Wall Street is not itself the economy.

Unemployment is still fairly low (hovering around 5 percent), there is still economic growth, and inflation is still significantly lower than it was during Jimmy Carter's presidency.

Of course, there are just too many things happening for it to all be coincidence. I think there are people intentionally trying to bring the economy to its knees so that the people will beg the government to take control, thus opening the way to global governance.

Then again, after that 500-point fall the Dow went up again somewhere around 100 points and is now down (as of 10:16 Eastern Time) around 166 points.

More than 20 years ago I told friends that we were in a credit-based economy and that it would one day collapse. We're starting to see the collapse.

It's time for America to stop running a credit-based economy and get itself on a solid financial footing. Here's what I propose:

Let all these different companies collapse. They made bad business decisions and deserve to bear the consequences.

Have the government (after taking the money from these various companies and their corporate heads) cover the losses incurred by pension plans, IRAs, and small-time private investors and urge switching the investments to precious metals, government bonds, and safer investments.

Cut federal spending by 10 percent (and by 5 percent every year thereafter for the next 10 years).

Cut taxes by 10 percent across the board for each of the next 5 years while a flat-tax system is developed and put into place.

Eliminate unfunded federal mandates to state and local governments.

End the drug war (because of its extensive costs).

Bring the troops home and stop engaging in military operations overseas.

End all foreign aid.

Pay off the national debt.

Re-negotiate trade deals so that there is a trade balance (as close to one as possible) with each trading partner.

End the Cuba embargo and open up trade negotiations with Cuba.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Amen.

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"Bring me that horizon".

That sounds good to me, Chan.

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Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

With you so far......

Meh. What I've read on flat taxes sounds iffy, and appears too supportive of the rich. Sounds great, but a bit too glib.

There you go. Aside from a few points, I agree.

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An employee gets trampled to death by a frenzied, greedy mob at a Walmart sale, and customers actually complained when the store closed. Yet, I'm the bad guy for suggesting policies that assume people act like retarded herd animals that need government nannying and control....

One tax rate, everybody pays. No deductions, no loopholes, no corporate welfare...



Care to elaborate?

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Well, while I absolutely admire the no-nonsense approach, you know I am a believer in more progressive taxation. More resources are consumed, more pollution is created, more is taken from the nation in general by the wealthy than the poor. Also, I believe they simply owe more in gratitude for the enabling of that wealth.....but that's more a moral argument.

Here's my rub with the flat-tax ideas: First, any tax proposal should ensure the government gets the income it needs (and we'll assume, for a moment, that the goal is it's current intake) Slashing the rate to something flat, like 10-15% seems like it would not meet budget at all, even eliminating loopholes, etc.

My bigger issue is that it doesn't address the poverty-line very well. If someone's making $10,000/yr, and the tax takes $1,000, that's a pretty heavy blow. Even setting an arbitrary figure just begs the question of what if I make just one dollar over? That needs to be solved.

Also, to my knowledge, flat-tax proposals tend to come from wealthy people (like Forbes), seeking to find a way to sell everyone on what would end up being massive tax relief for him, which makes me very suspicious. People who come up with these sorts of schemes make me skeptical...why else would you think up an alternate tax scheme if you didn't think YOUR taxes were too high?

Maybe there's a better way, or these proposals have matured into something more solid, but what I have heard of them I haven't liked much.

Defintely with you on holding the corporations' feet to the fire, though. They get away with paying nearly nothing, and continually whine for even more tax breaks.

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An employee gets trampled to death by a frenzied, greedy mob at a Walmart sale, and customers actually complained when the store closed. Yet, I'm the bad guy for suggesting policies that assume people act like retarded herd animals that need government nannying and control....

I have always advocated a 20/20 flat tax plan.

You pay 20% on all income above $20,000 -- no more deductions, loopholes, etc.

That way, it's progressive. The poorest won't pay any taxes (just like they don't now). Then everyone pays the same percentage. That's more than fair. It's also simple and will eliminate thousands of pages of IRC.

Not my perfect pick, but that would definitely be an improvement. I think we need to get away from the idea of taxing income all together.

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May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

But what you're proposing is punishing people for being successful. At least with a flat tax everyone bears the same burden percentage-wise (though not in actual dollar amounts, which is the real measure: people don't spend percentages, they spend actual money).

You assume that the government actually needs as much as it claims to need. Returning the federal government to its constitutional limits would significantly cut the amount of money the federal government needs but would, arguably, increase the amount state and local governments need as they take on responsibility for any programs they feel they want for their citizens (states actually have very broad powers and I don't have a problem with that; e.g. if a state decides it wants universal health care for its citizens then I have no real objection to it since that is within the state's broad powers).

Poverty in America is an arbitrary and artificially set line. Your concern is back to punishing people for being successful. But here's what you're missing: 10 percent of a billion dollars is a whole lot more than 10 percent of $10,000.

But here's the thing about the flat tax: there would be no loopholes or deductions; so the rich would actually be paying all of the tax they are required to pay - not like the way the current system is run.

Another alternative is a national sales tax.

This is why the loopholes and deductions need to go away.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Unfortunately, I don't think that's ever going to happen.

Neither will my idea.