Creative Solutions for Dealing with the Economic Mess.

[maximdewinter]

Where are they? Where is the change? What Obama has quickly achieved is to mire himself (and the American Taxpayer) in the tired and destructive habit of government hyperspending. He wants to give the credit-addicted American economy a shot of heroin rather than send us to rehab. In the absence of anything truly new and truly creative to help us all, I am starting a list of ideas that could help our situation without resorting to the failed knee-jerk Washington policy of using more debt as a "solution" to debt overdose. Please post any of your own.

People require food, clothing, and shelter. Modern people would like more than that so they would include, transportation, telephone, TV and Internet. Are they any ways to supply out of work people with these items without adding to government spending?

1.Food. In WWII we grew "Victory Gardens." It cost almost nothing and helped the war effort. We have had a growth in gardening as a pastime for people with stressful jobs. Well... many are already losing their jobs so what would be wrong with an idea to use idle land, or donated land to grow broccoli, peas, tomatoes, etc. and have out of work people volunteer to work those patches of land? That could be a private solution without a smack of socialism or government spending.

2. Clothing. There are literally MEGATONS of cloths that sit in walk in closets around this country. Lets open up the closet door and get this stuff recycled by private agencies.

3. Shelter. We over built hundreds of thousands of houses. There they sit. Anybody have a creative way to utilize a million domestic rooms without dipping into the public treasury?

[Goyboy]

1.Food. In WWII we grew "Victory Gardens." It cost almost nothing and helped the war effort. We have had a growth in gardening as a pastime for people with stressful jobs. Well... many are already losing their jobs so what would be wrong with an idea to use idle land, or donated land to grow broccoli, peas, tomatoes, etc. and have out of work people volunteer to work those patches of land? That could be a private solution without a smack of socialism or government spending.

2. Clothing. There are literally MEGATONS of cloths that sit in walk in closets around this country. Lets open up the closet door and get this stuff recycled by private agencies.

3. Shelter. We over built hundreds of thousands of houses. There they sit. Anybody have a creative way to utilize a million domestic rooms without dipping into the public treasury?

maximdewinter,
There is not now as much land useable for agriculture as there was during WWII, but I understand your main point. We need to tap into our unused/underused resources.

[Goyboy]

Where are they? Where is the change? What Obama has quickly achieved is to mire himself (and the American Taxpayer) in the tired and destructive habit of government hyperspending. He wants to give the credit-addicted American economy a shot of heroin rather than send us to rehab. In the absence of anything truly new and truly creative to help us all, I am starting a list of ideas that could help our situation without resorting to the failed knee-jerk Washington policy of using more debt as a "solution" to debt overdose. Please post any of your own.

What solutions will stop the loss of jobs?
What solutions will aid the creation of new jobs?

[grandpa]

What solutions will stop the loss of jobs?
What solutions will aid the creation of new jobs?

Technically, things could be fixed even without creating new jobs (or new businesses), if a number of policies were scrapped.

Grandpa h.

[Charlatan]

Where are they? Where is the change? What Obama has quickly achieved is to mire himself (and the American Taxpayer) in the tired and destructive habit of government hyperspending. He wants to give the credit-addicted American economy a shot of heroin rather than send us to rehab. In the absence of anything truly new and truly creative to help us all, I am starting a list of ideas that could help our situation without resorting to the failed knee-jerk Washington policy of using more debt as a "solution" to debt overdose. Please post any of your own.

People require food, clothing, and shelter. Modern people would like more than that so they would include, transportation, telephone, TV and Internet. Are they any ways to supply out of work people with these items without adding to government spending?

If you want to make supplies for the unsupplied, then maybe we should make it possible for these businesses to supply them by way of insurance - the comapny pays for insurance against the business failing, which means a higher list of things to pay for, but maybe if the insurance is small they will be able to afford it? They pay for insurance against bankruptcy, policed of course, and then they donate all their stock that didn't make it to the poor for free, meaning that they support the poor and all the while they are insured.

The insurance could be against the going bankrupt, and would mean that the insurance company - probably a delegate of the government - would lower their taxes so that they could survive and be able to donate their excess to the poor. They could lower taxes until the business survives, by letting them off the hook to a point where they pay much less for their running expenses. If they had their running expenses lowered then they could afford to donate their excess to registered people that do not have jobs. I can;t see what they would do with the excess stock anyways besides that, so they could buy insurance and alsoprovide at the same time. If they cover a few businesses then they wil incur a little spending, but not much, and could 'buy' the goods at costs level for them, meaning that they could cut expenses again.

It is dodgy a bit, but might work.

[grandpa]

If you want to make supplies for the unsupplied, then
maybe we should make it possible for these businesses to
supply them by way of insurance - the comapny pays for
insurance against the business failing, which means a higher list
of things to pay for, but maybe if the insurance
is small they will be able to afford it?

If they are able to insure everybody, or even intend to.

They pay for insurance against bankruptcy, policed of course, and
then they donate all their stock that didn't make it
to the poor for free, meaning that they support the
poor and all the while they are insured.

Policed? If they were planned, organized effectively, no polce would be needed.

I'd add a caveat (not in my words, but enough in my spirit nonetheless):
"Whenever
someone claims that government is the answer, your antenna should go
up, you should make sure your wallet is safely secured, and you should
evaluate every statement that person makes as if it were made by a
professional con artist serving twenty years in a federal
penitentiary. Then, and only then, are you ready to decide if the
government should become further enmeshed in the lives of Americans."

--John Hawkins
Tuesday, February 03, 2009

[maximdewinter]

What solutions will stop the loss of jobs?
What solutions will aid the creation of new jobs?

Until there is a return of confidence you will find fewer people to put their money into starting a new business or established businesses from investing money to hire new people. In the meantime, it would be nice to see some alternative ways of people getting/giving services and goods.

It would be good to see the IRS lift barter taxes. Barter pools are a way to allow out of work people to "work" to trade services without cash. If you need a new transmission in your car you trade your own abilities of tax preparation, web design etc.to barter out the transaction. Thanks to computers and the net it would be easier to put people on a labor swap system. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about-- call them "swap bucks" in a co-op setting. (Which will likely have more currency stability than the greenback.)

I pay $44.95 a month for cable internet. But I could easily do without paying that since I live in a neighborhood of about 7 secured wireless networks. If things get real bad I suppose I could knock on doors and get a pool together to pay for a neighborhood public network for chipping in $6 a month-- all without a government check

[ironeagle]

This may require some spending maybe it could be ran by a charity or something, but I was thinking many people just don't know how to do things, like garden, fish, or hunt. Sounds sort of stupid but perhaps if there was an education program where people could be taught simple trades like fishing, hunting,gardening etc it might help people place some dependency on themselves and maybe ease the burden of some living costs. Although I can tell you from experience it's really too bad that it costs more to make your own clothes now than it does to buy them. I was trying to learn to sew by hand, I couldn't afford a machine, and I realized it costs me almost double to buy the materials to make my kid's clothes than it does to just buy them already made.

[FriedrichSeneca]

1.Food. In WWII we grew "Victory Gardens." It cost almost nothing and helped the war effort. We have had a growth in gardening as a pastime for people with stressful jobs. Well... many are already losing their jobs so what would be wrong with an idea to use idle land, or donated land to grow broccoli, peas, tomatoes, etc. and have out of work people volunteer to work those patches of land? That could be a private solution without a smack of socialism or government spending.

I'm 100% with you on this, but this could be a perfectly socialist move without changing anything in the case of an anarcho-communist system. Definition of socialism: you own the product of your work. As long as there isn't a dude saying "the wasteland is mine, I didn't grow the potatoes but they're mine, keep 20$ for your trouble", this is socialist.
Here is the most socialist idea ever: who grow the potatoes on the wasteland own the potatoes and is free to sell them or eat them or dip them in vaseline and... [wee!].

Oh no! Burn the reds and stone the blacks!

2. Clothing. There are literally MEGATONS of cloths that sit in walk in closets around this country. Lets open up the closet door and get this stuff recycled by private agencies.

Well and why not... what I said above still apply.

3. Shelter. We over built hundreds of thousands of houses. There they sit. Anybody have a creative way to utilize a million domestic rooms without dipping into the public treasury?

Who could get the credit to buy those houses today?
Semi-joking solution: squat them.

[grandpa]

I'm 100% with you on this, but this could be
a perfectly socialist move without changing anything in the case
of an anarcho-communist system.
Definition of socialism: you own the product of your work.

Exactly. There is no need for "Socialist intervention" when people own their own labor. That's why I laugh when some says, "But there is no basis for such a society." The basis is right under your very nose! In fact, the basis is you, the individual.

Grandpa h.

[EscVelocity]

So, who's houses, clothes closets, and land do we raid in this society? lol

There are a number of people that already do those sorts of things. Also, there are quite a few communal living communities.

East Wind Community - Home

http://www.thefarm.org
/lifestyle/cmnl.html

Twin Oaks Intentional Community Homepage

Thats just a few, but there are a bunch...

[maximdewinter]

So, who's houses, clothes closets, and land do we raid in this society? lol

There are a number of people that already do those sorts of things. Also, there are quite a few communal living communities.

East Wind Community - Home

http://www.thefarm.org
/lifestyle/cmnl.html

Twin Oaks Intentional Community Homepage

Thats just a few, but there are a bunch...

It is not a question of whether there are currently organizations that do this. It is a question of leadership. So far our president has offered the tired government-increasing, budget busting "same old same old." I took "real change" to mean doing things "real different." I'm still waiting. Obama likes czars, how about a czar to mobilize Americans to help each other all done without a dime of budget busting?

Instead of uniting the people to action he has scared and discouraged the American people with his incredibly negative prognosis of the future. The message should be " if we give of ourselves things will get better." (By "give of ourselves" I'm not talking about a tax hit on any group of people.) Obama better start talking like John "Ask not" Kennedy and ditch the Jimmy "Malaise" Carter stuff real quick.