When I woke up this morning I looked outside and indeed the sun came up. My dog still wanted to take a walk, the runners were out getting some exercise. Later I saw the lines at Costco were still very long and that the Yankees and Red Sox were battling it out for first. I realized the world hadn’t caved in on the United States. Oh sure, the debt was downgraded Friday – but the end of the world? Hardly. This was such a given that oddsmakers didn’t bother putting it out there for bets.
You may consider me a fool to think I could change the way we operate in America. But how many have been considered fools in the past trying to change the status quo? Not a popular stance of course, and too long a list to name them all. Suffice to say the video below says it all – and I suspect a great majority feel the same way. But let’s not just place blame, let’s do something about it!
I’ve spent the weekend looking at tweets, facebook postings and listening to news broadcasts talking about the debt downgrade by S&P this past Friday afternoon. All I’ve seen is finger-pointing, blame and distrust, along with despair, depression, ‘know it alls’ and reasoning. Many of these ‘geniuses’ were grandstanding last week about a debt default, no doubt reveling in some grandmaster scheme to destroy America at its core. When that didn’t work it was onto the next piece of news. Yet, the shallowness of those who would like to sit by and watch a country fall is just no part of the American fabric. I see many of them sitting around waiting for the futures to open, like watching a car chase on TV waiting for the climactic end (a crash or a shooting). How pathetic is that?
Nowhere have I seen someone offer up a solution – any kind of solution to help solve the problem. Can’t anyone do this? Do you really want to sit by and watch your country fail? Now is not a time to feel sorry or wallow in misery. NOW is a time to find answers and fix the issues that are in front of us. It’s pretty clear our leadership cannot do it, so while I would like to remove them all (RIGHT NOW), I realize that is more wishful thinking. So, I challenge all us to come up with the answers to help get us out of this mess. Think out of the box and give some good ways to help. I’ve outlined a few below (with a little help from my friends). These are my ideas and just a start, I wouldn’t mind comments below but DO NOT get all over me for my own personal opinions.
How we all should feel right about now.
[tentblogger-youtube rGIY5Vyj4YM]
My Ideas To Getting Out of the Hole:
- Cash out of investments worldwide – at last count they totaled nearly 3.3 trillion. When you need to get liquid then you do it. Use this to directly pay down the debt, reducing it by 1/5.
- Sell some real estate. The government owns a ton of land, there is precedent for raising cash by selling it (remember Japan in early 90’s?). Someone will find our precious land valuable. Sell 2 trillion dollars worth (our total land value is worth 56 trillion or so) and pay down debt.
- Repeal Obamacare. This is a nuisance tax on all businesses that is also illegal. Take this away and you subtract immediately from the deficit.
- Let Bush Tax cuts expire. I don’t like raising taxes but this would not be a new tax, so I compromise. From the stats I see it could add back a trillion in revenue. Just do it, it’s not that painful.
- Energy Conversion – Natural gas is plentiful in our country, it’s clean and cheaper. Jim Cramer talks about it at least twice a week, it’s the best solution to get off foreign oil. Conversion kits into your car and you’re all the sudden paying 50% less per gallon of gas. Think of the economic and social benefits here.
- Bring the troops home and slash military spending (thx to Xiphos trading for that one). Sentiment is poor around the world now as the US is considered the bully. We have spent trillions on these two wars and thousands of lives. It’s done already. Bring these men and women home and give them jobs protecting our borders and securing our nation.
- Entitlement reform. Raise the age of benefits to 75 and index to increase in life expectancy. Cut back on the benefits to future generations. Someone has to sacrifice, better it be this group.
- Put some incentives in to grow small business. They are the lifeblood of job growth and innovation. At one time Apple and IBM were small businesses, so was Amgen and even McDonalds. Give some time and space to grow, give an incentive to start a new business and innovate. Today’s environment is not so kind, how about no taxes in the first five years and minimal fees and regulations?
That’s my list. May not be totally doable but in a perfect world, the debt is reduced in half, deficit is cut, Would love to read your comments below.
I like it all except the raising of benefit age to 75. Ben Stein has better ideas on the age entitlements. Those programs were behind from day one and are just facing a demographic bump. So we broaden the base and nudge the rates up. It's not a big deal.
Amen. Let's not forget that the world financial and otherwise does have a continuum about it .. weather related crop variances for example .. that all have industry specific more or less real inherent worries and fears .. and we have from one season to the next, unfortunate agricultural and other economic ups and downs, measured in profit margins, production and deliverability to the people of the world. It can allbe simply understood by considering the global enduring meaning of the earth's tilt. The Bear and Lehman events may or may not have been tilt altering and same goes for Europe and the world twill continue to turn on it's tilted axis so the dwellings and crops and materials needed to produce them will continue in the seasonal way that we are used to.
For new businesses a policy of no taxes for 10 years it might work to generate new jobs. Allow earnings and other assets to be held untaxed, similar to the 100% depreciation rule in businesses, even those like retained earnings and distributions that might otherwise be classed as non business assets. It would be another tax break for the rich but certainly a stimulant of growth. Obamacare is wasting the human attention and energy of small business owner-operators and it's so unclear how it will be brought on upon us that the morale and confidence is eroded on small business expansions. Demoralized business operators and demoralized markets are not coincidental, it's just totally too much at once regulation and consumer "protection" coming at us from all sides that is sapping the entrepreneurial energy of our small business commodity and finished product producers.
All the above are great ideas and are not anarchical like the noise of the tea party whiners. I suggest we nationalize "Safe Houses for Health Care". Let's turn a portion of the unused Freddy and Fanny housing inventory into safe houses for seniors and others in need of special care, and then hire and train some deserving folks to be there to take care of them. 6 to a house would be great. Nurses happen to be now in great supply out here in California.
I don't like all the ideas but give you an A+ for effort. How about just a flat 10% cut across the board, to every budget line item? I've been at companies under tremendous budget pressure – when in doubt and having to act in a hurry, they usually have a new spending freeze (meanwhile our government uses crazy baseline budgeting with increases built in and can't even agree to return to 2008 spending levels!).
I don't see why so many people feel compelled to criticize the tea party – without them we wouldn't even be talking about cutting spending. Initially congress & the President wanted to raise the debt ceiling without ANY cuts in spending, and congress has not submitted a budget in over 600 days. Love 'em or hate 'em at least they have the government is getting closer to being focused on the right issues, IMHO.
Thank you David – I agree these programs are outdated, but broadening the base makes sense.
Thank you for your comments, make total sense. Let’s hope the folks in Washington have sense, too.
good stuff John. i like how you think here.
Mark, I appreciate your point of view. At least I got you thinking, which was a purpose of mine. Trusting the gov’t to do the right thing may be a stretch, of course.