How does US manufacturing get back on its feet?
Get the central bank out of the money monopoly business. Get rid of government backing for unions. Get rid of tariffs and taxes. Let the cost of labor fall and the ease of doing business rise. Manufacturing will trip over itself in its hurry to get back here.
What is a reasonable corporate tax rate? 25%?
Zero. The same goes for the personal income tax rate.
None and never. Subsidy causes distortion.
Subsidies kept food prices high during economic depression. They benefit corporate mega-farming and not the moms and pops the general public seem to think subsidy helps.
What should happen when Wall Street or banks shirk their fiduciary responsibilities? How about the Iranian solution?
The same thing that happens when you or I shirk our fiduciary responsibilities. We lose credit standing and reputation and bear the economic brunt of our missteps when people voluntarily stop doing business with us.
Do we bail out banks and corporations and make them whole or do we make individuals whole: where is the money better spent for the overall economy?
Neither. The money is best spent by individuals for what they want. Bailouts are stealing (taxing) from one set to bail out another set. It's morally wrong to steal (even when it's called "taxation") and it's economically distorting and ultimately destructive to bail out one favored group at the expense of another.
State and federal infrastructure priorities. Bridges, then roads, then water system, then power systems.
Let the market build the bridges, roads, etc. The producers will be guided by consumer demand for these things. "Infrastructure" isn't a magical area where the market stops working and centralized, politically-directed production works better.
What are the goals for US education? Is affordable college education important? Does college training level the employment playing field?
The goal of U.S. education is to indoctrinate impressionable minds with pro-government propaganda. "Education" under the state is a huge waste of resources.
In fact, true learning is a self-directed activity that the market is making ever cheaper (especially thanks the Internet). Schooling, however, is what the state does and the collectivized schooling under the state is expensive and wasteful.
You want something affordable and useful? Let the market in. Let teachers and schools compete. Let people pick the path of learning that suits them instead of the one-size-fits-all method of the state.
I'm for a strong military but not spending half of the world total for military spending. What is a reasonable readiness cost?
I'm not for a strong military. Strong militaries are like children with hammers. Everything looks like a nail. Strong militaries tend to blunder around the globe, inducing multiple conflicts and body counts. They tend to cause blowback.
Readiness cost approaches zero when you stop stirring up trouble.
How many overseas military bases should the US have? Is 700 too many?
Zero. You may as well ask how many overseas bases China, or Iran, or France or Lichtenstein should have.
How many US based military installations should we have? Is 4500 too many? (90 per state average!)
I'm no fan of the U.S., but I love the idea of America. No one wants to hear that there should be no standing army...but there should be no standing army. So ideally none, but since that's too crazy for most people, let's just pick a round number and say 10% of what currently exists.
Healthcare costs: what is reasonable percent of yearly income? 8%-10%-12%.
That's like asking what a reasonable food or clothing or electronics costs should be. It's really up to the individual. And if the government weren't involved in providing medical care, then it would be a lot cheaper.
Your health starts with your habits. Medical care shouldn't be more expensive or daunting than car maintenance. For catastrophic injury, one should have insurance (which would also be cheaper in a truly free market) just as one would for one's car. But even that is an individual choice.
Entitlement programs for aging population are costing more and more so need to cut or put more resources here. How? Develop plan A, plan B and plan C.
Those entitlements shouldn't have been there in the first place. Now we have generations of people who can't live without them. Yet these programs were all unsustainable Ponzi schemes from the get-go. (Yes, that includes Medicare and Medicaid as well as Social "Security".)
Get the central bank out of the money monopoly business. Get rid of government backing for unions. Get rid of tariffs and taxes. Let the cost of labor fall and the ease of doing business rise. Manufacturing will trip over itself in its hurry to get back here.
What is a reasonable corporate tax rate? 25%?
Zero. The same goes for the personal income tax rate.
What types of jobs are sustainable?
None. The market eventually destroys all jobs as it spurs innovation and creates new ones. Over time the need for human labor keeps dropping while the standard of living goes up. You want "sustainable jobs"? Go to a command economy and become a land serf. If you want progress, then join us in the free market and learn to adapt as old jobs die and new ones are created.
What are reasonable farm subsidies and when should they be available?None. The market eventually destroys all jobs as it spurs innovation and creates new ones. Over time the need for human labor keeps dropping while the standard of living goes up. You want "sustainable jobs"? Go to a command economy and become a land serf. If you want progress, then join us in the free market and learn to adapt as old jobs die and new ones are created.
None and never. Subsidy causes distortion.
Subsidies kept food prices high during economic depression. They benefit corporate mega-farming and not the moms and pops the general public seem to think subsidy helps.
What should happen when Wall Street or banks shirk their fiduciary responsibilities? How about the Iranian solution?
The same thing that happens when you or I shirk our fiduciary responsibilities. We lose credit standing and reputation and bear the economic brunt of our missteps when people voluntarily stop doing business with us.
Do we bail out banks and corporations and make them whole or do we make individuals whole: where is the money better spent for the overall economy?
Neither. The money is best spent by individuals for what they want. Bailouts are stealing (taxing) from one set to bail out another set. It's morally wrong to steal (even when it's called "taxation") and it's economically distorting and ultimately destructive to bail out one favored group at the expense of another.
State and federal infrastructure priorities. Bridges, then roads, then water system, then power systems.
Let the market build the bridges, roads, etc. The producers will be guided by consumer demand for these things. "Infrastructure" isn't a magical area where the market stops working and centralized, politically-directed production works better.
What are the goals for US education? Is affordable college education important? Does college training level the employment playing field?
The goal of U.S. education is to indoctrinate impressionable minds with pro-government propaganda. "Education" under the state is a huge waste of resources.
In fact, true learning is a self-directed activity that the market is making ever cheaper (especially thanks the Internet). Schooling, however, is what the state does and the collectivized schooling under the state is expensive and wasteful.
You want something affordable and useful? Let the market in. Let teachers and schools compete. Let people pick the path of learning that suits them instead of the one-size-fits-all method of the state.
I'm for a strong military but not spending half of the world total for military spending. What is a reasonable readiness cost?
I'm not for a strong military. Strong militaries are like children with hammers. Everything looks like a nail. Strong militaries tend to blunder around the globe, inducing multiple conflicts and body counts. They tend to cause blowback.
Readiness cost approaches zero when you stop stirring up trouble.
How many overseas military bases should the US have? Is 700 too many?
Zero. You may as well ask how many overseas bases China, or Iran, or France or Lichtenstein should have.
How many US based military installations should we have? Is 4500 too many? (90 per state average!)
I'm no fan of the U.S., but I love the idea of America. No one wants to hear that there should be no standing army...but there should be no standing army. So ideally none, but since that's too crazy for most people, let's just pick a round number and say 10% of what currently exists.
Healthcare costs: what is reasonable percent of yearly income? 8%-10%-12%.
That's like asking what a reasonable food or clothing or electronics costs should be. It's really up to the individual. And if the government weren't involved in providing medical care, then it would be a lot cheaper.
Your health starts with your habits. Medical care shouldn't be more expensive or daunting than car maintenance. For catastrophic injury, one should have insurance (which would also be cheaper in a truly free market) just as one would for one's car. But even that is an individual choice.
Entitlement programs for aging population are costing more and more so need to cut or put more resources here. How? Develop plan A, plan B and plan C.
Those entitlements shouldn't have been there in the first place. Now we have generations of people who can't live without them. Yet these programs were all unsustainable Ponzi schemes from the get-go. (Yes, that includes Medicare and Medicaid as well as Social "Security".)
There is no easy way out. The can will be kicked down the road till quality of life inevitably declines. The market will eventually drag quality of life back up. But first people will have to learn -- painfully -- that government cannot improve that quality.
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