A Radical Plan To Save America’s Economy In One Year
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,
Alternative economists have been predicting a long list of instabilities in the US economy and for some time. We’ve been proven right in the last few years on most of those predictions and, as usual, corporate media economists are now scrambling to pretend as if they “saw the danger coming” all along. They now suddenly have their own ideas on how to fix the very problems they used to call “conspiracy theory.” The vital question is, who do you trust?
You can’t trust someone to offer you a valid solution if they’re too dense to understand the source of the crisis. You also can’t trust someone to give you valid solutions on the economy if their job is to lie to you about how great things are.
The alternative media’s accuracy about our nation’s dire circumstances has put us in a position to be right which should at least win us some trust points, but being right is only the first step. There will always be government shills that seek to undermine truth-tellers by claiming we serve no purpose because we aren’t actively fixing the problems that they warn about.
Frankly, that’s not our job. However, it’s true that our movement has a tendency to focus on diagnosis of a problem rather than prevention or treatment.
There are a few reasons why this is the case. I’ve noticed that whenever I write about solutions I get far less article traffic. Is it because people just don’t care? Or, is it because solutions are hard and require vast coordination of people and resources to ever be possible?
National solutions require millions of Americans get off their couches, go outside, and take extensive risks. This is why human beings in general tend to adapt to the worst conditions until things are so bad society snaps. We wait until we can’t stand it any longer, and then finally, we take action.
Another road block is that liberty movements are made up of people who all have their own ideas on what should be done. Most of us agree on the causes of the chaos, very few of us agree on what exactly to do about them. It’s funny because black-pill critics often accuse conservatives and patriots of falling into the echo chamber trap. The reality is quite the opposite; we can’t seem to ever shake hands on anything and it’s holding us back.
The thing is, time is running out and debate is a luxury. I believe Americans today are close to the breaking point economically with stagflation continuing to crush the middle class and those already in poverty. The future is bleak; housing costs have spiked to levels beyond what the vast majority of people can afford. All necessities including food and utilities have seen a 30%-50% minimal price increase since 2020, and inflation continues to rise.
Wages are stagnant and profit margins for employers are shrinking, which means the jobs market will be next to see cuts. By the end of 2025 and under current policies, I suspect we will be witnessing a combination of serious deflationary and inflationary crisis events simultaneously. A crash in employment and GDP combined with incessant price jumps on goods and services. This crash has been decades in the making and might be unavoidable. That said, I do believe there is a way out, but it requires dramatic changes in the way our government and society operates.
The policy measures I suggest are a kind of fiscal time machine – A way to turn back the clock on collapse. Some might consider them “radical” but they are only policies that America USED TO value and that we have been pressured to forget. Can the modern American brain with its steady exposure to big government and socialist programs handle such a shift? It’s hard to say.
I think if people are desperate enough they’ll accept any solution that they feel works. And for now the elites that created the crisis are the only group offering a way out (a false way out). If I could snap my fingers (or if I was king for year), this is the list of actions I would undertake to save the American economy before the end of 2025 (or at least set it on the the path to resurrection).
End Income Tax For The 99%
My very first step would be to end income taxes for individuals and small business owners outside of the top 1% of earners (those who make more than $800,000 per year). The permanent income tax was never supposed to exist. It started in 1913 as a tiny 1% rate on net personal incomes over $3,000, and a 6% surtax on incomes over $500,000 (the super rich at that time).
In the past century it has ballooned into a 15%-20% monstrosity that is crushing middle class buying power. It also feeds bigger government which wastes money and leads to less and less freedom. There is no reason for the tax to exist for average citizens other than to act as a slave tribute to the Federal Reserve Bank. Shutting it down would immediately alleviate financial pressures on middle class families and getting rid of the IRS would certainly help shrink government spending.
How would the government pay for services and national security? Well, right now they print most of that money from thin air anyway, but tariffs on foreign trade used to be the main source of income for the federal government. Why not go back to that model? Because some biased Keynesian economists claim it can’t work? It already has worked.
End Property Taxes On Single Family Homes
Property taxes are supposed to act as a fiscal buffer for local infrastructure and services. They are also meant to dissuade major buyers from hoarding homes and cornering regional markets. The problem is, the taxes are doing the opposite of that. With high property taxes most US families can’t afford to own even one home, while corporate buyers snatch up distressed mortgages and drive up rents.
This scenarios is going to create mass homelessness, mark my words. It’s already starting in some areas of the country. Inflation in housing is bad enough but the high interest rates on mortgages and the high property taxes on top of that is enough to break most middle class buyers.
Fixing rates and inflation is complicated, but property taxes could be ended tomorrow. By extension, high property taxes on corporate buyers like Blackstone might force them to release some of their holdings back onto the market and help lessen the ongoing housing shortage.
How else can communities pay for local infrastructure and services? A fair sales tax should be more than sufficient to fill the gap, or, a tourism tax.
Remove All Illegal Immigrants From The US
The illegals need to go, there’s no way around it. All the data shows they are a drain on national resources and welfare programs, but worst of all, they receive subsidies from the government that allow them to snap up housing and eat into welfare programs. In some cases, landlords are enticed to rent to illegals over native born citizens because they get more money (or tax breaks) for renting to migrants instead.
Estimates from 2023 indicate there are at least 16.8 million illegal immigrants in the US today with a net fiscal drain of over $150 billion per year. That’s also millions of homes taken off the market by people who should not be in this country. US housing availability is currently in the negative by 5 million to 7 million homes (officially). Removing most illegals could be accomplished in a single year and would immediately solve housing shortages while bringing prices down by adding more supply.
Beyond housing, the money that goes to welfare spending on migrants could be better utilized for American citizens, including a better emergency response for those that lose their homes during natural disasters.
Incentives For Married Couples With Children
The western world has a population decline problem that is likely to hit us hard in the next decade. The elites claim that’s why we need mass immigration, but fixing our population problem with cultural replacement from the third-world is not the answer.
A major factor is the decline in stable relationships and nuclear families (marriage between men and women). This same lack of family stability is causing unprecedented social issues. Single mother homes are statistically more likely to produce children with criminal behavior and mental health problems. Children from fatherless homes are 20 times more likely to end up incarcerated. This is an insidious drain on our culture and our nation’s wealth.
Many men point out that marriage is a huge financial risk under current divorce laws and this has made the practice untenable. But even removing unfair divorce laws would probably not solve the greater conundrum. Eliminating feminism from our society would be a good start, but that’s an elusive goal requiring many years of social healing.
One thing that could be done in a single year is to create incentives for married couples that want to have children. Easy access to home loan programs would be a start, along with educational subsidies for viable careers in STEM or technical fields so they can get higher paying jobs that actually serve national needs. Eventually, a return to financially stable single income families could be possible.
Business And Technical Apprenticeships
America’s economy used to thrive due to the old standards of apprenticeship. This was a way for those that could not afford a higher education to still learn and obtain a valuable trade. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere were ALL apprentices at one point in their lives. We need to bring this tradition back.
Specifically, we need apprenticeships in business operations, medical, manufacturing, engineering, the sciences, technical (repair and fabrication), construction, as well as computer and software fields. The US has a self sufficiency problem when it comes to production that needs to be solved immediately.
Revitalizing America’s worker base and small business base is the key to stopping our exponential slide into oblivion. We need to show people there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or they might give up completely. In particular, the trend of young western men dropping out of the workforce is worrying. Most of them want assurances that they’ll be able to one day do a job that actually means something.
Yes, some of them are spoiled overgrown children that have delusions of becoming YouTube stars and there’s no way to help those people. But, many others are good men that are willing to work hard as long as they’ll get a fair chance for something better in return. They have no direction because all the doors have been shut. Men make the world go around, and when a society abandons their young men the way the west recently has, only disaster can follow.
The above measures are all items that can be adopted in a very short period of time. In a single year every one of them could be instituted by a proper government, federal or state. And yes, I’m aware that government officials with the balls to enact these policies are likely few. That’s not a revelation, but that doesn’t mean we abandon the effort. Even with a Harris presidency, individual states could save themselves with these solutions without federal assistance.
Other actions would have to be long term. Reversing inflation, shrinking the size of government, ending the central bank and reverting money creation back to the Treasury, shifting the dollar to a commodity backed system, rebuilding America’s manufacturing base, etc. – All of these efforts will take many years to succeed.
Getting off to the right start is essential. I argue that the above list could be implemented quickly and create a resurgence in economic optimism. This is the launch point by which all other solutions will unfold. It’s not enough to declare our high-minded ideals and goals, there has to be a plan.
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/18/2024 – 15:30
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/4DPtuQx Tyler Durden