X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
the agenda
X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
|
|
the agenda |
| |
" software is like sex ~ it's always better when its free "The Economy
American companies have made a valiant stand at keeping the economy rolling since September 11. Their resolve is weakening, though, and they need some help. They need a technological shot in the arm, and fortunately the United States is in a position to do just that.
Agenda Items
The federal government should establish a program to certify companies as 100% American. Multinationals are excluded, and firms so certified are prohibited from selling out to foreign companies or allowing foreign stockholders a majority. These "100A" companies will then establish a security clearance level and subsequently be allowed access to classified military technology. In return the American people have a vested interest in the firm and it's technology.
The purpose of the program is to prevent situations like happened with Chrysler. The government bailed them out of bankruptcy, then built them back to profitability by giving them major contracts to build Army personnel carriers, tanks, and other armaments. Then Daimler-Benz purchased Chrysler and not only got access to all our military technology but also took all the American government and the American people had invested in the firm and its future. Now that Germany is no longer an independent nation, but a state in the European Union, this policy should be re-evaluated. America was doing a favour to Germany, not Europe.
The American people have paid for all the research and development on advanced military technology, so it is only right that their companies should be able to benefit too. "Made in the U.S.A." should become once again a respected trademark worldwide as a symbol of quantity, dependability, and simplicity. If American companies can manage to create superlative machines and materials, surely their market share will increase and profitability will follow on short order. Only mediocre technologies need to depend upon marketing and manipulation of the public to sell their products.
Much of our military technology has been lost to foreign espionage already - the Chinese have our best nuclear and rocket technologies; the rest of the world all our best space technology via the International Space Station project. We are only wasting money keeping it all ultra secret. Furthermore, the only purpose in keeping these technologies secret any longer is to ensure that the Red Chinese economy will benefit from them; and nobody else. The Chinese satellite launching operations have already practically put the American aerospace industry out of competition (we must pay for decades of research overhead; they have only to pay for espionage in stealing our technology.) Better to get what remaining value we can out of it by letting American industry use it. The military is good at creating new things; but American industry has the ingenuity and creativity to go much farther still.
With much of the existing stockpile of classified technology dispersed to industry, the military will then be free to advance our capabilities to the next level. This will spur research and development in American companies too. Our security apparatus is shot with holes already; this will give us the opportunity to start from scratch and build an impenetrable security network to keep this new generation of technology American; always. Student loans should be doubled, with options to pay them back via federal or military service or research for the Defense Department at the graduate level. Likewise, universities will be encouraged to open up as many staff positions as possible to provide students work that is convenient to their studies.
Those who make over a certain amount should be able to designate exactly how they want it to be spent by the government. Corporations can go further, in designating specific research to be funded a-la Sematech. It's hard enough to give lots of money away. The least the government can do is give some tangible return on their investment. Accountability will be enforced.
Day trading in the stock exchanges - by either Americans or foreign nationals - should be considered a felony. Investing is a long term enterprise. Day trading is robbery by definition. People who lose money in day trading should not be allowed to deduct the losses from their federal taxes; ditto for gambling losses. There should also be an investigation into the role of computerized trading in the extreme volatility of the stock indexes, which happens intraday, day-to-day, and otherwise. The only thing that does is pump money into the brokerage firms ~ so naturally they ignore anything that contributes to volatility, or even exacerbate such trends.
Pay off the national debt. It is reprehensible that Congress voted to give a $1.6 trillion tax cut, and $1.5 trillion of it went to the richest 1% of Americans. When you are a homeowner and you have some extra cash you don't spend it all on a trip to Fiji; you pay down the mortgage or sock away some money for the kids education. Congress needs to get tough on the super rich; they who have benefited the most from the American system should support it the most.
Recently the NASDAQ went from over 5000 to under 2000. Before this happened virtually every major stock brokerage firm, every business magazine, and every business evangelist on TV told investors to put at least 40% of their stocks in firms listed on the NASDAQ. Here in Austin - a hub of the high tech boom - most folks put more than that, trying to support the local businesses. We lost everything. There should be an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, as this was clearly a case of racketeering. If we can't get our money back, we should at least be sure something like this never happens again.
The benefits of federal grandiosity should NOT go to those multinational firms that have closed down U.S. facilities and moved any of their operations overseas during the latest recession. They have shown themselves to be unAmerican, and their charter to operate in the U.S. should be revoked. This will probably happen to all the large cap, Fortune 500 companies. Let them fend for themselves in the world market against the European activist community. Americans have always done best with small and mid-sized companies anyway.
The same goes for companies whose directors like Sam Walton at Wall Mart, Bill Gates at Microsoft, and Michael Dell at Dell Computers own such a huge share of the stock that whenever anybody purchases one of their products 15% of the price goes straight to the CEO or the Board of Directors. People who can do that with a clear conscience are no longer human beings. Fifty years ago they called that racketeering, profiteering, and put those thugs in jail for the rest of their days. Gates, Dell, et al deserve no less.
Otherwise, the Bush Administration will never create the 3.2 million jobs they want in 2004 if they continue blind support of big business. The large cap companies will just send new jobs overseas where labor is cheaper; or continue to lobby for permanent resident status for the cheap immigrant workers. No, if Bush et al want to create jobs they have to support the small and mid cap companies. It's as simple as that.
© 2003 by bill clark
_____________________________________
banner advertising below this line
