Submitted this to Business Week as a solution to the economic issues the US faces. I'll admit, my anime business is doing just fine in this economy, even with a much stronger yen so I'm not really feeling what everyone else is crying about. Yet, the economy needs help and it sure as hell doesn't involve what has been done; feeding the rich morons who started this mess in the first place. Here's what I suggested:
"If you think of the economy as a plant, its roots have been shortened and its sunlight has been taken away by the economies of India and China, excessive credit lifestyles fronted by the financial and educational system and the obviously pointless raise in home prices over the past 10 years. Thus, causing a dying "plant". Granted, parts of the economy are still growing and much of this is panic but there is a lot of work to be done. All the government has done is water the top of this "plant" by feeding the financial industry in hopes it will all trickle down. An obvious fail since all the banks have done is profit from the money and buy out their dying competitors (like my bank, WaMu, being bought out by Chase ).
Though I feel the basic fundamentals of capitalism is lost by ANY bailout, the bailouts will and have happened. Thus, to fix this mess with a bailout we must fix from the bottom, up.
Instead of giving the money directly to the banks, the people in foreclosure should be given the money to keep their homes for at least one year but as a lesson learned in the needless housing price increase and terrible credit lifestyle, the value of their homes and all homes should be then dropped back to their real values. For example, a home here on Long Island went for $90K in 1998, it now costs $300K. Chances are the current owners bought it for about $300K and are risking foreclosure. The value of their home and homes in the area should be then dropped back to say $100K but they can still live in it. No more should they be allowed to refinance, a price to pay to keep their homes. T he money given to this group obviously goes back to the banks since that's who the money is owed to, thus ending the financial industry's complaints about not getting their money. This also restarts the dead residential real-estate industry since the average income should be able to now afford the average house with at least some sort of decent down payment.
Like any extra income that comes to any company, it gets taxed. This should be the same for banks and the financial industry. They should be taxed heavily on this "extra money" if they do nothing with it. The same would go for me if my company's profits increased. If the extra cash flow is simply held by the banks and not put into loans for businesses, payrolls, new home owner loans and new industries, then most if it needs to go right back to the government to use for Health Care and local government infrastructure. The same tax burden should come down to companies that continue to outsource, manage horribly and those who give their execs far too much bonuses. Those bonuses along with dividends should be taxed more. This allows the money to boomerang back to government to lessen the burden on the value of the US dollar and the overall taxpayer burden.
There should be one more, slightly bigger stimulus package like we had. The average person who qualified for the first one should be given on average of $500 a person (instead of the $300 of the first one). This will give a boost to all areas but like with the money given to those in foreclosure and then the banks, if it's not used for any growth by the receiving people or businesses, it should be taxed more.
One other area that needs to be taxed heavily is the college education system. Most people are forced into a debt lifestyle that starts with a college education that as of lately doesn't return its overpriced value. College is needed of course but tuition needs to be dropped across the board and the truth that you can make money with and without college should be more common knowledge. Heads of college administrations who have been living very fine off the overpriced and underachieving education should see their days in heaven come to a stop by being taxed for their extremely hurtful wealth.
Last but not least is indeed more spending in the green industry movement. America needs to be the forefront of invention and innovation and we are sitting on a gold mine that just needs to be dug. Industries heavily outsourced need to be heavily taxed and if they join in with new green companies in keeping workers here, keeping innovations here and the re-installment of quality in US products, then the economy will flourish and they should then be rewarded with tax breaks, the incentive that got them outsourcing in the first place. The national debt should then be tackled. Once that is done, the US dollar should be backed by gold again and the FED should be abolished with all the banks and companies given their own chance to succeed or fail without the strings of the hard working American citizen attached.
In short, the solution is to feed the economy from the bottom up and those at the top who do not utilize the help given should be taxed to make sure the ends justify the means and all areas benefit. Trickle-down economics has been long dead and in a world where one's say and presence is more available in the age of the Internet, more can be done if the average person is given the torch and not the wealthy who have obviously tried to set the whole place on fire. "
There is more that could be said and can be done to fix the economy, but most of us can agree the actions done thus far is just the rich covering their own asses. I'm someone with a good chance of being rich with all that's on my plate at the moment but I know I wouldn't mind giving a bit more back to the average income earner since it is the average consumer who fuels my business in the first place! Other companies and the rich should realize that if the average middle class consumer goes, so too does their businesses and their wealth. The economy only works if all the cogs in the system are working.