If it was up to you to fix the economy, how would you do it?

1) Alter personal income tax rates

The top 10% of the population who earn 90% of the money should pay 90% of the taxes instead of 70% while us proles in the lower 50% shouldn't be paying as much as we do.
Don't ask me for actual tax rates as I lack accurate enough info on the distribution of wealth to quote you numbers.
The alternative is to institute a flat tax with a few tweaks so that the poor are tax-exempt. No sense taxing single welfare mothers ;)


2) Lower corporate tax rates to levels more competitive with other countries.

The entire trickle-down theory seems to be that if a company does well enough to pay it's executives a 9-figure salary then they will take that money and reinvest it into the company. That makes NO sense. How often has Bill gates reached into HIS OWN wallet for Microsoft?
Let the company KEEP the money insdo all of the expansion and job creation that Reagonomics claims happens when companies blow their profits on corporate payroll!


3) Institute a "living wage"

Many of us are poor. Who benefits the economy more; a couple of guys buying private jets, are a few THOUSAND people buying food, electronics, movie tickets, and the occasional $30K car?
If I had enough to live on after gas hit $4+/gallon, I'd be more likely to take my wife out to dinner and help a local business stay above water. I might even leave the waitress a nice tip so they can go out and do something nice for themselves.
THAT is more trickle-down than quadrupling the income of the top 0.1% while increasing the earnings of the lower 90% of us by LESS than the rise of inflation and consumer prices.


4) Educate the people who think that #3 reeks of Socialism/Communism.

Experience has shown me that the people who disagree with that are generally innumerate. Not necessarily stupid, but inept enough at math that they have difficulty counting out change at the checkout.
A more educated workforce is a more productive workforce, and that is good all around.

Let's see if we can come up with a few radical proposals:

1) Reform the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. If any company is "too big to fail", it's too big to exist.

2) A Constitutional Amendment overturning Buckley v. Valeo (the "money equals speech" decision). This would allow actual regulation of campaign financing.

3) Abolish the corporate income tax. Corporations have shown that they can hide money better than individuals. Also abolish the cap on Social Security taxes so that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates pay more than someone making $95k per year.
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Since abolishing the corporate income tax eliminates the complaint about "double-taxation" on capital gains, capital gains get taxed as ordinary income (with some exemptions for small gains and things like primary home sales).

4) A Constitutional Amendment requiring that legislators actually *UNDERSTAND* what they are voting for. Before casting a vote, legislators would be required to take a test to show comprehension

5) Full disclosure of authorship of laws. If you're introducing a bill written by a lobbyist, everyone needs to know that.

6) An end to corporate "personhood". Corporations will once again be given time-limited charters and, when their charter is up, they must file for an extension. Sufficient public opposition to extending the charter would be cause for dissolution of the company.

7) A carbon fuels tax equivalent to $0.01 per gallon of gasoline, that increases by $0.01 equivalent per month FOREVER. This will encourage the de-carbonization of our economy but give sufficient time for society to adjust.
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I'm sure there are more I could come up with....

Quit giving all tax breaks to the rich, and more to the poor and middle class.

Tax imported items heavier, so that domestic items can have a chance to compete.

Change the welfare system, so that it is a helping hand, not a lifestyle.

I would go to the library and do extensive research on FDR and the New Deal. Maybe not something that extreme as the U.S. economy is not in an announced state of Depression, but I would certainly gain as much knowledge as possible so I could employ a technique that would benefit as many people as possible.

Go back to a barter system.

More regulation for the financial district. End the war and use the 10-12 billion dollars a month to give tax breaks for buying houses to help the correct the over-supply in the housing market, to help lower the corporate tax rate, to give free finance classes so people don't get in debt or get loans that they can't handle. And finally raise the $250,000+ a year personal income tax rate a little to pump more money into the economy.

But, I'm certainly no expert and this is all off the top of my head. :D

Anarchy looks pretty good to me right now. Tear it all down and start over. There are too many power mongers at the head of this monster to believe we can "fix" anything. We have no power to do a damned thing as it stands now. Except refuse to play along, throw it all away and hope we can do a better job next time.
But we won't. It would be uncomfortable.

I don't believe could fix it any more than any other one person could. It is going to take many people working together, willingly and voluntarily. If there was anything I could do at all, it would be to educate as many people as possible about how money works and instill in them a sense of optimism and the capacity to dream great dreams.

I liked the Fight Club method...let's destroy all the credit agencies and call "do over."

1)DEREGULATE
2)TAX CODE REFORM

Get the government out of it! Let the private buisness world manage it, it would be resolved within a year.

To start I'd repeal the Bush tax cuts and lower taxes on the middle class, throw a second stimulus package out there, and regulate the financial markets with a heavier hand.

Gas rationing, like it or not. If the program were to start, all the oil producing countries would panic and lower the prices of oil. It should have been started 2 years ago.

Encourage American corporations through incentives and tax breaks to employ Americans again in the production and offering of goods and services.

Windfall taxes on oil companies so that their obscene profits get taxed, anyone that made over a million dollars a year would have a 60% income tax, And an extra tax on companies that started in the US and now import their merchandise from overseas. That would be a good start IMO.

leave it alone

Get rid of the FED. Repeal the Financial Modernization Act that enabled the current debacle. Reinstall the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. Reduce taxes to 1984 levels. Allow the market to generate the money needed, and STOP CONGRESSIONAL OVERSPENDING.

I would have no idea what to do, please never give me that job :)
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