What would you do to Improve the USA?


I Would...

• Break the Big 3 Auto Makers into 15 Mid Size Car Companies.
• Downsize DC from 535 Members to 101 Members (2 From Each State & 1 For the US Territories.)
• Tear down any Homes that have been Foreclosed on and build something on top of them that Employs People.

That would only work if there was a block of foreclosed homes big enough to build something worthwhile. Most homes sit on less than a half acre (my neighborhood is broke into 1/4 acre lots) and you couldn't build anything in that footprint other than a very small storefront. And I don't think it would work to have store fronts or other businesses sprinkled into subdivisions - no one living there wants the traffic, and a lot of people wouldn't bother going out of their way to get to it. Many small businesses like corner grocery stores that are inside of subdivisions have gone out of business due to lack of customers.

I think the better thing to do would be to find a way to get businesses to move into abandoned malls and shopping centers. My town of 35k people has 3 abandoned shopping centers, and businesses are pushing to build more shopping centers. Why can't they use the ones we already have? Tear them down if necessary and rebuild from the ground up, rather than clearing out forested land to build in an already crowded area and practically on top of housing areas.

I think the biggest thing that could be done to fix the economy (though I don't have suggestions on how to do this - I'm not an economist), would be to free up credit for consumers who have poor credit due to situations beyond their control. Such a large percentage of Americans are in default on credit obligations due to job loss, and then once they get income again, they have no chance of getting into a house, buying a car, etc. My husband and I were both laid off in December and had no way to pay our bills, and now we're not going to be able to buy a house for many years, even though we now have the means and desire to, because of our credit. The same thing with buying a car - I'd love to buy a new car in the next 2 years but there's no chance of it because of our credit situation.

Maybe if lenders were encouraged to lend to customers who only defaulted on obligations due to job loss, we'd see people buying houses, cars, and other goods again.

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41

Let this ship sink, then swim over to the SS. CANADA and buy a cozy home in the burbs.

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We've all lived in a world without consequence that has rewarded bad behavior and punished good behavior for some time now. Finally we're feeling the effects of it. I won't even begin to get into all of my ideas for fixing the endless list of problems, so I'll just briefly list them in no particular order.

• PUBLIC WELFARE - Privatize social security, and increase its influence to cover one's welfare, food stamps, unemployment, etc. This way the money isn't pulled from the federal government, but their own bank accounts. Properly done, this could decrease the budget by 60%
• SCHOOLS - Drastically increase education funding* and bring back corporeal punishment in schools (overrule states that outlawed it). Change laws so that bad kids are truly segregated from good students. Reward positive behavior rather than punish it.
• MILITARY - Drastically increase military spending*.
• ENERGY - Immediately remove all restrictions on offshore drilling and aggressively pursue realistic alternatives for cars & electricity, not hybrid (hydrogen, nuclear, solar, wind, etc)

*while not increasing national defects

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While we're not in as bad as the US, we're still hit pretty hard because of the recession.
Chrysler is threatening to pull out of Canada all together, closing two huge factories and putting thousands of people out of work.

What really sucks about the recession is our exchange rate. Last year I was able to pay for a Florida vacation on my own because we were pretty much at par (or even trading higher than the USD). This year a shorter vacation cost me more because our dollar has slipped so much. When I went to Vegas with my family last summer the $400USD I took cost me maybe $420CDN, this year I'll probably have to take less than that when I go.

But, we still do have free health care.


coasterman, may I ask why you would increase military spending? Isn't the war in Iraq one of the reasons the US is in this situation? If anything, shouldn't military spending be frozen where it is, or decreased? And exactly how will corporal punishment in schools help anything? I really don't see teachers beating kids with a stick helping anything.

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ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

Start educating people that the whole right vs. left/ republican vs. democrat/ liberal vs. conservative argument is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to decieve you to the real fact that BOTH sides are screwing you over royally. People are SOOO ready to convict the "other side" of causing all the problems that they fail to realize that their side is equally complicit in creating a government FAR more oppressive than the one that our forefathers fought a war to free ourselves from.

Seriously- if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, and could see how this country has been preverted by people who claim to be "patriots," he'd puke.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator
My neighbor got a big new house, and all I got was his lousy payments

I think Mr Jefferson and the rest of the Founding Fathers would have a few choice words to say if they knew what had become of America, but seeing as half the country doesn't know how to read or write English, half the country wouldn't understand what they said anyway!

Rant warning: The following rant is short, but I feel like I need to say it somewhere. I am what you'd probably call a diehard GOPer. I've always voted Republican in every presidential race since I came of age. With that in mind, I actually like some of Mr. Obama's ideas, and I'm SICK of stupid Republicans going around saying "Obama is EVIL!!11!1! He's the Anti-Christ!!!1!1!" OK rant over.

As far as what I would do (famous last words):

Healthcare - I agree with the president that healthcare is going to bring down the country's economy in the near future if we don't get a handle on it NOW. Now how to do that? I have no idea. But the Baby Boomers are already starting to retire (like my parents) and their sheer numbers are going to cripple the system.

Along those same lines, we need smarter healthcare. Like if you are the member of a plan, you should get free access to a gym. If people would be able to work out for free, then they'd be much more likely to get in shape and not need 500 doctors when they turn 60. But there would have to be some incentive built in, like you have to go 5 times a month, or you have to pay for it yourself, etc.

Taxes - Unlike a lot of politicians obviously, I actually took economics in college (both macro and micro). It's a proven theory that when you cut taxes, that you stimulate the economy. Our citizens are overtaxed and overburdened with the amount of tax they have to pay. About 30-40% of my pay goes to TAX! Can you imagine what I could do for the economy (and myself) with just and extra 10% of that in my pocket? A flat tax sounds really good to me, except for the ultra rich.

Infrastructure - You only have to look at a bridge in South Carolina to see that the roads in America are falling apart. Without raising taxes or the national debt, we need to get the infrastructure along with the energy grid up to date, and more efficient.

America is full of smart people, despite what you see on the idiot box. Surely there are people that can come up with some good ideas. We could even ask our neighbors for advice or *shock* Europe!

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!

Wes, you've got a lot of strong points there. The only one I disagree with is that tax cuts will solve most of our problems. Tax cuts only help the people who are paying taxes. We need to get people into jobs first, because saving people tax money doesn't help those who have no money to save on taxes because they have no income. A lot of the people who are hurting the most would not be helped by a tax decrease. Let's worry about getting the unemployment rate down, and then focus on taxes.

I really like your idea about healthcare. A lot of people don't go to the gym cause they don't want to or can't pay for a membership. If I didn't have a gift membership to the YMCA (which costs my grandmother about $50 a month), I would have no access to a gym. If it was packaged into healthcare, I'd be far more likely to go and have a lot more incentive to work towards getting healthy. Health care costs are most definitely out of control, and even when you're paying high premiums, you still have deductibles and copays to take care of. At my husband's last job, we were paying $180 a month (he only made about $1500 pre-tax/deductions) and still couldn't afford to go to the doctor because there was a $1000 annual deductible in addition to the 20% copay. When an ambulance ride alone costs $900 (I know that one from experience), you learn to just live with things because you can't afford the bills.

As for infrastructure - look at any bridge in the country to see what poor shape it's in. The bridges over the Mississippi river in Memphis (along with every other bridge in the city) will collapse if there is ever an earthquake on the New Madrid fault. The state keeps saying they're going to earthquake proof them, but it's pretty much the last thing on their list of 'to do' items.

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41

Violakat- you make a decent point about unemployed people not getting a benefit from tax cuts because they have no income, but you miss one point- if you reduce tax burdens, you WILL create jobs.

And don't even get me started on healthcare. We're very fortunate that we have good benefits at my job for a very nice cost to us. The estimate is that the insurance I get, for the price I get it at, costs my company about $17,000 per year. Now, here's the funny (and sickening) part. To get the same insurance from my wife's employer, what costs $35/week from my employer would cost $150/week from hers. But, in order to even qualify for it, she would have to change her status from supplimental to full-time- at a pay cut of $5.00 per hour. Do the math, that's $350.00 per week for decent insurance. Who is this employer who either cares not a bit about their employees health, or is totally convinced that the healthcare racket is beyond crooked? Why it's Clarian Health/Methodist Hospital.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator
My neighbor got a big new house, and all I got was his lousy payments

Reducing the tax burden has been tried and it didn't work. The state of Ohio not only offered GM to have their plants operate completely tax free, they offered to pay GM to stay put. It didn't work and the Dayton area lost thousands of jobs. The problem is that they found cheaper labor in Mexico and no amount of tax reduction made up for it.

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41

For the military, I should have been more specific. I meant to increase military spending to ensure the US stays up front as far as assets, and technological advances go, not for spending in Iraq or Afghanistan. This may mean looking at pre-wartime spending figures to determine the raise, not necessarily raising the 710B budget for 2009 (if I remember correctly). I don't support the war for various reasons, but I do support continuing to have the long-shot most powerful military in the world. As for schools, a lot of people in my family have worked in schools throughout the years (including the days before NC outlawed corporeal punishment), including four of them now. Based on their daily stories, and what I've seen, the majority parents today won't punish their kids (in regards to anything, not necessarily "spanking" them), and schools have their hands tied in fear of lawsuits. If they're not going to get any consequence at home, they need to get it somewhere. Also, it doesn't only include hitting them with sticks, it also encompasses running laps, and other manual labor kids really don't want to do. If they had to run the risk of having that punishment, versus being suspended and having a free day at home, they might choose differently. This would all lead, in time, to a more productive classroom. But, I can only speak for my area's daycare centers they call "schools", I can't say how bad it is in other areas.

Very good point, Ronald Reagan used the cut taxes-stimulate economy idea, and surely most can agree he was by far one of the best presidents in recent times (from what I've read about him, as I was not born yet during his presidency). As for the 30-40% taxes, I've heard a lot of responsible people say its not necessarily being taxed that much... its not seeing it. Schools continue to go downhill, infrastructure (as you noted) falls apart, and many other things. We pay all these taxes... yet see barely any of it at work.

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I'm not saying tax free, I'm saying reduce the taxes we pay.

And I'm not talking businesses, but individuals.

Frankly companies get too many breaks in places like Charlotte just to entice them to move here.

I actually don't have a problem paying taxes, I have a problem with being overburdened with my taxes, the complexity of the tax code so that I have to pay someone every year to figure out my taxes and I have a problem with the enormous waste of my tax dollars by politicians that are more interested in getting money under the table then actually doing something for their constituents.

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!

Take Manny Ramirez's salary and give it to people as a economic stimulus.

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Thornton to Heatley all day, every day.

How about making challenges for people who want a bailout. Like being put in a strayjacket upside down with the rope on fire. Like David Copperfield's Stunt.

When you put corporal punishment that way, I'd support it completely. I do not believe violence is the answer, ever. I have never seen anything supporting spanking as an effective punishment. However, physical labor? I'm all for it. In marching band, you had to do push ups as punishment, if you were late, talking while the director was talking, etc. I did push ups once and learned I really hated that and never wanted to do it again so I made sure they never had a reason to make me do them.

I'm not going to even get started on Reagan. He was far from the most effective or best president.

My biggest problem with taxes, I agree with all of you - I don't see enough positives in exchange for me paying them. I've still got $15k in government student loan debt that I'm also paying interest on, in addition to taxes on my income (though I haven't paid much in taxes in many years due to a low combined income and tuition deductions). I still have to pay ridiculous amounts for healthcare. Our roads are still falling apart. Our jobs are still leaving the country. We haven't really made any technological or medical breakthroughs recently. I would have no problem with paying 30-40% (in reality, the average tax rate in the US is more like 22% once you take into account deductions and everything else) if I saw something in exchange for it.

The biggest issue I see with tax cuts is that it's a little bit over a long time. If my husband had been taxed 10% less at his last job, that would have been about $30 a week. What are we going to do with $30 a week? It's not going to pay additional bills, it's not going to allow us to buy another car. It might get us an extra tank of gas or one meal out. And again, that only matters if you even have a job. When my husband got laid off (due to the slow economy, he was in distribution - I was laid off two weeks before from my part time food service job, coincidentally this all happened at the same time GM was closing up shop here), we weren't worried about an extra $30 a week. We were worried about how we were going to cover our $350/month car payment with no income.

Wes - To be curious, how do you propose to keep jobs in the US without tax breaks to companies? I agree, we make to many concessions, especially when companies expect them now. If they build in the US, they build in the state that offers them the best incentive and tax breaks. However, even with all these incentives, our jobs are flying overseas at an alarming rate. How do we stop it?

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41

^ I don't know why, but you seem to think I think in extremes.

I'm talking about moderation in everything, taxes, tax breaks whatever.

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!