According to an article in US News & World Report, we're heading back into an era of Big Government. Our economic woes are such that the government will have to get more involved. If done right, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, we all know that it won't be done right.
Here's a few of my off the top of my head ideas.
1. The government needs to be proactively involved in producing a complete electric car. Tax breaks should be given to the car companies to offset some of their research costs. We know this car has existed -- one that can drive highway speeds and travel up to 300 miles on a single charge -- it just hasn't been cost effective. The second part of this is the government needs to give tax breaks to anyone who purchases said car. I can't afford a $30,000 car -- even if it will drop my gas to nearly nothing, but if the government subsidizes the manufacturing and the purchasing, I'm sure I could swing $20,000 for the car.
2. All this talk about Social Security being overdrawn in 2017 is beginning to piss me off. First, Social Security used to have a surplus until the government started borrowing against it. The time for that to completely stop is now. Also, let's put some of that borrowed money back and then let's see if we're still behind. Finally, we need a national retirement plan. The truth is that we need older workers to get out of the way for younger workers. If everyone works until they drop dead, what are young people going to do for jobs? That being said to keep this funded let's eliminate the cap on the tax. No matter how much you earn, pay both Social Security and Medicare taxes on it. So, no more cut off at $92,000.
3. We need to take a good long look at what the government subsidizes. (Yeah, I know I said electric cars, but hear me out.) Nearly everybody gets something from the government. For example, farm subsidies. Huge company farms are subsidized and that's not what the plan was for. This should be changed to only help the little farmer compete. There are other things we subsidize and we need to take a good long look at them to see if they're really needed.
God Bless
Top Of My Head
2 comments:
Julie,
You said "The truth is that we need older workers to get out of the way for younger workers." Unfortunately the truth really is that many of us have no choice but to continue working until we drop dead because Social Security simply doesn't provide enough money for us to live on. Yes, it would have been nice if we could have saved some money for retirement, but as self-employed individuals, getting nicked at the rate of 15.3% of every dollar we made didn't leave anything extra at our marginal poverty-level income. And I'm realistic enough to realize that I'll never collect a cent from Social Security on my own account because the system will have collapsed long before I reach 68 (or 72 or whatever increased retirement age they have come up with by the time I get to it).
However, I totally agree that there should be no cap on the Social Security tax.
Hmm thanks Julie, I am one of those "older workers that has been gotten out of the way. I became one at 40.
Now for the real reason I went to post - an electric car is NOT the answer. Electricity still uses oil resources. What is the answer is to conver electricity FIRST to another energy source then to move to the electric car.
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