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Demosthenes Locke

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Stimulating Americas Economy

Stimulating America’s Economy

America is in a time of desperation and with the aid of a few specific, undeniably rich Americans.
Forty-two percent of American’s financial wealth is owned by about one percent of Americans. This being said I believe with some collaboration and generosity they alone have the power to bring America’s economy back to its former glory. I’m not trying to propose one guy bailing out America, but a group such as the top one hundred richest Americans’ chipping in along with the U.S. government creating a three trillion dollar act giving about ten thousand dollars to every American. The children will buy toys, teens electronics, young adults college and homes, adults more toys for their kids, gas, food, and maybe even a toy for themselves. This would cause a huge shopping spree across America causing not just one type of business to be reinvigorated, but all types ranging from local restaurants, to multimillion dollar industries. Americas businesses would thrive and more jobs would open. I am not trying to say this will solve all of our problems but it’s a start and we have to start somewhere, and all of this can only happen with the efforts of you, an individual, speaking up, spreading the word. We can make this happen

Sincerely
Demosthenes and Locke

Topics: USA america collaboration crazy idea economic economy great ideas idea politics rich
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    Dylan Gonzalez

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    Oct 20 2011: The root of all money related problems in our society is that we as people attribute money to our happiness. My solution to such a problem is not a drastic change in economic policy (from laissez faire to socialism) but rather a shift in our own individual set of values.

    My father owns a stucco business. While the economy was good, we as a family lived a very lavish lifestyle (fancy cars, dinner at nice places, big house). Now that the economy is down the toilet, we have virtually nothing compared to what we had. However, in all honesty I look back on those times and I wasn't happier back then as compared to now. Sure, we are broke as hell but that is the least of my worries at least. We human beings have a strange way of making ourselves content with our current situations.This video very well explains this phenomenon http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

    Getting back to my point about shifting our individual mindset, if we value money with the utmost important thing in our society, then we are doomed to be trapped in a materialistic cycle that keeps leaving us unsatisfied. So, we as individuals must stop being so materialistic and learn to value the things that really matter, which is hapiness

  • Demosthenes Locke

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    Sep 30 2011: First of all I never said they don't buy stuff from the genreal market. Obviously they buy clothing, food, etc. The trading among each other idea is called investing and deals. As for most of it not seeing the general public that is true also and this hurts all sorts of people. Look at the big businesses they seem to be doing all right with their deals fomulated with other huge industries, but as soon as you look at local businesses, and even smaller corp. they are hurting because they don't have the opportunity to "trade amongts the rich"

    So yes they buy stuff from the general market but the majority of their money is NOT going to food and clothing

    CEO on an assembly line. No but the majority is ethier automatic or in some forien country and that isn't exactly creating jobs in america is it.

  • Demosthenes Locke

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    Sep 29 2011: @Krisztian A lot of the money that the rich have is stagnant and just sitting around and President George Bush tried somthing like this when he was in office (Plenty of very intelligent people, who studied econmics, thought is was a good idea) although the problem is he didn't give enough and most that went straight to bills (he also only gave it to alduts which is not a good variety) And, so no one thinks I proposing communism, the rich would still be the richest out there by a long shot, so no more luxury items being bought is not going to happen, even some middle class people try to pull it off.

    @Kareem I agree that the rich want to stop this and that is why as soon as one joins in on this the other will feel obliged to do so
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      Krisztián Pintér 200+

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      TED Translator
      Sep 29 2011: "A lot of the money that the rich have is stagnant"

      no it is not, and i doubt you can back it up anyhow.

      • Demosthenes Locke

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        Sep 29 2011: It is amoung the general public. The rich trading money amongst them self makes them richer, hardly any of that is actually seen by the general pop.

        Once again the rich earned what they have (for the most part) and I don't want to just take it away but all of that in their hands is hurting the average joe.
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          Krisztián Pintér 200+

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          TED Translator
          Sep 30 2011: your lack of knowledge is alarming. more alarming that you formulate an opinion based on near zero information.

          this "trading among each other" idea is funny, in a way. they don't by stuff in a regular market, only from another rich men? there are factories with CEO-s and stock brokers working at the assembly line? or they don't use computers, clothing, transportation and many kinds of services?
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    Krisztián Pintér 200+

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    TED Translator
    Sep 28 2011: i would recommend to step ahead from demosthenes and locke to ludwig von mises. i helps to understand economy better.

    you can't simply increase wealth by taking from one person and giving to the other. surely who gets, will spend more, and the spending spirals through the market. but the one who loses spends less, and it also spirals through the market. at the end, you are exactly where you started. the total spending has not changed.

    the structure of the spending, however, has probably changed. how, is a question that we can only speculate on. rich people spend more money on luxury, traveling, housing. but they also invest more. if we reduce the amount of money in their hands, luxury brands might meet lower demand. but large scale investments also less likely to take place. whether it is good or bad, and how much, is not an easy question. but the effects on the economy will be far less than you suggest.

    quite sure though that you find a lot of support for such an idea, since there are overwhelmingly more low income people than rich people. people support wealth redistribution from others to them. but not vice versa.
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    Kareem Fahim 10+

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    Sep 28 2011: I don't think rich people are affected by crisis, and they want to end it.
    Markets are ruled by fear and our Govs don't rule us. We are ruled by big firms and Banks (*ALL OF THEM ARE PRIVATELY OWN AND THEY DON'T GIVE A * ABOUT US*).

    Rich people are benefited by crisis actually

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA

  • Robert Galway 30+

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    Sep 27 2011: Some ideas for stimulating the economy:
    1. Invest in infrastructure. Put people to work fixing bridges, cleaning parks, and fixing government buildings, and taking care of public property. Provide health care as a benefit for work, subsidize housing for work, and provide a wage that enables food on the table.
    2. Create a federal disaster relief workforce to operate under Homeland security to provide a corps of mobile workers to supplement and support local forces.
    3. Offer tax relief for time spent caring for the elderly.
    4. Offer tax credits for green transportation usage (walk to work, bike to work, etc.).
    5. Make sure tariffs and taxes on international commerce are matched in kind.
    6. Find ways to reward hard work.
    7. Match business investments leading to rapid expansion and creation of jobs.
    8. Invest in technical training and trade training so the skill set and wage is more competitive with college for a career.
    9. Subsidize new businesses with appropriate plans for success in decreasing linear amount for the first three years.
    10. Tax speculative or manipulative investing and parasitic bank processes.
    11. Further regulate the insurance industry to reduce rates.
    12. Further tax vice (alcohol, porn, recreational drug usage, bars, gambling)
    13. Offer free health care to Americans making less than a certain amount involved in food production.
    14. Provide free health care to child care and education workers.
    15. Tax cable television, cell phones, sports cars and similar luxury items.
    16. Change de-activated military bases into help centers for homeless people. Include medical, dental, counseling and job placement services.
    17. Take de-activated ships and convert them to portable health care facilities, temporary shelters, and disaster relief facilities.
    18. Offer better incentives for military and civilian workers interested in staying in to work longer or train the next generation.
    19. Put offenders of non-violent crimes to work in food production.

  • Demosthenes Locke

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    Sep 27 2011: From Americans To Americans We need the rich to understand the suffering of the homeless, the desperation of the lower class and the values of the middle class. We don't need them giving away a billion dolars (although that would be nice) but anything would help.
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