Economic Choices

03/31/2008

Economic Choices


Paul Munnis


Should Democrats inherit a failed economy in 2009 then we know what we have to do to rebuild it. A good economy exists when there a robust and healthy middle class. What Democrats have to do is rebuild the middle class.

To do that requires a redistribution of wealth. Note that I said “wealth” and not “debt.”

Debt needs to be reduced and put on a regular schedule for retirement. Even as private medicine is phased out and public medicine is phased in.

To do that requires that we end the Iraq War and carefully schedule investment in military arms renewal.

If we schedule arms renewal at too fast of a pace then we will hurt the debt retirement effort. If we go too slow then we will not create enough jobs and a recession will develop.

We create jobs by sending money through the defense industry which then touches many hands before going back to Washington where it is once more recycled. That keeps up until we have the needed arms and the economy has recovered. The rate of recycling will be carefully controlled by using progressive taxation. If you are low income you won’t be hurt, if you are high income you will pay a fair-share. Note I do not say a disproportionate share -- but yes, a fair-share.

There is a trillion dollar economy awaiting us if we can create “green jobs.” What that means is jobs protecting the environment and creating alternative energy in sufficient quantity to offset the mid-east spending for oil. If Democrats get in during 2008 then expect to hear the term: “carbon-neutral,” an awful lot.

A major problem that we face in 2010 timeframe is that baby-boomers will be retiring and it will stress Medicare and it will create a manpower shortage. The Internet is going to have to be used to manage some of each of those problems. Telemedicine for medicine is going to be needed and green selling will become a new form of empowering the baby-boomer retirees to retirement income. People will be begging Mexican workers to come to the U.S. to work at installing solar and wind devices for demand will far outstrip supply. The technology is in good shape but relations between U.S. citizens and Mexican workers are not so good.

The new economy is not going to look like the old economy. It won’t be as super-heated. It won’t be quite so consumer driven. People will differentiate wants from needs. Lending won’t be so casual and mortgages will require people with good credit scores and who represent lowered risk. On the other hand banks will be flush with money as retirement savings are unlocked and manifested.

When hydrogen comes to a place near you it will not be a fueling depot for cars. It will be a home based unit that can power your home and run your car and charge your fuel cells. You will make your own hydrogen at home. Your cars will be hydrogen and electric powered.

We can expect to apply excise taxes on imported goods and so things won’t be quite so cheap as before. Globalization will either end, slow or be more highly targeted -- it’s hard to tell which yet. My bet is on highly targeted because we will need resources for the other big jobs like rebuilding our infrastructure so damaged by the GOP and their neglect of it.

Should Republicans inherit government again then expect a depression as they finish raiding the U.S. Treasury and as they destroy the economy with greed based government rule.

Remember McCain is a clone of G.W. Bush by his own statements, a man who admits he does not understand economics. He is just what we don’t need. He will put the same rag-tag neo-cons in place as we have now and breed a new generation of them. As Long John Silver puts it -- “Shiver me timbers mate.”