Every day another job dies and another unfathomable bundle of American greenbacks goes overseas, never to be seen again. My plan: immediately place a 20% tax over & above current taxes on imports. Short term effects: disgruntled consumers ("why did my IPOD cost less yesterday?") and better economy; instant (small, relatively) inrush of money into the economy. Every year after now, an additional 20% tax will be added to all imports (including oil) for the next 4 years. long term effects: big corporations will find it more cost effective to bring jobs back to our shores and more people will find jobs in natural resources (mining, steel mills, farming, basically everything we used to do, but now rely on China for). Consumers will find it more cost effective to buy products made in America. Environmentalists will be inconvenienced by high gas prices and let us drill for our own oil (or the American people will shout louder than environmentalists, whichever happens first).

opinions?

 

My plan: Cut Politicians' salaries by 50-75% and give the money back in circulation! Even then, they'd still be richer than all of us! For example, here's Obama, taking the social security checks from the sick and the elderly to pay China back, yet he's just raised $80 million for his own re-election campaign! Yeah, like he's ever going to be re-elected! We've also got congressmen with over $2 billion to each of his or her own name, just hoarding it away and throwing the U.S. into a recession! I say tax the rich (especially politicians!) and give the money back to the people who need it most!!!

Sorry guys, I guess I kind of went off there. I don't want to get this thread locked--It just started. But this sort of thing that is happening in our country really destroys my trust and faith in politicians. They are there to help the people, not themselves. All I can say is that I hope this country gets back on track soon!

That's all I'm going to say. If anyone has a problem with what I wrote here, please PM me and I'll remove it.

Best wishes,
Der Strom

 

Yeah I don't agree with how much politicians pay themselves with our money, but their salaries combined are a fraction of a percent of the problem. As an issue of principle, the arguement about their pay is a big gripe but focusing on it does little to fix the economy. It is a distraction. The time for griping about issues of principle is over; we have real issues that will cripple us (permanently) if we don't do something soon. I don't say all that just to steer this thread away from a political debate; I mean every word of it, but still, lets steer this away from politics, the thread isn't about politics. it's about real issues.

 

My plan: immediately place a 20% tax over & above current taxes on imports. Short term effects: disgruntled consumers ("why did my IPOD cost less yesterday?") and better economy; instant (small, relatively) inrush of money into the economy. Every year after now, an additional 20% tax will be added to all imports (including oil) for the next 4 years.

It would interesting to canvass the opinions of US trading partners who faced that level of protectionism barriers on their exports to the US. It's the perennial debate about protectionism vs deregulation in international trade.

In my country we've opened the doors to imports with almost universal removal of trade barriers. Manufacturing (such as textiles, footwear and clothing) has largely gone offshore with our labor costs too high to allow sustainable local industries.

 

It would interesting to canvass the opinions of US trading partners who faced that level of protectionism barriers on their exports to the US. It's the perennial debate about protectionism vs deregulation in international trade.

In my country we've opened the doors to imports with almost universal removal of trade barriers. Manufacturing (such as textiles, footwear and clothing) has largely gone offshore with our labor costs too high to allow sustainable local industries.

Yes, here also. "labor costs too high" - It's relative. "Too high" compared to what? compared to labor costs in other countries you are saying. if the import tax caused the imported goods to cost more to the consumer than what the goods would cost had they been manufactured "in country" then the labor costs could remain the same and at the same time no longer be "too high".
I don't know what country you are from, but here in America we import far more than we export both in good and services....
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/2010pr/final_revisions/exh4.pdf
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/2010pr/final_revisions/exh18.pdf
...and we have been doing so for a long time. These charts also do not reflect the money that immigrants (both legal and otherwise) working here send off to other countries, or the massive foreign aid checks we've been signing either. Money cannot be materialized out of nothingness, no matter how many new bills are minted at the puppet master's will. the more they print, the less it's worth. Logic dictates that if money is leaving and not coming back, that no matter how fast or how slow, the economy is dwindling closer and closer to zero with every passing day. This cycle needs not only to be stopped, but to be reversed for at least as long as it has been progressing. I am sorry for whatever countries would be effected by sudden removal of the green teat, but that teat is going to run dry pretty soon anyways, and no US trading partner's opinion is going to change that.

 

If I didn't fat-finger any calculator buttons, that adds up to 6,655,909,000,000$ trade deficit from 1999 to 2010.
U.S. Debt is currently 14,706,384,990,000$
So even if we recouped that 6.7 trillion in deficit, we would still have a way to go.

 

Step one for me would be to eliminate all tax incentives for US companies who move technology and jobs overseas. I find it hard to buy a company is American if more than 50% of their real labor is done elsewhere, not to mention the technology bleed off they are encouraging.

 

and I thought we were going down the drain,

Here's to us strantor.

 

Perhaps invent a time machine, and go back in time to stop the younger Bush being elected president

 

and I thought we were going down the drain,

Here's to us strantor.

I'm not at all familiar with the financial status or trade policies of the Maldives, but the idea I get from your posts in the past, it sounds to me like your economy might be worse than ours and your trade is heavily regulated. I don't know what that says about my plan, good or bad. Right now in America our economy is worse than it was before but it's still better than some. We aren't too bad off compared to some lesser fortunate countries, and I imagine that some readers from other countries might have the opinion that I'm whining without just cause when compared to their situation, but we are cooking up the recipe for the world's next 3rd world country.. I just hope a change is made soon, or else I might just jump ship and pack off to the maldives. Do you have a room for rent?
btw, what does the maldives export?

 

See.... we did export something as I recall but that too went to the gutter.
We have to import everything, even a tooth pick.

We are being sucked dry by the politicians.

 

Perhaps invent a time machine, and go back in time to stop the younger Bush being elected president

This goes back to before bush, way before. http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/historical/gands.txt

looks like it started around 1969 and has been increasing exponentially ever since. BTW if I was sent back to 1969, I probably wouldn't come back.

See.... we did export something as I recall but that too went to the gutter.
We have to import everything, even a tooth pick.

We are being sucked dry by the politicians.

damn, that sucks.

 

if you want to save america now, buy Chinese!!

 

Don't spend money,saving your money Is the only way that will force them
to do anything constructive,both sides. Just think how much it would take to bring
machines back to U.S. Independant small business that own the machines
know the gold mine they have. Quit buying all the junk that you don't need,
what Is needed,can everyone help define what we should spend our money on. What have
you bought lately that you could have done without.They say that the tax
breaks won't help because every one would save the money.So we know where
to hit them where it hurts,we just have to do It.

 

If I'm looking at it right then it's only the blue line on the graph that's important, so it looks like Bush the First was bringing it back closer to zero. It went downhill towards the end of his term and then got a lot worse.

 

Doing away with an income tax code, Swiss cheesed with exemptions for all types of strange economic activities would be a good start.

Switch over to a consumption tax. This way NO-ONE would get exempted from paying tax. This means large corporations would HAVE to pay their fair share of tax. There could be no exemptions for them. If they wish to conduct business by purchasing raw materials to create products they WILL pay taxes.

Poor individuals could be exempted by the current proposal in the fair tax idea, of rebating the tax amount paid for 30,000 dollars of spending. (the actual amount is moot, but the idea is sound and can be hammered out if this happens for real)

Think about it. Exxon Mobile paid ZERO ZILCH NADA in federal income taxes last year. They had income profits in the billions of dollars. I paid $800 dollars above and beyond my payroll deductions on my meager, less than 100,000 dollar gross earnings last year. How the hell does that seem fair?

Getting a proper tax system installed, which generates income from ALL businesses and individuals would be a good first start to balancing the budget. The overall tax percentage could be lowered, and this would in turn make America seem a much better place to do business. That would translate into more businesses coming back to our shores and a corresponding increase of employment for our citizens.

 

Think about it. Exxon Mobile paid ZERO ZILCH NADA in federal income taxes last year. They had income profits in the billions of dollars. I paid $800 dollars above and beyond my payroll deductions on my meager, less than 100,000 dollar gross earnings last year. How the hell does that seem fair?

From: http://seekingalpha.com/article/63131-exxon-s-2007-tax-bill-30-billion

Some corporations aren't taxed on their profits. Those profits are taxed when the individuals who receive the dividends file their tax return. How many times do you want the money (profits) taxed? Should we go to a VAT (value added tax)?

A value added tax example would be, you buy a 5 cent resistor and pay the tax on the 5 cents. You sell that resistor for 25 cents and your customer pays the tax on 25 cents.

I favor a national sales tax as that would make the government more interested in promoting sales to increase their revenue vice dipping into my pocket as needed. I don't see that happening as it would hamper political power of those who write the tax code.

 

My bad, it was actually one year earlier in 2009 in which this occurred.

Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.” Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS:

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

 

You give the poor a break,the big money would take more advanage.
Show me a poor person,you see people walking the streets,they end up
sleeping some where.They turn down shelter,because the shelters
want there monthly checks.These people belive more in freedom than
you.Would you like to be free.

 

As an individual, do you try to lower your taxes by using the Itemized Deductions which covers mortgage interest, property tax, sales tax, gifts to charity, unreimbursed employee expenses, medical expenses, et al?

If you do, are you not doing the same thing as the major corporations?

As individuals, your tax rate might hit 15 -28 percent. Corporations are taxed at the 38 percent rate. If you want equality, then raise/lower all taxes to 25 percent and make everyone pay.