How Would You "Fix" The U.S. Economy?

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The recent troubles in Greece make me think about what's coming down the pipe for the U.S. There are lots of similarities between the two nations...

- a growing wave of entitlement programs
- unfunded obligations, such as social security
- growing debt
- shrinking middle class
- fiat money system
- ruling class that appropriates property for redistribution (after taking its cut, of course... Sorry. I'm editorializing.)

We've obviously got a problem or two. Things can't last.

But let's suppose you're in charge. How would you "fix" the U.S. economy given the above challenges?

Borrow and print to pay our bills? That's growing increasingly difficult.

Cut programs? Now we're talking about social unrest.

Raises taxes? This seems like a band-aid that will cause more economic infection down the road.

Close down our military bases throughout the world? That may save a few bucks.

If you're willing to share, I'd love to hear what's up your sleeve. You're in charge.

How would you "fix" the U.S. economy?
 


Bring in austerity measures, raise income tax for those earning $500,000 per annum or more. Increase import duties on chinese products and reduce military spending. Probably not a vote winner though so alternatively just invade a couple of countries, maybe one strategically placed in terms of controlling pipelines and one oil producing one. A quick war and reap the profits for years to come. You can also threaten any other countries that are thinking about switching to Euro pricing for their main exports.
 
I would buy/create another country and then write-off all the U.S debt to said country.

It works in the corporate world all the time.
 
bobby_custard said:
Bring in austerity measures, raise income tax for those earning $500,000 per annum or more. Increase import duties on chinese products and reduce military spending. Probably not a vote winner though so alternatively just invade a couple of countries, maybe one strategically placed in terms of controlling pipelines and one oil producing one. A quick war and reap the profits for years to come. You can also threaten any other countries that are thinking about switching to Euro pricing for their main exports.
Click to expand...

I recommend taking an international trade class... or just sitting back and thinking about the things you just said.
 
If you hadn't noticed the irony in my post (apologies, I'm from across the pond!) the second option has been tried and isn't working. I doubt the first option will work either for obvious reasons (Chinese hold some heavy cards). Maybe Venezuela will get annexed or something...
 
focus on infusing capital from other economies into ours, instead of passing it back and forth among ourselves like a bunch of idiots.
 
Change tax policy so that whatever anyone makes, they pay a flat 15% on it. That's it.

Bring all troops home within a year, eliminate all social services within a year, stop all foreign aid, privatize a ton of state-run industries, start paying down the debt. Let the hard recession happen, let everyone complain about not getting their unemployment checks, and let the economy reset. Go back on the Gold standard. There's tons more, but that's a couple off the top of my head.
 
stop giving money to other countries in disaster time.
especially rogue terrorist nations.
Then you end up fucking spending money because the money you donated went to training terrorists.
 
bobby_custard said:
Bring in austerity measures, raise income tax for those earning $500,000 per annum or more. .
Click to expand...

How about we lower it so they can grow their business's? The government is not efficient at spending money. Why would you want them to spend it for some of the most savvy people in the world?
 
-Cut government by 95% (IRS, Roman World Policing, Post Office, etc)
-Get rid of bullshit social programs (SS, Welfare, Foreign Aid, etc)
-Say F you to the Fed and stop paying their interest
-Issue own currency Constitutionally by the Treasury and back 100% by gold
-Go back to a free market (allow companies to fail, stop regulating, etc)
-Tell people they're going to have to rough it and deal with it (no freebies, things may suck for 10 years, etc)
-Leave the United Nations
-Leave the IMF
and on and on...

Oh weird... all these fixes are what the Constitution outlines...

Unfortunately Americans are too stupid and weak to do what's hard and right and would much rather opt for what's easy and wrong, hence our inevitable downfall.
 
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I'd open immigration up and basically fast track US citizenship to anyone who brings $50,000+ into the US economy or buys a house.

Get rid of all welfare, SS, etc, especially for these new citizens.
 
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Rex's Way to Fix the Economy and Government

  1. Don't spend more money than we are bringing in, i.e. GDP's taxes.
  2. Debt does not equate to profit.
    • No fancy accounting can hide the fact that leveraging debt is not a long-term solution. Accounting and Finance 101 classes all say that you shouldn't leverage for extended periods of time - it kills your liquidity ratio and leads to bankruptcy.
    • No one wants to buy or invest in a company that has a low liquidity ratio, so why should Government be any different? You want to look good to prospectors - do something about it.
  3. Kick out all the politicians/limit them to only one term.
    • If they don't perform, they should be gone. Politics shouldn't be your career - you should be there to make a positive difference for the people and get out.
    • If they want more time in office, then they need to have shown some serious transparency to the American public and submit to a review poll every quarter for feedback.
  4. Do a thorough review of every Government bill and look at where the money is going too.
    • If the program/cause is a dead-end, scrap the funding.
    • If the program/cause is not managing the money well, scrap the funding.
    • If the program/cause is not turning a profit or generating additional revenue or lowering crime rates in some way (for instance in the UK they paid for medicinal drug use to stop violent crime from people trying to get money to pay for drugs), scrap the funding.
  5. Every agency should be reviewed. If they serve a similar purpose as another, consolidate them. This will save money from not having to pay for redundant services.
    • Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc. all have redundant programs within them and even they share a lot of similar qualities as each other.
    • Cutting redundant services means that the workers in them can be consolidated to save costs, but also share resources more efficiently. This reduces other costs across the board and benefits everyone.
    • Money saved this way would more than pay for proper health-care reform.
  6. Every new program or bill that is proposed should provide substantial cost/benefit analysis, ROI expectations, and undergo hypothesis testing using multiple quantitative methods to demonstrate how it would benefit the country, save or cut costs, and would cost the country within 2, 5, 10, and 20 years.
    • Doing all of this would force committees to come up with proper documented research and provide no excuses for politicians to not know how the items they vote on affect the country.
    • This would allow the government to be run like a proper business and no new projects would be started unless the capital and benefit was there.
    • Proper businesses don't undertake a project unless they are able to make back their investment in a standard period of time - usually 6, 12, 18, or 24 months. In that time, the projects are suppose to start paying for themselves. Why shouldn't every government program be able to stand alone?
  7. Taxes should be fair, not a tool used by politicians as a quick fix to get additional money.
    • Politicians shouldn't look to more taxes as a way to get additional capital. They should look to the entire concept of how taxes are distributed and paid.
    • Wealthy businesses and people know how to game the system - resulting in less tax revenue to pay for the Government programs everyone uses. Why offer right-offs? Kill all taxes except the value-added tax, i.e. sales tax.
    • By switching to only one tax that everyone "must" pay, you can lower that tax for businesses and people as a whole across the board and bring in even "more" tax revenue.
    • By making this a "fair" tax that everyone participates in, whether they live in this country or not, whether they earn a lot or a little, everyone contributes their fair share and there is no writing off an insane amount of stuff to not have to pay anything.
    • Using this method, people "pay as they go". This means that you can't escape it. If you can't afford to buy something, you'll just work with what you have.
  8. New Bills shouldn't have everything tossed into it and be voted on at once.
    • By pushing $100m for a Golden Toilet Seat or $50m special-interest project in a bill that was meant for something totally unrelated, you force wasteful spending. Stop it.
    • Breaking up bills into much smaller or individual packages enables spending control.
    • This also forces politicians to be much more accountable to what they are voting. If they aren't careful, it could come back and bite them in the ass since it will be much more transparent about what they are doing for the country.
  9. Bills and laws shouldn't be filled with double-speak and fluffed up with every clause imaginable that leaves loopholes all over the place. They shouldn't be 800 pages long for something that could be covered in 1-5.
    • When you have 800 pages to read a bill that was just proposed, you and everyone else don't know what is in it and are expected to "take people's word" that it is doing what it says it is going to.
    • Keep them simple and to the point. This allows every other politician to be able to personally scan over the points and know what they are voting on and can force changes if necessary.
  10. Politicians are "our" representatives, so they should have a website that is secure and ask their districts what we think about a particular bill before voting.
    • Parties shouldn't get together and vote for how "one person" or a group of career politicians say they should vote to be spiteful or get something passed - they should vote how their district really wants them to vote.
    • Doing this will stop a lot of wasteful spending and programs that get us into more debt.
 
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