Solving The Economy: It ALL Ties In

Depression. It is what we are in now, no matter how much the corporate media attempts to water it down and get us to sleep into it. The housing district is in shambles, unemployment is nearing 10%(and that's even with it being underestimated, due to soldiers being counting in the civilian employment numbers in recent years), the nation is 10 trillion dollars in debt and the stock market lost 1/3 of it's value in a year. It's actually lost over 40 percent of it's value in that time, if inflation adjusted. Homelessness is at its highest sinse the Great Depression, and a individuals credit cards run out and the bils-to-job pay ratio continues to worsen, soon much more of society is going to start to not just feel it, but become the Migrant Mother.

So what do we do about this?

Candidates, elected(?) officials, and t/v pundits generally softball, vastly underplay, and mislead greatly on the matter. Fact is, we can't just make this dissapear. We're going to go through it, we ARE going through it in its ankle deep form already. The damage is done, but what we can do is act in a way that shortens, minimizes, and brings us out of it in a the healthiest manner possible; and in a way that is healthy for our future, not just in terms of the economy but in terms of being truly free and equal.

There are, at large, the main problems that have created and intensified this matter:

-The multi-costly War on Terror(lives and freedom first, economy second)
---Draconian Legislation Led out by Homeland Security
--Military Industrial Complex
-Outsourcing and Sweatshops
---Mispending by the Public
--Bailout, Monopolization(with help of the Government)
-Fascism fed by Unchecked Government
-Prison Industrial Complex
-Federal Reserve and Income Tax
-Past abuses never Reparated
-Division by race, gender, religion, party, class, ect.

The following, afterwhich begins an indepth explanation of the why's and how's, is a multi-faceted 3 step breakdown that will begin to repair the economy, get it thriving, and help it gain a first-time balance across the board:

1) End The War Of Terror Immediately
-Close The Homeland Security Department
--Bring About End Of Military Industrial Complex
1a)Repeal Bailout
-Retrieve given funds
--Return 700 billion dollars to Federal Reserve
2)Ban importing of Sweatshopped goods
-Public acting upon realization that spending is a daily vote.
--End of Prison-Industrial Complex
3)Close Federal Reserve
-End Income Tax, Switch To Refundable Federal Sales Tax
--Provide period of Reparations long overdue for Native and African Americans

Alot of people are wondering how to reverse this mess, when it is right infront of our faces(if we stop looking at the t/v and look at our real world). One of my favorite quotes is from the song Watching The Wheels: "People asking questions, lost in confusion. I tell them there's no problem, only solutions." If we take the following steps, we will not only come out of Depression, but we will solve most of the issues that are holding our country(and world) back, and declining it. We will get on the right track, we'll start to turn the potential this country has always had, a potential that has been fleeting, into kinetic energy. We'll be able to talk about the strides we're taking as people and as a country, rather then pointing to the rest of the world and trying to make ourselves a beacon by saying our (dim)light is brighter then their darkness. Let's hold ourselves to the highest standard, not the lowest, and start here:

(Keep in mind this principle, in very basic form:

If i give you an IOU, and i have reason to believe you will pay me later, I will accept it at value. Now let's say, later on you come to me and give me an IOU, but I already have several IOU's from you in my room, will i accept your next one at it's written value?

What i'm saying here is, we need to start by increasing the debt. Or else the dollar will lose all it's value.)

First, we need to end the War on Terror immediately. This decision is a neccessity superceding even the matter of the economy. But in terms of the economy, ending the War on Terror, as well as closing down the related Department of Homeland Security, would free up hundreds of billions of dollars per year. We spend about a trillion dollars, this year alone, on the Military Industrial Complex. By bringing home troops, not just from Afghanistan and Iraq, but from bases around the world, minimizing our army to just what is needed to defend this land, and focusing our spending on improving our lives rather then on building massive weapons to kill off others, we will also immediately have the oppurtunity to reap a surplus. [The War on Terror & Culture of Enforcement: http://tinyurl.com/WOT-COE ]


Secondly, and hand in hand, we must repeal the Bailout. For a short period, the population made the right move and stood pretty strong against the unconstitutional Nationalization, and further government Centralization. The 700 billion dollars we are now providing, should never have been printed. It is money we have to borrow from the Federal Reserve and pay a debt on[More here: http://tinyurl.com/WOT-COE ]. It will lead to further devaluing of the dollar, and puts us an additional 700 billion dollars in debt. Going into further debt to pay off irresponsible/criminal businesses is not a way to resolve a falling economy, but rather it is giving the economy concrete shoes. By repealing the act, having the companies who have already gained moneys from the Treasury return them, and ultimately returning the money to Federal Reserve, we will decrease our debt by 3/4 of a trillion dollars of what it will be by the time the Bailout is completely tapped.[More here: http://tinyurl.com/Govt-Bailouts ]

Our next step is to amend another major problem with our economy: Individual spending. Our economy moves with spending. Taxes provide money to the government (supposedly) to pay for government programs. As Outsourcing and it's appeal to ruthlessness(through the use of Sweatshops) has led corporations overseas, and their slightly cheaper and far more advertised products were swapped up by U.S. consumers and put non-name brand small businesses out of business, a major wave built. Less jobs, less money for the average worker, more unemployment, and less spending. To make matters worse, those now working for these outsourced companies were now getting paid pennies, and so they weren't able to spend money on U.S. products sent overseas...which means we didn't even get an indirect benefit. The only people benefitting are major corp executives, who sit on much of their assets.
So the wheels grind more and more and the economy slows down. Then more jobs are cut, and continue to be cut as the slide occurs. So. How will we eliminate our debt and pay for government programs if the jobs and the public spending decrease? We can't. We have to look back to how this started:

Companies went overseas. Sweatshops were built increasingly. Those products, despite sub-human conditions, were allowed to be imported back into the United States. Meanwhile consumers, including some of those who had lost jobs to outsourcing ironically enough, purchased those goods, giving said corporations more profit and more money to spend to buy out other companies, to built more human rights violating facilities and ship more business overseas at little cost. As mentioned, mom and pop businesses who didn't take part, or allow themselves to be bought up, were crushed left and right. Their prices were just a bit higher perhaps, or they just weren't "cool". So this population, as consumers, has to take some of the blame for what has happened. Perhaps for some of the country, it was ignorance. Perhaps others didn't care. And perhaps many of those who know their jobs are safe, or that think their jobs are safe, will continue not to care. But the rest of us have to start now. We have to realize that our biggest vote ourside of our personal expression, is the money we spend. It's year round, and it is money that funds the good and the bad. Who we give our money to is who we support. Their practices, their results. So this is our next step.

Going from there, i believe we also have the Constitutional Right, and Duty, to ban imports of products made in ways that violate the laws of the United States. [More on sweatshops: http://tinyurl.com/Sweatshops-And-Human-Labor-Act ]This way, we are ensuring a that new versions of slavery are not done under our heads, while helping the economy. Even those companies that would choose to keep their factories overseas, would now have to give a living wage and remove such atrocities as 12 hour work days, rape of women and children, and child labor from the factories that make their products. A major improvement in our world, a message that would be sent to the world that America really does believe in freedom and equality, and one that would grant us at the least, an indirect boost in spending on American products..and at it's best would also bring many jobs back to the United States.

Contrary to what is commonly accepted as truth now, movements such as the Civil Rights Movement are solid proof that whether we each as individuals, and in the long term together, spend our money on a company or not will have impact on it's policies. Such movements are indications that if we check our government by using all of our rights, including building a movement out onto the streets regularly, we will get somewhere positive. It doesn't happen instantly on a nationwide level, but for each of us it can happen instantly on a personal level. That's the only way it can start, for that matter.

Now, i had mentioned the Prison-Industrial Complex. The Prison system we have in place today uses convicts to work labor. They are usually paid next to nothing for their labor. One might argue that due to their conviction, it is just and a way to rehabilitate them. Particularly violent criminals. But that notion would give creedance to a notion that slavery is a cure to criminality. Which is essentially saying that one atrocity will cure the another. But there's also another issue here, companies such as IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Revlon, Boeing, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, and Chevron(along with many others) have many of their products made in American Prisons. Which means that they have found a loophole around fair-paid labor. A loophole that is not only mistreating those who are in prison, and helping purpetrate the push that has given us the largest prison population in the world(that's right, not China with it's billion person population, but in the "land of the free"), but is also sapping jobs from the public and again...stifling spending...creating a bigger wealth gap....

Which creates a sick circle sinse impoverished areas create desparation which creates increased crime, which spends more people to prison and allows for more prison "jobs", which creates more stifling of spending and an even bigger wealth gap, which leads to more desparation - and so on. The solution is short and simple. We must ban prisoners from being used in said labor. And there are two very good options here:

One, we can allow jobs into the Prisons if they workers are paid a fair wage. That wage, in turn, can largely go to pay for their incarceration. A portion would go into personal savings so that they would be able to rebuild their lives when living a potential extended prison stay. This wage process would be Constitutionally fair and would reduce State and Federal government spending and therefore decrease debt. Some jobs would undoubtably return to the public and the thirst to create larger prisons by companies that fund lawmakers would somewhat subside. It would be a good step for society, to say the least.

Option two would be to completely ban companies from having prison labor. This, in addition to being a second option for eliminating unfair labor, would also be good for the economy because it would return alot of jobs back out into the public. Thus increasing spending and reducing debt.

Let me stop here for a moment:

Think about it: A government that is spending over a Trillion dollars less per year, a wage gapthat is no longer increasing(but rather decreasing), a returning job market, and a debt thatis shrinking rather then requiring new numbers to be put up on it's clock. A dollar that iscoming back to life. Decreasing gas prices. Decreasing food prices. Decreasing heatingand electric prices. It's solvable. Don't be deterred, please don't be misled by the vague and solutionless words of the mainstream political spectrum. By taking these actions(and there is more that can be done yet) living conditions for everyone will improve, we'll have a country that more resembles the rhetorical claim of being free, we'll be viewed far better in the world and have more influence on foreign peoples knowledge of what it takes to improve their nations, and we'll be working our way out of this Depression. We'll be on our way to building a truly stable enonomy and nation because we'll be creating balance.

Now, there are still a few pieces of the puzzle missing to eliminate any leaks in the ship. When our nation allowed for the creation of the Federal Reserve after a period of panic known as the "Panic of 1907", and then the creation of the Income Tax to pay for the borrowing of money from the private institution now known as The Fed, we stepped across two Constitutional boundaries and set the country on a crash course that was bound to happen. We have to begin to turn this damage around by closing the Federal Reserve. Following, we must repeal the Income Tax Amendment, which attached to the Constitution a law which contridicts the Constitution itself. Excess taxing caused through the creation of an artificial need. The Income Tax will be replaced with a Federal Sales tax that will start at it's cap, 17 percent. That sounds very high, but in correlation to the Income Tax will actually prove less costly for most of the population. Those who are at or below the poverty line* will recieve a tax rebate, as provided by a filing of their years receipts, at years end. The government has no right to tax anyone into hunger, nor out of home.

(*The Poverty Line is in need of review, as it is too low in it's current form. Many people living "above" the poverty line are actually not making enough to make ends meet. Having to be in debt to get by, as our government has demonstrated, is not living at ends meet.)

The Congress would have the power to adjust the Federal Sales Tax, but again, no higher then the 17 percent cap. Any surplus will go towards the debt, and once the debt is eliminated, the Congress should be strongly encouraged to lessen the tax. Additionally, once the nation is in a year-to-year surplus, each citizen of the country can "opt-in" for a refund of a share of the years tax surplus. Rebates will not be returned by amount spent on the year by said individual, but will be divided equally based on the number of eligable persons in the United States, and said individuals' dependents. This will help create a minor redistribution that will help (a little)to make up for years of curruption by executives.

The last key piece of this particular legislation, which i'll refer to as The Fair Federal Sales Tax Act, would ban the Congress from having any year of spending cross over into Debt. The sole exception to this ban would be during an armed military invasion of U.S. soil.

One of our biggest mistakes in our history has been that we have allowed ourselves to be divided again and again. At certain moments it seems we are more divided then others, and i believe that is where we stand now. You're either red or your blue, your either a woman or a man, you're either rich or your poor, you're either a supporter with endless loyalty or your the enemy,...it's either black or it's white. Sadly, we haven't yet learned from the harm this causes. Usually bleeding out into war, which bleeds our lives and the futures of everyone. Just as much as we have yet to learn, we have yet to provide reparations for atrocities of the past. Two that certainly stand out are Slavery and the Native American Holocaust. [Why Reparations?: http://tinyurl.com/WhyReparations ] This is a step we need to take, and i believe even as can come out of a Depression following the steps above, if we want to come all the way out and create a balance, we will have to make the sealing of the deal, a Reparation period(and hopefully a will to coexist). Reparations would occur at a scaling rate, so as not to put a strain on an economy attempting to recover, but also providing immediate justice. 1,000 per individual adult(plus 500 per child) for the opening 2 years(a cost of apprx 45 billion dollars per year), 2000 per individual adult(plus 1000 per child) for the 3rd and 4th years(apprx. 90 billion dollars per year). 4000 dollars per year for the 5th through 8th years, plus 2000 per child(apprx. 135 billion dollars per year). This cannot make up for the salaries and land never recieved or stolen long ago, that never was able to be passed down generation to generation, and it certainly can't make up for the horrible atrocities including the loss of freedom and life, but it can help mend the gap that was created by these events. Our government owes that to the new generations of Native and African American peoples.

In closing, you turn on the t/v and you hear debates. You hear pundits. You hear the Congress and the President. You hear foreign leaders saying similiar things about their nations, which supposedly are different types of governmens then our own. Vague possibilities for the future, with the only clear sentences ever said being "Let's give the banks money. "Let's buy the banks." There are real solutions and there is a real possibility of coming out of this with improved conditions of life and feeling free, rather then being permanently restricted further. I believe these plans would be completely effective and, just as importantly, is Constitutionally sound. Honestly the People and the Constitution are what this nations possibilities of democracy lean on.