- Joined
- Jun 25, 2005
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- United States
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- Political Leaning
- Centrist
Anyone have a plan to pay off national debt. Here are some of my ideas in this area.
(suppport free trade)-economic freedom is not inherently wrong IMO. Each side of a trade benefits when the information is transparent(and this is the role of government in the market.) Free trade embraces specialization which allows everyone to benefit from the other's talents. Instead of complaining about outsourcing, it should be embraced internationally as the lowest cost producers of goods and services allows for more wealth to be created and benefits the consumers.
adopt an international triple A accounting standard to facilitate international investment. Transparency and truth maximizes efficiency of the market system as resources are allocated to the most efficient companies that produce goods and services. Poor investors hurt the economy as it allocates resources to inefficient producers.
Adopt a simple flat tax. This increases efficiency of the market as it frees up more labor(tax accountants and the time individuals and companies spend in this area) to produce real goods and services. Another moral aspect of this is that progressive tax rates undermine agency and the moral test to see if the rich will freely choose to lift the poor. Charity(pure love with no ulterior motive) is the hopeful end of humanity and it can only be developed through agency, not force.
drastically cut health costs by making illegal all unhealthy products such as cigarettes, snack foods, bad cooking oils, soft drinks, etc. Ban all false nutritional advertising. Implement massive advertising campaign on a healthy lifestyle of exercise and diet(whole grains, fruits, vegetables, meat sparingly.) Other things are as simple as nurses washing their hands between patients which kills many each year with infections and costs the government billions, government buying drugs at market prices, limiting liability costs, creative use of technology to cut costs, high obesity premiums.
Defense budget-lower defense spending by a real 5 percent per year for five years and then freeze spending at 75 percent of current budget. (smarter war on terror using police and small, highly trained specialty forces rather than large conventional ones, elimination of expensive and "out there" hardware programs, only mass produce hardware when the current is not effective against the best, cooperation of different branches of military to to increase efficiency and cut costs such as the fairly recent decision to consolidate some training bases.)-(I know very little about the military and so these may very well be sort of stupid but I thought I would throw them out there-it is a debate forum :2razz: .)
reinvent the bureaucracy and eliminate any overlap that is counterproductive-create a structure where there are incentives for management to lower costs and increase productivity.
education-the total cost of education at all levels of government could be drastically lowered by a computer and interactive education system. Let me give an example. I recently took an accounting course at BYU where the lessons were on Cd's that you pop into the labtop. They put a camera on the teacher and he gave each lesson with visual graphics and models on the side that would pop up to help explain concepts(sort of cool that you could make him talk real fast or slow. You could also replay any part of his lesson so that it really was better than a live class.) The class also had its own message board where students could ask questions and could email the instructor. The way this can save money is pretty obvious. This one lesson can teach millions of students instead of hiring thousands of accounting teaches and countless hours spent coming up with and teaching lessons. So an example of how this would play out in a high school setting. Instead of having several physics teachers teaching 25 students a class, have all the students of physics in the whole school come to a large class room that sits several hundred students, have one teacher that teaches maybe 1 1/2 hour class a few days a week, and the students are given a CD for their labtops where a lesson of physics is given by a world class teacher, with interactive models. The drastic lowering of the cost of education would allow all people to develop their talents without regards to financial situation and this would benefit society in many aspects.
Redesign the structure of welfare to try and eliminate corruption. A key principle would be that all welfare to be funded by donations and the recipients would have to work in behalf of society (up to their abilities) in order to receive assistance. Any benefits would be paid directly to offset needs such as paying an electric bill, or a mortgage payment instead of just handing money over(this would require local leadership with freedom to make decisions based on each individual curcumstances.) Provide job and career training. Also have a network of orchards, canneries, and donated clothing outlets worked by those who need assistance and volunteers, all of this funded by a voluntary monthly fast(or even weekly one) of two meals by the public with the costs of the meals plus any more they choose to give to the welfare plan-basically all of this is patterned after the LDS(Mormon) welfare plan.
raise retirement and SS age to 75(for those who are healthy.)
Create a structure to eliminate pork(maybe line item veto and other measures)
balance budget amendment
systematically pay off debt as budget surplus starts to come in, starting with foreign held debt.
Eventually lower tax rates to about 10 percent of income(local, state, and federal combined. Pass an amendment to this effect.)
(suppport free trade)-economic freedom is not inherently wrong IMO. Each side of a trade benefits when the information is transparent(and this is the role of government in the market.) Free trade embraces specialization which allows everyone to benefit from the other's talents. Instead of complaining about outsourcing, it should be embraced internationally as the lowest cost producers of goods and services allows for more wealth to be created and benefits the consumers.
adopt an international triple A accounting standard to facilitate international investment. Transparency and truth maximizes efficiency of the market system as resources are allocated to the most efficient companies that produce goods and services. Poor investors hurt the economy as it allocates resources to inefficient producers.
Adopt a simple flat tax. This increases efficiency of the market as it frees up more labor(tax accountants and the time individuals and companies spend in this area) to produce real goods and services. Another moral aspect of this is that progressive tax rates undermine agency and the moral test to see if the rich will freely choose to lift the poor. Charity(pure love with no ulterior motive) is the hopeful end of humanity and it can only be developed through agency, not force.
drastically cut health costs by making illegal all unhealthy products such as cigarettes, snack foods, bad cooking oils, soft drinks, etc. Ban all false nutritional advertising. Implement massive advertising campaign on a healthy lifestyle of exercise and diet(whole grains, fruits, vegetables, meat sparingly.) Other things are as simple as nurses washing their hands between patients which kills many each year with infections and costs the government billions, government buying drugs at market prices, limiting liability costs, creative use of technology to cut costs, high obesity premiums.
Defense budget-lower defense spending by a real 5 percent per year for five years and then freeze spending at 75 percent of current budget. (smarter war on terror using police and small, highly trained specialty forces rather than large conventional ones, elimination of expensive and "out there" hardware programs, only mass produce hardware when the current is not effective against the best, cooperation of different branches of military to to increase efficiency and cut costs such as the fairly recent decision to consolidate some training bases.)-(I know very little about the military and so these may very well be sort of stupid but I thought I would throw them out there-it is a debate forum :2razz: .)
reinvent the bureaucracy and eliminate any overlap that is counterproductive-create a structure where there are incentives for management to lower costs and increase productivity.
education-the total cost of education at all levels of government could be drastically lowered by a computer and interactive education system. Let me give an example. I recently took an accounting course at BYU where the lessons were on Cd's that you pop into the labtop. They put a camera on the teacher and he gave each lesson with visual graphics and models on the side that would pop up to help explain concepts(sort of cool that you could make him talk real fast or slow. You could also replay any part of his lesson so that it really was better than a live class.) The class also had its own message board where students could ask questions and could email the instructor. The way this can save money is pretty obvious. This one lesson can teach millions of students instead of hiring thousands of accounting teaches and countless hours spent coming up with and teaching lessons. So an example of how this would play out in a high school setting. Instead of having several physics teachers teaching 25 students a class, have all the students of physics in the whole school come to a large class room that sits several hundred students, have one teacher that teaches maybe 1 1/2 hour class a few days a week, and the students are given a CD for their labtops where a lesson of physics is given by a world class teacher, with interactive models. The drastic lowering of the cost of education would allow all people to develop their talents without regards to financial situation and this would benefit society in many aspects.
Redesign the structure of welfare to try and eliminate corruption. A key principle would be that all welfare to be funded by donations and the recipients would have to work in behalf of society (up to their abilities) in order to receive assistance. Any benefits would be paid directly to offset needs such as paying an electric bill, or a mortgage payment instead of just handing money over(this would require local leadership with freedom to make decisions based on each individual curcumstances.) Provide job and career training. Also have a network of orchards, canneries, and donated clothing outlets worked by those who need assistance and volunteers, all of this funded by a voluntary monthly fast(or even weekly one) of two meals by the public with the costs of the meals plus any more they choose to give to the welfare plan-basically all of this is patterned after the LDS(Mormon) welfare plan.
raise retirement and SS age to 75(for those who are healthy.)
Create a structure to eliminate pork(maybe line item veto and other measures)
balance budget amendment
systematically pay off debt as budget surplus starts to come in, starting with foreign held debt.
Eventually lower tax rates to about 10 percent of income(local, state, and federal combined. Pass an amendment to this effect.)
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