What would it take?

(Reflections of an old guy.)

Your thoughts on this?
Send an email to lakewrtr at gmail.com.

Here's some thoughts to turn things around in this country:

1. Change tax laws so that businesses and firms that outsource their business to foreign countries are penalized. Any company that chooses to move overseas should be heavily penalized, and vice versa - any U.S. company that brings its production and labor source home, should be rewarded. There should be no incentive, no reward of any type, for any firm that elects to take its production overseas to a cheaper labor source. Any firm that already uses overseas labor for part or all of its work force should be penalized accordingly.

2. Bring the troops home from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Put them to work on projects here in this country.With them comes their purchasing power, to support local economies.

3. Focus resources in this country on new energy sources. Give firms working on this tax breaks and incentives to develop this technology. Solar and wind power technology should be stressed.

4.Tie pay bonuses of top employees into the profit/loss of a company. If a company loses money, the top file employees got a negative bonus, meaning money would be taken from their main salary.

5. Focus on getting the Federal budget balanced. Strengthen executive power for the line-item veto. Tie salaries of Congress into how close the Federal budget is balanced. Congress should be penalized for the degree to which the budget isn't balanced.

6. Increase taxes on the wealthy. Anyone making more than eighty thousand would be heavily taxed, and the more they made, the higher the tax rate. Focus on building up the middle class.

7. Look at ways to limit population growth. Encourage families to have only one child. Reward married couples that have only one child, or better yet, no kids. Tax incentives can be structured in this direction. Encourage birth control efforts and education.

8. When building roads, design them for longer term use. Build them to last, and not require as much yearly maintenance.

9. Strengthen not only the math and sciences, but also American history teaching. Learning about our past and the conflicts of the previous generation will help give the current generation a better understanding of the world around them.

10 Equal pay for equal work. Someone who works half time, should also get half the fringe benefits that full-time workers get. They should be entitled to half the medical benefits, etc. that the full-time employees get. If a company wants to employ someone for only twenty hours a week, that person should get an equal proportion of the benefits that a full-time employee gets.

11. Require top employees of firms that pollute to live in homes downwind, or downstream from the industry. If top management is forced to live near the results of the industry's production, they will make every effort to make those industries as environmentally friendly as possible.

12. Courses in high school should include required courses in money management - preparing a budget, investment, savings, doing taxes, in food preparation, in child care, and factors affecting old age. Fitness should be a larger part of the curriculum. Overweight kids should have to take special classes to help bring their weight down to more healthful levels. All students should have to do one class in volunteer work - something to benefit and be part of the community.