Give a 10 year tax exemption to all corporations who move their headquarters and manufacturing facilities to the USA.
Cut the Government and make it smaller incrementally. It’s too bloated and always growing. Too Many Agencies draining us.
Government employees will be subject to cuts and layoffs like the rest of us.
As others mentioned, promote self responsibility.
Then…
End our war mentality and bring our troops back. Fight wars that only threaten our borders and closest allies. Scale back military.
End the war on drugs.
Legalize Cannabis, tax and regulate it.
Cut the Fed Tax rate by 10%.
Those are simple and realistic measures that would bring us back to our former prominence. Nothing too radical or drastic. Just what i consider common sense.
Manufacturing isn’t coming back until it becomes more competitive with the rest of the world.
You cannot create factories by mandate. This has to come about through natural processes in the market place. Namely, customers have to decide to buy certain products made here first.
Eliminate all trade barriers. YES, all subsidies, quotas, tariffs, VERs etc.
Close the border with Mexico, expand immigration quotas. Don’t give non-citizens many rights
Allow people to opt-out of public schools. That is, if you send your child to private school, they shouldn’t pay for public too. This allows schools to become competitive, not the bloated bureaucracies they are now.
Legalize marijuana, shrooms, prostitution. Reduce prison sentences for victimless crimes.
Deregulate health insurance. Work with states to make health insurance affordable and cross borders so that prices are approximately equal everywhere.
Change welfare so that it incentivizes working. Create a “reverse” income tax for low-income earners. I.e. if you earn >$15000 a year, you get %25 raise from the government. Reduce welfare accordingly.
Reduce the budget slowly to approximately 20-25% of total GDP, and BALANCE it.
Cut corporate and capital gains taxes dramatically
Privatize as many government “corporations” as possible (i.e. USPS etc.)
The whole tax system needs to be overhauled…Our current setup is actually the worst case scenario yet we hang on to it like a battered wife does to her abuser. It makes not sense what so ever, but that what government does best. If you want to fuck something up, put the government in charge of it. They do it better than anybody.
[quote]pat wrote:
The whole tax system needs to be overhauled…Our current setup is actually the worst case scenario yet we hang on to it like a battered wife does to her abuser. It makes not sense what so ever, but that what government does best. If you want to fuck something up, put the government in charge of it. They do it better than anybody.[/quote]
[quote]shookers wrote:
pat wrote:
The whole tax system needs to be overhauled…Our current setup is actually the worst case scenario yet we hang on to it like a battered wife does to her abuser. It makes not sense what so ever, but that what government does best. If you want to fuck something up, put the government in charge of it. They do it better than anybody.
How would you structure it?[/quote]
Flat tax rate based on consumption of anything other than grocery and clothing(non luxury items)purchases. Getting rid of ridiculous tax codes for individuals and businesses would eliminate alot of the IRS. Make lobbying illegal.
Also, I don’t think we can be competitive in manufacturing with the rest of the world because it isn’t a level playing field. I think we should only import from countries with rules similar to ours, so that creating cheaper products comes from innovation rather than lax pollution and labor laws.
Not only that but I’m not convinced that moving manufacturing to countries with cheap labor creates cheaper products. I used to build tires, then the plant I worked at closed and went to Mexico. I just bought tires recently, and they’re stil just as expensive as ever. I haven’t noticed anything that product that was manufactured here, and then moved to China or Mexico that all of a sudden got cheaper.
[quote]shookers wrote:
pat wrote:
The whole tax system needs to be overhauled…Our current setup is actually the worst case scenario yet we hang on to it like a battered wife does to her abuser. It makes not sense what so ever, but that what government does best. If you want to fuck something up, put the government in charge of it. They do it better than anybody.
How would you structure it?[/quote]
Hmmm, the edit feature has not been working lately. What I edited was that I favor the Fair Tax and/or the Flat tax proposals.
Eliminate all trade barriers. YES, all subsidies, quotas, tariffs, VERs etc.
Close the border with Mexico, expand immigration quotas. Don’t give non-citizens many rights
Allow people to opt-out of public schools. That is, if you send your child to private school, they shouldn’t pay for public too. This allows schools to become competitive, not the bloated bureaucracies they are now.
Legalize marijuana, shrooms, prostitution. Reduce prison sentences for victimless crimes.
Deregulate health insurance. Work with states to make health insurance affordable and cross borders so that prices are approximately equal everywhere.
Change welfare so that it incentivizes working. Create a “reverse” income tax for low-income earners. I.e. if you earn >$15000 a year, you get %25 raise from the government. Reduce welfare accordingly.
Reduce the budget slowly to approximately 20-25% of total GDP, and BALANCE it.
Cut corporate and capital gains taxes dramatically
Privatize as many government “corporations” as possible (i.e. USPS etc.)[/quote]
Yes all excellent ideas. Also as someone suggested, a flat tax is a good idea, no make that an excellent idea.
Also, I don’t think we can be competitive in manufacturing with the rest of the world because it isn’t a level playing field. I think we should only import from countries with rules similar to ours, so that creating cheaper products comes from innovation rather than lax pollution and labor laws.
Not only that but I’m not convinced that moving manufacturing to countries with cheap labor creates cheaper products. I used to build tires, then the plant I worked at closed and went to Mexico. I just bought tires recently, and they’re stil just as expensive as ever. I haven’t noticed anything that product that was manufactured here, and then moved to China or Mexico that all of a sudden got cheaper.
[/quote]
how dependant you are on immigrant workers who are underpaid
protectionism
disguised slave labour in jails, therefore can’t cut penalties for minor crimes
starting wars / encouraging wars to sell weapons to foreign deadshits
You think USA is some great country but it is all about keeping the majority of people plodding along and feeding money into the hands of a rich few. Sounds good in theory, as long as you can fool people into thinking they are the rich few, and not in fact in massive, massive debt, with hidden taxes and on the edge of ruin.
"Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. The most essential skill in political theater and the consumer culture is artifice. Those who are best at artifice succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of artifice fail. In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not seek or want honesty. We ask to be indulged and entertained by clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives that tell us we can be whomever we want to be, that we live in the greatest country on Earth, that we are endowed with superior moral and physical qualities and that our glorious future is preordained, either because of our attributes as Americans or because we are blessed by God or both.
The ability to magnify these simple and childish lies, to repeat them and have surrogates repeat them in endless loops of news cycles, gives these lies the aura of an uncontested truth. We are repeatedly fed words or phrases like yes we can, maverick, change, pro-life, hope or war on terror. It feels good not to think. All we have to do is visualize what we want, believe in ourselves and summon those hidden inner resources, whether divine or national, that make the world conform to our desires. Reality is never an impediment to our advancement."
I’m beginning to understand how someone living in ancient Rome, about 390 A.D. must have felt. He saw civilisation dissolving around him, saw the building storm, but was basically powerless to do anything about it.
We’re just now entering a new Dark Age. No one can stop it, and most don’t want to.
[quote]Magarhe wrote:
You guys don’t seem to realise
how dependant you are on immigrant workers who are underpaid
protectionism
disguised slave labour in jails, therefore can’t cut penalties for minor crimes
starting wars / encouraging wars to sell weapons to foreign deadshits
You think USA is some great country but it is all about keeping the majority of people plodding along and feeding money into the hands of a rich few. Sounds good in theory, as long as you can fool people into thinking they are the rich few, and not in fact in massive, massive debt, with hidden taxes and on the edge of ruin.[/quote]
Dependent? no, especially not if you don’t live in California
You can’t be dependent on protectionism, since it destroys wealth, doesn’t create it
This is wrong for so many reasons. If they weren’t in jail, and if they were working we:
Wouldn’t have to pay to feed them, house them, clothes them, secure them
We could collect taxes from them
They would contribute to the overall economy.
Besides, the value of their current labour is miniscule and has a negligible affect on the economy. Prisons are generally speaking a massive waste of resources.
The military-industrial complex might be dependent on this, but the population sure isn’t.
