You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."*

* Adrian Rogers, 1931*

US Government - how to save money

I just sat through a presentation with a number of political speakers. One of the things mentioned was that in 2010 there will be a US Census mailed to every US household. I started thinking, that must be expensive, with 100M households I bet that little exercise will cost $1b. Why not use the internet? Maybe email the census form, nahh - still people without internet at home and too many chances for fraudulent data. I thought some more and here's the idea:

Set up a website such as USA.gov. Have every household/person sign up on this website with their social security number, drivers license and maybe even a 3rd or 4th unique identification. Then use this portal for all communication between the US Government (actually ANY government could use this) and the people. One of the things found on this portal would be the census form. Now, with all the data entered via computers there's no need to scan and decipher the old-fashioned mail-in forms and the results are instant. Not only that, reminders can be set for missing paperwork. Beyond just the census this portal could have a lot of other features:

Any and all Federal paperwork such as....

TAX - do your taxes online (unless we finally can get rid of personal income tax and instead tax consumption)

VOTE - vote online, I bet the voting % would skyrocket - again instant results and no "hanging chads"

EMAIL- give every person in the country an email address @usa.gov

IM/CHAT - live chat with Federal government officials - talk about being productive!

LOCAL - Link to local government for all local services (such as www.myflorida.com)

BLOG: - we the people speak up

TOWN HALL meetings - make them virtual on the portal

MISSING - feature all the missing

WANTED - feature all the wanted

and +++++ - you get the idea.

In an effort to get the economy going we all need to look long and hard on the expenses. It is NOT good news if the jobless numbers are better because the government is hiring (as this means that "we the people" must pay more).

Let's reduce the government and make it much more effective with the technology that ALREADY EXIST!

Remove personal income tax and put a fee on spending instead

In 2007 there were about 120M US Consumers (I guess a lot of people do not consume?). Anyhow, the avareage consumption was $49K/year giving a grand total of consumption around $5,880,000,000,000 or 5.8T.

The new Obama budget is $3.5T which is projected to result in a loss of $1.75T leaving projected Revenue (taxes, fees etc) of $1.75T.

The stimulus plans are rapidly approaching $2T and probably will end north of $4T when all is said and done.

1. The current stimulus will cost more than all the annual revenue at least the next two years

2. Removal of ALL personal income taxes would result in a "loss" of $1.T (based on 2006 data).

3. A 10% Federal fee (let's get rid of the word tax please) on consumption would result in Federal revenues of $580b (a little over 50% of total personal income taxes collected).

How about we severely scale back the stimulus or remove it all together, get rid of personal income tax once and for all ("the country of the free" and all that) and then add a fee on consumption?

The immediate jolt would be in the next paycheck. Even better and fair is the fact that people are FREE to purchase the goods and services they choose and contribute to the Federal government as a percentage of their own purchasing decisions.

Let's not have the discussion over who can afford what, put that decision into the people through their purchasing. The rich can purchase more but then they will contribute more. Consumption is a good thing as it creates jobs.

This plan has no earmarks and no special interest groups involved, it is simple, fair and can be implemented virtually overnight.

Jolting the economy Mr. President?

Jolting, by defenition, is something immediate. The stimulus bill does not seem neither fair nor immediate so I have a simple suggestion or two:

1. Abandon personal income taxation for 24 months. The inpact is as immediate as people's next paycheck.

What about the people who don't have jobs or do not pay taxes you say? Well, this immediate addition to all taxpayers cash will certianly be used in part to buy products, that will increase demand and in turn save/create jobs VERY quickly.

What about the vaue of the US Dollar? The dollar will certainly take a hit BUT is that really as bad as some claim? Let's see, demand will increase, the dollar will fall, hmmm - sounds to me that the result will both increase US exports and increase demand of US products as they due to currency rates become more competitive with forign made goods.

What about all the IRS employees? Well, how about having them work on making all parts of the government more efficient? How about training them on technology for example? I'm sure these people can be put to good news, the glass is half full.

2. Freeze all mortgage rates at 3%, new and old. This will also have an immediate impact on every mortage-holders pocketbook starting with the next payment. Furthermore this will create a demand in the housing sector and stabilize prices.

What about the banks you say? Well, since we the people (US Government) currently lend money to banks at 0% they will have a 3% margin - financial institutions have and can sustain themselves on 3%.

3. Make the government more efficient. I don't know about you, the US Senators or members of Congress (who, by the way, I am not seeing taking any pay-cuts or personally contributing in any way - these people still fly the jets you banish the executives for flying) but have you ever been to a governmental office? Boy are these employees as ineffficient as they come and boy are their jobs secure. In business that would never be toerated and neither should it in the Government sector. I bet a reduction of 50% of government employees would have zero effect on the service-level (some sectors can be cut way more and some we cannot cut at all so I am talking average here). Why can we not use technology much more as opposed to having to go to an office, snail-mail applications and the like? We want to modernize the way we work but we do not take advantage of the technology available to us.

I would love you to say to all facets of goverment: "Look how you can MAKE money so we can avoid TAKING money (read:tax)". Is anyone in charge of looking for new revenue streams for the US Government? Somebody should be working on that in concert with somebody working on efficiency.

While I'm at it: Forbid lobbying, we all know that is legalized bribery.

Perfect? I think not. Jolt? I'd say so.

Just an idea from one of "the people"

ps - that was not even 1 page compared to the 1,000+ pages you guys put out :-)

Depression medicine

1. 2 years of zero income taxes: immediate effect for every working individual in the country

2. Mandatory reduction of all mortgage rates to 3%: Immediate reduction is cost for all mortgage holders while still mainatining a 3% retrun to the bank as they now borrow funds from the FED at 0%

Too easy? Not enough "pork" for the Hill?

I like it.

discussion forums meet email

This is pretty interesting. I never thought of the large groups of people that take part in discussion forums such as the ones that follow the Rambus stock for example.. With WrapMail Social one can create a wrap such as this one, each image on the left side is linked independently to the site it represents (or directly to the Rambus foum on that site as is the case here). Whatever the forum and whatever the topic email is still the most trusted medium as long as it comes from someone you know. What a great way to marry networks such as discussion groups and email.

I'll probably put this up on IV, many there I am sure would appriciate it. Maybe we can help Rambus spread the word through the most viral medium of all: email!

Social Networks + Email = WrapMail & Free Awesomeness

WrapMail now connects social networks with email - www.wrapmail.com/social. WrapMail gives users the ability to drive traffic directly to their respective social network pages such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, eCademy, personal blogs, etc…by including links and logos embedded in every email they send. Here’s an example:

WrapMail is the first company in the world to successfully marry social networking elements and email. MySpace has recently announced an email product, but it requires that you have a profile with them and will not allow for your other social network profiles to be included.

There are many themes for the top and bottom to choose from and more will be added every week. There’s a logo library available of the world’s 25 largest social networks and common blogs. Users can set a link for each logo and also upload their own images. Four images show in each Wrap and if more than four are selected they will rotate with every email. There is no cost for the service, which means this is free awesomeness.

Our pitch remains the same: you have web pages and you send emails, WrapMail connects them and drives traffic to your pages and also tells you who is looking at what and when. Simple. Smart. Be sure to join the “I’m a Wrapper” group on Facebook.