Healing the Nation

by Dick McDonald
Ownership Society Institute

The American people are on to politicians and they don’t like what they see. And what they see is a daily diet of talking points that are only 1% solutions at best to their 100% problems. A diet that consists of ideological issues of small versus big government, socialism versus capitalism, deficits versus surpluses, entitlements versus privatization, job losses versus job creation and a whole host of peripheral issues that aren’t of the slightest interest to average Americans.

What the average American wants is a better standard of living for himself and his family and a way to achieve the American Dream of financial independence. Unfortunately they got a Democrat who promised to fulfill those dreams but turned out to be a tax and spend socialist who can only deliver what he steals from the rich and productive elements of society. He turned out to be a one-trick pony just like all totalitarian-socialist dictators are.

So how do we heal the nation?

The Democrats claim to socially represent the underdog in America but in reality tax them unmercifully with payroll, sales, energy, property taxes and in some cases income taxes. Tax them to the point they can’t save a dime. The Republicans, on the other hand, support the rule of the jungle – survive on your own or die. Neither party has done anything significant in decades to elevate the prospects of the underclass.

The Democrats promote bigger government to impose their policies; Republicans pretend to champion small government. However, to really understand how to heal society we have to contend with the libertarians – they want no government control of any aspect of the citizen’s life. And that is the building as well as the stumbling block to crafting a solution for our national problems.

As a starting point let’s take aspects of the Democrat and Libertarian views and compromise. The Democrats want the common man to thrive (those Democrats, Socialists, Communists that are really interested in delivering the “common good”) so let’s privatize payroll taxes and give each taxpayer back the 15.3% in taxes he pays. That will satisfy the Libertarians too – it will get the government out of the individual American’s business.

However, the Democrat will rightly point out that ordinary Americans are not prepared to invest in their future and in most cases will spend all that 15.3% currently and not save a dime. Eventually they will become a ward of the state and make the privatization of their payroll taxes a useless exercise.

This is where the Libertarian will have to compromise with the Democrat and restrict the individual from spending that money during his lifetime and put it in a non-governmental trust to accumulate and compound into a sizeable nest egg for retirement. Although the taxpayer can’t use the money before retirement, it is his and no one else’s.

Now having done the “common good”(satisfying the Democrat) and freed the individual from confiscation by the state (satisfying the Libertarian) – the Republicans and their capitalism come into play. By privatizing the $1.3 trillion in annual payroll taxes and investing them in the stock market the economy will explode and send the market indexes like the DOW and the S&P 500 right through the roof.

Tens of millions of jobs will be created by the private sector.

More importantly the people will have a Congress that worked for them. The average household at today’s prices will accumulate a $4 million nest egg at retirement and $33,000 a month retirement check. Today the average American can look forward to a monthly Social Security check of $1,300 and no nest egg whatsoever.

Now there are those that say the market is too risky – “look what happened to the DOW”. It is down to 10,000 from a high of 14,142. What these critics forget is that a 40-year investment started 40 years ago with the DOW at 800. The average rate of return is approximately 10% per year for 40-year cycles since 1871. So much for “risk”

Then they will say we can’t afford to pay off everyone under the old programs. That is nonsense. Privatizing these programs will generate enormous economic activity and increase “income tax” receipts to the point the excess generated can pay off older participants within three years. Remember privatizing will immediately extinguish today’s $111 trillion of unfunded debt upon enactment.

With one national pension plan the cities, counties, states and the federal government will be free of those costs and able to survive the current bankruptcies they have created. Look – instead of a $15,000 Social Security pension the average household would be looking at a $400,000 a year pension. Even those government employees that enjoy $100,000 a year pensions would greatly benefit by privatization.

The Ownership Society Institute (OSI) has developed a complete plan, Rise Up America (RUA), to increase retirement benefits and rapidly create wealth for all Americans. You can access this plan here or type www.riseupamerica.us into your browser.

America is going transform. It is just a matter if it plans to implode in terminal socialist bankruptcy or thrive in capitalist-delivered wealth.