First presupposition: money is a material manifestation of time. In fact, in any given country, you can use the GDP, the population, the unemployment rate, and the average hours worked to find out how much time money in that county equates to.
Second presupposition: the value of a currency will be proportionate to the amount of time that currency is worth. The less time it takes for citizen’s to make money, (and thus the more money made in a set window of time,) the more that currency will be worth compared to the rest of the world.
Third presupposition: as we exist in a world economy, there is no reason we should not be able to achieve a level of economic prosperity in which we are able to provide a stipend, rather than a tax, on our citizens. Some countries, such as Kuwait, are already wealthy enough to do this. When a countries currency is valuable enough, that country is able to buy goods and services from other countries at a rate that equates to very little time. Weather we have an obligation not to exploit other nations for economic gain is relevant to weather we should do it once we are in position to, but not relevant to putting ourselves in the strongest position possible to be able to.
Economic strategies:
- Flat sales tax system. Our current system of taxation is overly complicated, fantastically exploitable, and horribly outdated. It costs a tremendous amount of money to run, allows the wealthy to evade paying what they are supposed to, allows corporations to do the same, and impedes the ability of the frugal to advance and the poor to survive. Tax cuts and refunds will never help people who don’t have enough money to figure out how to file their taxes, and the only way to close tax “loopholes” is to switch to a system where there is no income tax.
- Eliminate need for foreign oil. Much of our economic prosperity has always stemmed from our ability to generate everything we need here, without need to import. This is not to say that we should not import anything, only that there is great strength in not having to. Weather is be from ethanol, corn, solar power, or anything else, we must regain our economic independence.
- Eliminate victimless crime. No, I’m not talking about starting the “War on Whores.” I’m talking about legalizing crimes such as drugs, prostitution, and gambling, wherein most of the violence stems from an inability to use the legal system to force people to honor their debts. Hoe do you win the war on drugs? Legalize them. After all, what is the result of a war? Generally, the winner gets to take money from the loser. Legalize drugs, and you get to tax them. Amazing.
- Institute subsistence level government store program. This is a program in which the government wells subsistence level goods. Anything deemed essential enough to be tax free would be sold here. No premium brands, nothing trendy, just things that suit basic needs sold for as little as possible, though still for enough to pay for the program. This program can also insulate against collusion between profitable companies holding a virtual monopoly between them. For example, a car much like India’s Tato Nano, $2500 and getting 70 miles to a gallon, could be sold here to provide people with transportation more cheaply and efficiently than car and oil companies are willing to provide, and thus force a higher level of value out of companies with artificially high profit margins.
- Invest budget surplus in foreign equities. Obviously, investing in American companies creates a conflict of interest, but buying stock in foreign companies allows us to generate interest on our money as well as tie other countries interests to us, giving us added clout in foreign affairs. Ultimately, investing is what will eventually supply us with the ability to stop taxing American citizens and start providing them with money, as shares of companies in the world economy appreciate and generate interest that begins to outpace the cost of running our country.
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