How to fix America

Do you want to fix the United States, then first understand the real issue? That is government is so large it has become like trying to steer an ocean liner in a lake. The counties around Washington D.C are the richest in the US and yet they do not produce anything except legions of government bureaucrats, lobbyists and cotta age industry of special interest groups.  The government is stalled and nothing can get through without being watered down with compromise. Nothing is really working. There is a solution, shrink government to about 10% of what it is now. This would fix America, but how to do that?

Fixing the USA

These are my ideas in the long-term category.

1. Phase-out the IRS – Replace it with a sales tax, this will reduce tax cheats and rich who offshore their money.
2. Eliminate the Federal Reserve bank – End the government monopoly on money or go back to the gold standard.
3. Bring the troops back home – America first. We have effectively been in Iraq since 1993 and will leave the Middle East maybe 2023. 30 years of war is a lifetime.
4. Privatize social security – It is clear that social security will not give you that vacation home in Florida to retire to and it drains the USA.
5. Fix health care – This is the subject of another post.
6. Transparency in government – Every citizen deserves to know where every penny is spent.  One clear report online to include every expense of over 1 million dollars. Simply on a spreadsheet summary like an accounting firm runs a general ledger of accounts. It can be rolled up or broken out.
7. Negative income tax – More on that later.
8. Balanced budget amendment – This will make the government responsible like you are. It will fix America by bringing accountability to the US.

Now understand I am not anti-government but realize that it needs to be run like you run your life, that is balanced rather than an out of control blob that gains more power everyday eating away at the USA.

3 ways the US taxes you and how to fix it

1. Taxes – This is the most obvious way, this is nothing more than working for another man’s wife. The government takes your wealth and gives it to someone else. You need to consider not only the Federal income tax but also, state, local, sales, social security, medicare, small business, fees, etc. In aggregate your money is supporting other people’s lifestyles.
2. Debt – It is the same thing as taxes, just a different word. It takes money out of private hands and puts it in the hands of government bureaucrats for spending. It crowds out private innovation and entrepreneurship in favor of inefficient bureaucratic waste.
3. Printing money – Quantitative easing makes your earnings less, it is a cowardly method of decreasing debt, done by banana republics and economies on the verge of collapse. Someone wins and someone loses. The winner is the government bureaucracy as it makes the debt smaller, and the people who have a real asset that is the rich, and the loser is the worker as it creates exacerbate business cycles and erodes purchasing power.

Therefore, the government actually has three ways to tax you. Further, it is not simply a matter of taking money from you but they use it in less efficient ways than you would. What is the fix for the US?  Simple: eliminate the IRS, the Federal Reserve and introduce a balanced budget amendment.

Why US citizens are worse off than many countries

This will knock your socks off. Although I am basically libertarian, I do think the government does provide useful services, I guess. I am not opposed to taxes and government, just the excess that exists today in the USA. For example, I live in a relatively poor European country and with my taxes, which are less than US taxes, I get good health care 100% paid for, education for my child to the Ph.D. level and a nice pension and many other nice things. In the USA I get nothing except constant overseas wars. What would you rather have?

You can have it all if we fix America. Come on some poor Eastern European country has all this and rich powerful America does not.  I am living in the EU although I also have US citizenship. I will not move back until I can achieve a normal life in the USA, it needs to be overhauled to equal the life I have here. This is pitiful, that the US can not do better, it is so broken. I am a patriot and really care about my country. We need to fix America.

Better than tax is a negative income tax to mend the USA and class divide

As a liberty oriented American, I think in the USA the roads could be paved with gold and everyone from the rich to the poor would benefit with a small government. Once way to do this is a negative income tax. Simply eliminate most government and replace it with an honest transfer of wealth rather than the pork spending and closed doors wheeling and dealing we have now. It is clear if you make less than 50k a year you get cash from the government. It is the ultimate form of progressive taxation. It is democrat, it is republican and it is libertarian.

So realize that although the government is not the enemy, it does drain your life and makes us living below what we could.

My immediate solution to repair America

Everything written above are good ideas. Some can be implemented and others are just ideas at this point. But the three points below are practical ways that can way repair America in five years or less.

1. Balanced budget amendment -This would eventually include the retirement of the debt. I would rather have a balanced budget than a deficit as a balanced budget is more honest. Debt or printing money is all smoke and mirrors
2. Bring the troops back home – The US needs to stop being the British empire cira 1812, this is destroying our country from the inside out. Rome fell, not because of the barbarian invasion, but because it became weak internally, and the barbarians were able to take advantage of this.
3. Reduce the size of government –  Creeping socialism will lead us on a road to serfdom.

If you want to restore the American dream and revamp our US economy, reduce the burden of government. You want a great America, for the US Presidential election of 2012 consider the three above points as the top priority. Then consider what I wrote in the long-term category above. I guarantee these steps would rebuild America.