How about instead of giving a couple trillion dollars to the financial institutions, instituting a financial holiday -- something like FDR created -- and use the trillions of dollars to create infrastructure and affordable housing?
We could also raise some more money by ending the wars and cutting back military spending.
Some of the money would be left over to create national health care, alternative energy, and tuition support.
If we needed more money beyond that, we could raise taxes. With all the spying on ordinary people, the NSA must certainly know where the fat cats are hiding their money in tax shelters.
Sure, there would be problems. People would need access to their money to get groceries and the like before the jobs were online. But the plan suggested here seems no more outrageous than rewarding the felons for their crimes.
Something patched together by the Treasury this quickly is sure to do more damage than any outrageous suggestions made above.
I agree with you Michael that the money would be much better spent on ordinary American citizens; in the provision of basic needs such as housing, nutrition etc. I assume that you are also seeking the simultaneous addressing of deep structural problems in the national and global economies as well?
ReplyDeleteHere are some of my thoughts:
The billion-dollar paydays must stop immediately. There needs to be a reasonable upper-figure placed on executive compensation.
The status of corporations needs to change to reflect the fact that the world cannot sustain any institution that functions for monetary profit and growth alone. [The facade of 'regulation' needs to stop and be replaced by genuine interventions.]
Calculations of national economic performance should be geared to providing an accurate picture as to the state of the people and the planet. Nature needs to be valued.
In fact, all those fairy-tale estimates of 'value' and risk need to go to establish a 'real' economic foundation.
Globally the currency arrangements for trade between nations need to proceed on a fair basis.
Intra-corporate transactions should not be treated as not originating in a different nation. Interlocking directorates and shareholdings need to be broken up.
[BILLION DOLLAR PAYDAYS in July 2007
"..Congressional Democrats have created a stir in the industry by taking aim at the low tax rate fund managers pay, amid reports of billion-dollar paydays and rising income inequality in the U.S. The industry has responded with a lobbying blitz to try to derail the proposed legislation. ..." ]
Bush, Lawmakers Resist Calls to Tax Hedge Funds, Buyout Firms. 12th July 20007. By Ryan J. Donmoyer and Alison Vekshin. Bloomberg.