Disclaimer: The Public Economist does not necessarily agree with the views expressed. It is third in the series of seven pieces which Gary has generously agreed to share with TPE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government should impose robust import levies and tariffs (tax) on particular classes of imports that are determined to be manufactured outside the United States and exported back to the United States that do not qualify as \u201cFair Trade\u201d and unfairly undercut an American-make equivalent. At present, American business corporations are increasingly abandoning the United States and its communities to invest in productive capital formation outside the United States, particularly in Communist China, Communist Vietnam, Bangladesh, Mexico, India, and other parts of Asia, supported by American consumers who cannot afford pricier American-made products. As a result, America is experiencing the deindustrialization of America. This has forced policy makers to adopt a redistributive socialist solution rather than an economic democratic one whereby democratic economic growth of the earning power of the citizens would flourish simultaneously with new, broadly-owned productive-capital formation investments in the United States. Such overseas operations have the advantage of \u201csweat-shop\u201d slave labor rates relative to American standards, low or no taxation, supportive infrastructure provisions, currency manipulation, and few if any environmental regulations \u2014 which translate to lower-cost production. Thus, producing the same product or service in the United States would be far more expensive. For most people, economic globalization means a growing gap between rich and poor, technological alienation of the labor worker from the means of production, and the phenomenon of global corporations and strategic alliances forcing labor workers in high-cost wage markets, such as the United States, to compete with labor-saving capital tools and lower-paid foreign workers. Unemployment is high and there is an accelerating displacement of labor workers by technology and cheaper foreign labor, resulting in greater economic uncertainty and unstable retirement incomes for the average American citizen \u2014 causing the average citizen to become increasingly dependent on government wealth redistribution programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need a policy change, which assures\ntruly \u201cFair Trade\u201d and that exponentially reduces the exodus of our\nmanufacturing prowess and invigorates America\u2019s entrepreneurial exceptionalism\nand competitive spirit to create products and services in the spirit of \u201cthe\nbest that they can be.\u201d We need policies that will de-incentivize \u201cAmerican\nMade,\u201d while simultaneously competitively lowering the cost of production\nthrough expanded capital ownership in more efficient technological invention\nand innovation. At present, the various incentives in place do not broaden\ncapital ownership but instead further concentrate ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our policies should support the\ntransformation of the labor union movement to a producers\u2019 ownership union\nmovement and embrace and fight for this new economic democracy. They should\nplay the part that they have always aspired to \u2013\u2013 that is, a better and easier\nlife through participation in the nation\u2019s economic growth and progress. As a\nresult, labor unions will be able to broaden their functions, revitalize their\nconstituency, and reverse their decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When labor unions transform to\nproducers\u2019 ownership unions, opportunity will be created for the unions to\nreach out to all shareholders (stock owners) who are not adequately represented\non corporate boards, and eventually all labor workers will want to join an\nownership union in order to be effectively represented as an aspiring capital\nowner. The overall strategy should assure that the labor compensation of the\nunion\u2019s members does not exceed the labor costs of the employer\u2019s competitors,\nand that capital earnings of its members are built up to a level that optimizes\ntheir combined labor-capital worker earnings. A producers\u2019 ownership union\nwould work collaboratively with management to secure financing of advanced\ntechnologies and other new capital investments and broaden ownership. This will\nenable American companies to become more cost-competitive in global markets and\nto reduce the outsourcing of jobs to workers willing or forced to take lower\nwages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The union movement should also expand\nbeyond representing corporate employees and represent capital ownership\nempowerment for all property-less citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we continue with the past\u2019s\nunworkable trickle-down economic policies, governments will have to continue to\nuse the coercive power of taxation to redistribute income that is made by\npeople who earn it and give it to those who need it. This results in ever\ndeepening massive debt on local, state, and national government levels, which\nleads to the citizenry becoming parasites instead of enabling people to become\nproductive in the way that products and services are actually produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another important policy proposal is to\nencourage corporations to pay out all their profits as taxable personal incomes\nto avoid paying corporate income taxes and to finance their growth by issuing\nnew full-voting, full-dividend payout shares for broad-based citizen ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, we need to eliminate\nall tax loopholes and subsidies, as well as eliminate the payroll tax on\nworkers and their employers, but pay out of general revenues for all promises\nfor Social Security, Medicare, government pensions, health, education, rent and\nsubsistence vouchers for the poor until their new jobs and ownership\naccumulations provide new incomes to substitute for the taxpayer dollars to\nfill these needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the launch of this \u201cOwn The Future\nPlan\u201d we should provide a tax exemption of $100,000 for a family of four to\nmeet their ordinary living needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of tax reform, a single tax\nrate should be established for all incomes from all sources above the personal\nexemption levels so that the budget could be balanced automatically and even\nallow the government to pay off the growing unsustainable long-term national\ndebt. The poor would pay the first dollar over their exemption levels as would\nthe hedge fund operator and others now earning billions of dollars from capital\ngains, dividends, rents and other property incomes which under some tax\nproposals would be exempted from any taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This will necessarily entail a discussion of how the system is structured, as the policies and rules make a big difference in whether or not EVERY citizen has an equal opportunity to succeed. At the core of the problem are barriers that inhibit or prevent ordinary people from succeeding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":44165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,92],"tags":[40,139,137],"class_list":["post-55193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-economy","category-social","tag-capitalism","tag-economic-equality-in-usa","tag-usa-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n