I would suggest a movement of patriotic capitalism. When an American citizen bets against America, for their own profit, he/she bets against their neighbor's prosperity. Between nations that is a form of war. That should not be rewarded. It is admitted that bureaucracies tend to perpetuate and clog the arteries of a nation's commerce. It is also admitted that pure private enterprise more resembles a malignancy on the face of a nation by slowly devouring all of the moral underpinnings that make national identity possible. Learning to deal with these two failures of both regulatory and market forces determines whether a nation will survive or resort to a tyrant to control them as a stand in for real government and good business practices. America has not had good business practices for years. Short term selfishness is not selfishness at all but is mere gluttony and a speed addiction manifested through greed.
The American government should first of all takeover the banks and begin to make them efficient for the good of the nation's citizenry. The banks declared war on the American consumer through their manipulation of credit card debt in the early 2000s. They stripped middle class Americans of their prosperity through outright fraud and extreme usury barely less than the Mafia. They then destroyed the cultural sector of small companies with those usurious interest practices. Elizabeth Warren documented what they did to the rest of America. The government should reset the button on the banks and bring them into the public service sector and out of the Predator parasite class of systems. The government should do a long term study of the entire private sector and compare it's efficiency with what is happening in governments of every type all over the world. From there the American people - through their government - should develop a long range plan to support new ventures and to give decent loans to students and small businesses for the purpose of stimulating innovation. The American people should strengthen the government agencies for services that cannot be efficiently served the market. Public Health, Scientific Research, Cultural practices, Educational Research, Educational support for the poor student that wants to advance themselves, etc. Both short and long range, the government should be in the practice of stimulating business and the private sector but within a limited time frame that slowly removes that support as the company grows more successful. If the business idea does not succeed within a limited time frame the grants should be removed and placed elsewhere in the private sector. Grants are tricky. The Grand system privately funded has destroyed the Arts and Scientific innovation in America. Serious study needs to be undertaken to understand and conquer the problems of grants and what they can do to stimulate success rather than foster dependency. A Market that stimulates businesses to keep their profits low to receive government grants should probably be terminated with prison sentences. The same should be true of a company that buys elections in order to continue those supports. Which is what we have today in the Not for Profit sector. All that has done is drive up the tuition for students and to make education unavailable to the talented poor. The American welfare system with its patronizing attitudes was a colossal failure for the poor. It is not more successful for the small businessperson who has no time to be flexible but can't afford to lose government support. A better solution has to be engineered. We should not be in the business of creating a welfare state for corporations as is now the case. We need welfare reform for the market and corporations in America just as we had it for unwed mothers with too many children during the Clinton era. Through this temporary takeover of the private sector there should be an Assistance Corporation to balance America's market sector that would serve the good of all citizens run by a board of experts similar to what happened in New York City with the Municipal Assistance Corporation under Felix Rohatyn and Mayor Abraham Beame. Once the market was balanced and made efficient within the context of societal public good (not public goods) the government should withdraw both funds and regulations that inhibit the flow of International Business but with the proviso that it would periodically check the system under a surprise audit system that would keep the private sector honest and limit its predatory instincts. REH PS I didn't get paid for this and don't expect to be so. I also don't have an academic job except to train singers and that's not enough to justify my doing this as a hobby. So maybe we can just call it an artistic gift. Generosity is the essence of performance. :>)) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sally Lerner Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 1:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] If you were Obama... 'President Obama's promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least. If he can crank it all the way up to unimaginable, that would be even better. 'This is a moment for the president to suppress his reflex for preemptive compromise. The unemployment crisis is so deep and self-perpetuating that only a big, surprising, over-the-top jobs initiative could have real impact. Boldness will serve the nation well - and, coincidentally, boost Obama's reelection prospects.' Columnist Eugene Robinson Washington Post August 30, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3tpq9kj What would FWers propose? Sally _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
