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Our congress is now officially a bunch of buffoons. No surprise here, right?
But no, our congress, the FDA, the UDSA, are more concerned with protecting big industy profits. They are constantly going after supplements and natural foods instead of trying to keep people off the sick rolls. How much money do you think we would save?
Just those 2 moves would put us on the fast track for paying off some of this debt.
Warren Buffet has another idea –
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law
that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of
GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for
reelection.” ~ Warren Buffett 7/8/11
What ideas do you have? Share them in the comments –
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All you suggest is a good start on paying this years deficit but it would only account for 10% of it. If we forced all those making over $250.000 a year to pay 100% in taxes this year it still wouldn’t pay for the deficit we are occurring this year. Unless there is serious entitlement reform and a drastic cut in government bureaucracy we will never pay down our debt. Neither party will ever reform entitlement programs. Mandated health care sounds nice but we can’t afford it on top of SS and Medicaid and Medicare. Everyone want’s to cut military spending at a time when they are operating with old equipment that is sorely lacking in repair. The mindset is to cut military pay and benefits. Never hear a word about cutting federal worker pay or benefits do we?
Things have gotten so out of proportion, can there ever be a fix to this mess???? You’ve got a company like Apple who has increased their revenue by 80% this year. They can make it in this economy but why can’t anyone else??? How can I, just a simple working class person, survive without a raise in the last 3 years when you have people in the sports and entertainment industries that make so much money that they don’t know what to do with it all. I bet they don’t clip coupons, haven’t cut up all of their credit cards, or are still driving a 12 year old vehicle. I am working to become completely debt free and hopefully self sufficient one day. I hope I don’t have to work until I am 70 to do all of this, but I would like to work until I am 70 because I want to and my health is good enough to continue working. That make any sense????
Debbie, fiat economies are always doomed to failure and so is ours. It may not be now or next year, but it will fail. Hopefully you can scrape enough together to start building a food storage. If the economy fails you will be so much richer that the rich fat cats for having a 1 – 12 months food storage as backup. The rich don’t have food at home much. They eat out so much or have food catered. They have no food storage for the most part.
Hi Debbie,
I think you pretty well sum up the frustration that most of us are feeling – we’re working harder and making less. Unfortunately, no one listened to the opponents of the world trade agreement, just like they’re not listing to the opponents of GMOs now.
I’m right there with you. With working 10 or 11 hours a day, and running this site, I almost make a living. I recently upgraded to a 6 yr. old car.
But congress – they get to keep their jobs at least to the end of their terms, and their benefits aren’t being cut like ours are.
Which brings me to Dan’s comment – You talk about cutting federal workers wages. The workers for the most part are schleps like us. I worked in government, and for some reason the public felt that we didn’t deserve raises. The rest of the working population got raises back then. Quit aiming at the little guy.
Congress doesn’t even deserve to have a paycheck, let alone lavish benefits. Fire them, take away their benefits, and make them eat all the GMO stuff they want to feed us. Then, foreclose on their houses, repo their cars and make them try to apply for assistance. And make them the first ones to go to jail because they can’t afford health insurance.
They have no clue what its like to be living in Amnerica right now.
Carole´s last blog post ..Got any good ideas for fixing the economy?
I am working to become completely debt free and hopefully self sufficient one day. I hope I don’t have to work until I am 70 to do all of this, but I would like to work until I am 50 because I want to and my health is good enough to continue working. That make any sense?
Coroline Jones´s last blog post ..angry birds guide
That does make sense Coroline – but then what? What are you going to do when you ‘retire’?
People don’t realize it, but sitting around watching TV shortens your life a lot. I’ve seen a lot of my family members deteriorate quickly after retiring.
You have to have a bigger vision – something to live for.
But we’re getting off topic…
I want to be self sufficient in as many ways as possible. Along with financial freedom, I want a windmill, and solar panels, and great vegetable gardens. Maybe even some chickens.
Carole´s last blog post ..Got any good ideas for fixing the economy?
Living a life within our means. We should make use of our time to be more productive. And also start saving for the future to. Invest in things that will reach a long term goal.
Will´s last blog post ..android games
Economy is getting worse because many people spend their money on wasted investment.
Billy´s last blog post ..MidiPiano Version 2.1.5.11
Our current government system and economic growth is stagnant. That’s why. I hope new ideas on economic growth will emerge.
Elfen´s last blog post ..Simple Ways to Save Money On Your Electricity Bill
Hey Millionaires Time to Pay it Forward and Save Your Nation!
Our jobless situation is beyond crisis, it is an emergency. Today thousands of families are losing homes, credit, pride, hope for the future, vitality, happiness and even safety. To many Americans the concept of paying if forward is lost to their lifetime of developing greed, absence of empathy, ingratitude and absence of patriotism. The following program is the one solution that won’t raise one penny of new taxes on anyone who is compliant, and in fact will provide tax cuts for every compliant person. And compliance is easy. The program takes nothing away from a single person poor or otherwise. This program will not require spending cuts. This proposal can not be swayed in either direction by lobbyists because it involves no current consumer product or service owned by any one corporation or company. This program holds the realistic possibility of creating 16 million new good American jobs within 2 years, if the formula is followed and not picked clean by partisan bickering and deal making with selfish no empathy idiots.
The program below benefits both sides, and if there is resistance, it is a sure bet that the resistance comes from the right wing conservative element that will not like being compelled to do something, especially from our government, even though the benefits for the wealthy and the poor and families and small business are clear and numerous and will bring prosperity in the long term.
Solution: 1-1-1 to Prosperity . It is true, we have 8,400,000 millionaires in the United States! ( http://www.spectrem.com ). Incentive tax these “job creators” of the community at a rate at about 50% of net worth so compliance can not be refused and full participation is ensured (with the right incentive a wealthy person would be a dammed fool not to be compliant). We grant full immunity from the new tax increase, and give a tax cut, if each millionaire can create just 1 new good American job in 1 year.
1-1-1 One new job. Provided by one millionaire. With one year to meet compliance. If compliant not one penny in new taxes. Each one millionaire who has created one new job is not only exempt from the incentive tax but also receives a tax cut for each year of compliance.
No pain for anyone. Allot of gain for everyone. Very small government spending – just enough for operating costs of the program. Permanent tax cuts for the rich compliant citizens that will more than make up for the small sacrifice asked of them. Balance budgets, increase benefits across the board, pay down the national debt, lower the social security retirement age to 60. We could finally provide a family with enough food stamps to get them through a month without hunger cramps and borrowing. We could drastically increase greatly needed loans and benefits for students to enter college. For the United States the sky is literally the limit if this program’s formula is followed. We could see the best economic times we have ever had. Our children will feel the new sense of hope in their contact with adults and their parents. This program is easy-peasy! This program allows us to continue to be the strongest economic force on the planet. This program returns hope and pride to millions of unemployed. The program saves families!
What if we do not do this? We will never fill 16 million jobs, not half of that, not one quarter of that. Congress will pass piecemeal half measures that cuts off thousands of people here and creates some savings there, but never enough, not for our budget. Tent cities will appear under every overpass. Crime will increase with desperation. Desperation will continue that creates domestic breakdown of families, increased physical abuse, more alcoholism, more suicide, more mass shootings. More lay offs as consumer demand hits new lows. Riots when cuts of entitlements are sharp and hurtful. Sickness and death increased as cash for prescriptions and deductibles for health care services dry up for most families.
Fools will ignore good ideas just because the ideas are not theirs or the ideas come from an ideological enemy.
Essentials for the success of the program:
1. Violations of the program will minimally pay a high fine. In many cases cheaters of the program will do prison time with the general population because monetary fines can easily be overcome by a millionaire, who would not be concerned by a fine. Enforcement of the spirit of this law must be strict and must include inspection of every one of the 8.4 million millionaires, who have consistently and historically run for the Caribbean or to Europe to hide both income and net worth from the American people.
2. Incentive tax must be at least 50% of net worth and as high as 99%. Net worth is taxed, including cash, because our many millionaires have historically proven that they will hide their money from the government, overseas, and in non-profit trusts, to selfishly and ungratefully avoid the spirit of American tax law.
3. Level of ceiling for the program should kick-in at 1 million dollars net worth. Hiding this worth is punishable not by fine but by prison time.
4. The program is temporary and has long term rewards: The program ends after ten years for any compliant wealthy person that has created 10 new jobs in 10 years. The compliant person should be exempt for life from tax increases. Should continue to enjoy all tax decreases received during the 10 years of compliance. The program is removed during labor shortages and reinstated with unacceptable unemployment rates.
5. Each new job filled should have a two year contract of employment. This check is to prevent employers from ridding themselves of employees whose jobs they created just to exempt themselves from the program. It provides a guarantee of two years of employment for the previously unemployed.
6. The new job must really be new. It must be a new task. The numbers of employed at any company using the program must increase by 1 if 1 new job is truly created. The new job should not be filling a previously held job by an employee that has left or has been laid off. The new job must not cost the jobs of employees at a competitor. Laying off an employee to hire a new employee, with wages prepaid under the program, is representative of moving backwards economically, and should carry a serious punishment.
7. Non humans can not participate. Individuals must be the targets, not companies. Participants seeking compliance in the program must be individuals e.g. the CEO of the company can claim compliance after finding 1 new job for 1 company. The millionaire executives can create 1 new job each at the same place of employment.
8. An American wage for the new employee has to be at least 40k per year regardless of skills types needed for the job. Enough pay to support a family of four above the poverty line is reasonable.
9. A sponsorship program needs to be in place. A millionaire seeking compliance may not have the technical ability to create a new job. He or she should be able to sponsor, paying the first year’s salary, of an employee that can be hired for a specific new job. This sponsorship can allow a small business to add multiple employees that come with free labor for 1 year each. For a small business this is like one year of free capital to build a larger and better company. There should be a maximum number of new hires in the program for the business, like two or three for a small business. This will prevent cheating on a scale larger than two or three employees. This will also prevent an employer from distributing millions of dollars among current employees, with promises of payment, with purposes of taking on multiple sponsored employees of the program.
10. The new employee must be a United States citizen. The Social Security number of the new employee must be verified before hiring. Using e-verify.
11. There should be an easy online and telephone method for employees to report non-compliance and cheating employers and program participants. This will be essential because it greatly reduces operating costs and the number of inspectors needed to continue compliance nationwide. There must be a website such as http://….
Will,
You are right, we need to get back to living within our means. Instant gratification has not worked very well, has it?
Wow Jesus – that is quite a plan! I’m impressed. I don’t think that the big companies have grasped the fact that their market needs jobs in order to buy their products. They send all the jobs overseas, and then wonder why profits are down.
I think the requirement needs to be more than one job. Maybe a sliding scale?
The general public today makes the decision precisely what it wants for entertainment, certainly not the big studios and distributors. If you happen to add to that distribution on the internet, news reports, internet pages, from gossip to whole motion pictures. It is just a whole new environment. Much of it fine, some not.