the paper, which we shouldn't. Others have commented that a Sales Tax is as difficult to collect as Income tax, but it won't be anywhere near as difficult if all sales transactions occur electronically. The US will just take their cut right at the point of sale, seamlessly. (Doing this will be more of a process, and during the process of changeover, I expect a lot of shenanigans, but at the conclusion, the systems will work much more efficiently.) There are other benefits to this act, including the fact the USD will stop being the world's reserve currency, which used to be a good thing but now is not, but I'll leave the rest of that for discussion.)
8) Almost finally (in the financial sphere) are two changes that are going to be very difficult politically, but would help the US greatly.
Convince, or cajole, or coerce Mexico and Canada to join the US in federation. The Canadian Provinces can each be one state. Mexico splits into 5-7 States, depending. Give all citizens of those lands American Bloc citizenship, the same rights and responsibilities as all current citizens.
Canada has an abundance of resources and some good institutions. Lets try to tie them more closely to US. They are already the USA's top trading partner, except for national pride, this merger benefits everyone. Mexico has an abundance of growth demographics. The US and Canada are very developed and the populous is aging, putting strain on the system. Mexico could relieve that strain. Remember, we have shifted to sales tax, so the whole "illegal immigrant" from Mexico taking advantage of US almost disappears. Get all those young Mexicans into the system and paying taxes, and the American Bloc's demographic profile improves dramatically. After Mexico agrees, allow any contiguous country southward the same opportunity, all the way to Panama.
If this policy were to succeed in happening, so many problems lessen for US, it is unfathomable almost.
There is more (and I haven't mentioned the State's Rights plank yet, one I expect to garner a lot of support from the marginals). But that is more than enough food for thought for now.
Just know, we are not done yet. The problems of the US are not intractable, but far-reaching changes are needed soon, or we are gone.
The US Government has really just a few very large ticket items on its yearly budget. Military, Social Security, Medicare and Interest on the National debt make up most of the yearly numbers. Lets handle 3 out of 4 now.
1) Social Security is the simplest, perhaps. Raise the age of SS eligibility to 80 years old.
When SS was first designed and the 65 year old age requirement was established, the average female Life expectancy (and they weren't even a big part of the work force yet) was barely 65. The average male life expectancy was just 62. So, the average American worker was not expected to survive long enough to reach social security eligibility. The program was a safety net, not a retirement plan. Lengthening life expectancies and increasing women in the work force over the last 75 years have changed Social Security too much. Raise the eligibility age back up to 80, then tie it to life expectancy, where it belongs. This will save Trillions of Dollars.
2) The debt is unsupportable. The only reason the US Bond market hasn't collapsed is because of the USD carry trade, and the Ponzi scheme the Fed has instituted to create more Debt and Dollars. To correct this, default is the inevitable conclusion (if we do nothing). So, let us "tranche" the bonds.
Go to all US debtholders. They have three choices. Keep their current paper, but that paper is becoming junior subordinated. Or they can trade their original bonds for new paper, 1000 of their bonds for 750 of the new junior bonds, same interest rate. These bonds will be senior to any paper not traded in. Or, as a third choice, they can trade their initial US Treasuries for new Senior paper, 1000 of their junior subordinated turns into 500 Senior debt, same interest rate. They have a short period to make this decision. After the fallout, there will be three tranches (levels) of US treasuries, Senior (which gets paid fully first), then Junior (which gets paid fully second), THEN the original paper, which only gets paid after the other higher tranches are paid. The bond market will hate this, but it will survive. The US will not suffer ALL of the crisis of default, but will lower their interest payments (possibly quite dramatically). And the US government will avoid the crisis of being caught in the biggest ponzi scheme ever.
This will save Trillions also.
3) Our military is too expansive. Pull out of everywhere that isn't considered vital to American interests. (As example, although Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. are important to US interests, they are NOT vital, except in the potential for usage of nukes. Islam is going to have a nexus in that area no matter what we do, let us stop creating bad will there. We MADE the Taliban, now we get to live with it. Neither is the middle East nearly as vital an interest anymore, OPEC does not have the power it once had. We will find oil elsewhere if they get tetchy. Those are just two examples.)
We are the only superpower left standing, but we act like milquetoast. Tell the world we will ACT decisively against any nuclear threat anywhere in the world, but other than that, with only a few exceptions, we are pulling out. Our military is to secure US, not some indirect potentials. This action probably won't cut the military budget much, but it will put US on a better footing all around, I think.
4) I am going to hold off on Medicare for now, cause that is probably going to be the foundation for the People's Party health care reform. But I have to bring up some other important changes first, so there is more understanding of how this all fits together.
5) Require National Service of two years from all US citizens, going forward. After the ending of a citizen's High School education (dropout or graduate), that citizen is required to sign up for two years of National Service. They can go in the Military, or one of a few institutions set up for this to do infrastructure work and repair, domestically and internationally, or they can work in a local hospital, or government building. The individual can opt out, but only with a payment directly to the US treasury of some largish number, perhaps 100K. Hospital workers will receive extra consideration, and will be allowed to complete further College/post grad, etc., as long as it is in the medical field. Doctors who perform their service AS DOCTORS will receive the most consideration (and will be a boon to the coming health care reform). This National labor will do a few things, it will provide indirect wealth to the US as a whole while also instituting more of an emotional etc. connection to our homeland.
6) Legalize (and tax heavily) all drugs. This will do almost no wrong. Pardon all of those currently incarcerated for (solely) drug offenses. That will relieve a huge burden on our prisons and police. Tax the drugs sold, just like cigarettes and liquor. (I have heard that JUST marihuana, if considered a legal crop, would be the number 3 agricultural good produced in the USA, if it could be listed as such). Drug taxes promise to be immense. As a related aside, this will also cut off much of the funding that terrorist organizations use to fund themselves. Finally, if European countries are any guide, doing this will not increase addiction, in fact, may lower it in a number of the drug groups. This change is a no-brainer.
7) Eliminate paper currency and replace it with computer entries and data cards. This trend is not going to stop, even if we TRY to keep the paper, which we shouldn't. Others have commented that a Sales Tax is as difficult to collect as Income tax, but it won't be anywhere near as difficult if all sales transactions occur electronically. The US will just take their cut right at the point of sale, seamlessly. (Doing this will be more of a process, and during the process of changeover, I expect a lot of shenanigans, but at the conclusion, the systems will work much more efficiently.) There are other benefits to this act, including the fact the USD will stop being the world's reserve currency, which used to be a good thing but now is not, but I'll leave the rest of that for discussion.)
8) Almost finally (in the financial sphere) are two changes that are going to be very difficult politically, but would help the US greatly.
Convince, or cajole, or coerce Mexico and Canada to join the US in federation. The Canadian Provinces can each be one state. Mexico splits into 5-7 States, depending. Give all citizens of those lands American Bloc citizenship, the same rights and responsibilities as all current citizens.
Canada has an abundance of resources and some good institutions. Lets try to tie them more closely to US. They are already the USA's top trading partner, except for national pride, this merger benefits everyone. Mexico has an abundance of growth demographics. The US and Canada are very developed and the populous is aging, putting strain on the system. Mexico could relieve that strain. Remember, we have shifted to sales tax, so the whole "illegal immigrant" from Mexico taking advantage of US almost disappears. Get all those young Mexicans into the system and paying taxes, and the American Bloc's demographic profile improves dramatically. After Mexico agrees, allow any contiguous country southward the same opportunity, all the way to Panama.
If this policy were to succeed in happening, so many problems lessen for US, it is unfathomable almost.
There is more (and I haven't mentioned the State's Rights plank yet, one I expect to garner a lot of support from the marginals). But that is more than enough food for thought for now.
Just know, we are not done yet. The problems of the US are not intractable, but far-reaching changes are needed soon, or we are gone.