Devil's advocacy...

[whymc]

I'm a convinced social democrat. However, I do, sometimes, wonder if other systems of social and economic organization might not also be viable. As a thought experiment, today, I began to ponder what would be necessary to make a capitalist, free-market, small government system work. Here are a few thoughts

Comments

[eithni]

Point 2 - Can I make them attend a Health series in the periods after Econ 101/102? And I mean an actually useful health class, not the crap they fed us in high school... Considering that health care costs now constitute such a huge part of our economy, consider it a financial and a quality of life investment.

Point 3 - Make sure it is the actual perpetrators/ringleaders who do the hard time, not patsies and fall guys. Make the CEO, CFO, etc jointly liable if misconduct is discovered in their firm.

Point 4 - <3

Also, I vote that in this system I am the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

[whymc]

A scifi author - David Brin, I think, not that it really matters, has actually put forward what I think is a smashingly good idea: henchman laws. In essence, any underling who rats out a criminal conspiracy is not only safe from prosecution, but receives a reward equal to some percentage of the potential take from the crime that they reveal. I like the fact that these laws don't require people to be good, and that they focus blame up rather than down the food chain.

Also - could you really fulfill your duties as Dread Empress of Earth and secretary of HHS at the same time?

[eithni]

Of course. One would have minions, of course, but I excel at multitasking.

[voland]

That is brilliant.

[voland]

I agree in all points. In essence what you wrote is what a pro market society should look like.

[voland]

Especially point 5. The "public-private" too big to fail, the fed reserve is my casino, thing has to end.

[cgirlslife]

I'm going to argue the "remove the payroll tax and increase income tax" for corporations. For one, figuring out the FUTA taxes is relatively easy and the system is set up for it. Also, "Income" is such an amorphous thing, and it is so easy to hide stuff, especially as the company gets larger

[semerkhet]

Agreed on all points. Yet there is no political will to do any of this. The current players, in and out of government, benefit too much from the system as it currently stands.

Also, you didn't mention what to do about the budget untouchables, Social Security, Medicare, and Defense.

Also, from The Krugman today:
Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.”

[voland]

Krugman, being the crook that he is, is doing the classic big government defense; Give us more money or we will fire the police.

[semerkhet]

You can't just disagree with Krugman, he has to be a "crook." You can't disagree with our President, he has to be "pure evil." Please carry on with your ranting and demonizing but I'm done listening.

[zorbtrauts]

Tackling corporate personhood would, I think, be necessary here.