The Solution
One:
Restore the financial regulations of 1934/44 including some of the regulations from the Communications Act of 1934 which established the Bell System.
Two:
Restore the Public Service Act to it’s original form. Even expand it to cover Natural Gas and Petroleum Production and Distribution. Return ownership and operation of home heating and electric power to non-profit co-ops, states and cities that had them stolen when Public Service Companies and state, county and city owned power system were hijacked by Wall Street pirates.
Three: A
Immediately enact laws that would make “Theft by Congress” illegal. Set up and fund an enforcement group to police this law. Set very harsh penalties for Lobbyists and members of Congress convicted of these crimes. Both the Savings and Loan heist and the financial collapse of 2008 were enabled by Lobbyists getting laws passed that “allowed” those crimes to be committed! After refining this strategy – convert it to a constitutional amendment.
Change the rules for Lobbyists which will allow just one panel of Lobbyists to deal with Congressional Committees only ! For instance ; there are many Lobby groups for farm interests, All of those groups would choose a panel to go before the Congressional Farm Committee for their legislative suggestions. No lobbyist will be allowed to lobby an individual member of Congress. ONLY Congressional Committees. The way it works in this country, a dairy producer (for instance) gets people of their “own” appointed to dairy boards and other positions to ensure favorable government regulations for their industry or even their own particular company giving that company advantages the other companys do not get. This is on top of having dairy lobbies.
Three: B
Set in place regulations to control Executive pay. Profits of publicly owned companys have been hijacked by CEOs, etc. giving themselves grossly over generous pay and compensation packages. These same managers sit on the boards of director of each others companys voting each other pay packages.
Four:
Establish some guidelines to ensure ALL workers are paid a living wage. Supply and Demand does not work when one individual hourly worker has to negotiate with a Corporation and their cadre of lawyers! Corporations can and do control job availability and wage levels.
Five:
The current Criminal Justice System is broken. We desperately need to completely overhaul the Criminal Justice System! I know that the problem is very complicated! However, we cannot continue to tolerate career criminals ! Period !
In My view : Anyone and everyone who lives in the United States of America needs to live by the Law. The first and probably most important change is to make the convicted Person responsible for the complete process through to their final determination. If they choose to break the law they will be asked to leave ! They can find another country, if one will take them or they can die ! We are not talking about traffic tickets for speeding or running a stop sign, but robbery, rape, murder, etc. The solution is not that black and white, but real consequences must be established and executed.
We start by enacting permanent and well funded therapy, education, job training,and social skills programs. Develop a well regulated and monitored judicial system with-in each prison where prisoners are judge and jury for crimes committed in prison by prisoners. Those who take the process seriously and come to a reasonable conclusion, the defendant would be punished appropriately. Those who not, take one more step closer to their final determination! White Collar Crime should be treated more harshly than aggravated robbery.
For prisoners who need quite a lot of social skills re-training before being paroled, establish a small town where only prisoners would live. It would be a complete community with a mayor, businesses, houses, etc.. They would be able to earn money to be saved for their release and/or to pay restitution to their victims. The whole community would be totally monitored with very little privacy. Each participant would have both private and group therapy (including voluntary family members) concentrating on family, job, social, and government skills. If they complete this phase of re-training then they would go to a half-way house or be released to a responsible family member thorough a parole system.
Failure either before or after release, depending on the level of crime, would result in repeating some steps of re-training or they would be asked to name the country which they have obtained permission to immigrate to, or, choose how they want to die. The system would be set up so the criminal is responsible for every decision in the process.
People with mental health issues would have a separate system appropriate to the crime and their particular mental condition. These people would be the only ones eligible for life sentences depending on their individual circumstances.
Six ;
The United States needs to establish some serious discussion and a plan about population control !! In our Country and World wide. There will be no money given to any country not seriously controlling their population, and, the United States will not accept immigrants or refugees from those countries, China finally took some responsible steps toward bringing their population down; The rest of the world must also start being responsible stewards of our precious Planet and it’s environment. No nation should have a population higher than what that country can support the people, wildlife, and natural vegetation.
Seven :
The profit scheme now being practiced by the nations and businesses is partially based on expanding populations. We must find a method of financial management not tied to population growth, both at home or abroad.
Eight ; A
The United States will stop the export of Our Natural Resources !! Everything from mined ore to crushed vehicles, to saw dust, to plastic bottles. Recycling, preservation, and conservation will be the order of the day for America ! We will promote these attributes world wide.
End free trade agreements as they are now. This practice is killing America and American workers. There needs to be a provision to protect the wage earner from the exploitation of the business world.
Eight: B
Change the pricing structure of natural gas and other environmental impact items based on the income level and the amount used. We will determine minimum or average usage of low and middle income homes as the standard. Those with the most gross income and larger house per person will pay increasingly larger amounts. Environmental Impact Tax.
Nine : A
The explosion of technology all across every aspect of our society is driving fancier, more expensive, more useful, more wasteful, longer lasting, and “planed obsolescent” innovations than we can even count. We need to study how we are using our resources ! What I see are a lot of our environmental and natural resources being used very wastefully by the whole of society, but most especially the Filthy Rich !! This is world wide.
This Precious PLANET is a finite entity. When we run out of fossil fuels we cannot just run into to WalMart and get some more! We need to develop a National plan and a World plan to use, conserve and re-cycle natural resources.
Nine: B
Automation is great for profit but not so great for employing people. In India they build skyscrapers with labor rather than cranes. Find ways to keep people employed.
Ten :
The business model in the U.S.A. rewards big, bigger, biggest in the corporate world. This squelches competition and puts people out of work!
The way the U.S.A. business model is set up, profit is funneled to Wall Street. Most especially petroleum, natural gas, and electrical. They take raw material mostly from public land for mere pennies and sell it back to consumers at gross profits, then have the gall to demand tax breaks. !
We need to break up the Huge banks, oil companies, etc. and set limits on how big businesses can be and control the overly gross Executive Pay system that was put in place in the 70s and 80s.
Eleven :
Public highways were built with tax money and have been maintained with tax money for the benefit of the nation as a whole. This system has served this Nation and it’s Population very well for nearly 250 years. The Oligarchy currently in control of this nation have plans to change the Interstate Highway System into Toll Roads with privately owned companys reaping huge profits. If people think taxes are high for hi-way construction and maintenance, wait till they calculate the equivalent work-per-cost ratio when compared to toll fees !!!
Twelve ;
Create an aggressive plan to protect, recover, and restore flood plains nationwide. We need to produce more agricultural products to both cut down on imports and provide more exports. Get homes and businesses out of flood plains to reduce the turmoil and expense from flood damage. Replacing and/or repairing the same flooded property multiple times is pure folly. When buildings, etc are damaged by floods, they cannot be repaired and have to be removed and the area restored to an agriculturally friendly state.
Thirteen A :
The Public School System needs to remain segregated from Private School Systems. No money should be transferred out of the Public School System! Every dollar transferred out of the Public School System makes it less able to be successful! The school voucher system is a back door method to weaken the Public School System keeping poor people from competing with the wealthy. Since the Private School System is mostly religious it is also a method to transfer public money to religious schools !
The School Vouchers System is the first step toward getting rid of Public Schools. Public education needs every penny it can scrape up . The School Voucher program would hurt public schools in two very important ways! 1) Monetarily: It would move money from Public to Private mostly Religious Schools ! 2) Children learn a lot from their piers, not only in the classroom but at recess and lunch periods and also during school activities, like clubs, plays, music programs, and sports, after school friendships, etc.. Not only do less advantaged students learn from more advantaged students, but it goes the other way also. More advantaged students are exposed to the trials and tribulations of growing up “without” money, educated parents, the many tribulations associated with not having “MONEY”.
If you support School Voucher programs or “want the money to follow the student”, you are on the wrong side of this issue!
We MUST get Music and ART back into K-12 Public schools. They didn’t drop them from Private schools. The most obvious conclusion to be drawn from this fact is, considering how ALL studies say that music and art stimulate learning and cognitive thinking. There is a force at work to “dumb down” public school students.! This didn’t happen accidentally.!
Thirteen B :
We must find a better way to finance education, K thru 12 and beyond. Conservatives attempt to introduce competition into the public school system in misguided and designed to give financially advantaged families even greater advantage. The Property tax system is too unreliable and too easily influenced by political maneuvering. IE: Schools are generally under funded in areas where there are high retirement populations.
Thirteen C :
We must change the way students view education. Design each child’s education according to an age appropriate aptitude test. Provide a little competition and age appropriate incentives to students who exceed in any particular area of endeavor. Every student has areas of strength and areas of need. Support the strengths and challenge them to improve areas of need.
Fourteen :
The Social Security System is vital for working class Citizens. A majority of working class people do not have the education or financial savvy to manage their retirement account. Between crooked employers, Wall Street raiders and less than honest investment houses, individuals retirement accounts are routinely raided ! People need a safe, reliable savings plan guaranteed to be there when they retire ! IRAs , 401ks etc. require constant monitoring, and are mostly invested in mutual funds which are routinely raided by Wall Street investors. Retirement accounts need to be protected from debt collectors, ETC. so when the person retires the money will be there. This is vitally important to society as a whole.
Fifteen ;
Customers Personal information is being collected by businesses and financial institutions. It is used in many ways, some to the benefit of the consumer and some to the detriment of the victim. In any case there needs to be some rules and regulations applied.
Rule 1: Every person must be notified of the database, what information is being collected, who it will be shared with, and information sources.
Rule 2: Customer must have access to the database.
Rule 3: Data must be in laymens terms. Easy to understand with telephone access to a real person that understands and speaks fluent English.
Rule 4; Access must be free.
Rule 5: Have a simple, effective, timely, method to get errors corrected.
Rule 6: Definitions used in the processes must be available, easy to understand and static.
Sixteen :
Change the focus of all higher education curriculum Business courses from heavily profit driven to a more customer friendly, environmentally friendly, Nation building format. We need to restore some MORALITY to the classroom and to the business community, focusing heavily on the needs of small businesses.! The Republican Party is constantly trying to insert Christian Morals into all forms of our Government except when it comes to Business Ethics ( Morality ), there, the only thing they can see are $$$$$$$$$$$$$ to infinity.!!!
Seventeen :
Historically Family Farms have been the bedrock of our society, and our economy. If we had more family farms we would have less people in the cities. Maybe not a lot less, but every little bit helps. There are many benefits to the family farm model.
Family farmers need protection and price support for the crops they raise. In good years the prices drop so low it sometimes costs more to harvest the crop than they can sell it for. In bad years they often have to borrow to have enough money to plant the next spring. Under the current system the futures markets control prices and have no interest in or compassion for family farmers. This must be fixed!
Eighteen :
We need to expose the fraud associated with turning food (corn) into alcohol and adding this to our gasoline. Every car owner in the country can tell you that their gas mileage goes down when they are forced to use gas-a-hol. The industry says adding alcohol brings down the bad chemicals in the car exhaust. What it really does is add more gasses to the exhaust stream which give the illusion of helping but in fact the bad chemicals are still there, it’s just that they are a smaller percentage of the increased total caused by burning alcohol with the gasoline. Thus the total affect is that the car uses more fuel, causing more total emissions, and is less efficient which causes people to demand bigger, more powerful engines which use even more fuel! Win-win for ethanol producers, petroleum industry and the auto industry. Lose-lose for the environment, drivers, and food producers.
Nineteen :
All forms of news media have been combined under a very few owners/controllers. These people exert enormous power over the content of all news sources. The public hears and sees only what is approved. Many facts are left out, given out of context, given with slanted context, and in some cases, just downright lied about. We need to break them up and make them into publicly owned businesses. Ownership would be restricted to the state or general area where the clientele lives. For instance, the Denver Post covers all of Colorado, southern Wyoming, southwest Nebraska. The general public in this area would own the paper and no one would be allowed a controlling interest.
As it is now, a television station, radio station, or newspaper can can take political ads from one party and not present the opposing view. This is not democracy, this is royalty, dictator, or oligarchy ruler-ship.
I am tired of hearing and seeing “news” that is not really news. I am tired of being fed “News” stories about some trivial or concocted story while an important event is happening elsewhere that IS real news but is not being reported for political reasons. I am tired of hearing news reports that are SO slanted that there is more lie in it than truth! I am tired of the witch hunts where one group keeps hammering away at some point when there is really no story, but, “they” keep hammering away at it hoping the public will think “there Must be something to “it” because “they” are still going after the story! It reminds me of the old line “Tell a lie long enough, to enough people, and it begins to look like the truth, then it becomes the accepted fact!” I am tired of seeing nothing but traffic accidents and crime reports when actual news of national importance is hidden or overlooked.
Our Nation cannot survive as the Nation our forefathers envisioned and slaved to provide us with if we do not correct the many flaws that have cropped up in the past 200+ years! We owe it to Them and especially to all our Military Men and Women who have fought, died, or been wounded, to straighten things out and get back on the right track.
IT WON’T BE EASY, BUT IF OUR MILITARY HEROS COULD DO IT AT NEW ENGLAND, GETTYSBURG, NORMANDY, GUATALCANAL, IWO JIMA, ETC, ETC THEN WE DAMN WELL BETTER TRY OUR LEVEL BEST!!!!!!!
TWENTY A :
Deficit spending is the bane of responsible governance! We see all the Wall Street money hogs publicly denouncing deficit spending. Then they go behind the “curtain” and laugh uncontrollably at everyone’s gullibility. The truth is, deficit spending is a gold mine to those people. First : They got a good portion of their money by not paying their fair share of taxes which forces deficit spending. Second : The part we have so long misunderstood, deficit spending puts that much more money out there for them to hoard! A huge win win for them and a much larger lose lose for the nation and the rest of us!
We hear a lot about inflationary spending and inflationary policies and I for one equated that to deficit spending and policies. Deficit spending is definitely inflationary but there are many policies that can be inflationary. It is my contention that the only inflation a properly managed monetary policy should suffer is through population expansion!
There is a balance between people versus money, which would allow for equitable and responsible management of society, government, and business. There is a variable tax rate that that would automatically limit businesses and individuals from acquiring an irresponsible amount of the economic resources of society and the nation. And! That is a good thing!
When a very few individuals control the bulk of the wealth, several bad things happen. Those in control start feeling entitled. It kills competition because no one can compete with the volume price breaks, and the fact that, having such great volume, they can sell for less and still be very profitable. Having less competition means they have stronger congressional lobbies again putting smaller businesses at a disadvantage. Every small business that is bought out puts people out of work, not only laborers but managers also. People who are not working don’t shop at stores and don’t pay taxes.
Twenty B : The financial plan set up by Wall Street and the Banking Community requires virtually every entity in this country to borrow in order to survive. We start with the family farmers and ranchers, students, individuals, small businesses, large businesses, City, State, and Federal Governments – none can succeed or survive without borrowing. Credit Score companies even ding a credit card user if they take the responsible step of canceling Credit Cards they no longer need or use. This is wrong! I believe that one of the responsibilities of Government is to insure that everyone plays by the same fair rules.
Mark Rawlins