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By Larry Carley November 17, 2008
Here is my rescue plan for bailing out the economy:
With Congress dolling out billions to Wall Street, banks, insurance companies and big corporations who have over extended themselves, isn't it time for the rest of us schmucks to get a few bucks, too? After all, the handouts are coming out of our pockets.
Face it. Anybody who is a taxpayer in this country is a schmuck! As Leona Helmsley once said, "Only the little people pay taxes." (Leona, a billionaire tycoon, was convicted of tax evasion, and left her fortune to her cat when she died).
The megarich don't pay taxes. They find ways to hide their wealth in offshore secret bank accounts. The big multinational corporations don't pay taxes. They have tax shelters, all kinds of writeoffs, creative accounting, and when all else fails sympathetic politicians who will make sure they don't have to pay their fare share. So it's the everyday schmucks (working people) in this country who end up paying the lion's share of taxes that support big government, the never-ending wars in Iraq and Asscrackastan, state and federal pork barrel projects, and all those poor folks who just can't seem to get their lives together and get off welfare.
If you don't know what a schmuck is, look in the mirror. It's Yiddish slang for someone who is easily conned, someone who can be taken advantage of, a sucker, a chump, a fool, in other words an American tax payer. There is also another meaning for the word schmuck, which is not so nice. I'll reserve that version of schmuck for the Wall Street wheeler dealers, bankers and corporate executives who got us into this economic mess with their greed.
I guess it all boils down to one bunch of schmucks paying the bill to bail out another bunch of schmucks who don't deserve it.
BASIC ECONOMICS 101: SUPPLY & DEMAND (OR LACK THEREOF)
My Bucks for Schmucks program would take a different approach than the one currently being pursued by the Treasury Secretary and Congress. Instead of giving billions to big investment firms and insurance companies who have made (and lost) billions playing with other people's money (and apparently have not learned anything from the current financial fiasco except how to cry "wolf" and ask the government for even more bailout money), how about giving them the boot and giving the bucks back to the people who earned it in the first place? Let the little schmucks decide how best to spend their bucks.
Like the last "economic stimulus" that gave many taxpayers a check for $600, the money was spent where it was truly needed most -- to pay outstanding bills, to pay overdue bills, and to buy people some time. People didn't run out and buy new cars or giant screen TVs with their checks because they didn't NEED these items.
Giving auto makers billions to bail out an ailing auto industry isn't going to help them sell cars that people can't afford and do not want to buy. People are scared and are very reluctant to make any big ticket purchases.
What's needed is an incentive that will encourage people to buy stuff, be it a new car, a new truck, a new washer or dryer (freezers are already selling well because people are stocking up on frozen food "just in case" and to take advantage of sales).
My Bucks for Schmucks program would give ONE MILLION LUCKY TAXPAYERS (not welfare recipients or illegal immigrants) a $24,000 voucher to buy a new domestically-built car or truck of his or her choice.
Instead of giving the domestic auto manufacturers bailout money to keep afloat (which does NOTHING to stimulate car sales or save jobs, which is what the economy needs), I would give it to the people who need it the most: US!!!
If the average new car costs $24,000, the US government could give away vouchers worth $24,000 to ONE MILLION TAXPAYERS!
Yes, that's ONE MILLION LUCKY TAX PAYERS who could be driving a new car compliments of Uncle Sam. At least we'd be getting something for our money.
Do the math. One billion is a thousand millions. So 24 billion is 24,000 millions. My calculator doesn't have that many digits. Maybe the ones in Washington D.C. do.
Who would get the new car vouchers? Any tax payer who earns less than $80,000 a year, or any family that has a combined income of less than $150,000, which pretty much covers the lower and middle classes in this country.
The government could have a lottery, and the lucky winners would get a $24,000 voucher compliments of Uncle Sam, or if they didn't want to buy a new car, they could sell it on ebay to the highest bidder. Now that would be a much more exciting economic stimulus package than anything the politicians have come up with so far.
My voucher idea would create a demand for one million new cars and trucks, which should help clean unsold inventory off new car dealer lots and help the auto plant workers keep their jobs. It would create demand from the bottom up, which is the way the system is supposed to work. You can't force sales from the top down by building more cars nobody can afford to buy. Duh!!!
What about other consumer goods? TVs, electronics, computers, refrigerators and most major appliances (even minor ones) are no longer made in this country, so no Bucks for Schmucks to stimulate those sales, unless it involves a company that still has manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
Same for clothing purchases. No Bucks for Schmucks to buy clothes made in sweat shops in China, Vietnam or Bangladesh.
My Bucks for Schmucks program would also target spending with businesses that mostly employ U.S. workers. The only "American" businesses that are left in this country these days are food service, auto repair, home remodeling, home construction, day care and health care. Of course, most of these employ hoards of illegal immigrants.
There are also the war-related industries (defense contractors, Blackwater, Haliburton, etc.), but they've made more than enough off two wars already.
As for gambling, and selling insurance (which is essentially the same thing), there would be no incentives in my Bucks for Schmucks program as these businesses already have healthy profit margins. Same for the porn industry. You don't see them crying for a government bailout.
HOW BUCKS FOR SCHMUCKS WILL AFFECT GOVERNMENT
Okay, let's say Congress actually does something novel and decides to give some bucks back to the poor Schmucks who earned them in the first place. What about the huge tax shortfall this would create for government?
It might mean government would have to learn to live within its means like the rest of us schmucks. A balanced budget perhaps? Pretty unlikely. Government would just keep on spending and spending, driving the value of the dollar down even more and creating even larger deficits for our grandkids (or whoever takes over this country in the future) to pay.
Government might have to cut out a lot of the pork that pads the pockets of the politically connected contractors, universities and institutions that suck up federal dollars like a sponge. All those welfare folks might not have such an easy ride, and might actually have to take some responsibility for their own lives. Imagine that!!!
RANT, RANT, RANT!!!
I don't normally go off on political rants because I'm a conservative Christian midwesterner. I pay my bills on time. I don't live beyond my means on credit cards, borrowed money or other people's money. I usually don't buy anything unless I really need it (and then only if it is on sale or I have a coupon). I give to my church.
I also use a four-letter word that many people today seem to have completely forgotten: I SAVE. If I want something, I save up for it and buy it the old-fashioned way with 100% down and no monthly payments.
Too many people today want everything now and worry about paying for it later. Only later, they still don't have the money to pay for what they wanted and bought.
DEBT (Don't Ever Be Tempted) was something I was told to avoid by my father-in-law when I got married. I guess he was worried I wouldn't be able to support his daughter. But we have managed just fine and haven't lacked for anything.
My advice to Washington and the politicians who love to spend my money so generously is this: the schmucks need a break too. In fact, the little schmucks need it a LOT WORSE than the big schmucks on Wall Street and the big schmucks who run the big banks and the big corporations.
I can't forget the politicians, who are the biggest schmucks of all. As soon as you elect them, they forget who elected them and why. They also forget all the promises they made to get their cushy jobs and lavish federal pension plan (like $18,000 a month for life!).
Case in point: When the Wall Street financial crisis hit unexpectedly and the Secretary of the Treasury wanted a quick bailout to fix the panic, the public outcry to Congress ran over 8 to 1 AGAINST the 700 billion dollar bailout. Yet Congress voted for it anyway.
Hello? Is anybody in Washington listening to the people?
We're told we have government of the people, by the people and for the people. Hardly. It looks to me more like government of the politically powerful, by the politically corrupt, and for the politically connected.
I'd love to go on and on about the billions wasted in pork legislation, the billions of dollars in cash that are totally unaccounted for that were sent to Iraq to buy "cooperation" and have simply vanished into thin air, the billions wasted on a war that was totally unnecessary, the billions that are wasted on silly domestic programs, costly military programs and other boondoggles like the "Bridge to Nowhere" when things like health care and education are facing their own crisis.
We would probably have a taxpayers rebellion in this country if it weren't for the fact that most of the tax dollars that are paid to the government are confiscated from workers' paychecks before they are paid. That makes it rather difficult to withhold payment of your taxes to protest something you don't like (that and the threat of having the IRS on your back!).
Small businesses and the self-employed have to pay taxes quarterly, so maybe they could withhold a portion of their payments. As it turns out, many of these people are already in financial trouble and can't pay their bills, let alone pay their taxes.
THE ROOT CAUSE THAT NOBODY TALKS ABOUT
There are numerous causes for the financial mess we are in today, but one that nobody seems to talk about is that many businesses have been allowed to get way TOO BIG and concentrate too much power and wealth in the hands of too few people. Around the turn of the century, the "Robber Barons" had a strangle hold on the railroads and oil industry in this country. A handful of people were making billions while the rest of the country suffered. Teddy Roosevelt took on the Robber Barons and busted up the big trusts (corporations) into smaller companies to create competition and drive prices down.
Over the years, government has allowed history to repeat itself. Big business is back bigger than ever before and the Robber Barons are back. As any industry matures, the tendency is for competitors to consolidate. The big get bigger by buying out and gobbling up their competitors, or driving them out of business. You end up with one or two companies being the dominant players within a given industry (Microsoft in computers, Google in online search engines, Wal-Mart in big box stores, ExxonMobil, Citibank, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, you-name-it.). These huge corporations and banking institutions wield way too much power and political clout. They are considered to be "too big to fail." So if they get into financial trouble, the government usually has no choice but to bail them out.
Just remember, big business always does what is best for big business (meaning the CEO and top executives, not the employees, their customers or consumers).
I think the new administration and Congress needs to take a second look at anti-trust laws and much of the deregulation that has allowed big banks and big businesses to get too big in recent years. When Ma Bell was broken up years ago to create competition, it created new jobs, new opportunities and new wealth for many Americans. Big banks and big corporations need limits on their size, and if they are too big they need to be busted up into smaller entities. Maybe this should be the cornerstone of a Bucks for Schmucks program,
I can only hope that people who are a lot smarter about such things than me can sway the politicians to actually do something smart to address the current financial mess. Bucks for Schmucks can't make things any worse than they are now. That's my opinion.
If you agree with what I said, feel free to email this message to anybody who might have some influence on Capitol Hill.
Cash for Clunkers voucher program (a deal of a lifetime!)