You said it well, all Wall Street is a middleman. The middleman now controls the economy. To make the famine stop, it'S not the middle man that needs propping up, it's the producer. I would have said cash for mortgages, that way people own houses and banks were made whole again. Instead what's happening is bank got their bailout and now they're evicting people so that they can charge a second mortgage.
The gov't is talking trillions, Wall Street does business in the billions, main street can't fathom a million, people are only going to get excited about "free" stuff. It's tough to get a hard on with a $300 stimulus check or knocking 50 cents off the price of a gallon of milk. Cash for clunkers is like giving out free umbrellas at the track.
My votes are for: - CFGLSP - cash for good looking smart people - CFBRC - cash for better race cars - GBFC - gold bullion for cash (I give them cash, they give me gold bullion; this may actually fix some things). - CFPWAPT (this may be my most shocking one) â cash for people who actually pay taxes. I also like the taxes proposed above. Anything I donât do or approve of should be a candidate for taxation. I have a few further suggestions: - tax for causing me extra, unnecessary work (double taxation for doing this in periods of already high workload). - tax for calling meetings (weâd only have genuinely value creating meetings). - tax for being a bitch (this should be structured in a way to not further penalize husbands/boyfriends; maybe they would receive an equal and offsetting tax credit, and should also be in charge of determining the level of âbitch tax.â Non income generating bitches should work off their obligations in in-kind services at the discretion of the husband/boyfriend. Bad attitude, half-heartedness or careless exposure to teeth would be subject to further taxation.) (for some subset of single bitches the aforementioned taxation administration rights might be extended to potential suitors). (Wives & girlfriends could accrue credits for redeeming activities in a tightly capped account for short periods of future involuntary âbitchiness.â) - tax for changing the tv channel to something really stupid - tax for preventing/interrupting things Iâm interested in doing, especially by forcing me to listen attentively to trivial, boring stuff. - tax for giving door dings. - tax for driving like shit while talking on the phone and not realizing youâre holding up other people that actually want to get somewhere. - tax for fucking up my restaurant order. - tax for choosing romantic comedy movies (this could be structured as an in-kind services tax as described above. While I realize it already sort of works that way, it would take some of the uncertainty and investment risk out of the matter). - tax for not returning my calls. - tax for being flamingly gay while in my presence (no issue with gays, or them being âflamingâ when not in my presence). - tax for moving my threads to chit-chat.
Lots of interesting ideas so far. Since Peil pointed out the windows idea may already be in use, I'll change it to "Cash for Attics". The money would be used to make the attic insulation and roof of the house more green, as a lot of energy is lost in those two. Poyayan, I don't think tax cuts are the answer. Since a small % of the population pays so large a portion of taxes, this would not cause more than a blip in consuption. A Wall Streeter who has to pay 3% less taxes on a $700,000 bonus won't go to Wal-mart, Home depot, or Target to spend it on something he/she needs and has been delaying the purchase of. On the other hand, if you use a "Cash for" program to subsidize the purchase cost of an environmentally friendly item by 30% to 70%, normal consumers will step up in droves to make the purchases.
Cash for snowboards. Looked all around last winter, with all the dudes at the mountain I figured there would be a market for old boards. Have several boys and over the last 15 years I have accumulated about 20. I offered to trade in 10 for a discount off a new board for myself last year, most were under 5 years old. They all said no, there is no market for them. Think they weren't very good 'businessmen', they could offer them for $50-$75 apiece in a used board section. I could use some government assistance with this.
How about cash for not getting pregnant and soaking the taxpayers for welfare? Cash for staying out of jail and becoming a responsible citizen? Cash for not getting traffic tickets? Cash for college or trade school? And for us baby boomers, cash for fallen-out hair, worn out joints requiring replacement, colonic polyps, cataracts, bunions, etc.
First, you want the consumer to decide what they want to spend on. Tax cut leave the decision to those people. Second, 60% of the population paid tax, it is only reasonable for them to decide where they want to spend the extra cash on. I will go for env friendly policy as much as the other person, but the incentive should be tax refund for anyone who buy an env friendly car. Not specific to people who got a clunker because you just reward people who prefered to drive env unfriendly car for a long time. Better yet, some extra tax for low millage car and use that to pay for tax credit for high millage car. This will be a revenue neutral solution.
Since there are enough jobs to go around, give cash to those willing to work only half time and share their jobs with another who desperate for work.