Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Inherent in the Problem is the Solution

Housing is a basic right!

We desperately need more affordable housing. Housing the poor or homeless is actually less costly than dealing with the issues of homelessness when we turn a blind eye to the issue. Offering shelters with services that rehabilitate people when they have hit a bump in the road, makes much more sense than ignoring them. Home ownership is part of the American Dream and yet it is becoming far too difficult for the average man or woman to achieve that dream.

Now we have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an estimated 5.3 Trillion Dollars in Mortgages. What could all of the real estate in America be worth? 50 trillion? 500 trillion? I don’t really know the answer to that question but just the number of homes in America must be in the 50 trillion range. Our National Debt is now about 10 trillion.

With the problems we have in America right now doesn’t it make sense to take some bold steps to fix what is wrong with America.

Step #1. Take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – ALREADY DONE

Step #2. Print currency and ship it to debt holders. Pay off the National Debt by increasing the money supply. This would free up 30%+ of our existing budgets in Government.

Step #3. Switch currency from being backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government to being backed by the Real Estate of the Country.

Step #4. Offer loans to any citizen (regardless of credit history) on any property providing that citizen comes up with 30% down payment for properties without Solar Panels on the roof or 20% if the property has solar panels. The government would back the properties with 80% loans on any property with Solar and 70% if the property doesn’t have Solar. In essence the currency would then be backed with by the mortgages on the Real Estate of America. Create a revenue share deal with the bank or financial institution that originated the loan so that they would receive an override on the loan when it was performing. They would also intercede if the loan defaulted. They would foreclose on the property and keep 80% of anything the property sold for over the amount of the loan and if the property sold for less they would absorb up to 20% of the loss as a fee to continue as a preferred lender and able to originate loans.

Step #5. Let’s not spend our resources tracking down illegal aliens any more…it is a waste of our resources. It is time for another amnesty program where we invite anyone here that has managed to keep out of trouble to become a citizen. The process would be a six month window to surface and provide proof that you have means of subsistence, followed by a five year waiting period that includes an education process and a vetting process to achieve citizenship.
Step #6. We know that Hurricanes, Tornados, Floods, Earthquakes, and Forrest Fires are part of the landscape of being American. Yet we have no provisions for thwarting their impacts. It is time that we prepare for the occurrence of these events by having our Army Corp. of Engineers develop permanent structures to minimize their effects. Every waterway in America needs to be prepared for taking on more water than usual. We need to develop a water grid in America where water can be moved from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. The Army Corp. of Engineers could develop a series of locks and canals to move water throughout the Country. When a drought leaves one area dry we could move water to mitigate the effects. In areas where housing is in the path of Tornados or Hurricanes any new housing would have to comply with building standards to withstand Category 5 winds. One structure that comes to mind is the geodesic dome house that seems to withstand the most extreme conditions. Places with Earthquakes must have structures built to withstand a 9 point Earthquake.

Now is the time for us to begin planning for the next thousand years. The five years plans of Capitalism are meaningless.

We went off the gold standard in 1971. Since then our currency has been backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government. Now with the failing of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae we need to establish United States Real Estate as the asset that backs our currency. With the new “Real Estate Standard” we will stabilize our economy and provide a solid asset to back our currency. The standard should be similar to banking where the consumer is able to borrow up to 90% of the value of the Real Estate based upon current market conditions.

1 comment:

citizen alan said...

You can`t pay off the national debt by borrowing more of the Fed`s debt-money because every time more is created it also createwsw more debt. That is the problem with having a privately-owned currency. My plan has 3 parts. 1. change to debt-free government-owned currency (similar to your idea, the backing is from the government`s property, but I include all the property within the borders as actually being owned by the government. and the land will never need to be sold to pay debts because the new currency incurs no debt in its creation), 2. change taxation to a small debit tax only on electronic transfers, and 3. distribute the new currency to every legal resident at $1000 per month. There are more details but that`s the basics and it takes care of everything over time and I don`t think any other plan will do it quicker. you can respond at alan_jacquemotte@yahoo.com I appreciate comments almost as much as I need help with getting this broadly known.

HOW TO FIX THE ECONOMY

CHANGE THE SYSTEM, NOT JUST THE FACES

a plan to replace the Federal Reserve system, get rid of the IRS and involuntary taxation, start paying off the National Debt, and improve `social security` for everyone by replacing our OLD economic system with a NEW system based on a new U.S. currency to replace Federal Reserve Debt-Money, a small, voluntarily-paid debit tax to replace the Federal Income Tax and the IRS, and equi-dollar `justified compensation` to replace corporate and personal welfare programs

As many of us were forced to learn in our Quality Improvement classes at work, the problem is never a person, a party, or `the people`. The problem is always THE SYSTEM. Unless (and until) we fix THE SYSTEM, the same bad things will keep happening, over and over. The fault lies not with the borrowers and the banks who profitted from THE SYSTEM (and then lost their shirts), but with our ancestors for allowing this SYSTEM to get set up, and with ourselves for letting this SYSTEM continue incentivizing our own destruction.


The primary problem with the OLD SYSTEM is that the tool that we use to facilitate exchange (Federal Reserve Debt-Money) intentionally leaks its purchasing power into the pockets of the rich like a bucket with a hole in the bottom leaks water. The Fed dollar currently buys about 5% or less of what it bought in 1913 when the Federal Reserve System first sprang from Satan`s loins. The vanishing value of those dollars goes, finally, to our international banking owners in the form of interest payments on personal and governmental loans. (To view a video that makes the problems inherent in our use of the Fed`s Debt-Money much clearer, do an online search for `Zeitgeist Fed`.)

Congress` creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 was the equivalent of giving every taxpayer a vampire bat to keep as a pet. There is NO BENEFIT AT ALL in having a Central Bank (well, none for us) compared to having the U.S. Treasury print and distribute our own debt-free money to ourselves. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE between having a central bank or not, is that ``One system costs us 95% of our wealth every hundred years and puts us and our posterity into mind-boggling debt until the end of time``... and the other doesn`t.

So the first thing we need for our NEW SYSTEM is our own, debt-free U.S. Government fiat currency, backed by all the property within the nation`s borders. Obviously I disagree with those who insist that `only gold is real money`. The hoarding of gold-backed money has led to and prolonged many U.S. economic depressions which explains why the U.S. has tried and abandoned `the gold standard` many times over the years. (One of the most famous speeches in U.S. history, William Jenning Bryan`s `Cross of Gold` speech, concerned this very subject.) ``Bad money drives out good`` means people will always wind up using as money whatever has the least actual value that will still be accepted by others to facilitate trade. (Back in the 1800`s they would use as money just about any slip of paper with numbers printed on it.) Debt-Free fiat money will work just as well as Federal Reserve fiat Debt-money, but without all the nasty side-effects.

Another problem with the OLD SYSTEM is that income-based taxation creates wasteful tax avoidance behavior, requires an expensive tax reporting industry and an intrusive collection bureaucracy, and is, arguably, a form of `involuntary servitude`. Under our NEW SYSTEM, we should replace all income-related taxes with a one-half percent, automatically-collected electronic transfer tax (also known as a `debit tax`) which will be avoidable by transacting business using cash or barter. This will not only rid us of the IRS (saving the billions currently spent on `tax reporting`), it will also end the current penalization of work and entrepreneurism, as well as freeing up untold billions currently spent on `tax avoidance`. A debit tax is `more just`, corresponding closely with ``benefits previously-obtained`` rather than penalizing labor and industriousness, and (as it can be legally avoided, even if only inconveniently so) this debit tax can be considered ``voluntarily-paid``. A small electronic transfer tax will also act to discourage excessive short-term market speculation and should be able to raise enough revenue to begin paying off the National Debt. The tax should be either paid with the new debt-free money or exchanged for it by the Treasury with the Fed money being used to help retire the National Debt.

``There are two kinds of property. Firstly, natural property -- such as the earth, air, water. Secondly, artificial or acquired property -- Equality of natural property is the subject of this essay. Every individual in the world is born with legitimate claims on a certain kind of property, or its equivalent...{government Privatization of Property} has dispossessed half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them...an indemnification for that loss. In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity, that I am pleading for.`` --- excerpted from ``Agrarian Justice`` by Tom Paine, 1797

As argued by Tom Paine back in 1797, the third problem with the OLD SYSTEM is that, because governments privatize all of their claimed property (allocating it however they like), everyone winds up being denied free access to all property (other than that which has been specifically allocated to them) without being compensated for that loss. That`s not a problem for those with access to capital and property ownership, but for the rest of us, it is totally unfair and creates a slanted playing field upon which wealth gravitates to the already wealthy and the well-connected. However governments allocate their property, every method has the same result of `denial to everyone of free access to all land`. It has taken 200 years for this injustice to be acknowledged in a place and time where something can be done about it and when events have conspired to make rectification not only just, but vital to our economic survival. Just as compensation for eminent domain takings are provided for in the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, governments should provide compensation for denying everyone `right of free access to all property`. The U.S. is the place to do it, and now is the time.

Thus, in order to remedy this third problem of the OLD SYSTEM, we must elect a Congress that will PAY EVERY LEGAL U.S. RESIDENT `Adequate and Equal Compensation for Denial of Free Access to U.S. Property`, compensation which can FUNCTIONALLY REPLACE ALL FORMS OF PERSONAL AND CORPORATE WELFARE AND SUBSIDIES, including rescinding Federal Minimum Wage laws and phasing-out the Social Security system. (Once everyone is getting `Denial of Free Access` compensation their whole lives, most people will be able to save enough to be able to comfortably cease working at some point in their lives.)

Our NEW SYSTEM should pay $1000 per month (of our new, non-Fed, non-Debt-Money) to every legal adult resident. Compensation for minors should be held in a trust fund to avoid incentivizing `baby factories`. Since everyone gets the same amount of compensation, this plan is not wealth redistributive, but will give the least wealthy the biggest relative monthly percentage increase of wealth. Because when people HAVE something, they have something to lose, we can expect a reduction in all sorts of crime under our NEW SYSTEM. I also expect the social gains to snowball once the viciousness of the OLD SYSTEM starts getting unwound.

Benefits of the NEW SYSTEM should include better childcare, less poverty, less crime, more rural homesteading, better maintained urban areas, less intrusive and cheaper government with lower military-related expenses and a safer world in general. Once this NEW SYSTEM gets going, I expect residents of other countries will insist their governments either copy our NEW SYSTEM or else apply for U.S. statehood as Texas did in 1845.

HOUSING/CREDIT...Anyone who thinks we can `prop up` housing prices without `propping up` the incomes of everyone necessary to support those housing prices is selling you the same snake oil that got us into this mess. Our NEW SYSTEM will actually prop up housing prices (and contribute to better maintained properties) better than any other plan once home prices get back to affordable levels. No other plan that I`ve heard of will do anything but make things worse.

HEALTH CARE...Regarding the overly-expensive and underly-effective U.S. Health Care `system`, the AMA and FDA work to constrain competition in order to maximize the medical and pharmaceutical industries` ability to extort unconscionable prices for services and substances that should be affordable out-of-pocket. We need to train up thousands more doctors and other healthcare professionals and to decriminalize and unbridle access for adults to WHATEVER drugs adults want, obtained from WHATEVER source adults decide thay want to obtain them, for WHATEVER purpose those adults wish to use them, and let the market work to make prices of normal medical help and pharmacology affordable. (Cuba has 4 times as many doctors as we do (per capita), and medical treatment over there is DIRT cheap.)

OUR ADDICTION TO CHEAP OIL...If we are serious about wanting to get the USA to kick its `crude (oil) habit`, we need to have Congress add on a 10% surcharge at the gas pump (bumping it up another 10% every six months) and rebate the surcharge revenue in monthly equi-dollar amounts to every registered car OWNER, regardless of how much or little they drive. That causes the biggest oil consumers to subsidize everyone else with no BOTTOMLINE cost to taxpayers or consumers. The surcharge will incentivize cheaper alternatives to rapidly come to market and we will soon implement and use them, no government mandate required.

HERE`S WHAT I NEED FROM YOU...Seriously consider whether the OLD SYSTEM of incalcuable debt, of more and more wealth held in fewer and fewer hands, and more and more people in worse and worse shape, is really the direction we want to continue going. Then consider whether moving to a NEW SYSTEM deserves serious discussion. If you agree that it does, then please join me in creating a mass write-in campaign to bring these ideas to the attention of everyone in America. With both major parties fielding such good people who are such BAD candidates, this election seems like the ideal time to vote for REAL CHANGE, not just new faces. I will be registered as a Write-In Candidate for U.S. President in Michigan and in any other states where I get help with the registering process (volunteers are needed to help with that). A write-in vote for Alan Jacquemotte will be a vote for taking back our country and our lives from the banks, the government, and the IRS, and for saving America from a looming Depression. If you agree that we need to at least talk about this nationally, then you need to WRITE-IN your vote this November and pass this message along to two or more people every day until then (or, even better, to everyone you know right now, and then meet more people and tell them). If everyone contacted spreads the word to just two other people every day, over one billion people can be reached within 30 days. I know we can do this. alan

ps. I support Ron Paul`s 4 Principles recently agreed to by all of the major 3rd Party candidates.


any questions?

alan jacquemotte

"..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.."
- Samuel Adams