The Economist August 6, 2011 Print Edition Cover

[cieldumort]

Comments

[merccom]

this poll sucks. how about an option where we call the entire military home, raise the retirement age, end national healthcare, reform disablity, reform medicare/medicade, end a significant portion of the fedgovs regulatory authority in all industries(not just oil and wall street) decriminalize "recreational" drugs and release nonviolent offenders from prison.

or i guess in short not worry so much about the tax revenue side of the equation and hugely cut the tax expendature side.

[cieldumort]

I would agree with raising the retirement age, decriminalizing recreational drugs, and releasing nonviolent offenders.

[rhonan]

Better solution: restore the tax brackets to where they were under Eisenhower and eliminate all deductions for people in the top 10% of assets, lower retirement age to align with the rest of the civilized world, abolish for-profit medical insurance and institute a real national health system, slash all national security spending to 25% of current levels over 10 years, expand criminal penalties for businesses that break the law, make it much easier for workers to organize, prohibit the privatization of any government function or service, and immediately ending corporate person-hood? Social Democracy: the fastest route to a healthy middle-class known to man.

[merccom]

But if you want a "social democracy" you've got a wide array of choices over in Europe, take your pick! This is supposed to be the land of the free, the place where you could go and be left alone by the government and pursue your happiness.

[floundah]

I couldn't decide whether to call it a modern depression or a lost decade.

[cieldumort]

Yeah. I went with modern depression, because a Lost Decade suggests just a decade of little or no growth - maybe with some embedded recessions (I think we already had one from 1999-2007). Depression suggests an economy having to do with a major financial crisis and very severe downturn (which I think best describes 2007-present). But it was a close call for me, too. Maybe some of both, really.

[floundah]

Indeed. I would have picked both had it been an option.

Thoughts about (partial) solutions: like you, I'd decriminalize recreational drugs and treat them like tobacco and booze, and release nonviolent offenders (except for people like Madoff, etc.). I'd also do away with the Bush tax cuts for the extremely rich and remove tax loopholes for them, as well as for large corporations. Let's make it expensive to send jobs overseas and hide money offshore. We have a huge jobs crisis and we need to put people back to work -- in decent jobs.

Let's see, I'd also raise, and perhaps, remove the income cap to pay for things like Social Security.

[gwendally]

I'm ready for some creative destruction. Staving off recessions by patching the bubbles isn't doing the job that needs to be done.

[cieldumort]

What would you like to see?

[gwendally]

This is such a huge question

[rhonan]

I'm disappointed that you do not include, "Take up arms against the capitalist exploitation of the working class," in your list of options that could best help the economy right now. Hell, even "Unemployed workers rioting in the streets," would be a good option.

[cieldumort]

Unemployed workers rioting in the streets might make the news, even. What if just half of all the unemployed in this country actually took to the streets for a week and demanded better representation?

[floundah]

Good idea, assuming that taking to the streets or civil disobedience would be done peacefully. No riots.

I have been in candlelight vigils, and they're pretty awesome to behold. Could you imagine huge candlelight vigils in major cities everywhere?