Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Fixing the economy means that the status quo must change

Here is the hard truth.  Fixing the economy is not going to be done with a single remedy.  It will take a multi-pronged approach. Everyone will gain and lose something.  The longer we try to preserve the status quo the worse the pain will be when laws of economics inexorably take hold.  Will we be a country who rises to meet this challenge and return to our pioneer roots or are we destined to the economic decay and doldrums of Europe?

Assigning blame is not productive.  My purpose is to describe the way forward.  Here are principles that will accomplish a general economic prosperity.  It would take an innovative self-sacrificing leadership to implement these:
  1. Inflation is being used as a tool to stimulate spending by placing consumers in a position which currency loses spending power over time,  Is it better that spending be done with scarce available money or through saving and investing for bigger accomplishment.  Wealth comes from production of goods and services,  Production requires customers who hold wealth worth which is valuable enough to trade.  This means that the only monetary policy is one that guarantees price stability.  Achieving this will require Interest Rates to rise substantially.
  2. America was built on Pioneering.  I was inspired when reading how Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder were able to resort to all kinds of odd jobs to stay financially afloat while developing their farm and waiting long years for fruit production. They had the heart of a Pioneer and the FREEDOM to work.  How has our country entangled ourselves in impossible to understand tax laws, employment regulations and paperwork, and other barriers to production?  American citizens need an easy means to produce with minimal Gov't intervention.  Taxation needs to be made so simple that everyone pays the same rate structure and in a quick and easy fashion.  There is plenty of work to be done.  FREE Americans to do it.
  3. Patent and litigation reform.  I know the least about this area but enough to realize that insanity is choking innovation,  Products can be patented but ideas cannot.  Patent only working and marketed products or services.  It makes no sense that someone can hoard ideas.  It is absurd that Corporations exist who produce nothing useful,  They accumulate patents and lie in wait to extort huge sums of money from those who often unknowingly violate their collected patents.
  4. One of the earliest Science lessons that I remember is simple.  Energy is used to perform work.  Therefore the acquisition and use of energy supplies is a top priority.  I promise that if Energy production was freed from onerous regulation and unjust taxation that ultimately the products and services produced by its use would lead to an explosion of employment and higher tax revenues.  
    Are the above principles unrealistic?  Maybe. Will economic stability be restored?  Yes, but not without sacrifice, hard work, and some political upheaval.  Can our country escape an economic quagmire?  We are definitely capable of succeeding.