How do you fix the U.S.A.'s broken economy?

Question

We must prioritize, focus and become responsible.

1. We must take care of ourselves before others - bring back the troops, keep America safe in America.

2. We must stop foreign aid at once we have too great a deficit to lend or give money away.

3. All state and federal employees may work a maximum of 32/hrs per week, saves dollars and resources.

4. Drill for oil in northern Alaska in deserted lands in a ecological safe, green way.

5. Stop taxing gasoline, replace with federal 1-% flat tax on all non-food items below $1,000 dollars.

6. Regulate bankers, loan officers, and other lending institution as well as insurance companies. These are virtual monopolies as there is no price competition.

7. Set ceilings on prices for medical procedures.

8. Teach personal finance in grade school.

9. Legalize and tax the heck out of drugs. We must learn from history, otherwise why do we study it, i.e. prohibition.

10. Eliminate NASA, we can go to the moon when we get our bills paid.

Answer 1

Your ideas sound interesting but you realise that in order to fix America's broken economy you must first figure out where the major leaks appeared, fix them, then ensure that the same type of thing doesn't happen again.

1. Stream down government beurocracy and promote greater fiscal efficiency and effectiveness in all areas of government and society.

2. Promote and expand alternative energy research in order to take us away from foreign interests that do not promote American energy and efficient economic solidity .

3. Change the medical and pharmaceutical industry into a for-profit pro-society  government overseen enterprise that works for the betterment of American society rather than the personal machinations of certain individuals.

4. Have the government pull away from assisting big businesses who have floundered into dire money holes whilst awarding their executive staffs golden paracheuts.

5. Stop outsourcing most goods and services from the United States to foreign nations unless those nations are investing heavily in the revised American infrastructure and American economic development.

6. Promote financial training and re-training for all levels of society from the age of five on up.

7. Offer pro-active tax incentives for corporations who remain within the United States and contribute at least ten percent of their earnings (after taxes) to assist America's sorely underfunded educational systems whilst not allowing government to take money away from education that was originally ear marked for education in the suburbs and inner cities.

8. Do away with high school junior years and promote peace-core efforts locally and abroad for greater world economic comprehension by America's populace.

9. Make it manditory for organizations to use energy efficient lighting throughout office buildings and homes.

10. Increase and promote energy efficient public transportation with tax incentives aimed at increasing car pooling and the use of public transport.

11. Promote work programs geared towards bettering the country's infrastructure while also promoting financial liquidity through expendable income.

12. Change the well fare system into one where people are not tempted to remain on well fare but are educated and given job skills that can allow them to become contributing members of society.

13. Turn minor law violators into weekend road and grounds crews for an extended length of time in order to decrease prison overcrowding and increase the quality of the urban and suburban environment through environmental clean up and beautification.

Answer 2

Abolish the Federal Reserve and scale back the military dog.  They are using us like pawns - printing money and pushing people around with OUR money.

Answer 3

Don't agree with it all, but it's a good start.....

Answer 4

It's simple- Vote for Obama.

Answer 5

I like some of your ideas.  Teaching personal finance would be a good idea, and it would help.  Not taxing gasoline would help too because it just causes costs to be high.

Here's my plan to rebuild America's economy.

Tax cuts to the middle class and poor.  These tax cuts should be good and significant.  That will help stimulate the economy and the poor should also get more EITC.  That gives them tax credits and it has been shown- and supported by both parties- to lift some persons out of poverty.

I think Bush has done a bad job with the economy.  The tax cuts for the rich must be gone.  They can't keep getting tax breaks b/c that just hurts the deficit and increases the deficit.  Repeal tax cuts on the rich.

For foreign invovlement, I suggest working with military leaders to stabalize Iraq and Afghanistan soon- As soon as possible.  I don't think we should stay in there long term and I see that we agree on that point.  We both don't believe in a long term occupation of both nations.  However, I believe we have to stabalize both countries and get both nations to take care of more things- including helping their people and strengthening their own security forces.  If we just leave now without doing much to stabalize them, they will fall into chaos, much killing will happen, and gas prices could go up.  Iraq has oil (not too sure on Afg) and there would be much chaos if the US left now.  Terrorists would make the country a base (more than now).  Other countries in the area would want us to leave too.  Then they could take some of Iraq- Syria and Iran would take large parts of it.  With so much chaos from terrorists and foreign invasion (from Syria and Iran) I expect gas prices to soar.  And as I'm sure you know Syria and Iran aren't too friendly to us and those terrorists aren't friendly either so I think its a bad idea to leave.  As for Afghanistan, I think it'd be taken over by terrorists too.  ALong with the Taliban.  So that is why we can't leave now, BUT we should stabalize both countries and work on leaving there sooner.

I would also give incentives to green companies.  Also I would provide rewards and tax breaks to companies that switch and use green energy.  Nuclear, hydrogen, and solar are all forms worth looking into.  So is wind.  We have to give incentives and provide investment in these areas-- it will better the enviornment and provide new jobs.

For a short-term solution I would press the Saudis to produce more oil.  I know that many support off-shore drilling and domestic oil production.  I respect your point and I applaud your desire for an ecological solution. :)  I don't know how much oil is in Alaska. Northern Alaska.  But I'd like to hear more from you on that.  i know that there is concern over drilling in the Polar bear refuge but i would like to hear more of your thoughts over drilling in North Alaska.  Is that area away from the refuge? S orry if my question isn't that smart, its just that I forgot where the refuge was, and I'm open minded about this.

I'm against drilling in the Gulf Coast though.  I don't know if you support that.  But I am against it because partially of some enviornmental dangers, but more because we won't have any productive oil amount for 19 years or so (18 I believe).  That will take too long and by then the US should be consuming clean energy not oil.

I see your point about drugs as well.  You're right, the "prison only" "get them in jail" "lock them up, throw away the key" method for dealing with drug problems doesn't work.  I think there needs to be more programs created to help deal with people with drug problems.  I think there also needs to be higher drug treatment (higher number) centers and also efforts made towards prevention- preventing kids from using drugs.  There needs to be more drug courts.  Also, I think there needs to be efforts to reduce poverty (through more effective poverty programs- I suggest that there needs to be a bipartisan group of academics and economists in every state to look at where the states are spending poverty programs on and make suggestions on where to improve and where to cut) and cut crime (through improving poverty, increasing community relations with police especially through community policing, and increasing police presence) to help reduce drug presence.  The more we cut down on poverty and other problesm, the less we'll have crime and drug use.  I'm not saying that only the poor use drugs and committ crimes.  However, from what I hear and read, the large number of those who use drugs and committ crimes are people who are poorer.  I'm not really for drug legalization, but I am supportive of more how should I put it-- treatment oriented and poverty fighting methods.

I would also get a bipartisan group of economists and fellow experts to look at where we are spending money.  I think our government wastes its money on a lot of things.  That is why we must get people who know about the economy and spending together (and fellow academics) to work on looking at where we're wasting money.  Then we shoudl cut spending and start working on improving the big budget deficit.

That includes spending.  Foreign aid spending.  I think that cutting foreign aid totally would only increase poverty worldwide and cause more problems for us to face in the future even when we are not in a deficit.  There would be higher rates of AIDS and disease and other problems.  Rather than cut it completely, I suggest looking at where we are spending it.  If we are sending some in wrong areas, then we should cut it.  Again the bipartisan group of economists I would have for spending would look at where we are spending, cut where we are wasteful, and decide how to make our foreign aid effective.

I would also look at private/public partnernships to help different communites grow and to reviatlize poorer areas.  This is mroe for cities and states to do. However, I think that more creative public/private partnerships need to be created.  For assistance on this, I would consult Governor Mark Warner.  He led Virginia and helped it grow and part of its growth was due to the great :) private/public partnerships in his state.

I don't know about regulation of lending institutions and banks.  I heard that they are already pretty reuglated.  However, I do agree with you on getting more competition for insurance companies.  I'm not sure how but I do think its a great idea.

I know I wrote a lot and I'm sorry if I wrote too much.  I think you do have good ideas.  We may disagree on areas, but you and I do agree on many areas.  Hope I didn't write a boring response hehe.   I enjoyed your question and hope you have a good day, later.^  ^

Answer 6

A lot of fantastic answers too bad we cannot vote for you'all for pres. best answers i have heard yet. I would like to add a few; get rid of credit cards, stop paying salaries to Presidents, and the top gov, employees, most of these people are already millionaires , or give them minimum wages.   I loved the idea of regulating the prices of health care, that is something we badly need. No federal income tax for people making less than 30,000.00 a year.  redo the import-export business and start relying more on our own home made commodities and bring back manufacturing to our own country. and if people want to come to this country illegally send them to the wars to earn their citizenship.

Answer 7

legalize weed.

Answer 8

The economy is not "broken" -- unless you think it breaks once every 10-15 years (what most economists call business cycles).

Answer 9

Elect Obama in November, thereby restoring hope and pride to a nation demoralized by 8 years of the most corrupt administration in US history. That will do more than anything else to boost the economy.