I love this post. A rant based on verifiable facts meant to shake us up plus specific recommendations on how to change things. Great!

THE COMING GENERATIONAL STORM

What You Need to Know about America’s Economic Future by Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns. They discuss Social Security, Medicare, and other topics.

I have e-mailed Vox Populis to The Green Papers http://www.thegreenpapers.com and you might want to as well.

I hope you will often discuss the issues in the future.

I hope the Federal government, State governments, and businesses will help fund free education websites that have top teachers and top students teaching k-12 subjects, college subjects, and graduate school subjects via video, audio, notes, and other things. This could help many teachers and students increase their incomes. This would benefit businesses that need to improve skills of their employees, homeschooled students, and others as well. Music, art, history, foreign languages, writing, logic, geography, math, sciences, engineering, and many other subjects could be taught.

I hope businesses will endow many teaching positions in k-12 schools and help fund during the school day tutoring, after school tutoring, and weekend tutoring. I hope businesses will help fund Dale Carnegie type sales training for teachers to help them be more effective. Teaching is a form of selling and many teachers would benefit from having top sales people teach them their skills.

I hope businesses will help fund cooperative education programs in junior high schools and high schools so that their students will obtain similar types of experiences that students at Northeastern University obtain. This may help reduce the drop out rate and get students to do better in school. This may help them obtain more scholarships.

The federal government and State governments should have fewer education mandates so that local governments may innovate more. Some local governments might want to have longer school days and shorter school years. Some local governments might want to have shorter school days and longer school years. Some schools might want to have some classes have 70 students taught by very good teachers instead of 2 classes of 35 students each taught by lousy teachers. They might want to see if they are able to get more high school students and college students as volunteer teaching assistants or paid teaching assistants.

I hope donors to colleges will demand tenure for high quality teachers. Teaching should be as important or more important than research work.

If the Federal government and State governments spend more money on buses within cities and buses between cities, fewer families will need to have 2nd cars and 3rd cars and emergency room visits and hospital stays caused by air pollution may decrease. If people have an easier time getting to jobs and from jobs, the governments may not have to spend as much money on food stamps and Medicaid.

Governments should stop punishing people for being married and encourage marriage. A married couple should pay a lower tax rate than 2 single people. A married couple should be able to qualify for food stamps and Medicaid when they save more monthly and earn more monthly than 2 single people. This will make it easier for 1 parent to stay home with the kids. This may help reduce poverty over time.

The federal government should stop taxing interest from savings accounts and dividends. This will help people reduce the need for Social Security. Millions of middle class people obtain dividends from mutual funds. The more capital available to businesses the more money they have to hire employees, train employees, for plant & equipment, and for research & development. Economic growth and per capita income may increase.

Congress may want to pass a 2 percent national sales tax that is placed on most items other than food, shelter, health care, and education. If the national sales tax is adopted, the federal income tax on individuals and businesses should be reduced at the same time. Some of the money obtained from the national sales tax should be used to fund Social Security and Medicare. The national sales tax would take in some of the money being earned in our nation’s underground economy.

People and businesses should be allowed to buy into Medicare or a health insurance plan similar to the plan members of Congress have. People and businesses should be allowed to buy health insurance plans sold in other States.

I discuss many issues on http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky